I've been studying Japanese full time for just under 2 years, around May 2024. Started on Duolingo, then migrated to MaruMori September that year.

Tried out Spanish later that year, tried various other apps besides Duolingo, but nothing really ever felt like it was really getting me far, so I ended up just giving up on apps for the most part and just stuck to Busuu and Duolingo.

Irish I started just a few months ago, and using Irish with Mollie alongside Rosetta Stone from my Spanish purchase a few years back.

My goal at the start was to just be more supportive of my family, and also join in on my friends, as they said they were going to pick up Japanese also. All my friends eventually gave up, but my family didn't, so I stuck with the Japanese, and I still see myself continuing far into the future sticking to it.

I started off the journey just on Duolingo doing 5 minutes a day on Japanese. Eventually was doing 30 mins of Japanese. Then added Spanish and was doing 30 mins of Spanish as well, or sometimes hours depending on motivation. At some point in the journey after that it was down to 15 minutes each.

Sometime in 2025, I had a lull, where I felt I wasn't getting anywhere in my Japanese, or my Spanish, so I ended up retaking all of MaruMori again from the very start, and my Spanish also suffered from lack of effort. 2024 and early 2025 were a very stressful time to me too.

At some point down that line, I was maintaining a 30 minute upkeep of both JP and SP, and later still, I realised I was actually getting nowhere. Japanese flashcards alone would take the vast majority of those 30 minutes, so if I actually wanted to progress I'd have to do at least an hour, nevermind the listening practise you also need to do. So sometime late 2025 and early 2026, I really ramped up the time I spent on my languages. And despite the 2 odd years at learning my languages, it only feels like now I'm actually making progress. Which is weird, because I still feel like I'm at a level where I've only just begun to learn, I can read a fair amount of Spanish, but can't manage to do any decent output. Japanese is the same for only basic videos, but I routinely get sentences wrong, despite knowing all the words.

My Irish is very recent, but I have the added benefit of growing up and living in Ireland, so there's a few words I never had to study recently where I just know from exposure.

I know right now, I dedicate an hour to my languages, and then only 30 mins to immersion, but my goal is to reach B2 levels of JP,SP,IE and then reduce the dedicated studies while I'm in C1+ territory and just indulge in content more instead. So I feel like at some more advanced state, I can just stop dedicated study, and free up my day more. I'm sort of naive in thinking this though, as I'm not sure if that will ever happen, or I'll always have to dedicate large chunks to more advanced grammar points.

I've been doing this for a while now, but sort of don't want to tell anyone new to me I study languages, as I feel I have nothing to show for it. Which, I know isn't the case, but it sure feels that way.

So how has your progress been since you started? Any ups or downs or warnings you can give other users? My own piece of advice would be if you're doing something very difficult like Japanese, you'd really need to spend at least an hour a day if you want to get anywhere. Apps like Duolingo can advertise 5 minutes a day is enough, when it's really not, if you want to learn in any sane liveable amount of time.

TLDR:

I'm interested in hearing everyone in their language learning journey. Where/why you started, how it's been for you and what you plan to do in the future.

Do you feel there's a station you'll get off at and just enjoy the scenery, or will you keep chugging ahead aiming for that obscure goal of "fluent"?

Your thoughts?