What Japanese learning advice would you give to your past self?

Japanese
#1

I was just reflecting today that soetimes using a few basic words/grammar points effectively communicates much more than trying to use complicated ones, and it made me think of this topic. TBH, that’s not really the advice I think younger me needed, but it is definitely advice I think some beginners could benefit from!

However, if I were to go back in time, the advice I would give is less about the language and more about a fundamental paradigm shift:
Treat language learning not as study, but as a hobby!
Once I designated Japanese as a hobby for myself, it became much more fun to study, and I feel like I’ve done much more of it. Also it helped me move away from the idea of “making time for studying Japanese as well as having hobbies is hard” and towards just making time for learning Japanese AS my hobby. I still have other hobbies, but idk, for me this idea was just really important! It also helped remove a lot of the “ugh” feeling I tend to have around obligatory study. Basically I went from “I’m studying because I need to” to “I’m learning Japanese because I genuinely derive enjoyment from it” and that made a world of difference.

Anyway, what would you tell your past self?

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#2

don’t bother with Heisig RTK 1

there is probably no better way wasting your time with no payoff

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#3

Engage in speaking earlier – you will never just magically be able to output all your knowledge without practice.

Do WaniKani for one year, then move onto learning new kanji through context. I bought a lifetime after year 1 and rarely used it since.

Generally – being more lax in how you use SRS. These days I will rarely send things I’m relearning to v short intervals even if I’m failing them to avoid pileup.

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#4

Start incorporating reading a lot earlier. I passed N4 before I started reading manga, and I regret not doing that earlier. Once I began reading regularly, I saw all of my skills improve much faster, and I had lots of new conversation topics with my Japanese friends about manga we both liked.

On the same note, try not to focus too much on the “level” of the manga and just choose what you are interested in and enjoy. I started with shoujo manga because it was easy to understand, but quickly lost interest in the storylines. But then I started 光が死んだ夏 - which some sources say are N2/N1 level (arguably) - and I loved it. Even though there was challenging vocabulary I blew through it because I was interested in the story, and it didn’t feel like studying. I say this with a grain of salt, as I’ve also chosen manga that were way too difficult and I didn’t enjoy reading it at all, but if you can find the sweet spot of interesting story and a challenge, I think that’s best. :books:

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#5

That listening and consuming content in general is so so important. You can get a tough grammar point wrong in SRS over and over and get so frustrated but you hear it once in context and understand it and it feels amazing.

You start to get a rhythm for how speech and conversations flow, what phrases are important, develop a muscle for how to use certain words etc. I still could never explain how to use “wake” but over time I just picked it up.

Listen to podcasts and watch Japanese shows and anime in Japanese sub!

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#6

Start about 25 years sooner…

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#7

Don’t put a lot of pressure on yourself, and it’s ok to put Japanese away for a while and come back to it. In my case, I put it away for twenty three years which was not ideal, but I picked it up again anyway.

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#8

I thought it was funny that I’ve just started doing exactly what you said. I passed N4 this December, and I told myself that I’m done with textbooks for awhile, and now I’m going to read and listen and enjoy myself for at least a year before I even think about N3.

I just read Japanese Folktales for Language Learners, Amazon.com: Japanese Folktales for Language Learners: Bilingual Legends and Fables in Japanese and English (Free online Audio Recording) (Stories for Language Learners): 9784805316627: Sato, Eriko, Sato, Anna: Books

And I absolutely loved it. Should have started this sooner, but I’m not sure I could have handled the difficulty level a year ago.

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#9

Don’t do it.

Jk. I would be like:

Alright listen here E*********, I know you like your flashcards and your books, but if you don’t start actually reading and watching content, it’s just not happening. I know you get distracted, so start timing your sessions and using pomodoro. Yes, it’s that weird tomato thing but it works. There will also be false prophets that tell you that studying is is a waste of time and that you should only immerse and treat pitch accent as if your life depended on it. Do not drink that snake oil, it will set you back years.

Oh, also. Don’t wait till 2024 to read Konbini Ningen.

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#10

This cracked me up because this is actually what has been most helpful to me.

If I had one thing I could tell myself, I think it would be that it’s okay not to be great at interpretation, and it doesn’t mean I’m bad at Japanese. Some people are built for interpretation, that’s not me, and that’s okay. I don’t need it in daily life anyway. :joy:

I actually stopped studying for quite a while back in the day because I took an interpretation course that was SO HARD for me, even though I did great with other areas (written translation is my strong suit). I wish I hadn’t let it get me down and affect my self esteem.

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#11

Not very helpful, but I’m pretty happy with how things went just doing SRS for everything and immersing a ton. I started at a time with a lot of free time and motivation and discipline to pull through. I tried a few different things until I found what worked for me. Being a bit suboptimal here and there isn’t an issue in the long term as long as you commit the time.

Only thing I would have done different is skip Wanikani or at least ditch it early on instead of finishing just because. It’s okay-ish and I got through it relatively fast, but I personally would have been better off just doing kanji and vocab in anki with cards that have sentences and sentence audio mined from anime on the back. I remember much better with those cards and the FSRS algorithm is way better so I would save a lot of time. Learning high frequency words is also more important and something I could better decide for myself. Wanikani was there when I had no idea what to do or that I was even going to learn Japanese so I guess it worked out alright. I don’t really regret starting WK, but I would do this differently.

Not suggesting people feel bad about using it or dropping it, but that’s what I would do differently.

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#12

Oh, thank you! You can also read two stories for free!

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#13

I feel like everything I did was the things I believed in, some of them worked, some of them didn’t, some of them did work but I thought they didn’t, something else also probably happened.

I don’t think going back and giving myself some kind of advice is a good idea, I think I didn’t what was my best at every point in time, and it took me here. Who knows where would I have been by now if I didn’t do that less productive stuff and thinking at that time.

But if we are talking about just giving advice for someone who starts learning Japanese it’s probably doing more learning that interconnects stuff and relies less on cramming… I though to write, but I’m not sure if anything except how much quality time you can spend with the language metters, so it’s maybe just “do what you like the most at the moment so you can spend more time studying while being concentrated really well”.

Ok, maybe “connect with more people so you can learn from them”, but again, I came to this conclusion myself now, and it has much more importance then receiving that as an advice. But taking an advice seriously is itself a great effort, so that not for sure.

I don’t know.

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#14

I started singing along to genki Japan.net in 2008 and it’s not realistic for baby Noxsora to start SRS in 2008.
I bought Genki in 2009.
I didn’t listen to the audio CD until I got my first car in 2018. I was stuck re-reading the same orange Genki book for 9 years.

I wish I looked up “how to study Japanese” in 2011. Following the AJATT blog back in it’s 2011 heyday would have been interesting.

to my past self, I’d try to convince me to join some kind of club, or volunteer. joining a dance club improved my life. I exercise. I make friends. There’s a schedule.

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#15

Stop racing forward by adding to many new words or points to your learning process. Embrace the slow steady progress rather than clammering for finishing checkpoints.

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#16

Top 3 for me -

  • Start grammar before Wanikani Level 50 (3-6 months earlier)
  • Don’t bother trying to find “easy things to read” or a reading app outside of Bunpro - NHK Easy and Bunpro are enough to get you to real material
  • Start listening to those N5 (eventually N4/N3) 100% Japanese Youtube videos sooner!

I feel pretty lucky though - if I had to estimate how much of the 4 years I spent was inefficient, it’s probably only 10% from the above 3 points. I started with WK / Bunpro combo, and don’t know why anyone would do anything else.

Favorite line in all the posts and replies here. I think a lot of people have motivations to learn that don’t pay off in the long term, let alone in the short term.

Mine changed and grew as I was learning and going out out of my comfort zone.

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#17

This is such an important thing to keep in mind! It’s good to reassess and notice how your goals and motivations have changed.

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#18

I’d tell myself 50-80% of learning should come from things you find fun and or interesting. Or else you’re never gonna stick to learning the language. Without that you might have a few weeks of progress, but you’ll soon give up.

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#19

You’re going to commit. Might as well start learning for the long game.

Which means kanji, among other things. Unfortunately those cumbersome, low reward for unbelievable effort things are a central part in the language. Many of the words kind of “make more sense” when you know what kanji composition they have, a small consolation for the overwhelming amount of “nope. Doesn’t make sense. You just have to know” that this language has same as every other language.

If you started learning the funny hieroglyphs earlier it would have paid off a lot by now.

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#20

Don’t give up, do it every day.
This applies to everything actually, not just Japanese learning.

Doing sports? Don’t give up, do it every day.
Eating healthy? Don’t give up, do it every day.
Studying for university exams? Don’t give up, do it every day.
Saving up for travel or a house? Don’t give up, do it … well, every time you get money :sweat_smile:

Consistency wins.

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