>>86467 (OP)
Raise the floor, because no matter how high your ceiling, you'll still be down on the ground.
>Intermediate Level Japanese
>The "intermediate" level of Japanese is by far the worst. Most of the people who ultimately give up on learning do it here (assuming they made it past the first few weeks). Available resources begin to dry up, in both number and quality, and learners get stuck or plateau. Without guidance, it can feel like progressing is an impossible task. This is the intermediate wall. The thing that makes the intermediate level the hardest, though, is what got you here: your competence.
>The beginner level was your unconscious incompetence stage. That is, you didn't realize you were incompetent, so you never felt discouraged, overly embarrassed, or stupid. But now you know a thing or two, and it's just enough to know you're not actually amazing at this thing called the Japanese language. It hurts and it's because you are now consciously incompetent, which is no fun at all.
>Thankfully, a lot of the pain most learners feel at this stage comes from poor learning or teaching methods from the beginner stages. Things that you, hopefully, avoided. And although everyone will experience conscious incompetence to some degree, some people can get through it quickly and some get trapped here for years. Most, unfortunately, can't make it through at all and give up.
>Be the type of person that gets through this stage quickly. The other side of this wall is extremely fun and rewarding, so don't give up and don't let your conscious incompetence get you down.
>Here's how you do it:
>1.Recognize this stage exists and know that you're supposed to feel these uncomfortable feelings. This helps a surprising amount. You don't have to feel dumb because you know that everyone goes through this exact same situation. It's all a part of the process and if other people made it out, you can too.
>2.You've already been preparing for this moment. This guide has prepped you to get through this fairly quickly. You're at an advantage! Most people wallow in the conscious incompetence stage for a long time because they lack two things: kanji and vocabulary. But by this point, you know more kanji and vocabulary than any intermediate level Japanese language student ought to. This is why you spent so much time on WaniKani (or one of its alternatives). It slows you down in the beginning so that you can blast through this wall.
>3.With all that in mind, it’s time to start on some intermediate material. Make sure you are good on 100% of the previous level before moving on. This is, by far, the most difficult portion of your Japanese education. You must have a good foundation to jump off.