Have you been studying #Japanese for years, and feel like you'll never seriously get anywhere? Like it's just too hard, and no matter how much you study it feels like it will never end? Here's a simple advice thread...
Most foreigners begin learning Japanese through formal study. And there is so much studying to be done! If you're not Chinese, you don't get the benefit of starting with even a basic familiarity with the writing, let alone a decent amount of shared or similar vocabulary...
So, maybe you've enrolled in some courses. Worked your way through some textbooks. Studied pretty hard, trying to cram things in your head. Maybe for years. And you can pass tests. And formally "progress" from one level to the next. But nothing seems to really "stick."...
You forget words a lot. Or you feel like your progress is just glacial. That all your effort so far was so, so time consuming, but even so it seems you are only like 15% done. Who could learn this language? It's impossible!... OK, so here's the thing...
All that hard work at the beginning was more or less necessary to break through those early barriers. You gotta learn them kanji, hiragana, katakana, etc. You do have to try and get a basic feel for the language. Or you wouldn't even know where to begin...
Your textbooks, classes, formal leveled studied of pre-prepared content is a bit like training wheels to stop you falling off a bike. But at some point, you have to take them wheels off. Because the journey really is a long one, and you need to start going faster...
If you are feeling stuck, and making no progress, this is probably a sign that you are still trying to cycle a thousand kilometer journey on your training wheels. Nobody has that kind of time. Nobody should subject themselves to that degree of punishment. It's not necessary...
It's time to have a re-think of your relationship with the language. From something that you study, to something that you get used to. Like basic physical training, your ears and eyes need a huuuuuuge amount of raw exposure to the language...
Where people sometimes get stuck is when they still have a 'study mindset' over a playful / engaged mindset. So they look at a TV show, or a book, as a kind of test, which they have to prepare for by knowing enough words and grammar...
If you catch yourself thinking, "I'm not at that level yet", you probably have that mindset. There are no levels in actual language. That's just a construct for helping learners. And it's useful, until its not. Then it can become downright toxic...
It's important to understand that what you really need is sustained, fun engagement with the language, every day if possible. The more the better, as your enjoyment will snowball. Words will start sticking. Audio will start jumping out at you. Your mind will adjust to the flow...
The trick is to develop this new mindset of playful engagement, where you have the opportunity to notice things. Do keep "studying" the things you notice. Look up words in the dictionary now and then. Or grow an SRS deck if you want (I still do)...
But that "study" should be directed towards the things that interest you. Allow the uninteresting to get stuck in your mind by accident. With enough volume of exposure, that will actually start to happen. You will simply know words and can't remember when or how....
Indeed, with enough exposure, you'll find you could hardly forget all those boring words even if you wanted to. They are just part of your mental furniture now. That's the magic of mass immersion...
If you feel like you can't read native material, ask yourself, how many hours have you really spent reading native material? Can't listen to native material? How many hours have you really spent listening to native material?...
If the answer isn't somewhere in the thousands, there's a simple answer to your problem. You just haven't done it enough. You can't study your way across that gap. You just have to start doing it, in order to get used to it.
Just remember to have fun. If you're not enjoying what you are reading or watching, change over to something else. Another part of the "study" mindset is that you "have to do X". No, you don't! You don't have to memorize all the colors in a table, etc.
The only thing you -must- do, if you want to grow, is to keep connecting with the language. If you have a healthy relationship with it, where you treat yourself kindly, you won't reject it and long to go back to your native language.
The good news, is that this is all a lot easier now with the internet. When I started, I just simply could not access native material as easily as you can do now. There was no youtube! There were no podcasts! The landscape is so, soo much more conducive to immersion now.
So get stuck in and start exploring! Clock up those hours, and you will see the results. You're smart enough. Everybody is smart enough. It's not an "effort" problem. It is mindset -> environment -> engagement x time. /Fin.
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