Hello.
I’m an autodidact and consume Japanese on a daily basis (to the best of my ability with work and all). I study everyday. I’m likely still around N5. I know a lot of vocabulary (for my level, I guess!). Been studying for 2.5 years. I feel a bit discouraged and wondered if anyone out there made any improvements on their studies?
3 comments
N5 in 2.5 years does seem a little rough. How much time do you spend each day? We just had a post going over how just “consuming” Japanese won’t get you anywhere, you have to actually *understand* and *study* it.
Learning a language is dependent entirely on your interaction with the language, your geographic location is completely irrelevant – especially in 2022. There are people who have achieved fluency from abroad, and the vast majority of foreigners who move to Japan never get past your current level (I wish I was exaggerating but I’m not).
Much more uncommon than you think. In my old Japanese major in unicthose of us who did a year at a uni in Japan ended up (on the high end) between N2 and N1 level wise whereas others who didn’t drop out usually ended at N3 after 3 years. Necessity is the mother of all inventions and all that.
That’s the base then life in Japan outside the expat bubble forces the level up further with things like childcare, healthcare, getting a mortgage, building a house etc.
Of course most of this can theoretically be learnt online but what I mentioned above is real immersion in the true sense.