Looking for Ways to Better Recognize and Appreciate My Progress

[hard siren]

I beat a difficult boss in Dark Souls today (Ornstein and Smough) and I noticed that most of the joy came from recognizing that my skills had improved.

Is there a way to experience this kind of satisfaction in my language studies? I know that my Japanese skills are improving, but it can sometimes feel like I'm not progressing much. Is there something I can do to better recognize the progress that I'm making?

Thank you for your time!

[fervent charm]

try rewatching something you watched 6 months ago

[hard siren]

I'll try this, thanks!

[subtle elk]

Intensive immersion is another good way, especially with grammar. Finding a new grammar point in immersion, looking up how it works and understanding that concept in a different context is a good way of recognising progress that's satisfying to me.

絵でわかる日本語 is a good monolingual website for grammar I recommend. It explains grammar in context through easy to understand pictures: https://www.edewakaru.com/archives/cat_179055.html

[hard siren]

Thanks!

[scarlet flint]

The jlpt works for this (can always use mocks instead)

[hard siren]

What are mocks?

[scarlet flint]

模擬試験

[sly vigil]

I'm 6 days in so take this with a grain of salt

This is not the first time I am learning a foreign language and what you talked about happens to me every time I learn about a grammar point and have an "aha moment"(which being this soon in the journey happens very often) and when I recognize in the wild a grammar point, vocab or sentence

I guess learning a lot of words and grammar and then immersing is the way to go to experience this

[thin iron]

the practice tests