I’ve lived in Japan for a couple of years now. I studied hard for about 2 years in order to get to the point that I could work in a Japanese company and to pass N2, but since then I’ve completely lost any interest in further studying.
I speak well enough to get through life/work and live with a monolingual native, but my kanji skills are poor and I notice that my vocabulary is lacking in some areas when compared with other foreigners that I work with/interact with.
When I ask them how they learned certain vocabulary/phrases/nuances etc., they always say that they watch a lot of anime/read manga/enjoy games in Japanese etc, but I’ve never really had any interest in those things and find watching/reading them to feel like a chore.
I really want to find a passion for the language that encourages me to get better, but I quickly lose interest in reading (looking up kanji makes everything slow and boring) and so far none of the shows etc. that friends have recommended have held my interest.
Has anyone else here been in a similar situation, and if so, how did you find the will/enthusiasm to study?
3 comments
What anime have you tried? Fullmetal Alchemist is honestly one of the best out there and I highly recommend (brotherhood probably over the 2003 version)
What kind of things do you like to do/read?
That would be pretty hard to do. Because that would be equivalent to someone giving me tips for building a passion for basketball or even football (American football). But if I did give a tip, I’d say try music. I’ve learned a good amount of vocabulary/kanji with music
I’m not a fan of anime, manga, video games, etc. I always found that difficult because so many people get interested in Japanese because of a passion for those things. Never interested me.
Can you translate your existing passions into Japanese? I love reading novels, and lately I’ve been trying to read some Japanese novels. My Japanese is pretty mediocre (maybe N3 at best) so it’s a struggle, but it’s far more interesting to me to read a novel so I muddle through.
Maybe the same YouTube subjects you’d watch in English you can find in Japanese?