True. I’ve just started last November and now I’m losing motivation. Not that I want to give up. (NO WAY I’d give up the $60 I paid for Textfugu lol.) The problem with me is that I’m, now a college student studying abroad (In the US if you’re wondering) English not being my first language is kinda hard to keep up with both Japanese studies and college studies (in different language other than my first lang.)  I’m not saying that English is hard but sometimes, these moments when I find myself lost. I can’t understand what the professor is saying during class makes me go home and spend the whole day trying to simplify the notes so I can understand them (Not to mention, now I’m facing a terrible culture shock/homesick which makes the whole situation even worse). So last week I decided to give my Japanese language studies half  an hour – a hour a day, and I’m keeping it up like that. each day I study Japanese an hour max, and it’s going pretty good.

Good luck everyone with your studies! :)

@mister

For me, I found that changing what I was doing adjusted my motivation.  I was pretty much doing the same thing as you, plodding through Core, and my motivation just kept sliding.  When I stopped doing that, took a break from learning anything new for a few days, and then started back by doing reading/watching anime/listening to podcasts/jpod, my motivation jumped back up.  Doing the Core grind sucked my energy out, so that doing those other things felt like an added chore.

Now, I’m not adding as many new words to my deck as I was before, but I feel like I’m learning much more, because I feel good about learning.  It might not work for you, but it doesn’t sound like what you’re doing is working for you right now either.  Change can be good. :)