When it’s More Fun to Read about Japanese than Study it
Ever find yourself on a binge of looking at Japanese language blogs and videos which go on endlessly about studying Japanese? If yes, you are far from alone. Unfortunately, reading about studying Japanese can be more enjoyable than actually studying Japanese, and this is a big problem.
If you are reading/watching someone talk about Japanese, they are probably passionate about it. Their excitement will show through their work. This gets you pumped up about studying Japanese and makes you feel good. I’ve talked about the downside of reading too much overly positive material, since it can have the opposite effect of hitting you hard when you are at a low. But even regular material can get you addicted.
Sounds harmless. Light the Japanese fire under you. Then study.
However, you continue to read more and more about what you are excited to do. Then don’t study. You’re too tired from all of this reading, so you tell yourself that you are all ready to go for tomorrow. When you wake up tomorrow, you lost that motivating feeling, and need more energy. You read more about studying Japanese to get that feeling back.
A long time ago I compared motivation to power ups, and that certain rules should be followed like not overusing them, and not waiting to act. Too many motivation power ups leads to reading about Japanese rather than in Japanese.
The danger is real.
The addiction is real.
This isn’t just about beginners who haven’t yet fully started diving into the language. It’s easy for anyone of any level at any time to slip into pseudo study habits.
When you’re tired, you don’t have the energy to study Japanese. But you do have the energy to read about it. Sometimes it gets you to actually study. Sometimes it doesn’t. It all depends on how quickly you begin after you become motivated. This is why it’s a bad idea to read motivational sites late at night. You are unlikely to actually do anything after it.
The result is a long spiral of reading more and more about studying Japanese, and then feeling guilty that you aren’t actually studying it. In order to overcome that guilt that is draining your energy, you read more to try to get yourself to study.
I’ve been there. It feels good to read uplifting information and stories about your dream. Studying Japanese is a long, tough journey and we could all use some good feeling about Japanese.
Just be careful. If you find yourself getting too absorbed in motivational articles, you need to adjust your studying. Your study time is what is important. Motivation is just there as a timely assistant. Remember that, and you can avoid developing this bad habit.
Japanese is what is truly fun and addicting. It may not feel that way yet, but give it the time it deserves and you’ll be glad you didn’t waste an hour a day just reading about it.
Founder of Jalup. iOS Software Engineer. Former attorney, translator, and interpreter. Still watching 月曜から夜ふかし weekly since 2013.
This has definitely happened to me a lot so I have now structured my “reading about japanese” habits. I restrict it to this website and /r/LearnJapanese subreddit, and even then I only check those out while doing passive, and a couple times a week. Anything else, I’ve got to be looking for specific information, not just mindlessly reading about japanese (for example if I want to find podcast recommendations, or maybe looking for some tips to increase my immersion time). And even that, I try to limit it and really THINK about it first, chances are I already know the answer.
The hardest part is when you look for specific information, and then your eyes briefly scan over something else about Japanese that catches your interest, and then you spiral out of control.
This is why the more you can turn these type of searches to Japanese, the better. For example, when searching for recommendations, try to find Japanese people talking about podcast recommendations. This prevents you from going astray.
This is me 100%. I visit this site as many as 10 times a day just to see if a new comment has been posted. I’ve been trying to cut back, but I’m hooked!
While I love your support of the site, try to cut back! : )
Because every time you check the site is a chance for a distraction spiral.
Same here haha. I love browsing all the older articles on this site.
I have fallen into thia trap so many times, but it’s gotten way better as I advanced. The turning point, for me, is when J-J became manageable (which was half way through my 2nd attempt at JALUP Advanced). Things because a lot easier to understand and it became more fun to “study” (read/watch Japanese junk!) than to read about studying.
It’s so hard to crawl out of though when you’re a beginner! Setting goals for yourself daily can help with the trap though. If you make sure you’re studying say, 10 new cards per day or 1 new chapter a week, then at least you make progess daily and the reading about Japanese time is just filler.
This is a great and very timely article for me. All of it is so true! Although I don’t study Japanese, I use your blog to get ideas and inspiration for my own target language, but it is all too easy to gain so much “inspiration” without putting any of it to use.
One thing that I personally used and have found helps is the extension for Firefox called LeechBlock. You can personalize it anyway you want to help you stay off websites you don’t want to be browsing. I block all .com during the week and only allow .ru, and then allow myself to read in English on Sunday. Sometimes I cheat, but LeechBlock has really helped my studies!
That’s definitely a useful way to keep yourself focused.
For your reference, there was a good article here written by a guest author who went through this same process:
https://japaneselevelup.com/block-distractions-focus-japanese/