Visiting Japan has been incredibly motivating for me to keep learning

Alright, quick summary of my experience with Japanese:

* Visited Japan in December 2019. To prepare, I learned some basic words and phrases, hiragana and katakana, and maybe 30-40 basic kanji. I really only ended up using こんにちは／こんばんは、ありがとうございます、トイレはどこですか, etc. BUT, I had the absolute time of my life and I decided that I would go back, and that I would properly learn Japanese for next time.

* Didn’t really study Japanese the first half of 2020 because I didn’t know what resources to use and because I had a lot of other stuff going on. Took an introductory Japanese course in Fall 2020, my last semester of college. My previous studies put me ahead of the rest of the class but not by much. I ended up dropping the course a little while after the midterm because I couldn’t balance the workload with my required courses (and I decided I could self study at a faster pace later on).

* First half of 2021 was just like the first half of 2020 – life was (good) busy and I was seriously struggling to choose which resources to use to learn Japanese.

* I really started studying Japanese in earnest in September 2021. I found a Google doc guide on reddit called A Year to Learn Japanese and it really felt like it made sense to me. In short, use Genki for grammar, an essential 2000 Japanese vocabulary Anki deck for vocabulary, and Wanikani for kanji. You get through each of these 3 resources and then you have the foundation in place to go learn from immersion (at least that’s roughly what the guide said, it’s been a while now since I read it but that’s what my approach became at least).

* I followed that approach somewhat consistently (with 3 or 4 1-week breaks for various reasons) for about 8 months, until May 2022. I didn’t really do much active immersion, but I would say I got a lot of gradual immersion because I’ve gotten very into Japanese culture and I have heard a ton of spoken Japanese by now. It didn’t really teach me much speech, but I think it helped me develop good pronunciation.

* Then in May I finished both Genki textbooks, and for some reason the bottom fell out of my motivation and I dropped off (maybe because Genki was what made it fun for me). Did zero Japanese studying from May-July this year, then picked it back up August-October, then dropped off again.

Summary of Japanese experience: Genki 1 and 2 done, level 21 in Wanikani, half a college Japanese course, and some TV immersion.

Now I’m finally back in Japan, like I always said I would, and I’ve been using Japanese as much as possible. I only switch to English if I really can’t get through the encounter with Japanese. And I can’t explain how motivating this trip has been for me to keep studying Japanese. I certainly don’t know a lot and I can only hold the most basic conversations, but being here has given me a chance to finally use what I had been studying for almost a year consistently, and off and on for 3 years. I think a big hindrance to staying motivated was that I was studying in a vacuum. I wasn’t using or testing what I learned and I didn’t really have the feeling that I was actually progressing. Being here has shown me just how much I’ve really learned in that time. I also consistently find myself using phrases that I never specifically studied, but I’ve heard them used so much that they come naturally in certain situations (e.g. ちょうっと待って）

Also, I’m sorry to be a little bit meme-y, but I haven’t heard 日本語上手 once. Instead, I have been asked by several Japanese people if I live in Japan after they heard my Japanese. When I first visited, I heard nihongo jouzu constantly and people always responded in English when I initiated the conversation in Japanese. Now they almost always respond in Japanese as if I’m completely fluent and I usually have to ask them to switch to English at some point. I can already hear /r/japancirclejerk getting spun up, but it was seriously so motivating and validating after spending 3 years wondering if I would ever be able to really speak Japanese at all.

If anyone else here has been studying Japanese for a bit and struggling to notice progress, or is losing motivation to keep learning, I highly suggest taking a trip to Japan and putting your Japanese to the test.