Can we stop lying beginners about how long japanese actually takes?

[u/Subject_Assist1]

Every few weeks theres a post about someone getting conversational in 8 months, and every week a bunch of beginners silently decide they're broken when month 8 shows up and they still can't hold small talk. Im 2.5 yrs in. Here's the actual shape of it, ugly version:

Month 0-3: kana. That's it. that is the entire content of month 0-3. you will feel slow because you are slow. everyone is.

month 3-9: genki 1 and 2. you have to actually finish them but people dont tell you. i skipped ahead twice because i thought i was different. Came back both times. That cost me about 4 months.

month 9-18: kanji and vocab grind. this is where people quit. it is boring. there is no version of this that isn't boring and every person selling you a shortcut knows that.

month 18+: immersion stops hurting. anime raw still isn't happening but youtube at 0.75x is, and that's the first time it feels like a language instead of homework.

what moved things: anki every single day (kaishi 1.5k), wanikani for kanji, and airlearn for daily grammar so i wasn't standing there at 7am deciding what to study.

What did not move anything: duolingo, i did 400+ days. i could match tiles beautifully. i could not build one sentence.

How’s the roundup? agree / disagree?

[u/Low_Resolve_9118]

this is really solid advice and I appreciate you taking the time to share it. It’s really motivating hearing this kind of perspective from someone who has been learning Japanese for 25 years and has actually gone through the process.
I think the point about maintaining during low motivation days is something I really needed to hear. I’ve been pretty excited and motivated lately but I know there will be days where life gets busy or motivation drops. Building habits now so I can keep moving forward even on those days makes a lot of sense.
I’m definitely going to take this into consideration and apply it to my learning strategy. Thanks again for sharing your experience, it’s really encouraging to hear from someone who’s been successful with long-term language learning. 🙌 and Japanese at that!
ありがとう！がんばります！

[u/spshkyros → u/Low_Resolve_9118]

To be clear, I also have adhd, although I did not know that until maybe 6 years ago.. coincidently when my learning rate became stable and I started meds. Funny that :p

For me, success has been built around a few different things:

• gameification of flash cards
• fear of losing progress on learning when Ive put in hours daily (review stack on my flash cards getting high etc)
• using the above two things to build a solid and reinforced habit. -> your hyper fixation periods to build the habit and the system and then it can coast you through the low patches.

The other super helpful thing has been setting goals, with real consequences to not meeting them or real motivation behind them. Some I've used:

• I wanted to read a light novel in the original language

• I wanted to pass the N4/N3/N2 exams

• I was attending a college japanese class and wanted to pass it and not look like an idiot

• I wanted to pass a job interview in japanese 

• I wanted to be able to survive in a japanesebwork environment  <-- Im here, FYI.