What’s So Scary About Learning Japanese?

by 43 Comments

Do you know what is probably the number one thing keeping people (and possibly you) from learning Japanese? Fear. Cold, dank, heart stopping, FEAR. Well, okay, maybe it’s not that bad. But it’s at least an underlying whispering thing that erodes your courage with time. In this post, I’m going to talk about this fear, as well as how to overcome it. If you’ve ever wanted to learn Japanese but for some reason you’ve never been able to, this article is totally for you. If you’re happily on the other side of the fence, studying Japanese like a champ, then this article should still offer some healthy tidbits that will keep you happy and studying effectively for a long, long time. Here we go.

What Are You Afraid Of?

Oh, hello there. Learning some Japanese, are we? HA HA HA HA.

Even before you get started, there are so many things out there that can scare you away from doing something new (including Japanese). The number one thing? Clowns Excuses. Excuses are so easy to come up with. And, even as you continue on, excuses will still keep popping up. There are, however, an easy way to cancel out excuses so you don’t really have an easy way out later on. Unfortunately, this will not cancel clowns out, no matter how hard you try.

The process involved with canceling out excuses is super easy. In fact, all you have to do is think about them before they happen. Actually, the thing that makes a lot of people stop in their tracks even before they start to learn Japanese is the fear of excuses (now or down the road). I hope you’ll do an exercise with me right now. In fact, I have TextFugu people do this as well, because I think it works quite well.

Step 1: Figure Out What Excuses Will Hold You Back

You want to do this even before you run into any of these excuses. Common excuses are “I don’t have time” or “I’m no good at languages” – B.S. like that. The strange thing, however, is that if you write down all the potential excuses (which will be different with every person), they sort of become more manageable. They become things you can actually handle, and not things that are abstract and hidden, waiting to pounce out at you.

So, before you move on, make a list. What excuses could hold you back in the future? What excuses hold you back now? Write them down.

Step 2: Ask, Is It True?

Most excuses are just that… excuses. They’re things that aren’t particularly convincing if you really think about them carefully. For example, if one of your excuses is “I don’t have time” – take a good look at yourself and how you spend your time. Ask yourself how much you want this (“this” being “Learning Japanese”). Where can you be more efficient? Where can you cut out Farmville? When can you wake up earlier? Go to sleep a little later? Learning Japanese is more about consistency than anything else. A consistent 15 minutes a day is worth quite a bit, and even if you have absolutely no time at all (at least in your mind) I’m sure there’s a way to get 15 tiny minutes a day in, you know? There’s always holes in excuses, you just have to take the time to face them head on and ask what’s going on with them.

Step 3: Keep In Mind Future Excuses

Not all the excuses are excuses that are relevant right now. That’s okay. In fact, that’s great. Writing down possible future excuses you might have (and you’ll know better than me what these are, since they’re personal to everyone individually) actually makes those future excuses less likely to happen. And, even if they do happen, they won’t happen as badly, resulting in an end to your Japanese studies. If you know something’s coming, it’s way less scary. In fact, you can prepare for it. Take for example the clown in the image above. If you’re in a dark hallway, and you hear something nasty coming towards you, you’d freak out. What is this thing!!??! But, if you know it’s a clown that’s coming, and you know where it’s going to come from, you can get your anti-clown repellant ahead of time, and just wait for it to round a corner before taking that clown down. You still have to deal with it (the excuse / clown), but it’s so, so, so much easier.

Power Overwhelming

This is obviously some kind of earthquake hazard

Once you start studying Japanese, however, other problems start popping up. Other things that could scare you away like a little baby (what, you some kind of baby?). Being overwhelmed happens a number of ways, I think, but these are the most common I can think of. There is one thing that remains consistent, though – everyone has a limit – for some people, all it takes is a little overwhelming pressure to snap their Japanese Language learning spine. For others, it can take a lot more. But everyone has a snapping point, and getting overwhelmed for too long is what does it. This is definitely scary for a lot of people, myself included.

Here are some ways to avoid that power overwhelming, whether you’re a beginner or not in learning Japanese.

Diving In Face First

It’s hard not to do when you’re first starting out. You’re so excited that you dive in face first, and while you get through that first 6 inches of water really quickly, you end up hitting your face on some rocks. That sucks. Those rocks are “reality” setting in. That’s when unconscious incompetence (this is what you are when you start anything new) suddenly becomes conscious incompetence (where you know just enough to to know that you don’t know a lot). This is discouraging, for sure.

Now the way I see it, diving in face first like this causes a couple of problems. First, you hit conscious incompetence too all-at-once. Second, you burn out because you went all out during that adrenaline rush of starting. Both can cause you to quit, which is obviously what we’re trying to prevent here.

For the problem of burning out, there’s some neat little tricks you can do. First, you can use a trick a lot of writers use. When you feel like continuing, you should stop. This makes it so you’re really excited to start the next round of study. It also prevents you from burning out as easily, and eases you in to a regular routine of study. Now, this alone often isn’t good enough.

The second problem (hitting conscious incompetence) happens to everyone, whether you go all in or not. Hitting conscious incompetence is painful, and it’s painful for everyone. It’s where you start to become conscious of your incompetence, and that’s no fun. You know that you aren’t very good at Japanese, and because of this, you think you’ve actually gotten worse at learning. The opposite, however, is true. Really, you’ve gotten better at Japanese learning, which is why you’re even noticing what you’re not good at in the first place.

There’s not a ton you can do about this stage, other than fighting it everyday. But, just knowing that it exists, and knowing that you’re not actually getting worse (you’re getting better) really helps a lot. This is an experience everyone shares. If you feel like you’re at this stage, and you want to know more, you should check out our article on Conscious Japanese Incompetence (and the scary pains that are involved).

30-30

The 30-30 practice method is a more practical way of getting around some of the “overwhelming” problems you might face in the future. Here’s how it works (in the simplest of ways).

  1. Study for 30 minutes
  2. Do something you enjoy for 30 minutes
  3. Study for 30 minutes
  4. Do Something you enjoy for 30 minutes
  5. Rinse and repeat

This probably seems like you’re cutting possible study time in half. I totally understand. Why not study those entire 2 hours instead? Well, I think you should just try it and see for yourself, but there’s some magic in the 30-30 schedule. I’m going to try my best to explain it, but doing it really is the best. I know a ton of people have had great success with it because I have TextFugu people emailing me all the time telling me how awesome it has made things (one of the lessons in TextFugu is about the 30-30), not just with Japanese. I use it too. Here’s the idea behind it:

30 minutes isn’t a long time. Sometimes getting started is the hardest thing of all, and the 30-30 schedules helps you to get over that. Only 30 minutes? Nice! I can study 30 minutes. If 30 minutes seems too long, change this to the 20-20 method… or the 10-10 method. Whatever it takes for you to get started. “I only have to study 10 minutes? Okay, I guess I can” – I think you’ll find yourself studying more, once you actually start.

So, after it gets you started, it then does some other things for you. You have a limited amount of time (30 minutes, maybe less). That means you suddenly focus on the important things. i.e. things that will actually move you forward, not just side-things. You become more efficient without realizing it. You study more of the right things and fewer things that don’t matter. Over a long period of time (months, years, etc) all this focus on “important” things will add up. You’ll be much better at Japanese in the long run. The “other fluff” can be learned later. The important stuff is… well… important.

Lastly, in terms of focus, the 30-30 schedule really does some great things. You only have 30 minutes… that helps (as you know). But, because the other 30 minutes is filled with things you enjoy, you no longer feel as drained (assuming studying drains you a bit). I’d recommend doing something you aren’t “supposed” to do. Like, playing a video game… or watching a TV show… or something like that. I play Starcraft during my other 30 minutes. By doing things you aren’t “supposed” to do, you’re making sure that you don’t do these things during the study time 30 minutes. If you feel tempted to check Facebook while you study, make Facebook your “other” 30 minutes. Make it a rule that you have to check Facebook during that 30 minutes. That’ll actually change the way your mind thinks of Facebook. If Facebook becomes a scheduled chore, it won’t be as interesting to you anymore, and eventually will no longer be a distraction. The point is, do opposites in your 30-30. You’ll recharge yourself, and you’ll get rid of the things that distract you when you are trying to focus.

“Tradition” Vs. “Chore”

Lastly, there’s one thing that pros do that nobody else does. You should do this too. It’s an amazing hack. Here’s the difference between pros and amateurs.

When a pro does a “chore” it isn’t a “chore” it’s a “tradition.”

When an amateur does a “chore” it’s simply a “chore.”

So what do I mean by this? Pros make chores into traditions. They make chores things they do, not things they have to do. There’s a subtle but important difference.

Think of this way. Each person (including you) has a limited amount of focus. If you do something that requires focus, your focus battery drains. This is a limited resource, and in general, everyone in the world has a similar amount of focus power. Not the same amount, certainly, but if you average things out, it will be similar enough.

So, if this is true, a pro and an amateur have the same amount of focus power in them. But, why is the pro so much better? What makes them so amazing and why is the amateur still an amateur?

Well, it comes down to tradition.

When the pro comes home, she has a tradition to study her Anki deck for 15 minutes.

When a pro goes to sleep, she has a tradition to read one chapter of her Japanese book.

When a pro finishes dinner, she learns 5 new kanji.

…and so on.

These aren’t chores. These are traditions. These are things the pro does, automatically, because they are what she does (not what she has to do). You can do this too, though it will take some time and some changes in the way you think. In order to pull this off, you have to create some things that “set off” Japanese study. So, perhaps coming home from work “sets off” some kind of study session with Anki. Or, perhaps waking up “sets off” 15 minutes of reading. One thing sets off another thing. It can’t be random. It has to be a tradition. It’s what you do, right?

Not Being Any Good

The last thing I want to talk about that I think scares a lot of people is the idea that they’re “not going to be any good at it.” Perhaps you think you’re bad at learning. Or, maybe you think you’re bad at learning Japanese.

Maybe you are… maybe you aren’t. But you know what? That isn’t genetics, or anything like that (most likely). People learn to learn better, believe it or not. The smart kids in your class aren’t smart because they’re special… they just learned how to learn more effectively than you. You can learn to do the same thing. It’ll take some time, but it’s totally doable (and it will help you in everything you do for the rest of your life).

But, not being good at something is totally terrifying. I don’t think it should be, but for a lot of people it is.

Learn To Enjoy Learning

I’ve probably said this a bunch of times before on Tofugu… but seriously, you have to learn to enjoy learning. The enjoyment of learning is taken away from you when you’re in school. You learn to learn for grades, so you learn how to learn to get the best grade possible. You should try to change your thinking on this. Learn for the gratification of learning. Learn because it’s fun to solve mysteries and have epiphanies. It’s not easy to do… but it’s possible with time. Learning shouldn’t be about getting a better grade or anything like that. It should be about becoming better yourself.

Every time you start learning or start studying, try to think of this. Remind yourself. Eventually, I hope, it will come true for you. It’s kind of like that period after you graduate from college (or maybe high school). There’s about three years where you don’t read anything because you’ve learned to dislike reading. Then, it slowly starts coming back, like plants after a volcanic eruption. You learn to enjoy reading again. You can do the same thing with studying too.

Learn To Love Failure

Failure is awesome. For some reason we’re taught to hate it. This is another thing that takes some getting used to if you’ve always thought getting an ‘F’ sucks and deserves punishment.

In real life, however, getting an ‘F’ just means you failed. What is failure? Something you can learn from. In fact, there’s nothing better to learn from. It means you took a risk, and it means you know more than the other guy. It also means you probably have an idea how to do things right the second time, or the third time, and so on.

Most of the time, though, our failures will be small (and possibly a part of success). Even when you do something right, there’s something that’s wrong about it. Instead of basking in glory with your success, focus in on your failures. Think of how awesome they are when you take a look at them. Why are they awesome? Because they’re teaching you a lot more than your success is teaching you.

And, with Japanese, there are going to be things you’re not as good at. Maybe it’s kanji. Maybe it’s vocab. Your automatic inclination will be to avoid those things more and more, because you fail at them more. No. Don’t do it. Guess what? People who focus in on their failures and spend more time with their failures win in the end. Do what you suck at and do it a lot. Everyone else is only focusing on what they’re good at. You know what happens if you do the opposite? You jet ahead… really, really fast. No competition.

Consistency Wins

And lastly, if you’re worried about not being any good at learning Japanese, remember this. Consistency wins over everything. Study every day. Even if it’s a little bit. This is a war of attrition. Consistency will win you that war, every single time.

So What’s So Scary About Learning Japanese?

Hopefully not much, now, but let me know in the comments what scares you, and I’ll see if I can help out a bit.

P.S. Boo! We’re on Twitter.
P.P.S. I ain’t scared of no Tofugu Facebook Page

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  • Scott Wallis

    You have just blown my mind

  • jorge

    didnt read it completely but just seing the first quarter of this is really convincing, im native spanish speaker, already know english, and im actually studying japanese, i didnt “have” time, but as you said i choose a day to wake earlier for assisting japanese clases on saturday mornings, ( damn i cant sleep as much as before), and when you start being able to form some few phrase you will feel awesome with yourself and no going to want to interrupt the process, ohh boy i remember when i first started being able to translate to romaji my first hiragana sentences even though i still didnt understand what ir says, or learning your first kanjis ( rain one is awesome, it actually looks like rain, some how, or even the one of umbrella, hahaha little people down of a “roof”, ohh men unforgettable), i passed about 6 months choosing between japanese, italian, russian or german until keeping with japanese because it is challenging learning a new way of writing, you will from this point going to want to learn more languages even when this one is not finished, im already about to start french lessons, i know that already said more than needed and im sorry, so the important is:
    ONCE YOU MAKE YOUR VERY FIRST PHRASES AND START LEARNING THE HIRAGA, KATAKANA AND KANJIS, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO REGREAT CHOOSING JAPANESE AS YOUR NEW LANGUAGE. 

  • Havokmoobii

    Timeboxing. Is. Amazing.

    I started AJATTing recently and am working through RTK. Every morning I do my kanji reviews and seeing 200 due cards can be pretty scary. Doing 10-10 timeboxes just tears through em though.

  • Anonymous

    What’s scary to me is knowing once I do know Japanese I should probably use it… to talk to… people. I’m already nervous talking to people in English. XD

  • Hailey

    Honestly, I’m terrified of Kanji. Hiragana is fun, I’m so-so with the grammar, and I love trying to speak the language, but Kanji is my evil clown D= But I keep trying regardless…

  • http://twitter.com/ryuuzaraki jace brown

    the post was so long and cumbersome i figured instead of reading it it would be easier for me to just sit down and study (–_–)

    GREAT JOB!!!
    it worked like a charm ;)

  • Michelle

    Fantastic article Koichi!

  • http://www.tofugu.com/ Hashi

    Hey, if you learn Japanese then you can always talk to robots! Scary, scary robots.

  • Willian Pestana

    Until now I have been studying Japanese for almost two years, every day. In the last four months I significantly reduce my Japanese/English study because of the university.
    The 30-30 method is obvious and amazingly effective, but, unfortunately, nobody does. I think I should try this method. 

    Thanks for the lesson, or should I say, slap in the face! :)

  • ajewell

    Loved this, and the fact that I could apply this wisdom to more than just my Japanese studies was icing on the cake. 有難うございました!

  • http://www.tofugu.com koichi

    lol, I can be happy with that, haha

  • http://twitter.com/DraNKa kluska leniwa

    Thanks Koichi! I have SERIOUS motivation problems right now, and I think I’ll try this timeboxing + daily routine methods. It’s not about studying japanese, in fact it might do this in my ‘fun time’ and so I could…omigosh, study while I study! Wow! I’m stucked in this ‘scared to start’ phase now , and boy I do know something about excuses.
    Thanks again for a wonderful text!

  • Loves Mystery In The Sand

    can I just say you are using amateur in the wrong context.

    Amateur’s meaning is actually ‘one who has a love for something, a devotee’

    I don’t mean to nit-pick but I hope to return amateur it’s actual meaning to people’s minds. The word gets missed used very often. People think the word means someone who is not a professional, and I am an amateur filmmaker, writing amateur, amateur photographer, amateur of architecture and I would like people know the true meaning of this. What are you an amateur of? Wouldn’t you rather be an amateur of certain things than a professional? The word has a great meaning to define someones tie to something. 

  • Shannon

    This was an excellent article Koichi.  When I started reading it I didn’t thinking there would be much stuff in it that it would be useful to me because I didn’t feel like I was “afraid” of learning Japanese, and I try to work in some study time any chance I get (which is few and far between so it is kind of a treat), but damn I was wrong.  There are so many useful tips and strategies in here that I think will be very helpful to me and you explained very well about how to utilize them.  I also like the humor, made it fun to read. :)  Arigato!

  • Hailey

    That’s why I’m learning Japanese!!! Duh!!

  • http://twitter.com/Darknaviexe Darknaviexe

    Bookmarked. I will never forget this post. Ever. I will use all instructions noted.

  • combatfighter

    True that!!! OoO/

  • http://riechanster.blogspot.com Riechan

     A Totally awesome article! And you can use your advice for everything else too! Thankyou so much!

  • Kellylav143

    I do the 30-30 thing! It’s great for people like me with a bit of a temper (when it comes to having to try hard at something) =)

  • Matthew

    I really enjoyed this article, very informative. We all make up excuses, I for example, often am worried I am going too slow, or look foolish to the more experienced. Therefore, I occasionally feel like I am just wasting time that could be applied into another hobby.

    One of my biggest obstacles, however, is my accent. I was born and raised in a small Appalachian community, so I have a somewhat heavy country accent. This can easily be heard in my Japanese and plays a factor in how I pronounce some words. Voice recognition software, such as the one included in Rosetta Stone, even picks up on this and will not accept my pronunciation on the vocabulary. I am not sure how to overcome this other than to lose my accent, but as any southern will tell you, that “ain’t easy.” 

    With that all said, I still plan on pushing forward and making the best out of what I have. Lets just hope practice really does make perfect. :P

  • Tiffany Harvey

    I totally recommend the book  ‘Remembering the Kanji’ book to learn the kanji easily & quickly (work through it along with the Reviewing the Kanji website). I was able to get through whole thing, over 2,000 kanji, in 2.5 months. You will have to put in a lot of work if you want to get through it that quick, but after that you won’t really have to worry about them.

  • Havokmoobii

    RTK + Anki = Beasting through the kanji in less than a month.

  • Havokmoobii

    I lied. It’ll be just about a month after thinking about it. Its just been a very quick month!

  • Hailey

    Thanks for the suggestion! I will defiantly check it out! I don’t think I could go through the whole thing in a month, but any resource that helps me understand the bugger works for me

  • Havokmoobii

    Yeah 50-75 a day can be abit rough. Just do as many as you can manage. No matter how few you do a day if you do it every day you will eventually run out of pages. :)

  • 辞書じゃない

    My dictionary has “a person inexperienced or unskilled in a particular activity” for one of the definitions. Also, “missed used” should be “misused.”

  • Anonymous

    I started with that book many, many years ago long before Anki and websites, etc. and it was a b!tch.  Never got past 600.  Now, finally, using the tools available to me, I experimented and found that 15 a day worked well for me.  And you know, with 15 a day I made a lot more progress than with zero a day and after a while (I don’t know exactly how long, there were interruptions along the way, but let’s say less than a year and a half), I completed all 3007 this week.

    Sure, it took a lot longer than a month, but I got there eventually and now I KNOW them.  You can too.

  • Loves Mystery In The Sand

    Yes isn’t it sad that the dictionary has even begun to acknowledge the words misused meaning. Also thank you for nit-picking.

  • Farrah

    at work we often get Japanese customers..and occasionally I speak with some of the basic greetings and they often tell me how clear i sound..if that doesn’t motivate a person who is trying to speak Japanese..

  • Juliet

    Dictionaries don’t make the rules, they *report* the meaning of words, which do not always remain the same since language isn’t static. So over time if enough people agree on a usage, that’s what defines a word.
     
    The word “amateur” still retains its old positive meaning in some contexts, as with amatuer magicians, filmmakers, etc. (those who do it for the love of it) vs professionals (those who make a living doing it). Of course, one sometimes has to remind people of that… :/

  • J.

    All I can think to help you is to practice making the sounds; hearing a native say a word or syllable, then mimicking as best as possible, and paying attention to the shapes your mouth makes, etc. and how that creates slightly different sounds. Recording yourself helps.

    I actually was trying too hard to “sound Japanese.” When I relaxed a bit, paid attention to how natives *actually* pronounced stuff (instead of making educated guesses), and read dialogue with some emotion instead of blandly, it came out sounding much better.

  • Dolphinwing

    what scares me about Japanese is.. the number system. friggin ridiculous if you ask me

  • Luke Cook

    I really think that kanji and having to learn hiragana/katakana is what scares people. It applies to Russian, Korean, Czech…etc as well, any language using a different character set instantly looks far more intimidating!

  • http://twitter.com/shollum Shollum

    I understand things being overwhelming. I am particularly overwhelmed by kanji and vocabulary or perhaps the relationship between the two. My reasoning is that the most efficient way to learn a language is to learn with what you already know, but to start that I need words that can describe other words.
    To learn words, I need associate them with their written form and since the Japanese language has so many homophones, I need to learn kanji.
    To learn kanji, I need to associate a series of lines into a basic meaning or word. The best case scenario would have me associate kanji with Japanese vocabulary, which would cause an infinite loop.
    The end result is, I need to learn kanji first with english (i.e. from RTK) before I can continue on to my most efficient learning plan. However, that is quite intimidating.

    I also don’t have any idea how to effectively use RTK. Should I read several kanji panels and enter them into Anki, should I meticulously practice each and every kanji panel, or should I do something completely different? I was leaning towards the first one, since I am aiming toward recognizing them in an efficient way and not becoming a master of calligraphy. At least at first.

    If you read all of that, thank you, you’re either very kind or very bored, maybe both. Of course, you’re even kinder if you help me out by giving your opinion.

  • Havokmoobii

    Hey Shollum. I am currently working on RTK(1550 in) while doing AJATT. This might not work for everyone, but the way I am learning them is through a combination of the book and a shared deck on Anki called “Lazy Kanji + Mod”. With the deck I read through the book learn and write 15-25 kanji at a time(50-75 a day. Thats a little overkill though. No need to do this many), then go to the deck and see if I can remember the kanji from the keywords and the story. If i get the word right I mark it to show the next day and the next time and every time afterwards I grade it like this..

    0: Forgot the keyword or wrote the kanji wrong from memory
    1: Forgot and element and had to look at the kanji to see how to write it, but got the word.
    2: Was unsure of one of the elements and checked it to make sure.
    3: Wrote the kanji just from reading the story and knew the keyword.

    I forgot to mention that everytime the card shows up you attempt to write it from memory.. kinda obvious from the grading scale though. Like I said this is just the strats I use. It may not be the best for you.

    Further reading:
    http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/how-to-learn-kanji-using-an-srs
    http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/lazy-kanji-cards-a-new-srs-card-format
    http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/the-lazy-kanji-kendo-mod

    Good luck :)

  • Michael Halcomb

    Your bit on 30-30 reminded me of the Pomodoro Technique.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique
    I love it!

  • http://twitter.com/shollum Shollum

    Thanks! Your method looks quite manageable, not too slack but not so intense that it turns me away from studying. I will probably pick up the pace once I get used to the method (I have a lot of time) since I plan to get through the first book within one and a half months… plan to.

    I might change somethings like you said, no one does things exactly the same. Heck, I don’t even make my shoe insoles the exact way the instructions say to. Instructions are to point you in the right direction (would explain why people call them directions sometimes) and to give enough information to be able to improvise.

    Anyway, thank you again for the good instructions and information!

  • http://twitter.com/malydok Marek Pietrzak

    I am starting to feel the pressure of autumn on my shoulders and the breath of winter on my back, which results in great de-motivation and sadness. And that affects everything I do right now, be it studying or working out.
    This post has raised my spirits by kilometers. I will start learning Japanese seriously now, as I always wanted but found gazillions of excuses not to. I will find a way to be the best in the world at everything I do.

    I will not fail you Koichi, thou have changed my life today.

  • JackiJinx

    I’ve been having some serious difficulty being able to understand and communicate in Japanese, but writing and reading wise, I’m at an upper intermediate level. It’s so difficult and embarrassing because people are impressed when I read from a book, but are genuinely confused when I can’t understand them say rather basic things, and then proceed to explain these things that I already know. It’s so frustrating. The last Japanese tutor I had didn’t focus on these problems at all, even when I expressed them. I’ve been studying for over three years now, and it honestly almost makes me want to stop. Almost.

    At least these articles help energize at least a little bit. Thank you.

  • Steve

    I didn’t read this article, but considering that I’ve said for years and years that ‘fear’ is what keeps people from learning Japanese… yeah. For whatever reason, many people are led to believe that Japanese is impossible, and that they’d be better off waiting for someone to translate it for them.

  • Tahna

    My problem is remembering everything I’ve learnt, During the day while I’m working I try to go over what I learnt in my head and find myself forgetting bits and pieces of what I’ve already studied. It makes me feel a bit down and not so motivated when I know I have to go back and go over everything again. But I continue to persist and and just keep repeating the words even while I’m out shopping and people look at me weird, lol. I also have to make sure I say them right, even though to me it sounds ok, to a Japanese person it’s probably laughable. 

  • Jonahpia_ferniz

    nose bleed

  • http://thoanguyen.org/ Thoa

    I feel you and AJATT have similar thinking, except your writing is a lot less long-winded and a lot more interesting and funny. Love everything said on here, especially the “tradition” vs. “chore” thing. I’ve been trying to build that into my daily life for things I want to accomplish but I guess I’ll have to work harder to make sure I have the right triggers. THanks a lot Koichi!