8 MONTHS! That is how long I've been learning Japanese...
This is really a more journal like entry than anything. It dawned on me today that I've been learning Japanese for about 8 months. I started in early December last year during my annual uber-Christmas break.
It hasn't been what I thought it would be. But then, I never expected to be able to anticipate what it would become. I always knew it was a bigger thing than I could simply absorb in a small period of time. I think I'm just more shocked that I haven't bailed on it yet. In fact, I've literally managed to study some amount of Japanese every single day since I started.
Before I committed to learning it, I wasn't even aware that Japanese people write in 3+ scripts. Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji and often even the roman alphabet. In other words, I had no clue what I was getting myself into. I had no clue that it was supposed to be one of the most difficult languages for a native English speaker to learn. I had no idea that it is a language littered with homonyms or that each Kanji typically has 2+ readings and you need to know roughly 2000 of them just to survive daily life. I had no idea they had funky counters for everything.
Beyond that, I didn't even know how much time I would actually spend at it. How fast I would progress or anything.
In hindsight, I'm glad I started it, but I have a feeling that if I knew how things would go, that I probably wouldn't have gotten started in the first place.
I'm anti-social. I am now, and was when I started, well aware that immersion of any level is the best possible tool for learning a language. When I got started, I had hoped my wife would join in the adventure. We had both, at times in the past, dabbled every so lightly and she claims to have an interest. But, once I was about 2 months in it slowly started to dawn on me that if she was going to start learning, it wasn't going to be any time soon. And by 4 months it was pretty much assured that by the time she got into I would already be far ahead of her.
Had I known that then, I probably wouldn't have started. But, I think it is OK now. If she ever does learn, hopefully I can help her out more. I'd still love to visit Japan and not be stuck to the standard touristy stuff because of my lack of comprehension of the language.
And that is probably the number one thing I would pass along to anyone interested in learning any language. If you can, either find someone to learn with you, find a class where you can get immersion, or, if you're not like me find an app or a pen pal. Supposedly there are lots of Japanese people equally interested in improving their English. Because honestly, the most surprising thing to me is that while I'm definitely making progress I know I'm not progressing fast and I could have progressed much faster if I could commit to some more immersive studying. It is in the face of that where I find myself impressed at stubbornness.
I'll repeat things I stated in the past about language learning. Anyone who tells you it is easy is lying. No second language is easy to learn. Some may be easier than others. But getting to a conversational level in any language is typically going to take months and fluency, far longer. People will point out ways in which one language is easier than another. But then down the road you'll find things to replace it which make it harder.
For instance, the typical, formal Japanese spoken at a slow pace with no verbal shortcuts and no voiced nasal sounds... astronomically easier than understanding what people ACTUALLY speak in Japan. And this is what texts often teach initially. And, it is adhering to a single "form" of the language and all of its rules which allows people to claim it is easy.
Most spoken Japanese is not formal. And the formal Japanese you're likely to experience is actually even more formal than what you're taught (from what I've read). Restaurants, inns, etc... often go a step above the normal formal language when addressing customers. So, even sentences you think you know when translated end up coming out totally different. And of course, most people you meet on the street, even if they respond in formal Japanese, won't follow all of the nice neat language rules you were taught. And the sentences will be more complex than many of the sentences you learned with intricacies you won't understand.
And remember what I said about homonyms? Japanese is littered with them because their language is based on a limited syllabary. What I find happens in language lessons is that great lengths are taken to avoid teaching a word which interferes with another one unless it is totally unavoidable. For instance, flower and nose are both はな. They have different kanji, but in spoken sentences you obviously don't get that. Why is this a big deal? Well, homonyms are RAMPANT. Take 2 different Japanese courses and I'll guarantee you'll notice it too. Aside from a few common ones, there will be some words which are still totally common, but which have another common homonym and each course will have a fairly large collection of words it totally ignores the existence of.
In short, no single Japanese app or book will make you conversational or fluent because they spend too much time trying not to trip over their own feet with homonyms. That, and getting to either level is a rather huge undertaking.
And, from what I've seen, the same can be said of any language. I mean, not the exact same things of course. But, for every "well they only have X irregular verbs" and "they don't have that tense at all" there is a "well people don't usually follow this rule" or "for some reason no one can pinpoint, they always say X".
But, as everyone else seems to say... if you can keep with it, you will probably reach your goals in time. I'm not conversational in Japanese, but my vocabulary is growing and my grammar is slowly improving as well. If I can get this far on my totally non-immersive 1 hour a day program, anyone can.
It hasn't been what I thought it would be. But then, I never expected to be able to anticipate what it would become. I always knew it was a bigger thing than I could simply absorb in a small period of time. I think I'm just more shocked that I haven't bailed on it yet. In fact, I've literally managed to study some amount of Japanese every single day since I started.
Before I committed to learning it, I wasn't even aware that Japanese people write in 3+ scripts. Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji and often even the roman alphabet. In other words, I had no clue what I was getting myself into. I had no clue that it was supposed to be one of the most difficult languages for a native English speaker to learn. I had no idea that it is a language littered with homonyms or that each Kanji typically has 2+ readings and you need to know roughly 2000 of them just to survive daily life. I had no idea they had funky counters for everything.
Beyond that, I didn't even know how much time I would actually spend at it. How fast I would progress or anything.
In hindsight, I'm glad I started it, but I have a feeling that if I knew how things would go, that I probably wouldn't have gotten started in the first place.
I'm anti-social. I am now, and was when I started, well aware that immersion of any level is the best possible tool for learning a language. When I got started, I had hoped my wife would join in the adventure. We had both, at times in the past, dabbled every so lightly and she claims to have an interest. But, once I was about 2 months in it slowly started to dawn on me that if she was going to start learning, it wasn't going to be any time soon. And by 4 months it was pretty much assured that by the time she got into I would already be far ahead of her.
Had I known that then, I probably wouldn't have started. But, I think it is OK now. If she ever does learn, hopefully I can help her out more. I'd still love to visit Japan and not be stuck to the standard touristy stuff because of my lack of comprehension of the language.
And that is probably the number one thing I would pass along to anyone interested in learning any language. If you can, either find someone to learn with you, find a class where you can get immersion, or, if you're not like me find an app or a pen pal. Supposedly there are lots of Japanese people equally interested in improving their English. Because honestly, the most surprising thing to me is that while I'm definitely making progress I know I'm not progressing fast and I could have progressed much faster if I could commit to some more immersive studying. It is in the face of that where I find myself impressed at stubbornness.
I'll repeat things I stated in the past about language learning. Anyone who tells you it is easy is lying. No second language is easy to learn. Some may be easier than others. But getting to a conversational level in any language is typically going to take months and fluency, far longer. People will point out ways in which one language is easier than another. But then down the road you'll find things to replace it which make it harder.
For instance, the typical, formal Japanese spoken at a slow pace with no verbal shortcuts and no voiced nasal sounds... astronomically easier than understanding what people ACTUALLY speak in Japan. And this is what texts often teach initially. And, it is adhering to a single "form" of the language and all of its rules which allows people to claim it is easy.
Most spoken Japanese is not formal. And the formal Japanese you're likely to experience is actually even more formal than what you're taught (from what I've read). Restaurants, inns, etc... often go a step above the normal formal language when addressing customers. So, even sentences you think you know when translated end up coming out totally different. And of course, most people you meet on the street, even if they respond in formal Japanese, won't follow all of the nice neat language rules you were taught. And the sentences will be more complex than many of the sentences you learned with intricacies you won't understand.
And remember what I said about homonyms? Japanese is littered with them because their language is based on a limited syllabary. What I find happens in language lessons is that great lengths are taken to avoid teaching a word which interferes with another one unless it is totally unavoidable. For instance, flower and nose are both はな. They have different kanji, but in spoken sentences you obviously don't get that. Why is this a big deal? Well, homonyms are RAMPANT. Take 2 different Japanese courses and I'll guarantee you'll notice it too. Aside from a few common ones, there will be some words which are still totally common, but which have another common homonym and each course will have a fairly large collection of words it totally ignores the existence of.
In short, no single Japanese app or book will make you conversational or fluent because they spend too much time trying not to trip over their own feet with homonyms. That, and getting to either level is a rather huge undertaking.
And, from what I've seen, the same can be said of any language. I mean, not the exact same things of course. But, for every "well they only have X irregular verbs" and "they don't have that tense at all" there is a "well people don't usually follow this rule" or "for some reason no one can pinpoint, they always say X".
But, as everyone else seems to say... if you can keep with it, you will probably reach your goals in time. I'm not conversational in Japanese, but my vocabulary is growing and my grammar is slowly improving as well. If I can get this far on my totally non-immersive 1 hour a day program, anyone can.
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