RSS

Beginning Japanese III: Taking Steps

Mon, Aug 27, 2007

Language

Learning Japanese

Surprisingly, learning Japanese really is like going up stairs in a wheelchair, possibly sans the ninja. I get so many emails of people asking me why their Japanese isn’t getting any better. Here’s how these emails usually go:

Hey Koichi, I’ve been studying Japanese for a few years now. I take classes, I talk with Japanese people, and I use flashcards for kanji…but I don’t feel like I’m getting any better. What am I doing wrong?

Response: You just have to keep on studying. Not “getting any better” is really normal. You’ll feel like this for a while, and then all of a sudden a bunch of things will fall right into place. You just need to keep on persevering, and then there will be a moment where everything suddenly gets better!

I don’t really delve into the details of this phenomenon via email, so I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you everything I know (which might not be that much, so all of you studying out there can help me).

Here’s my story. I started studying Japanese in high school, and spent two years stumbling through the language. After going to Japan for a year, I learned that there were, in fact, distinct steps in the Japanese learning process.

Although it is different for each person and each situation, most people feel like they are climbing stairs when learning Japanese. Here’s what might happen:

  1. You will study-study-study, and you’ll feel like you are getting nowhere. It’s okay! Keep studying and you will be fine.
  2. After a while you will feel upset at yourself for not getting any better (optional)
  3. All of a sudden, everything will fall right into place. It really will feel like you’ve “leveled-up;” like you’ve picked up a Mario Mushroom. You won’t suddenly become fluent, but there are distinct levels and feelings to each level, and each one feels like a fairly large jump.

So there you have it! When I was in Japan it felt like every two months I would suddenly make the move upwards. While studying not in Japan, those level-ups take a lot longer. Wherever you are, though, expect sudden advancement when you least expect it. You just have to persevere through the hard times and you’ll be rewarded for sure.

People who have been studying Japanese for a while: Please share your stories! Please let us know if this is true or if I’m making it all up. It definitely is true for myself and for others I know, but I’m excited to see what others have to say.

  • Facebook
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Fark
  • Mixx
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google
  • Technorati
  • Pownce
  • e-mail
  • Sphinn
  • Reddit

This post was written by:

koichi - who has written 108 posts on Tofugu.com.

Koichi is a cool frood that knows where his towel's at. He created Tofugu, and is currently working on a few other projects as well: Koichiben & BoxedTofu.

Contact the author

If you'd like to get immediate updates whenever we post something new, please subscribe to us via RSS! You can also get e-mail updates by clicking here.

Viewing 43 Comments

    • ^
    • v
    I found it a lot harder to get mushrooms while not being in the kingdom. Never tried Japanese though. Lol.
    • ^
    • v
    I'M SO UPSET AT MYSELF!!!

    Oh, hang on. Everything just fell into place. Never mind D:

    P.S. Nice illustration. Very scientific.
    • ^
    • v
    koichi did you start studying japanese by yourself? or did they offer it at your school? ive recently started to self-teach myself, everything was fun and great when i was learning hiragna and katakana, and yes sushi was my first word :P. Then i start grammar and was like :O. I just keep going cause im starting to pick up on some videos i watch in japanese, which is rewarding enough for me to continue on. Even if its only one word :P
    • ^
    • v
    I started through a high school programme
    • ^
    • v
    Apparently alcohol is my booster >.>
    • ^
    • v
    This is totally true. I've been studying Japanese since 2001 there abouts and it was... SELF STUDY. I studied because I wanted to read the mangas I got. And for a good two years or so, I was at least surviving on hiragana and some katakana and understanding some basic phrases like "Urusai!" or "yamete". In essence, I was slowly building my vocab that way. Since I didn't have to use it in a classroom, I was not obligated to remember them. I was dictionary dependent. (and not even a electronic jiten at that. ;A;)

    In college, I took formal Japanese to some extent. I got the fundamentals of the grammar and eventually figured out the right books for studying Japanese, like Minna no Nihongo etc. It was when I took these formal lessons that I finally got a better hand at things. It took me four years since then to get my sankyuu, but it was a long, worth it trip.

    Up to now, I don't think my Japanese is at par yet. I'm trying to talk in Japanese bit by bit everyday through mixi and through Japanese friends. Like your advice, the best I can say is just try to keep using it everyday. Read Japanese websites, play japanese games, watch animes raw, read manga, expose yourself to Japanese as though you're living in Japan. You're bound to level up in a year or so. ^^v and you'll be proud of yourself. The key to your success in reading Japanese is exposure. So yeah.
    • ^
    • v
    Haha. Well, I studied Japanese durign the summer, learning hiragana and some kanji and a bit of katakana. I also learned some phrases and structure of the sentences and things like that. Basic things. I kind of thought I was going to be screwed and really behind in Japanese 2, since that's what I had signed up for, hoping I'd learned enough. So I did feel like I wasn't getting anywhere for a bit when school came. Today I get to Japanese 2 and was amazed I actually understood the teacher and the students. I acutally knew some things some of the students didn't know. Then again, some of those kids in my Japanese class seem really bad and they don't care. It's likely they were placed in Japanese since they ran out of room in the other classes like Spanish. My teacher said there's going to be basic review the first two weeks and thinks I'll be fine. So I suppose this is a good level up. Still, I can't stop laughing at how the class is. One half is full of the kids that love anime, I saw about three reading manga, and they care about learning. The other half is full of some kids who were making fun of the language and said they didn't care. I was in the middle. Haha. I'm off to do the Japanese homework.

    PS: I like the graphic, but it's kind of said that the "me" character is dead with a broken neck, arm, and legs.
    • ^
    • v
    I've been studying Japanese for a little over a year, and so far so good. I feel like I've learned alot for a beginner, the keyword is beginner hehe. I remember my very first day in japanese class, all I knew was konnichiwa and arigatou. Now i can ask for things, express myself to some extent, learned ~190 kanji in 8 months, mastered hiragana and katakana. I still have alot to learn though. My reading and writing are alot stronger than my oral and listening...I still feel as though jpn ppl talk too fast. My oral could have been better, but i dont know, it's just sometimes i dont feel confident talking in japanese, i guess i'm too shy at times, but I better man up this year, cause we're learning alot more, and apparently our sensei loves giving oral exams :/. I just hope i can be fluent in Japanese in writing,speaking and reading!....that'll be my 4th and last language to learn!
    • ^
    • v
    I feel the exact same way about this. I've been studying for about 2.5 years now and I def. feel like I've hit a plateau with my conversation. However, I've found a few tools recently that have really helped. One is Sharedtalk.com; a great resource for language exchange. After you sign up (it's free!) you can go in large community chatrooms or privately message people and talk to them that way. I've met a bunch of people through the service and now we talk on Skype occasionally. Check it out!
    • ^
    • v
    That's exactly how it's been in my experience; you feel crap and then you have a damn-I'm-good day and everything feels better! And then some stuff comes along which you don't really understand and you feel crap again, hehe.

    If you're studying, you can only be getting better!
    • ^
    • v
    Wow..thanks everyone. All of your stories make me feel much better about starting Japanese this fall!!!
    • ^
    • v
    I noticed this the other day myself, I've been studying on my own for a few months now, and I haven't made to much progress, then the other day I was attempting to read soemthing in hirigana, with my usual method of trying to read, then double checking myself with my dictionary, and it was just like, BAM, I read it and understood it without trying, it was really awesome and felt great. Like you said, feels like a level up.
    • ^
    • v
    The illustration is awesome!
    • ^
    • v
    The illustration is awesome!

    As I'm on one of the very lower steps of the Japanese stairway i can't say too much i guess.
    But to me learning hiragana, katakana and the grammar (so far) of Japanese was the easy part.

    What really troubles me are all the homophones and homonymes of Japanese, and of course all those Kanji.

    Regarding the homophony problem take a look at the following quote from http://www.kanji.org/cjk/reference/japhom.htm:

    [----------- QUOTE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------]

    Here is an example of how complex the problem is. Let us say take the phrase Hi no sasanai yashiki (A Mansion with no Sunshine), which could be the name of a novel or a film. Here are twelve legitimate ways (some more likely than others) of how to write this.

    1. 日の差さない屋敷
    2. 日の射さない屋敷
    3. 日のささない屋敷
    4. 日の射さない邸
    5. 日の差さない邸
    6. 日のささない邸
    7. 陽の射さない屋敷
    8. 陽の差さない屋敷
    9. 陽のささない屋敷
    10. 陽の射さない邸
    11. 陽の差さない邸
    12. 陽のささない邸


    We did a survey on six native Japanese speakers, some of whom are professional translators and writers, asking them how they would write the above phrase. Surprisingly, we received six different answers, none of which matched the "standard" form found in dictionaries (#1 above). Clearly, even native speakers of Japanese cannot possibly be expected to know which specific variant is used in the official title.

    [----------- END OF QUOTE ------------------------------------------------------------------------]
    • ^
    • v
    The level up thing really makes sense, learning Japanese is practically like playing Super Mario – when you find the little green mushroom (whatever now that could be IRL) you get leveled up.
    Leveling up gives you just the right amount of power for you to continue studying without shouting 「死ね〜」 all over the place.

    I've only studied for about a year and a half, but it's been going damn well this far.
    • ^
    • v
    i've been studying for about a year and am practically conversant. my biggest limitation is lack of vocabulary. japanglish doesn't work all the time. haha. speaking, writing, and talking outside of class helped a lot even though it pissed my friends off. a tip i think would help ppl studying would be to talk to a japanese person. most japanese ppl i meet are more than happy to help. in general being exposed to the language almost 24/7 greatly improves comprehension. i think it's pointless to only use japanese while in a class like a lot of ppl in my class. the class can only teach you so much before you have to put in real effort. motivation is key to becoming fluent. seriously think why you are learning japanese. ( i will forever think learning japanese to pick up japanese girls is the dumbest reason ever.) i think plateau-ing will happen, but like koichi said don't give up and keep studying and you will level up.
    • ^
    • v
    I've only studied for about two months. I don't really have much time for learning the language, I'm busy with school and my family.

    Maybe on the weekends I'll start learning again.
    • ^
    • v
    I find the biggest hurdle is getting over one's fear of making a mistake and embarrassing themselves in another language. I feel I've overcome that hurdle, and my Japanese is better for it.
    • ^
    • v
    My strategy of implying Japanese after a few years.

    1) Go to places with Japanese speakers and talk to them. I will sometimes avoid those who wish for only fluents to speak to them.

    And the crap part.

    2) Order a copy of Sgt. Frog when it comes out in America. Play it in Japanese. TURN OFF SUBTITLES. See if I can understand what the crap they're saying. If I give up, I can always watch the episodes in English.
    • ^
    • v