How can I spend less time intensely focusing and more time comprehending and absorbing vocabulary?

First time posting here, hope it's the right place.

I have been learning Japanese seriously for the past 2-3 years. I made great/quick progress learning lots of kanji etc. in a short period of time. Perhaps this is the reason for the issues I'll explain, but I'd like to know the subs opinion.

I find that when studying advanced native level texts (I have JLPT N2 but have failed N1 three times), I spend so much time trying to remember all the kanji I know (I forget and recall them at seemingly random times) and get through the sentences that:

1) my speed is incredibly slow 2) I frequently check my knowledge by stopping to look up even easy words which I learned long ago and that I should be firmly confident in 3) I get exhausted just getting through and by the end of it, I barely recall what I read or miss the entire large picture. 4) I don't absorb the words and feel like at the end it was a futile effort.

3 and #4 are the most crushing for me personally.

I don't know if this is a symptom of the incredible dopamine-surging internet surf culture - I have a problem with tons of tabs open on my chrome, "multi-tasking" all the time, etc. I put multi-tasking in quotes because I agree with some studies that don't even believe this is possible for humans and that we simply switch focuses/tasks extremely quickly.

Anyway, I'm just wondering what is going on with me. I have been trying to focus intently on one single thing to be able to improve my reading ability again in both English & Japanese. When I was 12-14 years old I could finish a 1000 page book in 3-5 days. Now, I struggle to finish one article without stopping and doing something else mid-way. I feel this is why I have failed N1 three times now.

Could I be dealing with a language issue or general issue? I suspect its both. But would like your advice on the Japanese primarily please.

Thank you

submitted by /u/StockDrama
[link] [comments]

from howaimbawai| Languagelearning http://bit.ly/2V6iH6d
via Learn Online English Speaking

Comments