On those days where even looking at the kanji for "one" proves a impossible puzzle, what do you do to get rid of the guilt of not learning kanji? What i mean to say is when you cant do kanji what part of Japanese do you study instead?

(excuse me if this doesn't make sense, you can probably guess that I'm having one of those days)

On days with high failure rates (like this morning) I just push through and accept that I'm going to have a high fail stack with lots of cards that I do know, but couldn't squeeze out of my head for one reason or another. Because most of those cards are of that type, I also know I won't need to "study" them for very long--likely, just shuffling them back in the pile as "Learned" will mean the next time they pop up I'll knock them out of the park.

What I do not do is to move on to another task and think I'll come back to it later when I'm more alert. Often it doesn't happen. So, maintaining my study schedule is more important in the end.

Incidentally I didn't get my full night's sleep last night, probably short-changed myself an hour or two by getting to bed late. So I shouldn't be surprised that the kanji part of my brain failed.

[ファブリス]

Every other day or so ! ^^ And I don't even study!

More to the point, learn to give yourself a real REST once in a while, at least a full day's break once a week. REFUSE to do anything Japanese related that day. If you find yourself guilty of not doing as much as you wanted/hoped on the "off" day, you will not be truly enjoying that "off" day.

So basically what I'm saying is having a real "off" day can motivate you to have better "on" days, because when you motivate yourself to work on the "on" days, you know that you are preparing yourself for a quality, guilt-free "off" day. Try it out!

ファブリス Wrote:Every other day or so ! ^^ And I don't even study!

More to the point, learn to give yourself a real REST once in a while, at least a full day's break once a week. REFUSE to do anything Japanese related that day. If you find yourself guilty of not doing as much as you wanted/hoped on the "off" day, you will not be truly enjoying that "off" day.

So basically what I'm saying is having a real "off" day can motivate you to have better "on" days, because when you motivate yourself to work on the "on" days, you know that you are preparing yourself for a quality, guilt-free "off" day. Try it out!

I've been doing the same, by giving myself a day of rest from Japanese, and it actually helps. I go pretty heavy most of the time - there's always something Japanese on at my place, before work, after work, even listening to japanese music during work. My "active" participation in learning is probably 4+ hours a day, and passive the rest. Yet talking the occasional Friday off does wonders for when you return to study. The brain is not like a mechano set that you just screw together. It takes time for connections to form, and an important part of that is giving it rest - both sleep and changing activities. Don't feel guilty about it - it can actually be helpful.