Background, I work as a consultant in the network engineering and cybersecurity industry, so I'm pretty much always having to be studying *something* whether that be new technology or Japanese so I'm having some trouble with cognitive load.
I've noticed that learning new words is really difficult for me on most days.
Additionally, I do a lot of somewhat passive listening and feel like my listening skills, unless they are words or phrases I've heard several dozen times is just really hard.
I'm at a level where I'm able to make friends on HelloTalk, get complemented, and I'm able to have a conversation about things I'm familiar with, but can't escape this feeling that my brain is having to work overtime to make it all come together.
Did you guys have a moment where it just "clicked"? Is this just a time spent with the language thing? I've been going pretty hard, for me (10-15 new words, 1-4 hours of passive listening, 30min-1 hr active listening per day) for around 6 months now and still just finding it super challenging. Is this just a time spent with the language bell-curve situation?
Specifically, learning new vocab is a challenge. I can really only recognize words in the context of a sentence, but if you just throw the word on a flash card with no sentence, I'm completely lost.
by Trucein