r/learnjapanese

N3/N2 at the highest point, want to get back and ideally "cement" my knowledge - how to start?

30.07 18:20 | u/WhateverManReally
Hi guys. probably a typical request here. I have been learning Japanese for a really long time, passed N3 something like 7 years ago, and had to since switch to focus on another language. But I have actually done a fair share of learning since then - uni language courses to catch up a bit, learning by myself, and at the highest point I took an online course from a Japanese language school where we were covering N2 material. Anki, sentence mining, podcasts, all that. That was around 1,5 years ago now. I don't have any specific goal like moving to Japan, I'm not a huge manga/anime fan (just watch or read them like any other book or series), but I still love the language so much even after getting to and abandoning it so many times. I want to get back into it and make it a part of my life finally, instead of the annual sprint where I barely progress year over year. Here's a catch though: I'm extremely, EXTREMELY burned out from Anki. I'm also fairly confident that despite being a massive time sink, it was not effective. Good for stuff like cramming material couple month before some deadline, but it just seems like I haven't retained much of the sentence mining material I've done with it. What stayed was the stuff I've picked up through actual lessons with active usage. I know, I know, what a revolutionary discovery:D I know from my experience of learning other foreign languages that the biggest boost I get is from intensive language courses - I'm considering using my savings for a month in a Japanese language school in-person... But it's also a sprint in a way. The question is what to do after that given that I'm not using Japanese for much in my life anyway, I can't stomach Anki rn, and also I'm quite dissatisfied about consuming media where I don't understand a big chunk of it (all of my other foreign languages are on a nearly-fluent level, so I'm admittedly not used to not understanding stuff anymore:D). Basically, how do I get into it again (and with which material) and integrate learning into my life organically, "cement" the knowledge without the constant one step forward two steps back of sprint learning? And also not really get frustrated by my lack of the needed level to understand most of the stuff (I guess it's mostly just a mental reframing though...)? I would just like to finally get to the level where I won't lose it all as easily anymore. Any N3-going-on-N2 tips and materials would be much appreciated!:)

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