掲示板 Forums - Is the sense of no improvement normal?

Hi, hello. I've been studying in various different forms for quite a long time now, though never consistently. I think the longest I studied consistently was 114 days, and it was vocab drilling on Anki. (Hated it.)

So here's my question. I know that learning a language takes a long time, and I'm sure that the more I learn early on (especially about grammar) the more I realize I don't know. Is the sense that I'm not improving (and actually getting worse) normal?

In addition to that, do you have any tips for practicing my recall ability, and for memorizing these rather complicated grammar points? I have about an 80% correct rate on grammar questions, and a 95% rate on vocab questions. I realize 80% is still pretty good, and 95% is exceptional, and I'm likely being too hard on myself.. I dunno. I guess I'm feeling some level of despair regarding my studies. I still can't really understand the sentences in the grammar quizzes consistently.

Yes, there are times when you'll hit a plateau. Or feel like you're going backwards, because your overall knowledge is bigger and your brain has to navigate through a larger dataset, but it's not yet organized.

When it happens, I stop adding new stuff and just do reviews until I feel like I'm on top of things again. Or you might want to take a break altogether for a bit.

I'm pretty sure everyone's score on vocabulary is higher than grammar. Grammar takes reasoning, so it's more work for the brain. And it can be subtle why a choice is correct over another. Check the notes when you make mistakes and you're not sure why. Chances are someone else asked about it already.

​A lot of these break down into common words, so you don't really need to encounter them much to remember them. 国際関係 is just 国際 + 関係 :)

@Ryonya "Is the sense of no improvement normal" Yes, very normal. It's actually super common for me. The thing is, even when you hit a plateau, you're very much still improving. It's just such a gradual process that it's often hard to notice in the moment.

I've had long periods where I've felt like I wasn't improving at all, only to at some point start noticing that I was able to read much faster, recognise certain phonetic components in kanji, pick up on nuances I wasn't able to before, etc.

+1 for graded readers, easy podcasts, simple manga, etc. It's very important that you start actually using the language. 習うより慣れろ as they say :D

Thank you all very much for the responses. It's encouraging to see that it's normal, so I suppose there's nothing to do but stick to it!

For using the language, I'll start doing graded readers. I'm already spending all of my entertainment time listening to native content, usually related to gaming, but I'm only able to pick up bits and pieces here.

I'll also try shadowing more, as even with just one 20 minute shadowing video I felt I was stumbling over myself waaay less, though definitely still not fast. I used to use LingQ for a lot of reading (it burned the word 人工知能 into my brain lol) but I've looked into it recently and it's apparently using a lot more AI, so it's unfortunate to lose that tool for me.

But, graded readers, shadowing, and daily narration all sound like excellent options. Thank you!

​I'm gonna say something, but I don't want you to take the wrong lesson from this. Remember, the most effective way to study is whatever one you'll actually do.

That said, you generally want to use materials you mostly understand. If you're only picking up bits and pieces, it's probably not helping you very much. But if you understand 100% of it with no effort, it's also not very helpful. The sweet spot will be something that feels challenging, but is still doable given some effort. That's why I like graded readers. Good ones are really effective.

But again, even the most effective method is useless if you can't make yourself do it. So if you have more fun with gaming videos even though they're a bit above your level, then you should use them.

it’s normal, though at times very frustrating to feel like you’re not making any progress.

there’s a bunch of factors for that. when you learn your first 10 words, it’s like, wow, 10 words. when you already know 1000 words, 10 more words doesn’t feel like anything much. even though you learned the same amount of words.

also, those first 10 words you learn will get used all the time. at 500 words, those new words will be much less common. at 2000 words, you’re entering the long tail of words which get less and less common.

same goes for kanji.

also also, with a project as long as learning japanese, it’s normal to have periods which feel better or worse. heck, i’ve had periods of multiple months where i felt so discouraged that i didn’t do anything.

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several things have helped me retain/regain the sense of progress: going back to things which once were hard. a grammar lesson which once felt hard and nonsensical, and now seems obvious and self evident. a text which i struggled with, which now is much easier. playing some quickdraw here on renshuu and seeing how many kanji i actually know really well. those kinds of things.

other things are more gradual, but when you notice them, they can really give you a lift. for me, it felt like all of 2025 i had barely made any progress. but then this summer i realised that i could watch a lot of stuff without subtitles, and understood enough to enjoy it. or that i can read more and more manga without needing to use a dictionary.