So I started becoming interested in learning Japanese mainly from jdramas. But for many years, I thought it was too hard and not worth the time. It actually wasn’t until the summer before my 2nd year, that I decided to really study the language. My school required one year of foreign language for all students and I applied for study abroad in Japan in my 1st year, so I chose to study Japanese seriously at that moment.
Now 5-6 years later, I am really glad I made that choice years ago. I think it has really improved my mental health, community relationships, and confidence in the long run.
However here are some things I wish I known though.
DISCLAIMER: These are my personal opinions, NOT facts.
*If you decide to study seriously, you are in it for the long haul…I mean super long haul. It takes years for the average person to even get to intermediate level, not even N1.(It is a bit easier for Korean or Chinese native speakers)
*People will always make judgements about you for studying Japanese. Usually they will be impressed you are learning a difficult language, but sometimes they will think it’s for anime/weeb culture or something.
(For me, people have always assumed that I speak Japanese at home, which I don’t. I speak English at home with my parents and extended family.)
*Japanese doesn’t get much easier as you go up. It just builds and builds upon each other. There’s an intermediate plateau for some people. But your mental endurance improves, so you handle and understand more difficult material. And you’ll find that your skills such as listening vs speaking vs reading will start to vary more as you go up. You will have more defined strengths and weaknesses.
*Physical flashcards for vocabulary are not that useful beyond the basic words. Eventually, you will get to a point where there’s just too many words to remember and physical flashcards take too much time to make. They also get messy and take up a lot of space. I think for hiragana and katakana, it is good. Quizlet and Anki will become your close friends.
*Always be reading in Japanese. I had a book aversion for the longest time, so I never realized its benefits until later on.
*Instagram studygram and the studygram community will save your motivation and boost your confidence. If I hadn’t decided to turn @framedinbeige into a studygram, I don’t know if I would have gotten so far in Japanese.
I hope some of this insights are useful for your own personal language learning journey.
framed in beige 