You see, I had taken classes but never studied consistently outside of that. I wasn't into watching anime either (it's always been a social activity for me, not a private hobby), and my proficiency was too low for Japanese games. But Skritter got me studying regularly.
Allow me to introduce this app and why it's been effective for me, even beyond learning kanji.
What is Skritter?
Through Skritter, you can practice reading or writing kanji. (Here's a demo.)
Originally made for learning Chinese, this app for smartphones, tablets, and browsers also has a version for learning Japanese.
How it works: Every day, the app gives you a number of flashcards to review. You can opt to add new flashcards from pre-made lists. You don't need an Internet connection to review cards, only for adding new flashcards to learn.
Currently, Skritter makes me review 80 to 120 words daily, depending how early in the day I study. I add 5 to 10 new words daily. To supplement Skritter, I occasionally look up new words on Takoboto (a dictionary app on Android) for example sentences, to know what context those words are used in.
When a flashcard pops up, you answer by tapping on the screen or writing a kanji. Then, you rate yourself: Was it "wrong," "so-so," "correct", or "easy"? Based on your choice, the app decides how soon to test you again on that flashcard. If you were "wrong," you might get tested again within a day or two. If it was "easy," the card might take days or weeks to re-emerge. This is called a spaced repetition system (SRS).
If you don't care to learn writing, you can turn off writing flashcards and only practice reading/recognition. But personally, I enjoy writing and find it helps me remember kanji better.
Give the 7-day free trial a shot. If you like it, there are various subscription plans.
I subscribe to the 12-month plan (USD 99). Sounds pricey, but if I could only pay for one Japanese-learning tool, it would be this.
Skritter and the power of negative reinforcement
Initially, I got into Skritter easily because it felt like a game. Also, the pre-made kanji lists (I use unofficial JLPT study lists) saved me the trouble of creating custom flashcards, though you can do that too.
But eventually I got tired of keeping up with Skritter's daily demands. 20 new words a day felt like too much, so I cut my quota down to 10. Even then, it began to feel like chore (albeit a small chore).
What kept me going was, most of all, negative reinforcement. Or in plainer terms, punishment!
If I missed a day of Skritter, the app would punish me the next day with more flashcards to review. So that made me study kanji every day (about 15 minutes). There's a lazy bum in each of us, and my inner lazy bum likes minimal amounts of studying. It also helped that I didn't want to waste those 99 dollars.
Sometimes, negative reinforcement works better for me than positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcement (e.g. teacher getting angry) is what makes a lot of us do things we don't feel like doing (e.g. homework). It isn't all bad. It hasn't made me hate studying Japanese.
In fact, the prospect of being punished by Skritter made me study daily, which slowly expanded my capacity for studying, which in turn made me enjoy Japanese more. The more I learned, the more I could enjoy things in Japanese like chatting with Japanese people, reading books, playing games -- and do things independently in Japan without help! (I do need positive reinforcement too.)
Anyway, if rewards aren't quite working for you, you might want to include a small dose of punishment. The tricky part is planning how to incorporate some external force or accountability. I'll have to ponder that for a future post.
Self-discipline is a muscle
In 2017, I fulfilled my Skritter quota 350 out of 365 days, averaging 15 minutes per day.
I didn't get disciplined overnight, though. The first 6 months of Skritter, I wasn't consistent and missed my daily quota often. I only got consistent a year or so later. What helped?
1) External pressure: I signed up for JLPT exams (a huge source of study motivation).
2) Maintain a baseline: When too busy or lazy, I say, "Okay, I'll let go of other study tasks (e.g. grammar textbook), but I must at least do Skritter."
I'm still inconsistent with other study methods and often fail to reach my goals with them. But I'm saved from total despair and guilt, because I still get Skritter done and that means I haven't given up studying totally. It's important not to give up totally.
3) Reasonable goals: I try to be flexible rather than rigidly insist on X number of cards per day.
It took me awhile to find the optimal number of new cards to add. Currently, I aim for 60 new cards per week. I add 10 new cards on "normal days" and 5 cards on "slack days." Or zero cards if I'm super busy -- though even then, I always review old cards.
That flexibility helps me stick to daily Skritter even on tired, busy days. Tuesdays and Sundays are "slack days," but if I'm too busy on Friday, I can decide to slack then and make up for it on Sunday.
4) Enjoy: I chose Skritter because I naturally enjoy it to some degree.
Ideally, study methods should lead to enjoyment, whether directly or indirectly. While my initial excitement over Skritter has long faded since 2015, I persevere with Skritter because I like learning new words efficiently.
More importantly, daily Skritter helps build and maintain the self-discipline muscle for other study methods.
Skritter forever?
If the stats are right, I've spent over 200 hours on Skritter and logged in 970 days.
I plan to keep going until I finish the JLPT N1 kanji list. It'll take a year at most.
After that? I might stop using Skritter unless there are other pre-made lists I'm interested in. Otherwise, I'll have to make custom flashcards and I'm too lazy to do that... But for now, Skritter is the core of my Japanese studies.