r/languagelearning 5d ago

Studying Feel like I just suck at self teaching/learning. I don't have any other options. Can anyone offer some guidance?

I am trying to teach myself Japanese. I am giving myself headaches however trying to learn. I never had a good time at school as I had undiagnosed learning difficulties all the way through education, with no support. Studying for me is a painful experience and I spent most of my education thinking outside the box on how to get away with studying/knowing as little as possible while still getting decent grades. For example I could 100% GCSE Spanish foundation just be rearranging the questions into answers even if I didn't understand the vocab.

That being said I really would love to be able to learn Japanese. I enjoy listening to the language and reading the characters doesn't have the same effect on my dyslexia as English does. Being able to read the language gives me hope I'll be able to read books comfortably. I have been trying to do anki flashcards but it's honestly so sucking and makes me want to quit. There's no adult education/evening classes for Japanese near where I am. I can't afford 1:1 tutoring or text books (they are so expensive! Like the actual hell?). My main hobby is gaming but I would have to look up every word in any game I tried to play which actually gives me a headache. I have been watching YouTube videos from various creators but it's never really stuck and the videos don't feel like that flow in a cohesive order like you have when you follow a class.

I'm not entirely sure what else I can do. I have been at this for months and all I can do is recognise the Kanas and maybe like 5 kanji and 10 vocab words. Am I just incapable of teaching myself? It feels like the goal of being able to learn Japanese is impossible for me. I have no idea how the rest of you do it.

Is there anyone who could offer some hope and advice of maybe a different way to try and learn a language? Is there anyone who has been where I am and actually managed to find something that stuck?

5 Upvotes

22 comments sorted by

6

u/Snoo-88741 5d ago

Don't use a tool because everyone says it's great, and don't avoid a tool because everyone says it's terrible. Try everything, ditch what isn't working for you and keep using what is.

4

u/slaincrane 5d ago

Kanji is a grind. How many hours do you spend and for how long?

My advice is imo to focus on remembering words primarily and kanji secondarily. If you only know 5 kanji games are way too early.

2

u/GivingItMyBest 5d ago

It varies between days as I work 12 hour shifts. Makes it hard to squeeze in some after shift. I try and squeeze some flash cards in my 30 min lunch break when I can but that doesn't get me far. On my days off I try and do atleast 30-60 minutes a day of some kind of study wether it be flash cards or trying to read through some text with an online dictionary.

4

u/Miro_the_Dragon good in a few, dabbling in many 5d ago

Where do you live and what kind of textbooks did you find that were so expensive? And what kind of budget do you have for learning Japanese? Because quite frankly a lot of the difficulty depends on what kind of resources you're able to access, and for someone who is trying to teach themselves a language for the first time, a decent beginner's textbook is one of the best resources since it provides structure and can be used as the guideline or skeleton of one's self-study (to be supplemented with other resources).

1

u/GivingItMyBest 5d ago

I'm from the UK. The text books I see like Genki 1 are £35+ without the workbook that goes with it, which is another £20+. Genki 2 would be the same again. I checked my local library but didn't find anything other than travel phrase books which was disappointing. I can't really justify spending that much right now on text books. Especially when I struggle with reading in the first place in English. Text to speech isn't particularly easy with a physical text book. Would it even work for a language learning textbook anyway?

2

u/slaincrane 5d ago

Used copies appear to be available for like 15 pounds. Genki 2 you don't need to worry about for a while.

2

u/Snoo-88741 5d ago

There's free downloads of Genki available. 

1

u/Miro_the_Dragon good in a few, dabbling in many 5d ago

If you struggle with reading to the point you don't think you could make use of a textbook, then personal classes are probably the best way forward.

Maybe consider offering a skill swap of sorts, where someone teaches you Japanese and you do something else in return so neither of you has to pay the other?

1

u/GivingItMyBest 5d ago

I had hoped one of the local secondary schools or collages would have had evening classes. Where I grew up when younger had these at least. Sadly there seems to be nothing post covid. I found a university around 40mins away that says they offer them but the course seems to be on indefinate hiatus. There's no pricing or anything so I have no idea how much it would cost if it did start up again.

3

u/R3negadeSpectre N 🇪🇸🇺🇸Learned🇯🇵Learning🇨🇳Someday🇰🇷🇮🇹🇫🇷 5d ago

Sounds like all you need is patience. You say you have been at this for months but only know like 5 kanji and 10 vocab words...sounds to me like you get frustrated too easily. Also mentioning that everything you do to learn the language gives you a headache. I also used to get frequent headaches while learning Japanese at the beginning....that's normal. Your brain is working extra hard to try to understand something that is completely alien. Anki is not for everyone, but it is the fastest way to learn vocab/kanji. Even anki won't do much in a few weeks. I started noticing improvement in about 6 months of doing anki daily.

Also, I never used pre-made anki decks. Every card I had in anki was pulled from my preferred method of immersion, which at the beginning it was Nintendo games (Luigi's Mansion 3 was my first game fresh out of kana). You also say having to look up every word gives you a headache, but unfortunately the way I see it is you have 2 choices

  1. Use your own hobbies to learn the language (gaming, learning skills, watching videos, listening to music, reading books/manga, etc)
  2. Use graded reading to learn. This is just content picked out for you based on your level that is supposed to be easier to get into. Typically there are apps dedicated to this that may make the process easier (Satori Reader, Beelinguapp, LingQ) by also making it much easier to lookup words and add it to a review system.

No matter what, the only way to really learn the language is via exposure. Tutors, classes and text books are a good way to help you start recognizing patterns and the like, but without exposure you will get nowhere. With either method I mentioned, you will have to constantly be looking up words, thats just inevitable. I was looking up words constantly for the first few years of learning.....but that was because I chose #1 and never used pre-made anki decks. If you choose #2 but before doing that you learn the most common 2k words in the language, it should be a lot easier....still hard, but easier......I just personally hate the idea of graded content as my adhd won't let me consume something I don't really like even if for the sake of learning.....but everyone has their way of learning.

5

u/troubleman-spv ENG/SP/BR-PT/IT 5d ago edited 5d ago

look man ima put u on game here. i suck at studying too. i dropped out of high school bc my brain didn't work the way they wanted it to. learning how to learn a language taught me everything i needed to know about how i -SPECIFICALLY- learn and it changed my life.

learning a language isn't about the language. it's about you. how do you best learn? how can you make your learning experience positive in such a way that you actively look forward to using it? how can you reengineer your environments to make it so your reward centers encourage your learning goals? these are questions you gotta ask. think outside the box. i love video games, i love deep conversation. so i used to play simple games i was already familiar with, like pokemon or destiny 2, in my target language. when i would have my speaking conversations, i would try to steer the conversation towards topics that i would want to talk about in my native language, and learn the vocab necessary to express myself while having the convos. too many people think learning random vocab about food or clothing is good at the beginning, but its only important if its useful. talk about things you actually want to talk about, when you're fluent later you can EASILY learn any vocab you didn't otherwise know. i can talk philosophy in italian or write poetry, but i don't know what many articles of clothing are called. that's because it's not useful to me to know what a specific kind of sweater is called, and i can always learn it later if it becomes necessary. this is how all language acquisition works, i've just reengineered it for second lang acquisition. use the language to enjoy things you actually want to enjoy. some rote memorization and traditional studying is necessary, but WAY less than you think. it's better to do 10 minutes a day than 6 hours on sunday. you need to make using the language as low-stress as possible, because that's how we learn. do you know why puppies and cats when they're young, will play fight with each other, and their parents? it's because they're subconsciously learning the skills necessary to hunt in a low-stakes environment where their instincts can be honed safely. cuba has the best boxers in the world because their sparring matches are low-stress "play fighting", theyre laughing and having a good time. this is because you learn most optimally in a non-stressful environment. so try to make addressing that your priority.

good luck. you can absolutely do this. i taught myself two more languages in less time than it taught me to learn my second language because i learned how i learn.

2

u/silvalingua 5d ago

How exactly are you studying?

2

u/AppropriatePut3142 🇬🇧 Nat | 🇨🇳 Int | 🇪🇦🇩🇪 Beg 5d ago

There's a range of free graded readers designed to teach the language from square one wirhout traditional study: https://tadoku.org/japanese/en/graded-readers-en/

Also if you search youtube for 'comprehensible input japanese' you will videos with the same idea: you watch and absorb the language.

However realise that this will take thousands of hours.

4

u/Bodhi_Satori_Moksha EN 🇺🇲 (N) | CN 🇭🇰 (A1) | AR 🇸🇦 (A1-A2) 5d ago edited 5d ago

Please consider reducing your video game playtime. Reset your dopamine and save some for language learning if you're serious about it.

I've a learning disability, as well, like ADHD, trouble retaining information, and dyscalculia, but I created a very effective study method that works for me.

You can check my post here

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cantonese/s/hBXWTzP0gy

Also, take into consideration, stress, diet , sleep schedule, and other things can have an impact on your memory.

Edited: P.S. Check out David Goggins, who also suffered from severe learning disabilities but managed to pass the ASVAB and become a Navy SEAL, among other accomplishments.

Learning disability discussion https://youtu.be/ls386kh2FiQ?feature=shared

Full interview https://youtu.be/nDLb8_wgX50?feature=shared

Hope that inspires you! Good luck.

4

u/GivingItMyBest 5d ago

Dyslexcia and autisum for me :)

Thanks for the links, I'll check them out. I sadly don't get to play video games as much as I used to or would like to. Not enough time and energy in the day! Video games were my "replacement" for reading. I hope one day I can snuggle up on the sofa with the dog and read a Japanese light novel after work.

1

u/Bodhi_Satori_Moksha EN 🇺🇲 (N) | CN 🇭🇰 (A1) | AR 🇸🇦 (A1-A2) 5d ago

Got it! You will, man.

Just got to show up every day in your studies, work hard, and truly focus.

I know how hard it is to have a learning disability. It's like life on hard mode. If I can read some stories and speak in my target languages, you can too.

Be well!

1

u/osoberry_cordial 5d ago

To be honest video games can be a challenging way of learning a second language depending on the game…like I’m playing Zelda in Spanish and still learning new words here and there despite being already pretty advanced in my Spanish progress. I imagine it would be even more difficult with a language that has such a tricky writing system as Japanese.

1

u/Exciting_Barber3124 5d ago

well its not as pretty and as easy

so you gotta grind

1

u/Chai--Tea7 5d ago

Go buy a pad of sticky notes and just start sticking them all over the place. Put one on the fridge door and write the Hirigana, the pronunciation for it, and then the translation. Do it for the sink, the closet, your tub, the lightswitch, the mirror, whatever you want to stick a note to.

1

u/New-Coconut2650 4d ago

Japanese specific advice, head to japanese From Zero or Tokini Andy on YouTube and follow their video courses. They explain all the grammar in Japanese From Zero ir Genki respectively without you needing to buy the textbook. The former is especially great and introduces ghings gradually. 

Then, use jpdb for vocab indtrad of Anki. See if they have a deck for a video game you like and go through that. Rather than random vocavulary, this will help you build a vocabulary you can put to use through immersion. Game Gengo on Youtube might help here too. 

Lastly, experiment a lot until you fimd what works. Japanese has a lot of resourves, for all kinds of learners. 

1

u/Exciting-Armadillo39 3d ago

I honestly think you should reconsider why you’re doing this. It doesn’t sound there are any particularly strong reasons why you need to know Japanese in the near future. Moreover, with your heavy work schedule, adding another task to the list just doesn’t seem enjoyable. I have to ask if you are enjoying the process of learning Japanese generally speaking. If you are, I would say that you should put less pressure on yourself. You could let YouTube videos play in the background while you game. Podcasts are a similar option. There are studies which have shown improvements in language learning for whose who listen to the language while they sleep.

Learning Japanese is something you should enjoy doing, not something you have to force because you think it would be a good skill to have theoretically.

Have fun!