The XP Curve
Posted: 2/26/2026I've been learning Japanese for the last few years, and a hurdle I keep stumbling on is graduating from materials made for learners to real-world use of the language.
Graded readers aren't too challenging, but a proper book stops me in my tracks. I'll understand a learners' podcast, but if I watch a vlog I'm lucky if I can pick out a single word I recognise.
And up until recently, whenever this happened, I kept making the same mistake, even though I knew better.
I've played a lot of Runescape, and a lot of that was spent skilling. To be honest, it was like a fancy fidget toy to me. Many training methods fall into a sweet spot for doing them alongside something else outside of the game. They need enough attention to keep your brain working, but not enough to fully pull you away from the other thing.
It also feels like progress. Once you've spent enough time on a grind, your skill level has increased enough to unlock new things you can use the skill for. Now you can start a new grind, to improve that skill even more.
Sometimes, though, there's no need to move on. One of the fastest ways in Runescape to level up your Mining skill is to stick with mining Iron well past the point you unlock other ores. All experience points are created equal, so even if a higher-tier ore grants more of them, Iron is just so much faster to mine that it ends up being far more effective for the time you invest in it.
But skills in real life don't work like this. Even if they're fast and comfortable, practicing the same things far below your level won't suddenly make the impossible easy.
This was the mistake I kept making. When I ran into trouble with language beyond my skill level, I retreated back to exercises that were more comfortable. If I struggled with a news article, it must have been because my vocabulary wasn't developed enough yet. Back into the Anki mines I'd go, thinking I never should have left.
Last year, I wanted to put more effort into studying Japanese Kanji. While there are plenty of resources for English-speakers, like James Heisig's Remembering The Kanji (which I've previously used) and WaniKani (which I haven't), I decided to take the plunge and try using resources that were actually in the language I was learning. I'd have to become capable of that eventually anyway, right?
I decided to go with study software for the Kanji Kentei, a standardised exam of Kanji knowlege geared towards people for whom Japanese is their first language. I figured it would make a nice gauge of my level for practical purposes.
And, well, gauge it did. It was an struggle just to read the menus and instructions! And to be honest, that made it pretty difficult to commit to using it. But I kept trying. The challenge affirmed my belief that it was a good step forward, because now I was learning the words and grammar necessary to understand, uh, simple instructions.
It's had a number of other benefits too. The example sentences often have everyday vocabulary that I had somehow missed, but now instead of taking it as a sign I wasn't prepared, I see it as a way to learn new words.
And perhaps someday soon, I'll learn this lesson again and carry this attitude forward into finally making the switch to monolingual dictionaries. 😅