Curious about thing that worked for people when learning

Japanese
#1

This is my first post. I’ve been using BunPro for like 3 weeks straight. Finally taking my studying seriously. I’m currently living in Japan on a work visa, and study everyday for at least an hour. But time isn’t really my metric. I just do all the WaniKani I can, do my Bunpro lessons, or as many as I want to add, and do around 50 reviews on average a day. I have like over 200+ to do everyday. I simply can’t with my life commitments yet, but I’m not beating myself up on it. I’m doing what I can. I also write every new word, and grammar point, and make sentences. I don’t always make a bunch of sentences everyday. Maybe just 1 or 2. I practice speaking when I can, and hangout with Japanese people here and there. I’m also training for a marathon in Nov. in Kobe right now so I can only do so much. Besides that I have started re-watching anime I know without subtitles for immersion and some glue for all the loose words and grammar I have.

I also want to say I studied Japanese for 4 years at a University, including one semester abroad. If I was diligent the whole time I’d pass N4 easily. But of course I was not. I took in the information, but didn’t study much and in America we don’t really ever get the chance to speak it so most of the information is reset. Not to nothing, but a much lower level. I’m not starting from nothing, but I am picking up the pieces as they were.

Bottom line… I am taking the JLPT N3 in December this year. I want to pass, but my life doesn’t depend on it or anything. Speaking, and listening are my biggest focuses. I study every aspect simply because I want to be as close as native as I can be one day. That’s why I’m not doing only 1 aspect. I am looking at this journey as a marathon, and years and years in the making. I know it won’t happen soon. I would like to see myself progress though, and make sure I’m not wasting my time. I hear all these stories of people becoming like N2 or amazing in multiple accepts in 1 year, and I’m like how tf. I’m not dumb, maybe I’m a slow learner but 1 year seems insane to me.

Anyway if there’s any advice or things that are generally helpful let me know what you think.
P.S I’m not a nightlife person, I don’t drink much. So I’m not gonna go bar chatting anytime soon. Maybe once a month at most.

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#2

This might sound odd, but I’m going to suggest finding a club you can join. There should be some at City Hall, or you could try a sport. If you’re into music you could try to join something like a taiko club. Japan is very sink or swim so you might feel a little awkward at first, but people aren’t judgmental, either.

I lived in Japan for a full year without my speaking improving at all because I rarely got to practice it (I’m an introvert and not a bar person, either). I started learning a martial art and all the sudden my Japanese speaking and listening both exploded because I had to use it regularly to communicate with the people at practice. It was also a great way to make local friends.

You have more listening opportunity than most since you can just turn on the TV and hear it, and it’s everywhere you go, but I really can’t stress enough how much just putting yourself in a situation where you have to speak it often really does help with learning. I also liked that it gave me a chance to try out new grammar and vocabulary.

FWIW, I think very few people can hit n2 in a year. I think a much more realistic number is two to three years of serious study. I studied for literally hours a day, lived in Japan, and it still took me 3 years to pass N2. And I’m not stupid, either.

There are always some people who are just highly skilled at language who might be able to do it (I was good friends with one…grrr…), but that’s not the norm and you can’t compare yourself to that.

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#3

It’s nice to have you on the forums!

Sounds to me that you’re doing a great job with your study skills already and your approach as well as your mentality seem pretty healthy as a long-term learner.

I just stick with what interests me: games. Anything involving games helps push me over the edge whenever I am feeling discouraged or…blegh about studying Japanese.

I tried immersion methods like AJATT and it didn’t really jive with me, as I don’t really care too much about reading Japanese news or fiddling with my computer using Japanese text. But for stuff that interests me, it deeply engages me, so that works.

As a side note, one of my personal projects that I am doing involving Japanese is trying to understand Final Fantasy 13. There’s three books that have well over 500 pages each that never had an English translation! I am so curious what I can learn from those.

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#4

Hey thanks for your response and suggestion! I was doing Jujitsu when I first came. (I arrived 4 months ago), but basically it was a time thing. After the marathon I could do it. I’ve seen some local Japanese classes for cheap, but haven’t went yet. They are early in the morning. So I’d be going before work. I definitely need a dedicated club. Not sure what to do yet, but I agree with you that this is the biggest thing that would help.

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#5

Thanks for replying! Glad to hear I have the right mindset at least.
Those are good points. At the end of the day it’s about what keeps you coming back and learning. I also want to learn from games too. I honestly want to learn about everything. I want to be able to understand the small nuances, and all the cultural things that go on. I’ve always fantasized about reading manga, watching anime, or listening to music effortlessly. I am working towards making some Japanese skits, and videos for YT. It would be like my normal videos, but in Japanese. I figured that would be good because I’m practicing speaking how I would in English. And of course writing and editing the script is studying too. It’s just all about time… gosh I’d buy more time if I could. Maybe there’s some stuff I can squeeze out of my life to get this moving more effectively.

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#6

With a hunger like that, anything can be accomplished. Good on you, man!

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