OK, so I'm still a HS student so I don't know the pains of the uni life but here it goes:

1) Minimalistic styles seem to work great for me. Try this more.
2) I'm not sure why listening to Japanese music distracts you from school -- try something slow. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svEPHKusyC8)
3) I'm not sure how Japanese would fit into your school motivation (please clarify that a bit more) but I often use Japanese with my other studeis and it does everything to HELP motivate me. (I write my notes in Japanese, well Chinese too but...)


--- If it's not too personal what is your Major?

jettyke wrote:

Actually I'm finishing high school this year:D That's why I seriously need to handle this question.

Aww, you've got Senioritis!

I'm guessing once you get to (let's assume you're headed to) univsersity, things will kick in again. You're sick of high school, and everything else (Japanese) seems way more interesting. You'll end up in university courses which will kick your ass, and you'll get back into shape. That's what happened to me.

It's almost the opposite for me now -- I'm spending too much time on schoolwork, and I can't fit in as much Japanese as I'd like.

Damn I wish I was more motivated when I was 16.

jettyke wrote:

Somewhy I associate it with school.

Somewhy is not a word, but your post made me realize that it totally should be.

I looked it up just to make sure, and found that 'somewhen' used to be a word, though it fell out of use.

</offtopic>

Haha, really?  I checked Dictionary.com, the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, as well as an Oxford learner's dictionary in my 電子辞書, and none of them had it.  So, while it may be a word, it's an awfully obscure one.

Tzadeck wrote:

Somewhy is not a word, but your post made me realize that it totally should be.

Glad I wasn't the only one. I'm going to start using it, hoping to bring it in to common use.



But seriously, it sounds like you have all the motivation you need. You want to apply for MEXT, you want to take entrance exams (where are you? I was already accepted into my school in November/December of my senior year, so 2nd semester senior year was a joke). It doesn't seem like motivation is what you need. You need to just settle down and focus.

The minimalist thing sounds good, but don't spend your time making it -more- minimalistic when you should be studying. Find a spot where you study, and JUST study there. Seriously, force yourself to, so that "spot" becomes ingrained in your mind to be a study spot -- nothing else.

When studying, -get it done fast- music isn't necessarily the best...Yes, you want to get it done quick, but I've found that that rather than focus, fast music makes my mind race as well, and I end up thinking of different stuff. I see you've tried classical -- It's never failed me in hardcore study sessions, but ymmv.

Turn off any form of communication. Turn off the TV, put your phone in another room, shut down the computer (unless you're working on it -- then close everything except what you need. That new account you mentioned is a good idea). Seriously, if you do play music, play it from a device that's NOT your computer. mp3 player with speakers is good -- just try not to get caught up in the songs that you want to change it all the time (i have this problem). If you're anything like me, it'll feel super weird at first, being so disconnected from the world, but it's seriously the biggest benefit I've found.

How about BGM music? You could get music from your favorite Japamnese anime/drama/games. A lot of that stuff is composed by Japanese people, so even if your not immersed in the Japanese language, your at least immersed in something related to the culture.

Also, your young, plenty of time to learn a language. Find ways to get what you need done. Maybe you can break your homework into smaller sessions, and timebox each session And do something short in Japanese after each session. Saving your big language study time for after everything else is done.

Cranks wrote:

http://chat.tonyrobbins.com/

Literally thousands and thousands of posts that go into things like modeling, environment change, and so on, but in a slightly different context. Khatz is probably a member, lol.

Woah. Woah, no. Going to that forum was like pawing my way through a giant mound of fecal matter trying to find something useful. I really, really don't think that site is what jettyke wants right now as it is filled with people who think they've found "THE thing" and just can't calm down and give proper, solid advice, besides it's filled with marketing for that dude. If you insist and think jettyke can benefit from it, please directly link to specific threads you think are really good.

jettyke: another thing I didn't mention in my last post is that there's a risk you're obsessing over finding the perfect learning environment instead of just sitting down in a normal, not-too-comfortable wooden chair with a desk in front of it with no music, no computer, no nothing around really except your schoolbooks. If you don't have a good spot for this at home, go to a local library (or your school's library if it's nice and quiet) and sit down at a desk. Relax and feel comfortable knowing that it's good enough to just doing normal study too - everything you need are in those books. Let it be simple, because really? Highschool courses are.

Surreal wrote:

Learn to care and like it.

I know that I will never care much about it, but I want to personally brainwash myself into thinking that I care about it...I think I read something about that Increased dopamine level makes us remember things better.

Also, as I don't want to suffer while studying, I want to make the study process as enjoyable as I can. I don't want to torture myself with.
Right now It's a torture, but I'm looking for ways of tricking myself into thinking that it's fun. All kinds of talks about how important school studies are might be useful...

Surreal wrote:

Start studying with your real-life classmates, using social situations is a sure-fire way to boost your motivation. Use timeboxing to do 30-min or so study sessions and remember to mentally pat yourself on the back when you finish them, regardless of how much you actually learnt since the important thing is you get into the habit of putting time into learning the subjects. Don't limit yourself to only the learning material you are given by school, use wikipedia etc to help your learning. It might be more material but overall you can speed up your learning -> less time necessary so it's worth it.

It's impossible to pat myself mentally...I don't know how to trick myself to achieve this. Rewards are a kind of a result of some things...sometimes they come, sometimes they don't.
I really doubt that using wikipedia and stuff might decrease the total time spent on learning. But it will certainly make it a bit more enjoyable and interesting.

Surreal wrote:

Somewhat like Asriel's advice, it seems the biggest timesink for you is online social networks so you can try unplugging your internet connection, setting a timer (again, 30 or 60 min sounds reasonable) and not plugging the cable back in until the time has run out.

I'm going to close my facebook account soon and only use mixi from now on... last year I could get 2 months by without FB.

Surreal wrote:

Do you often reflect on what you have learned after a study session? Just a quick ~1 min review after a 30/60 min session can really help. When you're in school, during the breaks between classes it's a good idea to read through your notes for the latest class so you can make more sense of it.

Never done that!

Surreal wrote:

Hope this is of some use.

It is, thanks!

Surreal wrote:

jettyke: another thing I didn't mention in my last post is that there's a risk you're obsessing over finding the perfect learning environment instead of just sitting down in a normal, not-too-comfortable wooden chair with a desk in front of it with no music, no computer, no nothing around really except your schoolbooks. If you don't have a good spot for this at home, go to a local library (or your school's library if it's nice and quiet) and sit down at a desk. Relax and feel comfortable knowing that it's good enough to just doing normal study too - everything you need are in those books. Let it be simple, because really? Highschool courses are.

you're definitely right, but I want to make it impossible to fail by creating the right environment...I'm trying to make it as perfect as I can...the only things allowed in my life from now on are school and Japanese ( including socializing).

I've got so many things I need to complete by summer that I want to make the best use of my time as I possibly can. I've spent too much time being lazy.

I've been redoing everything in my room since I started this thread,
decreasing the amount of objects down to the things I think I will definitely need during the next 5 months.
And now a week later after working hard on this every day I can say that it's pretty much complete now.
My room is more minimalistic, without clutter and more functional.

Last edited by jettyke (2011 February 15, 12:12 pm)

jettyke wrote:

Surreal wrote:

Learn to care and like it.

I know that I will never care much about it, but I want to personally brainwash myself into thinking that I care about it...I think I read something about that Increased dopamine level makes us remember things better.

Also, as I don't want to suffer while studying, I want to make the study process as enjoyable as I can. I don't want to torture myself with.
Right now It's a torture, but I'm looking for ways of tricking myself into thinking that it's fun. All kinds of talks about how important school studies are might be useful...

Surreal wrote:

Start studying with your real-life classmates, using social situations is a sure-fire way to boost your motivation. Use timeboxing to do 30-min or so study sessions and remember to mentally pat yourself on the back when you finish them, regardless of how much you actually learnt since the important thing is you get into the habit of putting time into learning the subjects. Don't limit yourself to only the learning material you are given by school, use wikipedia etc to help your learning. It might be more material but overall you can speed up your learning -> less time necessary so it's worth it.

It's impossible to pat myself mentally...I don't know how to trick myself to achieve this. Rewards are a kind of a result of some things...sometimes they come, sometimes they don't.

Well, if it helps, what I meant by "mental patting yourself" is feeling satisfied with yourself having spent time focusing on something that you know is important to you in the long run. It often helps me feeling less depleted mentally after doing something I had to but didn't really want to do. Of course, YMMV. It's good that you are open to advice and at the same time also think about how not everything that works great for others can work as well for you.

Oh and speaking of game music, I think 光田康典 (みつだやすのり) has made some of the best game music there is, here's a sample (the quality is meh, but yeah) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROKcr2OT … re=related . If you like ambient music you might like the Mechwarrior 2 soundtrack, here's a sample again - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C42xCauM9jU

(if you're interested in either just send me a PM and I'll help with the acquirement of them, don't want you to be burdened with another timesink from trying to find music)

Last edited by Surreal (2011 February 15, 4:34 pm)

IceCream wrote:

i can think of two ways you might get interested in your schoolwork:
1. do it in Japanese. 高校講座, plus some Japanese textbooks should do the trick... of course, have some English textbooks as a backup.

2. Split your time, and keep Japanese only for certain days. Give yourself a few days a week to ONLY do Japanese and no schoolwork, and the rest of the time just do schoolwork. Read around your subjects, and streamline your work so that you are teaching yourself the right things for your exams. But NEVER rush it!!! If you sit down thinking, "i'll do 2 hours and then i can do what i want", all that's going to happen is looking at a clock wishing the time was over. It's much better to not allow yourself to do anything else for a few days, because that's so long you end up interested in what you're doing.

Well, this is what works for me, anyway... once i'm into something, i'm into it... it's all or nothing baby

i agree totally with unplugging your internet and ditching your tv!!

btw... there's tons of interesting things, even in high school!!! Once you start looking, you'll find them for sure. A language is useless if you don't have anything interesting to say... that's one of the benefits of a good education

Wow, I thought you were banned. Nice too see you!
I'm even more surprised to see a piece of advice written so well...

1. I have about 2 months until the first exam, 4 until the last...I'm afraid that it's too late now to start ordering textbooks etc. My best bet would be to find something online and I wonder whether I'll have time for learning with my sacky dictionary-needing intermediate Japanese. But I'm not sure whether it'll work with math, because I don't know math terms in english.

Thank's a lot for writing those 4 kanjis... I didn't know they had something like that! Cool!
Haha, what could make me stick to learning more than a cute Japanese girl talking about school subjects!
Do you know by happenstance of any other good resources for school subjects in Japanese?
I could actually imagine myself changing my podcast selection to that of lessons of school subjects...only that I don't know of any places...gotta find some time to search.

2. It's the same for me: All or nothing...when I did well in school, my Japanese almost didn't advance.
When I learn Japanese...something worse happens. I skip school and can't think about anything else.

What has worked not so bad for me so far is learning as much NEW words as I can during the 2-day weekends and trying only to review them during the 5 days of the week. It has been especially fine a couple of times when I did reps for 2 hours before school...my speed got very fast due to having to go to school soon.

Well the most important part is to make school learning enjoyable and effective...and to meet the deadlines.

Last edited by jettyke (2011 February 15, 6:32 pm)