At some point in the learning journey, almost everyone needs a break. So how can you come back to Japanese effectively after burning out and get motivated again?
The short answer is: just pick up where you left off and actually study again. While there are some ways to make the transition easier, there is no magic bullet: you literally just have to sit down and start doing it again.
This seems about right…
To be honest, I’m in a similar boat right now. After completing the first 10 levels of Wanikani with ease, I decided to reward myself with a small break. The small break turned into a longer break and then the idea of doing 400+ reviews was extremely unappealing so I just… didn’t. Eventually I had to face the music and get going again. I won’t lie, it was extremely difficult and trying to get myself motivated was a pain. But I’m pushing through and I’m on level 12 now so that’s at least progress.
Hopefully this post can help you find what you need to jump back in, but really, I hope it motivates me just as much!
Stop waiting for motivation to study Japanese after burning out.
Motivation is kind of a tricky concept. Realistically, a lot of the time you don’t need motivation, you need commitment. I think motivation implies waiting around for inspiration to feel like doing something, where as commitment is just doing it. If you’re just sitting around waiting to be motivated you’re never going to achieve anything. Don’t wait for motivation, just go and do it.
Here are some ideas that have helped me want to study Japanese again after burning out.
Remembering why you were studying Japanese in the first place.
Was it to read a particular manga? Was it because you wanted to be able to speak to friends in Japan? Was it for business? Remember your original goals and see how close you are to reaching them. Still a long way off? Break your study into smaller more bite sized goals and work towards them.
Recognise that sometimes life happens… but don’t use it as an excuse.
Ken realised that he was using his love of staring off into space as an excuse not to study.
Ok so maybe you’ve had a life event like moving house, starting a new job, a trip, a friend in crisis, whatever. These are all great reasons to recognise that you can’t study at full power 100% of the time. But that’s not a good excuse to stop your studies completely. Sure you might not have the brain space for 100+ kanji revisions every night but maybe you could watch a drama with subs or listen to some music in Japanese.
Life events make it easy to fall into the trap of using them as an excuse to say “Oh today was hard, I deserve a night off from studying”. While it’s probably true, it’s easy for one night off to turn into 2, then 3, then a week and well here we are. Be honest with yourself and understand when you NEED a break vs. can’t be bothered to work.
Sit down and… just do it.
Seriously, that’s all it takes. Sit down and study.
It feels like that’s not easy to do because coming back to a mountain of reviews seems much bigger than that. But it’s not.
If you’re anything like me, on your time off you’ve built up to dreading going back to studying. Dread at the reviews that piled up while you were gone, dread at the idea that you’ve forgotten everything, just general dread.
Dreading it isn’t helpful. What’s helpful is sitting down and studying for 10 minutes. So go do that instead!
Build momentum again… slowly.
Don’t worry if even a small child has more motivation to study that you, just do better than them and rub it in their tiny faces!
At this point you’ve convinced yourself to get back into it but if you’ve been using an SRS system then there are probably going to be a tonne of reviews that piled up while you were gone. Don’t think you can come back and just tackle them all in a day as it’s a quick way to make yourself hate it even more!
It’s much better to ease into learning and reviewing again. Start with 5 minutes of studying and tackle a few reviews. Don’t stress if you get them wrong. It’s better to lose a little knowledge and keep powering through.
Tips for tackling a big pile of reviews:
- Do 5-10 at a time, multiple times a day.
- Take breaks between sets.
- Don’t waste time thinking hard about the answers, just answer and move on even if you’re wrong.
Remember that you don’t have to get the entire lot done the first day you start again. I had around 500 reviews piled up when I restarted, it took around a week to clear them all and get back into the swing. My study routine was still out for a few weeks because I wasn’t adding new kanji during that time either.
As you do a little more each day, you will find yourself sinking back into your old routines and hopefully enjoying it again!
Reward yourself.
It’s important to associate learning with positive feelings, especially if you’ve been avoiding coming back because it doesn’t seem fun anymore. Reward yourself with a little treat to help yourself keep focused.
I like to set myself 10 reviews to do and if I reach it within a time limit I eat an M&M. It’s silly but it’s effective!
Making study a positive experience really does help, especially in your first session back!
But be careful… don’t reward yourself with more time off!!
Try not to burn out again!
The first step is to actually touch the pen to the paper. Next, move the pen in various shapes!
Consider what got you into burning out in the first place. Were you working too hard? Over confident in your level? Studying too many hours? Going too easy on yourself? Boring work? Whatever it was you need to figure it out so you avoid doing it again! You can also check out my previous post on avoiding burn out for some tips.
So now what?
Coming back to Japanese after a prolonged absence is hard but it’s completely possible to get back into a good routine. You need to be committed to pushing through resistance until you are enjoying it again.
Now if only I felt motivated to write some more posts! Oh well… better tackle that Wanikani queue instead!
