My biggest problem studying Japanese is to find effective ways to study... I put in a lot of time to study but the outcome of my studies is not as good as I had hoped. I have been studying Japanese for around 8 Months now and even though I have seen a lot of improvements I'm still not grasping anything effectively. The feeling of putting in much time and see the small progress is what demotivates me the most, and It's making it harder to keep focusing on the goal. My biggest problem (I think) is that I'm focusing on too many resources and want to keep all of them going every single day, and focusing on every aspect of language learning... I need to find a way to study more effectively and to put everything I learn in to better practice, other than that I love to study Japanese and I keep holding on to that final goal! Thanks for these videos, it give me motiviation and inspiration to continue on with my journey. I just wish I had more knowledge of how to effectively retaining everything, and what works for me...
This is a really informativwe video. I am also currently studying Japanese as a language in highschool and continuing it on. Japanese is such a significant language, but has many tie-ins with other languages.The consistancy of japanese is purely making it apart of your daily routine and enjoying the language .
I really feel in the same way... languages (and probably most other things) are about consistency. It's about the hours you constantly put into the language and what you have to always look for is motivation and making the learning process painless and enjoyable.
One of the reasons learning any new language is hard, especially one far removed from our mother tongue, is that we start to forget our mother tongue. Eg. you said "there is a lot of reason" and corrected to "reasons" but if you were on your English game you'd know that the correct way is "there ARE a lot of reasons".
S. ザッくん This is so true! I'm brazilian and this happens to me too. Sometimes I'm so into the language that I come up with some weird expressions in my mother tongue. My english is a little bit rusty. I hope you got what I meant.
I've been at mid-level Japanese for most of the last year, and studying 3-4 hours per day. I think a huge part of what so difficult for me is feeling like I'm not making progress Like, the time that I put in is not resulting in increased ability. I'm probably somewhere near the level that you aspire to by the end of the year, and for me, my goal is to be able to consume typical media, especially novels, podcasts and movies in Japanese comfortably. I feel like I have been able to talk comfortably with Japanese people this whole year, but I am still not able to do natural native media. So for me, not knowing if all the effort I'm putting in is actually doing anything.
Stella-Terra Clemens It's also the case that to go from where you are to the next level requires significantly more time/effort/vocab/etc. than the beginning stages. In and after the intermediate levels, you start seeing diminishing returns since each new word accounts for a smaller and smaller percentage of general use. So, it will feel like you're making slower progress (since you are, on a per-word or per-kanji basis). Personally, I've never taken any language to this super-advanced level, since once I can already speak, it's been more exciting to learn an entirely new language. But I will likely spent a good chunk of next year doing exactly that with one or more of the languages I speak. 頑張って!
The way I've heard this put is simple but not easy. Like many things in life, learning a language isn't a particularly complex task but it requires a significant amount of persistence. I think this is why proper goal setting is so important.
Great video with lots of discussion worthy content. I'll add that in addition to knowing the amount of time needed, with Japanese we pretty much know the amount of items needed. For N2 (the ~900 hour category), you'll need ~1000 kanji, ~6000 vocabulary and ~200 grammar points. This is not just time to learn the material (~70 hours kanji, 300 hours vocabulary, 70 hours grammar) but also that much time again or more reviewing what is learned. Hell, even something that's not studying but still essential for becoming better in the language takes time. It takes time to read 20 pages of one's favorite book or to watch an hour of one's favorite drama. However, if people don't read or listen to native material (even for fun), it limits how good they can become.
ありがとうございますfor this video Shawn-san! It's actually your project with Japanese in a year that enticed me to start learning Japanese more deeper, because before i knew only an alphabet, some Kanji's radicals, that was it. And your continuous progress makes dream about something bigger and higher. Like the motto of the ''Paris-Saint-Germain'', football team: ''Rêvons plus grand'' that says all ;)
Vlad Vdovychenko you could do your own private video blog to record your advances in japanese （⌒▽⌒）I'm making kanji animations with mnemonics by school grade to remember them in an easy way, and it would be great to know your opinion as a japanese student. Anyways good luck with your japanese ヽ(´▽｀)/がんばってね！
I think difficult is trying to accomplish something in spite of one or more forces actively trying to stop you. Something that, no matter how hard you try, you may still not accomplish. Getting something that someone else also wants, when they have the same opportunity to get it that you do, and they are just as good at trying to get it as you are. Learning is not hard, cumbersome maybe, but not hard. Not by my definition at least.
This was a great video. Japanese has not been very "difficult" for me to learn as a language. I was introduced to the language from a young age when I went to Japan at age three and hearing the language from a very young age as well. I am part Japanese as well. I grew up with the language around me but didn't learn the language until I took classes in high school for three years. I also had to relearn the language after not studying for over 10 years. I had trouble writing at first. I could read just fine though. I understood majority of what I was hearing in anime as well about 30-40% at the beginning. I'm near an N3 level but I want to be higher than that. I'm going to Japan to celebrate my birthday at the end of September. I will be one of the two translators on the trip. My mother can only speak Japanese. My speaking skills aren't that great since I don't practice that often.
Hello, there! This was a very encouraging video. You are doing very well, and you make a very good point. The language itself is a bit challenging but the most challenging part is finding what works for you (in terms of progress) and motive. In the beginning it can be reallly discouraging when you feel as if you aren't making much progress. If you keep at it, focus on your goals and why you are learning, you can do it! I have been learning for about three years now, and I have reached lower-intermediate level recently. If I were to give up in the beginning like most Japanese beginners do, I would have never gotten this far ^^ So, keep up the great work, and I will be following your progress :) Take care! -Victoria
Honestly I think difficulty depends on interest, I haven't watched the whole video so idk if he talks about this, but I believe that if you have no interest in learning a language (or really anything for that matter) than it will be harder for you rather than someone who enjoys learning this stuff and is very interested in the culture and/ or the language. But that's just my opinion 😅 Edit: lol, I made a grammar mistake, sorry.
The reason you think that is because you already have heaps of prior experience learning other languages. For me, trying to learn a second language for the first time and never being in a language classroom before, it was extremely difficult and confusing trying to figure out how to go about learning Japanese. I think you're taking a lot of expertise you took time to build up for granted.
