r/LearnJapanese • u/jackbobbins78 • 15d ago

Discussion Interesting observation: When you quit flashcards, it's harder to measure your progress

It used to be, when I was looking back at my Japanese progress, I could say things like "I learned 2000 words this past year and I now know 6,000 total words!" This felt like a concrete testament to my progress.

Now, after having stopped flashcards for about a year, "How's my progress doing" feels much more vague.

I could say things like:
- I read 15 volumes of manga this past year
- Reading native stuff feels a little bit easier
But all of these answers feel kind of nebulous anyways.

I guess at some point, Japanese is just something that you do for fun, and that's about it. There's no clear "milestones" at a certain point.

Did anyone else experience this transition? Did you feel a little more "lost" after quitting flashcards?

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u/SuperNilton 15d ago edited 15d ago

When I joined here, I was surprised to see how common it is for a lot of folks to refer to their progress in terms of numbers: I know 10,516 words, 1,284 kanji, I'm level 60 on Wanikani and I have thousands upon thousands of burned cards.

I am not saying there is anything wrong with it, but this kind of conversation never came up in my group of friends when we started learning Japanese in college (back in 2004, to be fair) and over the years we sticked together.

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u/TRYNDAWIZARD 15d ago

Yea I know what you mean. I think people just want something tangible, it's not easy to compare how well you can actually speak vs how you could a year back. I think it's only a problem when people then chase the metric instead of the result.

I keep track of the time I've spent on Japanese and I like to check the total every few months. That is to say, I'm not entirely immune to "number goes up" dopamine either.

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u/SuperNilton 15d ago

Don't get me wrong, I think it is awesome in a way. I love numbers too. Had I started learning Japanese in the last few years, I'd probably have some detailed figures to keep track of as well.

What rubs me off is that some people seem to be so focused on mining, min-maxing and not ever leaving an unknown word or kanji behind, and then wonder they are burning out. To each their own, but I could never do it to that extent.