I have bravely tried to keep my knowledge in shape by at least writing my diary with the japanese weekdays, but with noone to talk to, it’s really really hard. I say “tada ima” and “okaeri nasai” to myself when I come home. I call my parents okasan and otousan (mostly because this grabs their attention more than my native options) and a lot of loner boner stuff like that. I used to talk some to people in Japanese even if they didn’t understand me, just to at least try to practice. This, of course, does not correct me if I’m wrong and I keep forgetting things or mistake them for something else. I tried to speak Japanese with other gaijins, but their Japanese was usually worse than mine, so I gave it up. I am still trying to get Japanese friends, but the only ones who want to talk to me on the language-exchange sites are Maroccans and Turkish people, even at strictly Japanese-English exchange and (it does exist but isn’t used) Swedish-Japanese. Flash-cards never work for me; I just write the kana alphabets down over and over and over and over to memorize them. Kanji on the other hand is much harder, since they tend to all look the same to me @_@

The reason I’m here? Because I’m at another phase of really trying to pick up the pace and learn more than just enough to be bothered by the badly translated fansubs. And if you wonder, I prefer manga to anime, but that doesn’t help me since I can’t buy any manga with furigana in sweden and scanlations are already translated to English… I’m gonna try to study sentence structure more with all the particles like は　を　え　の　and so on so forth. I still do believe my vocabulary is in dire need of expansion, so I’m gonna study some more verbs and keep on trying to sort out the business stuff from the normal stuff and perhaps find out if Hotta-kun ever gets together with maeda-san.

Fast Forward two years. I picked up studying again (with getting married, having surgery, and then getting pregnant it was a long couple of years and Japanese just fell by the wayside…) and re-introduced myself to everything I had already learned, just so I didn’t forget it all. This time around, I found some new resources which I will give my honest opinion about. I’ll go ahead and give my opinion about my older resource(s) too since no one will likely read this anyway, since the post is 4 years old. 

Japanese: Demystified  - Book : 
I found this at Barnes and Nobles (US bookstore). I LOVE this book. The way it explains things, and starts throwing kanji right at you from the very beginning so I didn’t get dependent on reading hiragana alone. Now when I read Japanese, if it’s all in hiragana, I’m kind of screwed. Hahaha… I would rather have the kanji in there than not. It has quizzes, written practices, exams, oral practices, and examples. All of which I believe are excellent learning tools. I love this book, and would recommend it to anyone seriously interested in learning Japanese. 

Japanese-English/English-Japanese Dictionary:This is good to have, but to be perfectly honest, I barely EVER use it. Would still recommend having one, just to have it for reference. I would NOT however recommend using it as a crutch of any kind. If you tried to learn english by relying on a dictionary I think you would be discouraged pretty quickly. Hesig’s Method:I do not approve. I tried this for a month. At first I thought it was fantastic, because it helped me remember kanji. But then I ran across a comment in a forum about some of his “definitions” aren’t at all accurate. So I contacted two of my native Japanese friends who do indeed live IN Japan, and I wrote out the Kanji, and the meaning he gave, and asked it was accurate. One was completely appalled at this method of learning, and insisted that repetition is best. (That didn’t shock me in the least). But even with that said, she said after doing a bit of research on it herself, she found there were too many mistakes to really trust it. So I abandoned it. Pimsleur’s Approach: I love this man. I have every single lesson in my phone and in other devices and listen to them whenever I get a free moment. One lesson a day, and then the next day I review the old lesson, and then start the newer one. Never more than two in a day though. But that’s just what I found works best for me. It definitely helps with pronunciation. But not so much for picking apart sentences and learning grammar. If you can’t get a native Japanese to talk to, this is a good practice tool too. Although it’s just repetition, and not creating your own sentences. Rosetta Stone PC Program:I. Hate. Rosetta. Stone. Some people swear by it, and that’s fine. But I find it almost insulting to the Japanese language. The first time I opened it, I found it incredibly overwhelming, and scary. The first part isn’t so bad, just repeating simple words like “ball”, “car”, “cat”, “man”, “woman”, “girl”, “boy”, etc. etc. But then the next segment started getting really complicated, and if you aren’t knowledgeable in Japanese at ALL, 「男の子と男の人」sounds like a tongue twister. It’s good for learning to say things, and sentences, but I don’t think you can “learn a language” solely using this program. It doesn’t break things apart at all, or dive into particle usage, or particle meaning, or proper verb conjugations and how to do them. My friend went to Japan using only the knowledge from this and she had a very hard time. (this same friend claimed to be fluent in Japanese and at the time only knew how to say “you are a witch” and “cute”…>.<)  Sure she could ask 「トイレはどこですか。」but if someone started giving her directions how to get there, she was royally screwed. Once I learned the words, could read them, and understand the grammar, this tool was easier to use, and made more sense. Again though, that is just my opinion. As far as your little illustration goes (genius, by the way) that is totally how it is. After my hiatus, I got back into it and felt like "OH now I get it… how could I have been so confused…" I'm starting to get to that point with simple verb conjugation but that's a WHOLE section of study unto it self. :) 

There's a book I read a long time ago called Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fullfillment by George Leonard that outlines exactly what you said. Namely, that your ability in a given skill will rise quickly at first, then you plateau for a long time before it happens again. The best thing to do about this is to simply know that it's coming and accept it as part of the process. “The Master's learning curve rises quickly, plateaus for a while, and with consistent practice, rises again with some regression and plateaus again for a while and so on. The Master knows that Mastery is a lifetime path. The Master enjoys living on the plateau. The Master knows that while he is on the plateau, learning is happening and practice will inevitably raise him to a higher level.”

So enjoy pushing through the tough times! Once you push through your couple of plateaus, you're probably doing better than 95% of the people who have tried to learn that skill (in my experience). Feels good man.

There's a book I read a long time ago called Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fullfillment by George Leonard that outlines exactly what you said. Namely, that your ability in a given skill will rise quickly at first, then you plateau for a long time before it happens again. The best thing to do about this is to simply know that it's coming and accept it as part of the process. “The Master's learning curve rises quickly, plateaus for a while, and with consistent practice, rises again with some regression and plateaus again for a while and so on. The Master knows that Mastery is a lifetime path. The Master enjoys living on the plateau. The Master knows that while he is on the plateau, learning is happening and practice will inevitably raise him to a higher level.”

So enjoy pushing through the tough times! Once you push through your couple of plateaus, you're probably doing better than 95% of the people who have tried to learn that skill (in my experience). Feels good man.

Nothing worth having is ever easy! OSU!! – Oleg from Riga