Wanted to reach out to those who were successful with learning Japanese to see how they did it and try and mimic some strategies and practices for myself. Thank you!
Just a lot of self-study which was motivated by wanting to read Japanese literature. It felt like cracking a code, obsessing over a single sentence, just trying to comprehend what was written, making a little progress each day. Eventually I found a way to move to Japan, where I use the language all the time in daily/professional life. Nine years here now, but I was fairly fluent after about 8 months, thanks to all the years of self-study. I am sure I wouldn’t have ever become fluent without living here and getting a feel for how the language is actually used, no matter how long I studied the written word.
As for advice, I really do recommend using native content as soon as possible. It’s more fun to learn a bit of grammar because you found it in the wild and had to look it up than it is to try to memorize something because an app or textbook told you to.
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Just a lot of self-study which was motivated by wanting to read Japanese literature. It felt like cracking a code, obsessing over a single sentence, just trying to comprehend what was written, making a little progress each day. Eventually I found a way to move to Japan, where I use the language all the time in daily/professional life. Nine years here now, but I was fairly fluent after about 8 months, thanks to all the years of self-study. I am sure I wouldn’t have ever become fluent without living here and getting a feel for how the language is actually used, no matter how long I studied the written word.
As for advice, I really do recommend using native content as soon as possible. It’s more fun to learn a bit of grammar because you found it in the wild and had to look it up than it is to try to memorize something because an app or textbook told you to.
An absolute disgusting amount of JAV.