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It’s been a few weeks since I picked up my Japanese hat and started to learn the language for a second time.
If there is one thing I learned incredibly quickly, it was not to go too fast.
One of the most common things I hear abroad is people finishing Remembering the Kanji/Kana/X thing in minutes; they report just a few days after that they “know all the kanji”, or Kana, or what not.
I guess for some people there may be a rush to learn, but even though I was able to say I learned kana after only two days, the reality is I am still drilling them, still mixing them up occasionally, and still only able to read them at a snails pace; I don’t know them intimately, so knowing them at all doesn’t mean a whole lot yet.
I learned the first 30 Kanji my first day of RTK, but quickly slowed to five a day. I just find my retention is better than way, I am more instantly able to write and remember them. For myself, I have time to spare; I’m learning for fun, and for other people who are, I don’t think there is anything wrong with slowing down. It isn’t a race to the finish, after all.
Does anyone else feel this way? It seems better to be consistent than to be fast in my opinion.
Each to their own. Everyone works at a different pace. What works for one person, might not work for someone else. Generally, I agree with you. It’s better to learn a small bit every day and solidify that knowledge, then to try and remember large chunks and forget most of it.
Another aspect you touched upon is what reason someone is learning Japanese for. If your doing it as a hobby and in no rush, then your more likely to go slower. But, let’s say your aiming to take the JLPT and only have a couple months left to study, you might want to up the stakes a bit and memorize more than you would normally do.
remember that everyone works at their own pace. in the race between the tortoise and the hare, while the tortoise won, they both finished the race. its now about how fast you can learn it, its about learning japanese
I agree with Kanjiman, it depends on why you’re studying. The JLPT, a job transfer, a promotion, or getting a plan of action going for something five years down the road. They all have their own paces. I would wager most study Japanese for fun or personal reasons.
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