Konnichiyall, everyone! It’s time for the third edition of the Japanese Study Habit Building Series! This series is designed to give you tools to create your own long-term study habits so you can reach your language learning goals. If you love Japanese, but find it hard to study consistently, this is the series for you.
The truth is, good study habits are not proof of motivation, determination, and commitment. Unfortunately, you can be super invested in Japanese and still have study habits that just aren't conducive to learning and progress. As learners, we sometimes make things way harder for ourselves than they need to be, because we have the wrong ideas about what it means to be a student. But if you learn to work with your natural tendencies instead of against them, you can take back control of your Japanese studies and become the consistent learner you want to be.
If you missed the first two posts in this four-part series, you can read about making your Japanese studies more fun here and making your Japanese studies easier here.
And if you're all caught up, let's dive into Part 3 of the series: how to make our Japanese studies automatic.
Four Characteristics of Habit-Building Japanese Study Methods
As a reminder, in this series I’m talking about four characteristics of my long-lasting study habits that have allowed me to keep going on a daily basis. Those characteristics are:
Fun
Easy
Automatic
Social
Today I’ll be talking about Number 3: Automatic. Automation is an incredibly powerful tool for building good study habits that last and last and last, without us even having to think about them. Let's dive into to why automation makes study-habit building so much easier.
The True Meaning of "How to Study Japanese"
When we study, especially self-study, there is the potential for a lot of energy to be wasted on thinking about the ‘how’ instead of the actual studying. This is why people pay big money for classes and teachers and programs and coaches, etc. — they automate the process for you, so you don’t have to do it yourself. When you're taking a traditional class, you don’t have to think about any of the following:
Where do I start? What content should I study today?
When should I study?
Where (physically) should I study?
How much should I study today?
What's the right pace to be moving at?
How often should I be reviewing? What do I need to be reviewing?
When you think about how each of these add a separate layer that we have to figure out ourselves when we’re self-studying, you start to see the true worth of a good teacher's service. And if you have the money and time for it, the value of a formal teacher, class, or program with a solid curriculum can’t be understated.
But how can we approach the ‘how’ if we do choose to go it alone? Well, one option is to basically become your own teacher, and answer all the questions above on your own. That did not work very well for me, and I don't think it works well for most people. But luckily, we can automate most of these, especially in this day and age. Let’s talk through this by looking individually at some of the questions that need to be answered when learning Japanese by yourself.
Making ‘When Should I Study Japanese’ Automatic
One of the biggest values of taking a formal Japanese class is the automation of ‘when’ - we don’t have to think about anything. We just go to class, and if there’s homework, make sure it’s done before the next class. If there's an evaluation coming up soon, don't forget to study for it outside of class. But there's really no need to decide how many hours a day or week to study, or what time fits into your schedule. It’s all basically laid out for you.
Unfortunately, self-studiers don’t have this benefit. It’s 100% freedom. The problem is, that’s way too much freedom for most of us. We either forget to study entirely, or keep pushing it to ‘later’ because of that open-ended freedom. There isn't a test to cram for, there are no impending deadlines. But, thankfully, there are ways other than formal classes to create substitutes to these kinds of elements for ourselves, and somewhat automate our studying schedule.
For a self-studier, automating ‘when’ may look like one of the following:
1. A reminder system
This could mean a repeating alarm in your phone to study, or using an application with reminder notifications or emails (Duolingo is great for this). A reminder system will, at the very least, ensure that you aren't forgetting to study. Whether or not a reminder is enough of a push to get you studying, however, is a different story (and likely varies by day for each individual). Luckily, a reminder system can be paired with other tricks to get you practicing. Like...
2. A streak system
The reason we don’t procrastinate studying for a real class like we do with self study is because there’s a time limit. If you don’t get up and go to class at a certain point, you’ll miss it, and there’s no opportunity to get that time and money back. If you don’t finish the homework before class, you don’t get credit for it. A streak system creates a 24 time limit that repeats every day, mimicking this automated ‘when’ element of a real class.
Apps like Duolingo have built in steak systems, but you can make your own streak system for any study method with a print out calendar or habit tracker that you manually X off each day.
3. Scheduling a Japanese study time
If you have a window of time that's often free, you can also automate your ‘when’ by studying at the same time each day. If you're rolling your eyes at this, as I would be, stay with me. This works especially well if you can piggyback your study habit onto something that happens everyday. For example, ‘when I finish washing the dishes after dinner, I will do one workbook page,” or something like this. Even better if you have something in your schedule that automatically lends to studying. Like, 'when I sit down at my desk at work in the morning, I'll do the reviews in my WaniKani queue'. (If you don't know about the magical kanji study website WaniKani, check out my full guide here!)
As you build the piggybacked study habit, you’ll start automatically going to your workbook after finishing the dishes, or clicking onto Wanikani as soon as you get to work, in the same way that we automatically lock the door when we step outside to go out. This is called habit stacking, a technique I learned about from James Clear's book Atomic Habits.
4. Using an alternative to traditional classes
If you’re a person who works better under the pressure of a teacher, but a real Japanese class isn’t in your budget or schedule, there are some alternatives! I love italki, and I work with my teacher once a week. This helps me stay consistent with writing my diary and makes sure I’m practicing speaking on a regular basis. Prices vary on italki, but in general will range from about 5-15 USD per lesson, with discounts if you purchase in a package.
You also might be surprised at what your own community has to offer when it comes to Japanese studies. A little digging can go a long way! Many places have local Japanese study groups or volunteer language teachers in the community. Most universities are also bound to have something, so if you’re a college student, a visit to the Japanese department may help you find a study group or club.
If you do live in Japan, there is almost certainly a free or low cost volunteer-taught Japanese class near you. Sometimes you can Google this information even in English, but if that doesn’t turn up anything, visit your local community center and ask about Japanese classes for foreigners. If a Google maps search for community center doesn’t turn up anything, try terms like 交流センター or 公民館. Reach out to me if you live here and want help finding a volunteer-led Japanese class in your area!!
5. Take the JLPT
Sometimes, you just need the pressure of a test looming over your head to kick yourself into gear with self-studies. The JLPT is arguably the biggest (official) test you could have in your Japanese studies, and the price also increased this year to 7500 yen, so signing up for the JLPT now adds more pressure than ever. Be sure to be mindful of the registration dates! They're only open for a short period of time! You can check them here.
Making ‘Where to Study Japanese’ Automatic
Automation by location is an extremely powerful tool for building study habits. If you can teach your mind that a certain location means a certain type of studying, you’ll find yourself starting to study without even really thinking about it.
For me, I’ve done this with several methods throughout my studying journey. The first was podcasts. In my previous job, I was commuting about four hours per week. During this time, I listened to podcasts to practice my Japanese. This time was so crucial to my improvement, and the habit of turning on the podcast as soon as I was in the car became automatic really quickly. I probably logged over 100 hours of podcast time during my two years there.
Now, in my new position, I have a lot of free time during the day between classes. Since my school issued me a laptop, it’s super easy to do my kanji practice on WaniKani during the work day, often as soon as I get to work in the morning. This became a habit without me even thinking about it, and now I almost never miss a day of practice when I’m working. But be careful with this strategy, because once you have this location bias it’s easy to forget to study certain things if you aren’t in the right location for some time!!
I don’t like strict study plans, but to some extent it also helps to automate things to the point that you don’t have to ask what to do when you start. For me, having different locations for each study method helps a lot - I do kanji at work, reading practice on the bus, and Duolingo often happens in bed before I go to sleep. What works for me won’t work for everyone, so play around until you find what feels easiest for you!
Making ‘What Japanese Should I Study Today?’ Automatic
While making the studying itself automatic is a game changer, it’s also so important to avoid the “well WHAT do I do?” question once you do start a studying session. As a self-studier, study resources with built-in review systems and that combine kanji, vocab, and grammar are the foundation of my success.
In a real class, you go through a textbook chapter with a teacher, who’s usually assigning homework and language lab work along the way that supports your learning, and then you have quizzes and tests to ensure that you go back and review on a regular basis. They also make sure that you’re studying grammar, vocabulary, and kanji in the necessary amounts and not falling behind in one area.
Self-studying, you’ve got none of that. You’re left with two choices: figure out a study and review schedule that works for your brain, or automate the review and progression processes.
Don’t get me wrong - textbooks do build on themselves, and include some natural review as you progress forward. But they also depend on a good teacher and a regular class schedule for a lot of things. For example, even if grammar is building on itself nicely and you’re able to process without much review, kanji is often just presented in a long list, and an instructor is the one who makes sure you learn it, practice it, and are evaluated on it multiple times. So if you're self-studying from a text book, you're now in charge of making sure you go back and review regularly, and also that you evaluate yourself on your progress.
However, language learning applications and programs are built with self-study in mind. Duolingo not only makes you extensively repeat things as you’re learning them, but also regularly cycles back to old grammar, vocabulary, and kanji. It’s a general, well-rounded curriculum, meaning you don’t even have to think about how to divide your time between kanji, vocabulary, and grammar. WaniKani, Anki, and other spaced repetition systems optimize time between reviews to make concepts stick in your head most effectively. Duolingo, Bunpro, and Wanikani are the methods I've used, but most online learning programs with decent reviews have a similar approach.
The difference that automated review made to my kanji studies was so unbelievable. I went from the dreading kanji studies I was doing from a book to loving them when I was doing them via an app, all because I didn’t get stuck at the stage of “do I review or do I progress?” The application decided for me what I needed to do, much better than I ever could have.
Work smarter, not harder. There's no need to teach yourself lesson and curriculum planning when you're already trying to teach yourself a language.
These applications make it so easy to study. I think it’s an amazing time that we live in to be able to sit there and almost mindlessly learn a language. How cool is it that we can open an app and learn real and useful Japanese in just a couple of minutes, when the people who came before us had to sit at desks and pour over kanji dictionaries?! I think we’re really lucky in that regard.
Many textbooks and workbooks do try to include a lot of review, but most don’t do as great of a job at it. Usually you’ve got a page or two of review at the end of a chapter, but this is really nothing compared to the way the above-mentioned applications will have you repeating things over and over and over again, and usually on an optimized schedule for learning. Even the Sou-Matome grammar books (which I recommend for JLPT studies because of their reader-friendly layout, clear scheduling, and built-in review) must be worked through multiple times and reviewed independently in order to internalize the material enough to pass the exam.
Especially at the start of your studies while you’re focused on building a habit, I highly recommend using study apps or websites that automate that ‘what do I study today?' question.
Conclusion
Okay! That’s it for the third edition of the Japanese Study Habit Building Series! I hope this has given you some insight into the power of automating your study habits, whether it’s by time, location, content, or all three. When we take a class, automation is honestly so much of what we pay for — the teacher does the work of when, where, how much, how fast, so that you can focus on the language itself. But, especially with modern technology and knowledge about habit building, we can accomplish this feat alone, with just a few tweaks in our routines or our study methods. What works for you will depend on you as an individual, and you may need to try out a few things before finding something that sticks.
Lots of people swear by things like a 20-20-20 rule for minutes studying vocabulary, kanji, and grammar, or a 15 kanji a day rule, but stuff like that has just never worked for me. So, if strict rules don't work for you either, try out of some of these methods, and see if you can't form a habit anyway. Rest assured I've been flying by the seat of my pants for 3 lawless years and can speak Japanese just fine. I'll never tell you how long or how much to study - I'm just happy if you can find a way to get yourself started each day!
If you have your own tricks, let me know in the comments what works for you! And as always, any questions, comments, or suggestions of your own are more than welcome! If you enjoyed this post, be sure to leave a like and subscribe below so you don't miss the next installment of the study habit building series!
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