Will it just click at some point?

Japanese
#1

Hello everyone,

I’m really new to this platform, but thought I’d write a post, as there is this one thing about the Japanese learning process that I’ve been asking myself for quite some time now.

Please share your experiences if you’re comfortable with it. Will one “just get” Japanese at some point after lots of studying and immersion?

To clarify what I really mean, I think I need to tell a short story. English isn’t my native language aswell, however it is almost at that level, to be honest. I would say that I simply get everything people say or write, understand the core and essence of the language and have no issues at all speaking it, even in academia.
It’s neither a hastle nor a problem, my native friends have repeatedly stated that while I do make mistakes, those are however mistakes natives would make.
I’ve quite literally forgot all the grammar in English, however if something is wrong, I simply know that it is. Probably this means I’ve internalized the language?

Can this happen with Japanese aswell at one point? That’s kind of my main question and long term goal, I guess.

On another note, I don’t even know when I was fluent in English anymore. Maybe there are some other non-native people here that could also share their experiences? Also, how have other secondary, third, etc. languages influenced your Japanese learning process?

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#2

Yeah, at some point things will get baked into your intuition. So long as you’re doing studying and immersion right, I’m sure you’re well on your way to jp fluency.

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#3

Thank you very much for this reply, it is definitely most invaluable advice for me.
Which type of immersion would be your recommendation towards me? You’re quite up in the levels, so I guess you know what you’re talking about.

My goal is to achieve N3 by December 2027 to get into the Masters Programme I like, so it should be tailored for that; after that, I would have the luxus of university just taking care about it (again; this happened in Japan and it is such a privilege I noticed).

I value all the time and effort you and maybe other people will take to reply in this thread, and I really don’t want to cause any type of trouble.

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#4

It definitely will, and it will happen bit by bit. I was doing my reviews today and a grammar point came up that I hadn’t seen in a long time. I couldn’t remember the answer in the sense of recalling the grammar explanation, but looking at the sentence, the answer just “felt” like the only thing that could go there and I was right. Then when I looked at the grammar card, I realized I had a totally new intuition for what the grammar was describing that I didn’t have when I first learned it. It’s moments like these that really motivate me because they make me realize I’m not just memorizing, but learning the language.

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#5

I think so, yeah!
I have probably done this with more basic grammar points. I’ve come to a point where there are plenty of times where I don’t really need to think to reply or process what I’ve just heard or read. There are lots of things I no longer view as grammar, because I’ve moved from explicit to implicit understanding. Of course, there are also still plenty of times where I do need to practice focusing on grammatical form, or take more time to think or parse something, though, but I’m really amazed when I think about how things were for me 2 years ago vs now.

What benefitted me the most leading up to n3 was probably regular classes held entirely in Japanese. I went to class 2-3 times a week and the teachers didn’t speak English. To begin with, the first hour I felt like I couldn’t understand anything and my brain was just warming up, and the second hour would go more smoothly. Eventually it got to the point where I didn’t need to warm up at all, and I understood virtually everything in class. It didn’t prepare me for real life Japanese, but it was a significant step I think.

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