Linguistics graduates reflection on learning Japanese, and starting from scratch

Hi all, I have lurked here for a long time and want to offer my two cents on a few things I suppose, in the hopes that people might be able to re-motivate themselves to keep learning and not make the same mistakes I made over the years. I will start by chronicling my background and then go on to discuss Linguistics with a scope on Japanese learning.

**Background**

I have studied Japanese and Linguistics at university. Over the past 4 years and more, I have repeatedly tried to keep learning – keep the motivation going and not give up.

Due to poor mental health, it has been an on-and-off experience leading to eternal frustration in not being able to escape a low level of Japanese – but it never stopped me from consuming Japanese media of all sorts – and thus the end result of years of trying to learn has surmounted to only a ‘decent’ amount of acquisition of vocabulary through ‘too much listening practice’ – to put it in simple terms.

**Learning imbalance**

Over saturation of listening has taught me something though, that I let the lazy element of my brain take over, which made me satisfied to engage in one just aspect of learning a language that was ‘too easy’, which scratched the itch of doing some learning of some form, which resulted in me neglecting proper active learning.

I find myself being able to understand a hell of a lot of Japanese news, television shows, animations, documentaries. I often test myself by turning away from the screen with the main concept of the content in mind, and it was/is so satisfying to be able to understand quite a lot of vocabulary and grammar too. This makes me very motivated, but I hit a brick wall when I try to tackle intermediate grammar and kanji – it drains my soul – but at the end of this post after sprawling out my reflections I will lay out the land of how I am going to try and change this.

**Learner apprehension: Speaking**

Those of us who struggle with mental health whether it be bouts of depression, social anxiety and so forth are at a massive disadvantage when it comes to learning a second language, because language is of course in essence all about interaction and engagement with human beings, unless of course ones goals are solely for reading or watching content in the target language.

My advice for those who struggle in this way is to look at it this way: what is more powerful: *regret*, or a *fleeting* *moment of nervousness?* I was terrified of speaking to people, I still am (anxiety), I worry about what they think of me, my looks, mannerisms, what mistakes might I make? But in time, these flimsy emotions that come and go like the wind are not as much of a burden as the burn of regret that you will carry for years if you do not practice speaking with native speakers sooner than later. This has helped me get a grip and try visualize my anxiety as an uncomfortable pebble in my shoe, but if i do not keep marching on the regret of making no progress on my journey will be more painful.

The frustration of being able to comprehend a conversation right in front of you, but not be able to engage in said conversation? I thought to myself recently, “imagine if I had seriously studied consistently for the past 5 years, practiced speaking, reading, writing..” – that thought made me feel grim. Use the potential or already present regret as a tool to change the future, do not let it become a weapon that carves into you!

The literature in the field of linguistics debates early reading and speaking, but casting my mind back I remember some studies did find that those who started reading at an earlier point and read what they enjoyed did better than a class that did not – pleasure reading, as Krashen put it (and I believe the study in mention was in fact co-written by him).

**Decisive action over constant research**

One thing I learned on my degree and in practice is the concept of “communities of practice”. In fact, I wrote an essay about how Reddit and this Sub Reddit among others qualify as such. You can imagine it as a place or group which has a common goal and works together to reach X, Y and Z.

Reddit has been indispensable in helping me with burning grammar questions, but as you may have noticed there is a prolific trend – “what is the best resource” – “what is the best method?” and so on. I would dub it something like ‘silver-bulletism’. I was guilty of this and still am – I spend hours browsing online scouring for the most optimal resources based on a range of testimonies, trying to find my silver bullets that will finally allow me to nail Japanese on the head and learn quickly.

But then, there is the age of debates that rise up, the X method is best, Y resource is best – which sends us into disarray and uncertainty, making us look up more and more testimonies and albeit subjective experiences of others with X, Y, and Z.

My advice in this area is to just relax and remember how long the road is. The main objective is to use something that will allow incremental acquisition of knowledge – basic grammar and vocabulary, for you to then build upon. There will always be people who will say “nah but this is way better than that textbook bro” – but we are all our own person, with our own time frames and circumstances to learn within and around. Settle on one textbook and worry about diversifying your resources when you have a basic repertoire of knowledge – our mental lexicons cannot be brute forced.

Cultivate your short term and long term memory for vocabulary through speaking, reading, and listening at the point where you have some vocab that you can use (at least, these are the prime trinity for my own goals). Anki for spaced repetition is wonderful and stimulates ST and LT memory, making sure you do not forget – **BUT** \- if you do not invest in speaking and reading in their respective contexts where you are exposed to vocabulary, that holy trinity and prism’s balance is imbalanced. This is what happened to me – too much listening, not enough reading, hardly and speaking – and now i feel trapped in not being able to communicate properly in the language I love.

**What I have learned from Linguistics and the time on my degree**

Early reading and early speaking is not as detrimental as some argue, as discussed in some studies (google scholar is a gold mine if you are interested in L2 acquisition and Linguistics in general) . The essence of language is interaction and communication, and I will give an example:

My course-mates were all motivated by different things, and when I studied the programme which had a heavier weighting on Japanese than Linguistics, I came across a wide range of people, exotic to say the least to a country bumpkin like myself. Some loved Anime, some loved Japanese music, others loved the more traditional and historical aspects of Japan. I changed programme and did not do my year abroad in Japan due to my mental health and family situation at the time, but I still shared modules and spent time with the people who did go and came back from their year in Japan.

Coursemate A and B: They both spent the same amount of time in Japan, but lived very differently there. *A* lived in non-halls environment, *B* did. *A* played games far too much instead of study, *B* studied and hardly played games (Steam activity and time played confirmed this..). You get the picture I am sure – both lived in Japan for the same time in the *prime* environment for learning Japanese at a better pace than those who have to in their own country, but when *A* came back to complete their final year, there were people who were still in their first year who spoke more Japanese and understood more Japanese, etc. *B* however went out, made friends, networked, and studied hard and they came back at a middle to high intermediate of Japanese, which was impressive to see coming from complete beginner level originally.

The moral of this story is that just being in Japan is not enough and the knowledge does not magically flow into you every time you have to buy food from 7/11 or walk through the streets, you have to engage yourself and interact with real humans and content. This links back to my premise of early interaction in regards to speaking practice. This can also be applied to how you use your time even if you are not in Japan – find a study partner online, the apps are there to do so (HellotTalk to name one) – if you have the disposable income, pay for a tutor to keep the ball rolling and build your confidence because it is certainly worth it, i have seen the results in those who have invested in this and it does help, not to say that it would be beneficial for everyone with their respective goals and levels.

\- (keep in mind these mistakes in learning etc apply to me too hence my long reflection)

**How I aim to try again with a clean slate**

I have stopped my repeating search for a good resource and methodology which promises the quickest way to learn Japanese, and while my mind is always plagued with doubt I will lay out what I have decided on doing.

I used to agree that Heisig was a waste of time, and I thought brute forcing massive anki decks was the trick. I understand that learning kanji in context is optimal and necessary, but my brain just cannot do it.

In the summer of 2021 I did a Memrise course which focused on teaching some of the most frequent Heisig kanji, and I made my own stories about them to make the Kanji more memorable. Yesterday (12/11/2022) I decided to revisit it finally and see if I remembered something. Amazingly, I just somehow new them or in some instances actually could recall the right answers – the silly or daft stories I created came to my mind when I looked at some of the Kanji.

In reality i wish i did not have to learn kanji this way, it is a time sink, but my brain needs to do it this way as a building block, and then I aim to go onto learning the readings in context where I know there characters. If it has helped me recognize them when I could not doing it any other way then that is what i must do. Taking my own time and pace and realizing it is a life long journey anyway is what i will keep in the forefront of my mind – Japan and its language, its media or culture is not going anywhere any time soon but my time is!

I have collected every resource and recommendation under the sun from this Sub and compiled them over the years like a maniacal squirrel hoarding magic shiny acorns, without actually using them properly. So I have narrowed down my approach and resources and decided to commit to them this time, and as aforementioned i will be rectifying my mistake of not practicing conversation/speaking and not reading enough too, as well as investing in a tutor at some point because as someone with anxiety it will help build a bridge of confidence for me.

**\~** In time I hope to make a follow up post on my progress albeit while under the duress of a full-time job with more worldly responsibilities than when i was a naive and young student. Now that I have limited time to study, i think that funnily enough that i might have a more structured approach now that i am scared of wasting time!

**TLDR:** Use your time wisely and efficiently, don’t research learning resources and methods to death, remember the feeling of regret from not making a change sooner rather than later – but as I said, regret is to be a tool rather than a weapon of self- flagellation – I am using my regret as a tool to try and start anew with realistic expectations in telling myself its better late than never. Do not beat yourself up from slow progress, use the approach that you feel comfortable with and that works for you.

Keep in mind I am no guru, this is a post from someone who has failed to succeed in their goals, but I want to my reflection upon said failure to serve and example as i see the apprehension beginners and beyond have and the battle of motivation \~

Thanks for reading :\^)