みなさんこんにちは！
I’ll be honest, I find other people’s language journey’s super motivating and fun to hear – No matter how big or small that is! It’s so good knowing there is a community of people here on Reddit who all want to accomplish the same thing, all coming from different backgrounds and reasons for wanting to learn Japanese!
For me, it started with a love of Japanese anime and manga when I was 13 years old. When I was 16, I started Japanese classes at college and did this for a year, where I learnt a lot of basics and I continued to watch a lot of anime, and it was fun to start picking little bits out.
At 18, life changed as it often does at that age and I didn’t return to Japanese for 6 years!
Through lockdown in 2020 (24 at this point) I found out my younger sister was watching anime, she was 13 and it sparked so much nostalgia and I decided to start watching some anime again. I had always wanted to return to Japanese language that I took this as a sign and started learning again. My sister loved this so we studied together using JFZ (Japanese from Zero as this suited her best, and we completed the first book, however at the beginning of the book we had already nailed hiragana and katakana – She is a super speedy learner too so that helped her a lot!). At the beginning of 2021 we started a language class together online with a local school (during the second lockdown). This was super beginner, but it gave us chance to practice Japanese with others and be corrected by a Japanese native who was leading the class. However, once I started working again in May 2021 I had to stop.
During 2022 I started Wanikani and although my progress is slow due to a busy life and workload it’s something I enjoy keeping up. I used to find kanji overwhelming but now I have a big appreciation for it. I also am working through Genki at a slow pace with TokiniAndy but again it’s manageable and I believe I will have it finished by the end of this year. It gives me chance to learn some new grammar and vocabulary but also revise things I previously learnt!
So, there’s my journey! Would love to hear everyone else’s! And also any advise on textbooks, websites, material for reading is always welcome 🙏🏻