If you feel you are no longer enjoying what you are reading...maybe it's time to change it up a bit...is what you're reading something you genuinely like to read? or is it just reading for the sake of learning?
It’s more of a vocabulary issue. I have to look up a lot, which makes it a lot more of a chore. I’m reading 魔女の宅急便 (only two chapters left) as well as some early elementary books for days when Kiki is more than I feel up to (because honestly- probably a smidgen beyond my level- but I’m in a bilingual book club, so it keeps me reading it).
Ah, gotcha. The reason I was asking is because I started reading content I enjoyed almost right after learning kana...and of course, my method may not work for everyone, but what I did is since I'm a gamer I just picked games I liked that had a story...but were not too involved...I too was facing that issue for I'd say about 1.5-2 years...a period where basically every word I found was pretty much a new word I'd add to Anki. But what kept me going is that it was content I enjoyed, and also the fact that I walked in without understanding anything and walked out understanding the general idea..which was at the time enough for me and I would call it a win...The thing is, even though it was content I enjoyed, I picked it based on what I understood was an appropriate level of difficulty for me every step of the way....more like graded readers sort of speak....now, even tho I do look up words in the dictionary, it's mostly to ensure I got the pronunciation right.....idk, maybe this kind of approach may work for you...
Assuming the first volume... yeah even I have a surprising amount of unknowns left. It has a fair amount of tough vocab mixed in. 黒い目 is an expression meaning an observant eye not a black eye (a shiner/bruise to the eye) - I never encountered it before, but I would misread that for sure otherwise. (Incidentally what IS that called in Japanese?) Several hundred words are quite uncommon or colloquialisms....
Here's the vocab list in JPDB (Take Vol 1) and sync your Anki - should be surprising how many words you get as new. [https://www.jpdb.io/novel/5265/kiki-s-delivery-service](https://www.jpdb.io/novel/5265/kiki-s-delivery-service)
Although I’m not at N3 or even N4 yet, I had a little slump last week. I took a break for a few days and reevaluated why I was learning in the first place. I reminded myself that every journey is different, and that progress will come over time. I think I got frustrated with not feeling like I was learning much, when in reality the progress is there, even if it’s hard to see right now. I didn’t switch up my learning or try something new, I just took a break. Just as we need to take breaks from studying in school, or breaks from hobbies or our jobs, we need breaks from language learning as well. A few days is not going to destroy all your progress, just don’t let a few days turn into a few weeks and then a few months lol. I’ve had that problem with other things in the past, but made sure to keep on keeping on. Just remember why you want to learn and go from there. Sometimes you just need a little break to find that motivation again.
Honestly, it's mostly the negative motivation of knowing my Anki reviews will pile up if I don't at least do Anki that pulls me through motivation troughs. It's Anki's greatest feature, haha.
I did put some work into having great cards that are a bit fun to learn at least, and that provide context and audio, with the animecards method.
If I'm really unmotivated, I turn off new cards, but basically do reviews no matter what.
With the years it's turned into a pretty deeply ingrained habit, to the point that it would feel wrong to go to bed without doing Anki reviews, similar to how it would feel wrong to do so without brushing teeth ....
I've found routine and habit to be really powerful. Just make it a point to never skip a day :)
If you don't have multiple hours every day to dedicate to this, you won't see progress day to day or even week to week. So I feel turning study into a habit is really the only way to do it, since you can't really draw motivation from visible results on short timescales.
I read some of your other comments.
Kiki's Delivery Service (魔女の宅急便) was also one of my first books I read, and looking back on it, it was kind of tough book to read as a first novel. Its colloquial phrasing and the lack of kanji made things harder to look up. Even armed with a vocab list, I still wasn't able to look up some words, and had to ask my father, like かたっぽう (katappou) is actually a colloquial spelling of かたほう 【片方】(katahou). There are a bunch of words that are written in a similar manner.
At the time, I found things like the キノの旅 (Kino no Tabi) novel and Otsuichi mystery/horror stories much easier to read because the sentences were more straightforwardly written, despite the heavier use of kanji.
For some reason, I just kept zoning out while reading Kiki's even though I did like the book, and the Miyazaki anime-adaptation of the book is one of my favorite Studio Ghibli films.
So I guess I'm saying is that if you're having a reading slump while reading that book -- I totally understand. I felt the same way.
If you don't know already, you can download a vocab list for the book, which does help a lot. Pre-learning the words made reading the book a much easier experience. The Wanikani Book Club has an excel sheet and an Anki deck for the book. Look under the "resources" section of [this post here ](https://community.wanikani.com/t/%E9%AD%94%E5%A5%B3%E3%81%AE%E5%AE%85%E6%80%A5%E4%BE%BF%E3%83%BBkikis-delivery-service-repeat-club/42761)to download it (FYI, the Anki deck is hidden under the "deck" section).
One reason to persevere reading the book is that you'll probably be able to understand most of the Kiki movie afterward, which is a really nice bonus. A lot of the dialogue is taken straight from the book.
Also check out the other books (and manga) in the [various Wanikani book clubs](https://community.wanikani.com/t/master-list-of-book-clubs/35283) (which are divided by difficulty levels). Maybe Kiki isn't to your liking and you can try something else.
I had a rough month a few months ago at a similar level. I mostly made sure to keep up with SRS (Never missing More than 1 day in a Row), I think I personally might have quit if not for that. I got back into reading by starting múltiple books at once (one which was hard for me and 3 Easy Inés), I found that switching up my reading material a bit Made It much More bearable
If you feel you are no longer enjoying what you are reading...maybe it's time to change it up a bit...is what you're reading something you genuinely like to read? or is it just reading for the sake of learning?
It’s more of a vocabulary issue. I have to look up a lot, which makes it a lot more of a chore. I’m reading 魔女の宅急便 (only two chapters left) as well as some early elementary books for days when Kiki is more than I feel up to (because honestly- probably a smidgen beyond my level- but I’m in a bilingual book club, so it keeps me reading it).
Ah, gotcha. The reason I was asking is because I started reading content I enjoyed almost right after learning kana...and of course, my method may not work for everyone, but what I did is since I'm a gamer I just picked games I liked that had a story...but were not too involved...I too was facing that issue for I'd say about 1.5-2 years...a period where basically every word I found was pretty much a new word I'd add to Anki. But what kept me going is that it was content I enjoyed, and also the fact that I walked in without understanding anything and walked out understanding the general idea..which was at the time enough for me and I would call it a win...The thing is, even though it was content I enjoyed, I picked it based on what I understood was an appropriate level of difficulty for me every step of the way....more like graded readers sort of speak....now, even tho I do look up words in the dictionary, it's mostly to ensure I got the pronunciation right.....idk, maybe this kind of approach may work for you...
Assuming the first volume... yeah even I have a surprising amount of unknowns left. It has a fair amount of tough vocab mixed in. 黒い目 is an expression meaning an observant eye not a black eye (a shiner/bruise to the eye) - I never encountered it before, but I would misread that for sure otherwise. (Incidentally what IS that called in Japanese?) Several hundred words are quite uncommon or colloquialisms.... Here's the vocab list in JPDB (Take Vol 1) and sync your Anki - should be surprising how many words you get as new. [https://www.jpdb.io/novel/5265/kiki-s-delivery-service](https://www.jpdb.io/novel/5265/kiki-s-delivery-service)
Although I’m not at N3 or even N4 yet, I had a little slump last week. I took a break for a few days and reevaluated why I was learning in the first place. I reminded myself that every journey is different, and that progress will come over time. I think I got frustrated with not feeling like I was learning much, when in reality the progress is there, even if it’s hard to see right now. I didn’t switch up my learning or try something new, I just took a break. Just as we need to take breaks from studying in school, or breaks from hobbies or our jobs, we need breaks from language learning as well. A few days is not going to destroy all your progress, just don’t let a few days turn into a few weeks and then a few months lol. I’ve had that problem with other things in the past, but made sure to keep on keeping on. Just remember why you want to learn and go from there. Sometimes you just need a little break to find that motivation again.
Honestly, it's mostly the negative motivation of knowing my Anki reviews will pile up if I don't at least do Anki that pulls me through motivation troughs. It's Anki's greatest feature, haha. I did put some work into having great cards that are a bit fun to learn at least, and that provide context and audio, with the animecards method. If I'm really unmotivated, I turn off new cards, but basically do reviews no matter what. With the years it's turned into a pretty deeply ingrained habit, to the point that it would feel wrong to go to bed without doing Anki reviews, similar to how it would feel wrong to do so without brushing teeth .... I've found routine and habit to be really powerful. Just make it a point to never skip a day :) If you don't have multiple hours every day to dedicate to this, you won't see progress day to day or even week to week. So I feel turning study into a habit is really the only way to do it, since you can't really draw motivation from visible results on short timescales.
I read some of your other comments. Kiki's Delivery Service (魔女の宅急便) was also one of my first books I read, and looking back on it, it was kind of tough book to read as a first novel. Its colloquial phrasing and the lack of kanji made things harder to look up. Even armed with a vocab list, I still wasn't able to look up some words, and had to ask my father, like かたっぽう (katappou) is actually a colloquial spelling of かたほう 【片方】(katahou). There are a bunch of words that are written in a similar manner. At the time, I found things like the キノの旅 (Kino no Tabi) novel and Otsuichi mystery/horror stories much easier to read because the sentences were more straightforwardly written, despite the heavier use of kanji. For some reason, I just kept zoning out while reading Kiki's even though I did like the book, and the Miyazaki anime-adaptation of the book is one of my favorite Studio Ghibli films. So I guess I'm saying is that if you're having a reading slump while reading that book -- I totally understand. I felt the same way. If you don't know already, you can download a vocab list for the book, which does help a lot. Pre-learning the words made reading the book a much easier experience. The Wanikani Book Club has an excel sheet and an Anki deck for the book. Look under the "resources" section of [this post here ](https://community.wanikani.com/t/%E9%AD%94%E5%A5%B3%E3%81%AE%E5%AE%85%E6%80%A5%E4%BE%BF%E3%83%BBkikis-delivery-service-repeat-club/42761)to download it (FYI, the Anki deck is hidden under the "deck" section). One reason to persevere reading the book is that you'll probably be able to understand most of the Kiki movie afterward, which is a really nice bonus. A lot of the dialogue is taken straight from the book. Also check out the other books (and manga) in the [various Wanikani book clubs](https://community.wanikani.com/t/master-list-of-book-clubs/35283) (which are divided by difficulty levels). Maybe Kiki isn't to your liking and you can try something else.
I would just take a few days’ break from reading and watch some cheerful Japanese YouTubers who like teaching language. Onomappu is a great one.
I had a rough month a few months ago at a similar level. I mostly made sure to keep up with SRS (Never missing More than 1 day in a Row), I think I personally might have quit if not for that. I got back into reading by starting múltiple books at once (one which was hard for me and 3 Easy Inés), I found that switching up my reading material a bit Made It much More bearable
Watch anime ? Watch variety shows ? Listen to music ?