So you want to learn Japanese (Part 3)

Many of the people that I talk to about learning Japanese are in the earliest steps of the process. Unfortunately, most of them have some interesting notions for what is required in order to learn Japanese, and clearing up some of those excuses misconceptions will help the people that really want to learn. This was originally going to be a single post, but it's turned into a series. This is the third post in the series, click here for the first post or here for the second post.

I want to learn Japanese, but I don't know where to start...

So you want to learn Japanese (Part 2)

Many of the people that I talk to about learning Japanese are in the earliest steps of the process. Unfortunately, most of them have some interesting notions for what is required in order to learn Japanese, and clearing up some of those excuses misconceptions will help the people that really want to learn. This was originally going to be a single post, but it's turned into a series. This is the second post in the series, click here for the first post.

I want to learn Japanese, but don't you need to be in Japan for immersion?

So you want to learn Japanese (Part 1)

Many of the people that I talk to about learning Japanese are in the earliest steps of the process. Unfortunately, most of them have some interesting notions for what is required in order to learn Japanese, and clearing up some of those excuses misconceptions will help the people that really want to learn. This was originally going to be a single post, but it's turned into a series. This is the first post in the series and covers the issue of...

I really want to learn Japanese, but I can't find a class to take!

How to make your dreams a reality

It's hard to find the time or energy to get the “extra” things done in life. We make it to work or class because we have to, but after that it's hard to get into the mindset to work on hobbies or develop the skills we want – such as learning Japanese. Lately I've been trying to find the time for the things that matter, and here's a list of the strategies I've used.

Decide what you want.

The first thing I first noticed when I started trying to "do more" is that I would list everything out that I could possibly want to do. It was a really long list, and with all that stuff to do where was I supposed to start? What did I want to do the most? There's no way I could ever get it all done. That's when I realized that I didn't really want most of it.

I was writing down every little thing that I thought I wanted, but the majority of it wasn't important. Did I really need to organize my socks? Heck no. So to counteract my habit of writing down every little thing that I thought I wanted to do, I made a limit of about three things per day. I honestly don't have the energy to do more than that, so it helps me to find what I really want and get it done.

Hint: Learning Japanese should be on that list every day!

Find the time of day that you get things done.

Most of us like to sleep until something forces us to wake up. Usually it's school or work that finally gets us up and out of the bed, then we rush off to face the day. By the time that duty is over, the day is done and it's time to relax. Who wants to start studying after a long day of work? So we put it off until tomorrow, and then an entire week goes by without any contact with Japanese. A great strategy that I've used in the past, and that I'm embracing anew lately, is waking up early to do the things I really care about.

Now, I'm not saying that you have to wake up at five in the morning every day to learn Japanese, but what you should do is experiment with studying at various times of the day. We all have a time of day that we really get things done – our period of peak efficiency. For me, I found that my most efficient time of day was right after waking up, which meant that I was wasting the best hours of my day going through a mindless pre-departure routine and commuting! How did I fix this? By waking up 2-4 hours earlier than usual to do my real work.

Your peak time of day may be very different from mine. As a good example, one of my roommates does his best work in the middle of the night. So when he has a project deadline approaching, he'll go to bed at four in the afternoon and wake up at midnight, then work on his project all night until he has to leave in the morning. He's found his peak time and he adjusts his schedule to fit around it.

So to sum it up:

• Find the time of day that you feel energized and motivated
• Schedule yourself around that time so that you can get things done

Put yourself in position to succeed.

The concept of momentum is quite useful in getting yourself motivated. We often set lofty goals and focus on achieving them as if they were a single, massive chunk. Just as with making a list with too many things to do, you'll be overwhelmed with finding a starting place to ever do anything. So don't make huge goals or focus on making a lot of progress each day – aim smaller.

For an example, instead of setting the goal to learn 50 new kanji every day, set the goal to be sitting at your desk with your kanji study tools and just start learning new kanji. Once you get started, you'll find it easier to keep going. You might even achieve that goal of 50 new kanji on the way, or perhaps go beyond that, but that's just a byproduct of achieving your real goal – to show up and START learning every day.

The same idea applies to many other choices we make each day. If you come home and plop down on the couch in front of your TV, odds are that you'll turn it on and start watching it. Or if you get on your computer with no real goal in mind, you're destined to end up on reddit or refreshing Facebook for hours. Try to think about what you're promoting. If you instead pulled out your Japanese study tools and then sat down at the computer and opened Anki, then you're more likely to start on your reps. Put yourself in a position to do what matters.

Make an appointment with yourself.

We make appointments and schedules for getting to work/school and for getting those assignments done, but what about for hobbies or personal interests? Do we ever set aside a specific time to enjoy those things? Probably not. Instead we say that those things can wait until “later,” which usually translates to approximately “never.” So how do we overcome this tendency to put off what really matters? By deciding exactly when it's going to be done.

Get a planner or a calendar and write down when you will start. For example, you could say that at 5:00 in the afternoon you'll start studying Japanese each day. You can be flexible on finding a stopping point, but make sure that you know exactly when you're going to make the time for learning Japanese, jogging, playing an instrument, or whatever else you may have on your list. Pin that vague “later” down and make your dreams a reality.

Stop making excuses.

This is by far the most difficult step. All of our lives we've trained ourselves to be masters at making excuses for why we can't do the things we want. We're too scared to try and fail, so instead we settle for whatever is safe. We run away from trying new things because we've built up this lie that we should never feel the slightest discomfort, that discomfort is bad. Your mind will try to convince you to avoid the unknown, to not take the risk, but by settling to only be comfortable with your current position, you'll never be able to do the things you dream about.

Learning a language is all about dealing with the discomfort of the unfamiliar. When you look at Japanese text and see kanji and kana that you don't know, you feel uncomfortable. The idea of learning such a different writing system causes discomfort, which leads many people to shy away and give up. But do you know what happens when you face that discomfort and start learning despite it? It goes away.

A good example is James Heisig's method for learning kanji. By the end of the first lesson, the kanji change from foreign squiggles to symbols with meaning. After a week of studying with the book you'll probably find that kanji aren't nearly as scary as they were before.

I know that it's hard to stop making excuses, so try this. If you really want something, whether it be to learn Japanese, start going to the gym, or read a novel every week, then let yourself make all of the excuses you can possibly think of. Write them down if you want – all the reasons you shouldn't do it. Then do it anyways. Schedule out starting points through the week and stick to them. If at the end of your first week you haven't felt those excuses melt away, then reconsider if this is something you want. If you really do want it, then you'll keep going. 

Challenge Yourself

If you want to learn Japanese, and I mean really learn it, then you have to work at it every day. There's no such thing as a rest day for Japanese, do it every day or don't do it at all.

“What's going on? What happened to that nice, friendly Tigoris who told me to be kind to myself and take it easy? I don't like this new guy, he's MEAN!”

I'll admit that it sounds harsh, but it's the truth. In order to make progress anywhere in life - be it learning Japanese, getting a college degree, or losing weight - you have to put in the effort and challenge yourself. That doesn't mean putting yourself into Living Japanese boot camp, but it does mean giving up two of those most treasured past-times: making excuses and settling.

How to remain motivated in learning Japanese

Why are you learning Japanese?

If you're learning Japanese, then you have some kind of reason for doing so. Maybe you have some friends that know the language, or you found an untranslated book that sounds interesting, or perhaps you want to make your resumé look better. Whatever your reasons are, they've motivated you to take the first step in learning Japanese, so that's great. Unfortunately, not all reasons for learning can keep that motivation going for a long period of time.

Are you on the right path in learning Japanese?

I know why you're here. You're worried that you're not going to make it. That you're going to fail at learning Japanese and all of your effort will be wasted. You don't know what to do and there's nobody to guide you. And it's not that you don't care enough to find what to do, you care a LOT. You care so much that these doubts keep you up at night. Perhaps you find yourself thinking, “Maybe I should start over. Do I need to research other methods? Am I doing any of this right?” And guess what.

Another Self-Taught Japanese Success Story

Much to my delight, I've found another student at my university who learned Japanese entirely on her own. I asked her to share the story of her experience with learning independently and she kindly obliged. So here (with some minor editing) is another success story.

Break Free from the School Mindset

When it comes to self-teaching Japanese, many people fall back on their previous experience with teaching and learning to figure out how to go about their business. For instance, the majority of people wanting to self-teach Japanese begin by looking for a textbook to use as the basis for their study. They also set up strict lesson plans for how much they will cover each day and feel satisfied that following the example of their childhood schooling will bring them good results.

Wrong.

Set a Start Date

This article is in response to Ojousama's comment on the Do Not Wait for Japanese post.

In trying to begin learning Japanese you may find that you simply have too much on your plate to get started. As I said in the article about waiting, if you sit back and only hope for more time to appear, then you're doomed to never get started. Starting immediately and cutting small blocks of time from other tasks to begin your learning journey is the best way to go. However, if you're in a position like Ojousama and have a major project on your hands that you can't cut time out of immediately, then this next strategy for getting started might just be what you need.

Do Not Wait for Japanese

Waiting is the greatest foe of a language learner, which is why I hate to see so many people putting off learning Japanese until after they deal with more important things. The problem with this is that those more important things will never be dealt with - as soon as one is completed three more take its place. These people would love to learn Japanese, but they're just so busy with those important things. Unfortunately, the people who wait until there aren't any more important things to do are doomed to never learn Japanese. They'll wait and wait, but always find something else more important to do. So what should these people who want to learn Japanese do? It's simple really.

Make Japanese the most important thing.

Mining For Japanese Gold

Learning Japanese is a lot like mining for gold. You're the lone miner of a small tunnel and you're armed with only a pick-axe and your own determination. Chipping through the rock walls you find small flecks of gold embedded in the stone - in order to get the gold you'll have to do some work and break away the useless bits. You focus for a few minutes on that single rock and after a bit of effort you're rewarded with a small piece of gold. This single bit is worth next to nothing, but you can see more gold twinkling in the rock wall. You move on to the next one and focus your efforts once more.

Ignore Everyone Else

In language learning, there are so many methods and ideas flying around that it is far too easy to get distracted. It seems like everyone you meet online has a magical learning method that guarantees you'll reach fluency in no time at all, and for each method there is also an inevitable counter-group that declares it to be complete and utter crap. The truth is that both sides are probably right. Most methods will probably get you to fluency eventually, but of course no method works for everyone. So how does an individual survive this learning method war? It's simple – ignore everyone else.

Never Stop Reviewing

I've already talked about how important retention is to learning Japanese, but it's such a crucial element that it deserves another post. One of the greatest roadblocks to language learners is burn-out. You'll be chugging along merrily and learning all kinds of new kanji and vocabulary, then suddenly you get tired and want a break. I've seen far too many people stop everything and decide to take a break for a day or two, then not touch their Japanese studies for months at a time. By the time they realize they still want to learn, they've forgotten half of what they knew and are forced to start over. Most of them get burned out again while they rush to catch back up. It pains me to see so many people fail this way.

So what do you do? As the title says, NEVER STOP REVIEWING. If you're tired and want a break from studying, then stop adding new material. If you reach kanji number 1500 in Heisig's book and you just don't want to go on, then stop adding new kanji. It's alright, allow yourself to take a break. But no matter what you do, do not stop reviewing the kanji you already know.

When I was learning the kanji via Heisig, I took a good two weeks off of adding new kanji and just did my reviews. By the end of those two weeks, my review numbers per day were drastically decreased and I was really wanting to learn some more kanji and reach the end of the book. By allowing myself those two weeks to focus on reviewing and rest up, I was able to come back to the book and finish it. If I had stopped reviewing during those two weeks, I don't think I would have ever made it to the end. I'd probably have given up learning entirely. If you stop reviewing, then you lose the game.

The same goes for sentences in an SRS. If you get tired and need a break, then stop adding new cards. Take a day or a week off and focus on getting your daily reviews down, and then when you've got more time and energy get back into adding again. Take the lazy route and just enjoy media and do reviews, then when you begin itching to add new vocabulary get back to it. As long as you keep reviewing, you'll find yourself inevitably drawn to learning new material.

I'm a firm believer in never stopping, whether it be reviews or additions, but when it comes down to stopping additions or stopping completely – drop additions immediately. Learning new material every day is certainly important, but never put yourself in a position to have to relearn.

Related Articles:

• The Secret of Language Learning is Retention 
• The Power of Limits 
• Start the Day in Japanese 
• Surviving Burnout 
• Working Small, Getting Started  
• Be Lazy 

Be Lazy

When it comes to learning another language, many people become fearful that they are doing things wrong and think that they have to put in their best effort for every little task. Unfortunately, this belief in itself really only serves to make the process even slower and to make you want to give up and go do something else. So what should you do? As the article title says: be lazy. Don't do anything that you don't have to do. Since this probably won't make sense until I explain via example, let's get started on exampling!

For the first example, let's say that you're reading manga or playing a video game. As you go, you come across a bunch of words you don't know and think that you're going to have to look them up and add them to your SRS. A lot of people will get fearful that if they don't look the words up immediately, they'll never see them again and will never have another chance to learn them – so they go and look up every word they come across. While this will certainly build vocabulary much faster, it will also make any leisure time with Japanese media into more study time. So what is the “Tigoris Approved Lazy Way”? It's simple – only look up words you can't survive without knowing.

In the situation above, this means that you mostly shrug off words you don't know or figure out their meaning by recognizing kanji or by using context clues. The only words that you look up and add to your SRS are the ones that really matter – the words that you simply cannot get by without knowing. If the “big bad guy” is making a dramatic proclamation during the climactic battle scene of a manga/game and you don't know what a word is that he uses – drop everything and look that word up, because your enjoyment of the media is in danger! Save your effort for the words that you cannot live (or enjoy media) without knowing and you'll find that adding new vocabulary isn't such a tiring or lengthy experience.

A very closely related element where many language learners will get overzealous is the creation and review of their sentence cards. Not only will many people add sentences for any and every word they don't know, but they then also define every word in every sentence and then write the entire sentence when they review it. While I applaud that determination, it's simply too much. Just as with the previous example, only define words in a sentence card that you absolutely have to define. Personally, I make it a rule to only define the word that is the focus of the sentence – I'll toss in a kana pronunciation for at most one or two other words (and only if I need one). The same goes for writing during reviews – write a few characters at most, but make them the most important characters of the sentence.

It's hard to actually learn another language and be truly lazy, but in shrugging off the more insignificant words or details that you come across you can focus on the things that are really important. Remember, when it comes to learning Japanese on your own that you are everything. You decide what is worth learning and what isn't worth the effort. One day you might skip over a word because it's not important and then be looking it up the next day because it is important – and that's perfect. Everything will be learned in its own time, so there's no need to rush.

Related Articles:

• Be Gentle 
• The Two Styles of Reading 
• The Time to Read is Now! 
• Never Stop Reviewing 
• Just Do Something 

The Secret of Language Learning is Retention!

All too often I hear of people that start on these grand adventures into learning Japanese. They think that the secret to learning is to gather as much information in as little time as possible and shove it into their brain. While learning a lot in a short time is certainly going to get results, the true key to language acquisition is retention and repetition.

The first big steps of learning Japanese are the kanji and the kana. The kana shouldn't take too long to get down, but if you don't keep reviewing them in some way you will quickly forget them. Think back to when you first learned the alphabet. I remember sitting in class and spending ages going over a single letter and learning how to write it. Then we'd have all kinds of practice sheets (on that crappy newsprint paper) to keep practicing in class and at home. Then we'd get reading practice to recognize them. We were constantly reviewing those same letters – because if we didn't we'd forget them in a fraction of the time it took to learn them.

I went back to an elementary school just last week and hung around in a first grade classroom for a couple hours. I saw some of their homework, and wow. Those kids couldn't write for crap. They'd been working at that alphabet for over a year and they still had backwards J's and G's and I don't even know what some of the letters were supposed to be. While there is a (slight) difference between children and adults, the fact remains that even after a year of studying they were still reviewing and studying those same basic concepts. They were still doing those little newsprint worksheets and working to improve their ability to write the letters. As people learning Japanese, we have become children again. We need to keep doing our “worksheets” in order to remember.

Obviously what goes for kana is even more evident in kanji. You have a few thousand characters to learn and remember – don't think you can learn them once and be done. Learning the kanji means being able to recognize them years after you first saw them. This doesn't mean that you're going to be spending the rest of your life doing kanji worksheets, but it DOES mean that you have to maintain what you know!

So what does all of this mean for how you should study? How do you know when and how often to review things? The best answer to that question is use Anki or any other SRS to manage your reviews for you! If it wasn't for Anki, I don't think I could have ever learned Japanese. There is simply so much to learn and so much to remember, that keeping track of it all would be too much. But with Anki you can load in new information and learn it for the first time, and then never have to worry about when to review it – Anki will do it for you. 

Related Articles:

• Tool Pack Part 1
• Tool Pack Part 2   
• Never Stop Reviewing
• Remember the Reason for the Journey 
• Working Small, Getting Started
• Keep Japanese Close

Keep Your Goals Close

Your reasons for learning Japanese have a strong impact on how you do so, because they really shape your needs and methods for learning. As such, I think it's especially important that people consider their reasons before they begin learning Japanese, and then continue to remember them throughout the trip. In effect, thinking about your reasons for learning Japanese will give you two main benefits: it will give you a new burst of energy and motivation as you remember what you're ultimately wanting to do, and then it will also show you the path you need to travel down to reach that goal.

For an example, imagine that your reason for learning Japanese is to go travel in Japan and you want to be able to greet people, ask basic questions, and order food. In such a case, you're not going to want to start off by memorizing all of the kanji and then start gobbling up vocabulary, because your goals are much more shallow. In such a condition, using a product like Pimsleur or some other kind of simple program is really all you need. To put it into more general terms, if your goals are to know a limited selection of things really well, then you really only need to focus on those things.

There are also people who like to have a broad, but shallow, grasp of their second language. These people learn a lot of common words, some grammar, and a handful of kanji. Their goal is to be able to pick up some loose meaning in whatever they happen to come across. They won't be reading any novels or making any grand speeches, but they'll have enough knowledge to be able to understand basic Japanese. I think a lot of people end up in the class after they lose sight of their goals and stop trying to learn. Perhaps they simply don't need to know Japanese fully, so for whatever reason they've invested an intermediate amount of time and have an intermediate knowledge.

On the other hand, the people who this blog aims to help are wanting to learn Japanese to a native level, so they're going to focus their time and efforts on things that pay off in the long run. Unlike someone wanting to learn key phrases, names, and pronunciation, someone who is aiming to know it all must work in a broader sense. In this case, the focus goes to making it easier to digest and learn more Japanese in less time, because there's a lot out there to be conquered. Thus, learning all of the kanji and investing time into making a review deck in Anki is worth the effort – because it makes everything easier in the long run. The best part of this learning style is that you actually become good enough to use and enjoy Japanese media, which transforms studying into a fun and relaxing time. Of course, learning Japanese to native level also takes the most time.

The point in all of this is to think about what your goals and reasons are, then decide what you need to do in order to achieve them. There is no single path to success, so perhaps switching between the three “styles” I've talked about here is what you need to do in order to reach your goals. Whatever the case, keep your goals in mind and you'll definitely achieve them.

Related Articles:

• Remember the Reason for the Journey
• Short, Easy Goals 
• Just Do Something
• Start the Day in Japanese 
• The Power of Limits
• Are you on the right path in learning Japanese?

Remember the Reason for the Journey

I've mentioned a few times now that I will be taking a Japanese placement test at my university, and as I've been thinking about and preparing for it I've realized some interesting things about self-teaching. Throughout my time teaching myself Japanese I've always done it purely for my own benefit and with myself as the only judge of my progress. This has been pretty great, because there is nobody around to punish me for missing assignments or to force me to do things that I don't want to. Keeping Japanese as a personal goal has also kept me from ever worrying to much about being "right" - my focus has always been on enjoying Japanese. But now that has begun to change.

In thinking about this test I've started questioning myself - do I really understand Japanese? How on earth could I understand what all of these crazy squiggles mean? My doubts started piling up and I felt like I'd been spending all of my time only to gain nothing at all - keep in mind that I haven't even taken the test yet. So with these things in mind I did perhaps the best thing I could do - I tried to become better. I'm actually rather happy with that outcome, because now I've discovered some great decks available for download on Anki that have helped me continue building my knowledge. Even though I was doing my best, I was still feeling incredibly worried about my abilities - which led to another revelation.

During my time worrying about how good I was at Japanese I'd started to forget to simply enjoy what I was doing, so when I sat down one day and started reading to pass the time I realized what is most important. It doesn't matter what a test tells me about my abilities or if the professors I talk to think I have the most ridiculous accent they've ever heard, because I didn't learn Japanese so that they could be graced with my perfect pronunciation or my boundless vocabulary - I learned it for myself for my own enjoyment. When I remembered why I was learning Japanese, the pressure to do well on the placement test melted away into nothing.

Should you ever find yourself feeling stressed about where you are in your own Japanese studies or feeling as though people around you are judging you based on how much you know, simply remember to do these two things. First of all, remember WHY you are learning Japanese. Then, secondly, find out what you can do to get closer to that goal.

For example, suppose you were learning Japanese so that you could read novels. Instead of worrying about grades, tests, or any sort of external measure of progress just grab a book and try to read it. If you can't, then grab another one and try it. Keep trying until you find something you can read. Think about what it is that is stopping you from being able to read those other books and then work to build that area. If you just keep moving forward and making small improvements where you can, then you will be able to conquer anything.

Related Articles:

• Japanese is Possible
• Surviving Burnout
• Short, Easy Goals
• Start the Day in Japanese
• Ignore Everyone Else

Surviving Burnout

Today I finally received an additional burst of energy for learning Japanese and have been enjoying it by seeking out new vocabulary. Learning Japanese is a long term task and one that you never truly finish. Because Japanese is such a long term task, there will no doubt be ups and downs in your desire to learn, so I'm going to talk about how to deal with these periods.

While it's obviously best to continue working building vocabulary or learning kanji at a constant rate, you will no doubt encounter times where you just don't feel like doing it. The most important thing to do during these periods is to continue reviewing. Even if you can't muster the energy to add onto your knowledge, do not let what you already know rot away. Doing so will make starting back extremely difficult, so keep up with your reviews!

Another thing you should try is to not actually stop adding new material. If you feel burnt out and sick of working, try to still accomplish a small number of additions. Five new example sentences, five new kanji, whatever. Just add something so you never actually stop. I've been working on learning Japanese for a while now and have gone through several periods of not wanting to add (getting sick, busy with college courses, etc), so I know from experience how tough it can be to get moving. Overcome those difficulties and just do something in Japanese (and maintain your reviews!).

Maintaining what you already know and some momentum in your additions will make returning to normal additions much easier. During these periods, starting back at a small number of additions per day and working your way up is also a good idea. Seek out new media or find something in Japanese that you can really get into – doing so will probably bring you back to wanting to learn and anything done in Japanese is still moving forward.

Related Articles:

• Never Stop Reviewing
• Be Gentle
• Power of Limits
• Be Lazy
• Just Do Something