HannahEU's journey from barely aware to fluent: learning Japanese in 田舎 Japan!

Japanese
#21

My review motivation is still not great but I’ve been watching so many Japanese YouTube videos lately. I’ll write down words that stand out and in general just enjoy the discussion. Usually it’s with Japanese subtitles so I can reference those when I can’t quite hear certain things they say. It’s interesting how I can sometimes understand it better when I see it written down than when it’s spoken, which does make me worry about the dependency on written language. But sometimes it’s nice catching myself thinking reading the written Japanese is “cheating” when it’s still just Japanese.

I had lunch today with the ladies at the BoE and we talked about a number of things. I learned the word 恋バナ (girls talk/ talking about one’s love interests) and it was funny to hear the older women and men nearby in the office comment on hearing classic conversations young women have.
Towards the end of lunch they were commenting on how much my understanding has gone up since I arrived which always is followed with “how long have you been here now?” which made me realize it’s been exactly 8 months to the day since I arrived in Japan!
I showed them my notebooks I use to study and they started staying “天才” It was really cute and sweet. But there was a part of me that, once I sat with it for a little bit, kinda didn’t like. Part of it was my own impatience and perfectionism to be better already. To be able to communicate better. The other part of it was that I am working my butt off. I am doing my best to understand and communicate. So I don’t necessarily want it to be chalked up to being a genius when it’s definitely not coming naturally but from working hard. I think I would be in a very different situation if I wasn’t going everything I do now.

#22

That’s how I take the 日本語上手 so many people get irritated with. I think it is lovely to make such compliments even if they are obviously not too sincere. You might not be such a genius but they just pushed the compliment a little further just to lift you up, it is really trivial just take it for what it is, a little push in the right direction, don’t let your self judgment reverse it :slight_smile:

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#23

A co-worker of mine told me about a sports gathering in town about 2 weeks ago that I had forgotten about entirely. Her husband, who ran the youth learning center where I had my English club, reminded me of it and asked if I’d like to join. So I went yesterday! I had never heard of the sport, and it seemed like they had a hard time explaining what it was, but after googling it, it looks like a Hokkaido sport? It’s essentially tennis mixed with ping-pong. It uses a tennis court, a wooden paddle with holes, and a sponge ball. I have never played tennis or badminton, so I was really starting from scratch. Everyone did their best to help me and talk with me. I learned 夫婦 (ふうふ) while I was there. Looking back, they explained it with so many words that they completely lost me. They kept pointing to other people, and eventually, I just didn’t know what they were making the connection with anymore lol. I knew they meant some sort of relation, but it was just a little overcomplicated. But because I kept running in circles and trying to wrap my head around what was being said, I won’t forget that word any time soon lol. It’s nice to know the word for “married couple.”
Also, looking on jisho.org, it’s interesting to see that you can make the distinction of what kind of married couple it is based on the kanji you use. “夫婦” for man and woman married couple, “夫夫” for male married couple, and “婦婦” for female married couple. I’ll have to confirm that with a friend, though.

@stephane I agree with you on the 日本語上手 statement. That doesn’t bother me at all. But with 天才, that was the first time I had felt that irritation. Feeling like that was after, so I am happy with my initial appreciation of it. Thanks for the little reminder that they are just encouraging me and are happy that I am learning their language so much.

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#24

This week, I was finally able to lock in on things that needed to get done this week! :muscle:t2:

  • I got back on Wanikani, cleared out my reviews, and, after who knows how long, did a new lesson.

  • After having 200+ reviews consistently for weeks, with no end in sight, I finally cleared it to zero!
    (I know for next time that I am learning enough per day. I can’t handle more reviews than the 20 new words and few grammar points per day. That was a mistake for me lol.)

  • Unrelated to Japanese studies but more like life and life in Japan: I did my taxes on my own for my first year in Japan!
    I have always used a service to do my taxes, so I’m feeling pretty capable and adult :relieved:

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#25

This exact same thing happened to me the other day! a policeman came to my apartment complex to do a census for keeping track of people during emergencies. I heard him say じしん and my mind instantly went to self confidence lol

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#26

I have seen this in a VN being done very deliberately, with another character picking up that she did not say 夫婦. It probably isn’t a term many people will be familiar with in speech.

I actually can’t find it in any J-J dictionaries either, but if you put it in quotation marks in search engines you can find a bunch of blogs and articles written for that demography using both 婦婦 and 夫夫. I did find 夫夫 in weblio though, just not 婦婦.
Anyways, I don’t think there is any Japanese person who will not intuively understand what it means written.

#27

haha I’m so glad I’m not the only one!

#28

I’m back at work at my schools, so my schedule has been busy busy. Luckily, because I cleared my review queue at least once, I’ve been able to handle WaniKani and Bunpro reviews pretty well.
I also got an extension for WaniKani to help my experience over there AND to keep track of the reviews I do to add them to the walking journey.

I’ve noticed that when I talk to myself in Japanese, it feels more natural, not as stinted and short. It’s at least somewhat better. Speaking is still the most frustrating and necessary part of learning the language for me, though.
I’ve been doing a lot of extra activities lately where I spend a lot of time with Japanese people, and it’s both fun and challenging.
I definitely feel the swing between feeling pretty competent and not. But I know I can’t stop. The only option is to keep learning and practicing until it starts flowing naturally.