One more language update

Hello!

If you read the last two updates, you will remember that I wrote about the Japanese language and my progress so far.

I want to possibly wrap that up with a few final thoughts on learning so far.

Overall, I have not found any "shortcuts" to learning but there are several things that I think help along with some other thoughts -

• Level of immersion - Probably obvious, but the more you are immersed in the language you are learning, the better. Learning Japanese while living in America is difficult since it is not a very common language. Also, in America, it was very easy to "take breaks" or stop studying Japanese because I did not encounter it regularly. Since I now live in Japan, there is no escaping it - the language is everywhere. And if I want to make my life easier, I need to learn it.
• Doing the study regularly - related to the above, if you are living in your home country, it is pretty easy to not study regularly. Now, my daily work commute is about 45 minutes and during that time are good opportunities to study. I usually do Kanji study/review via the Wanikani app during this time. If I did not have a long commute, I am not sure if I would regularly find the time to do this. Some teachers in my program walk to work or have a short commute. So, in a way, I am happy that I have a longer commute that allows me to do some studying.
• As I probably wrote before, wanikani includes flashcards and spaced repetition. Based on other reading I have done, I know that testing yourself is important. It helps you identify gaps, practices recall and tells you what you need to focus on. Wanikani covers most of this. Outside of it, I have occasionally tried other smartphone flashcard systems - but it requires a bit more time investment to do the setup ahead of time (basically, create and organize the flashcards), which I do not always do.
• Learning the kanji is important, I think. It is probably possible to learn Japanese without Kanji, but I think it's easier to just go ahead and start learning the kanji. Doing so, while slow, will eventually allow you to read which will reinforce what you are learning. And learning the kanji helps you remember how to correctly pronunce words. Plus, like I mentioned in prior updates, a recommended way of learning kanji is through the use of mnemonics which should help the information be more accessible in your brain.
• Beyond the daily kanji study, I also do 1-2 sessions a week in the evenings - usually 1 hour lessons with a teacher via the internet. I typically do a grammar in one session and "free talk" in another session. The grammar sessions have helped in showing me how to construct common phrases - like how to speak informally in various tenses. Sometimes, in place of one of the sessions, I will do an in person session. They are usually a bit more uncomfortable than an online session. I am not sure which is better, the online or the in person - online you can schedule around your schedule and be comfortable at home whereas with the in person you do not completely control the schedule and may not be as comfortable.
• Keeping a notebook and asking questions - I have carried a small pocket notebook with me since I arrived and have made some notes in it about words I have learned. I have found in helpful to take a new word that I have learned and write it down along with the definition in this notebook. And, usually, it is some word that someone has taught me at school or in a random conversation, so that combined with taking a few moments to document it has helped make the words more memorable. And, if I want to, I can pull out the notebook and practice a specific word with someone at school.
• Occasionally watching the news - this has not led to a lot of breakthroughs and I do not understand a lot of it, but I do not think it hurts. News stories tend to get repeated and you will hear the events in different contexts (maybe at school, or other places). Stories are also usually clearly stated and will have illustrations, which will make the meaning clearer.

Has working in a Japanese elementary with all Japanese speaking colleagues (who speak only a little English) helped? Probably. It has helped in terms of having people to ask questions to or with whom to practice certain phrases. But it is difficult given their lack of English ability - you cannot always quite figure out what the correct equivalent of something is in English. Or easily ask them a question about how to say something. Usually, if a colleague tells me something, I have to double-check it on the internet to make sure I got the meaning right. There is a lot of small talk that occurs, though - that is helpful for learning natural or informal ways to say things.

In the elementary school lessons themselves, while the Japanese teacher and I teach the lesson, teaching the English phrases while having the teacher explain in Japanese what the phrase means to the students does help. For example - students in 5th grade English learn how to say "I want to go to ...." where .... is a country name. They also learn how to say what you can do in that country. And usually the Japanese teacher will explain the Japanese equivalents of those phrases, so that is helpful for me.

In terms of kanji learning, I'm actually kind of somewhat at the elementary first grade level. Maybe just a little bit ahead of the first graders - possibly I'm a 2nd grader with some other random kanji mixed in. So, for a while, going to the first grader Japanese lessons in which they learned and practiced kanji was helpful for me - because they were reviewing similar kanji to what I was learning.

But, I had to stop going to the lessons because having the English teacher at the Japanese lessons proved to be a little too distracting for the first grader students. But, I still see the kanji they are learning around the school.

Also having conversations with the first grade students is helpful - they usually speak very informally and you can usually always ask them simple questions, like "where's so and so student" or "what are you doing" or "where are you going." You will also figure out quickly whether you are saying things in the most natural way - if you say something to them and it is not the natural way of saying It, they probably are not able to figure out what you are trying to say.

Whereas if you say something unnatural to someone older, they can usually figure out based on you being a foreigner and the context what you are actually trying to say.

A difficult part in Japan is when you run into other foreigners who are further along that you in their language journey. It is hard not to make comparisons between where you are at and where others are.

But, usually, what I have found is everyone who seems "further along" really has just studied for a much longer time. There are some people who say that they learned Japanese quickly, but those people seem very far and few between. Most have spent many years studying the language.

Which brings me to something I just heard on a podcast this weekend - "The thing that makes the difference is whether or not you're able to tolerate being bad long enough to get to good."

So, through the two T's - time and tolerance, I will hopefully keep making progress.

Until next time,

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