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Hey, everyone.
I’m currently living in central Michigan without any other Japanese learners or Japan fans in sight (or hearing range for that matter). Those around me, including family, think of learning a second language for “no reason” to be strange and a waste of time. Partially due to this, as well as some other factors, I’ve restarted my Japanese learning multiple times. This time is through TextFugu, and I’ve made it further than ever. Unfortunately, that’s only as far as season 2 and everyone’s favorite particle.
Does anyone else have this kind of adversity? If so, how do you get through everything? With my currently long work hours, I’m barely keeping up with Anki, let alone progressing.
As far as Anki goes, if its becoming hard to manage you need to stop your TF progression for a bit. Focus completely on Anki for a bit and concentrate on getting things correct. The more you get correct the longer it will be before they show up again and your total load of reviews will decrease significantly.
I’ve recently done this myself as I’m also learning Kanji through Koichi’s WaniKani program which is very similar to Anki, but with a better UI and you have to type in the answers. I haven’t done my Anki reviews today and this is what I currently have in queue (If you used my Anki guide I linked you to and set up your Master Decks how I described, you’ll understand the following):
TextFugu 1 – Vocab: 6
TextFugu 2 – Sentences: 5
TextFugu 3 – Kana: 2
TextFugu 4 – Katakana Vocab: 4
TextFugu 5 – Radicals: 7
TextFugu 6 – Kanji: 2
TextFugu 7 – Kanji Vocab: 1So I only have 27 reviews to do. That’s not very many at all. If I had more than this, say 20 on each deck, how I do them is when I’m doing something else I’ll take a 5 min break and do one of the decks. Then I continue what I was doing until my next break, and repeat. If I’m working, I use the synch feature with Ankiweb and I do them on my phone during my breaks. Usually one deck per break. At lunch I do one at the start and one at the end. So it goes something like this.
Wake up in the morning, do Deck 1
Morning break, do Deck 2
Lunch begins, do Deck 3
Lunch ending, do Deck 4
Afternoon break, do Deck 5
Get home, do Deck 6
After dinner, do Deck 7This ensures that they are done in small chunks so I don’t feel overwhelmed by them, and I have constant exposure during the day so Japanese is never too far from my mind. If I have fewer cards, I’ll do them all in three different sittings, rather than 7. If I have as few as I do today, I’ll do them all in one go.
I would also advise you to be more liberal with choosing the Easy option on Anki, you don’t have to be perfect with it to choose this option. If you do choose it, there will be a bigger gap until the next time you see it, so when it pops up again if you have trouble with it you’ll be forced to choose Again or Hard and it will circulate more for you. However you’ll find that more often than not, many of those cards you will remember and you can choose Easy again and won’t have to see them for some time.
I only ever use the Hard option for cards that I have just added to the deck. Otherwise I choose Good and if I can’t remember it next time I’ll fail it so it starts it’s rotation again. Once again I find that this does happen a bit, but I have more cards I actually do end up remembering and they start being pushed further back, rather than showing up every day.
As for the other bit…
I’m in the same boat, as I have no friends who have any desire to learn Japanese, even the few who do watch anime. My family thought it was interesting for the most part, though at the time I had planned to move to Japan. That said my family knew me well enough to know I would do anything I want to do, if I was determined, regardless of their opinions of it. So realizing that, they would generally not be supportive, but wouldn’t try to hinder me either.
My grandmother is a hardcore Christian though, so she was actually afraid of me learning Japanese as she thought it might somehow corrupt me. Yeah, I know…
That was when I started learning it about 10 years ago. Now days my wife thinks I’m a bit crazy for taking it up again as I’m also working towards my PhD in Psychology.
As implied already I learned at an early age that if I want to do something I just have to go for it regardless if others think it is worthwhile or not, as in the end if I limit myself to what others think I should be doing, I might as well be living in a cage, I’m not going to be happy. And as a result no one around me will be happy either.
It’s terrible when you don’t have people supporting you, but sometimes you just have to find the support yourself. Which is why this forum and other places like it are a great breakthrough in modernization. Here you can always find people who understand what you are doing and will support your goals.
So don’t give up, put in your best effort and know there are thousands like you who are trying to achieve the same goal, regardless of the reasons. ^_^
がんばって！
“…strange and a waste of time” – what would they *rather* you do with your time, I wonder? Most people have hobbies that won’t necessarily get them a career or the like; in your case, learning Japanese isn’t any different. I’m not looking for a job with Japanese language or to move to Japan, I’m just learning Japanese because it’s interesting (don’t even watch anime or read manga or any of the usual reasons). Thankfully my family are fine about it. Most likely they thought it was a little strange at first but overall I think they think it’s good that I’ve got a hobby that’s productive and somewhat intellectual :P Also, any foreign language on your CV/resume is always good, even if the job doesn’t require it – it’s not only a good talking point in interviews but it shows some good “transferable skills”. Seeing as the general public see Japanese as some mysterious, inscrutable, ridiculously difficult language to learn, it’ll certainly fool them into thinking you’re especially intelligent ;)
Learning the language myself and comparing it to 4 year degree programs in two different universities in two different countries, I would say especially intelligent isn’t off the mark. This crap is hard. :P
I have to agree, it is difficult, even early on. I can’t say much about later learning, as I’ve never quite gotten that far.
I started WaniKani a short while ago, and have been focusing on that for my radicals and kanji learning. Unfortunately, it doesn’t match well (yet!) with TextFugu. I’m trying to stick with the vocabulary and sentences with TextFugu (through Anki), though the vocab keeps tripping me up. It’s difficult when there’s no mnemonic for the words.
What would they rather I do with my time? I come from a working class family, so it’s expected that I’ll work until I retire, get married, have kids, then relax with numerous medical problems, and then pass on. Oh, and lots of TV. At least, that’s what my family seems to do. Religion is mixed in there, too. As the first member of my family to go to college, and go beyond that to a Master’s, I’m doing better than the rest when it comes to work. Still single in my 30′s, so they keep saying I’m falling behind. I they I’m expected to stop learning after college, but no one has said anything about that. Granted, I do get a lot of odd looks…
I’m learning Japanese because I want to learn Japanese. It’s partially to prove to myself that I can, partially to better understand a society very different from my own, and partially because I want to learn more about JAXA, as I’m a major fan of space exploration. I should probably mention that I enjoy learning. A lot.
I should probably mention that I’m planning a trip to Japan in a few years. I’m going to spend about five weeks, traveling the entire country, going to as many JAXA sites as I can, as well as many other places. As a lot of JAXA sites are off the beaten path, I feel that knowing Japanese would make travel far easier. It would also allow me to experience the various JAXA tours in Japanese. If I can keep up with my studies, I think I can learn enough in that time to have a great trip.
JAXA sites? That’s an interesting itinerary you’ve got in mind, there. =)
I reckon you’ll have a great trip regardless. Got any of the more traditional locations on your to-do list?
I greatly enjoyed the Japanese Gardens in Portland, OR, when I was there a few years ago. I’m actually thinking about moving there; I’m very tired of Michigan winters, especially after this one. As such, I want to see a lot of various gardens throughout the country. I was planning to climb Fuji-san, but I might be going outside of climbing season. I want to experience as many prefectures as I can, though I don’t know if I’ll visit Okinawa or not, yet. I’m going to plan the trip around JAXA and the gardens, for the most part. I’m looking to stay in ryokan, hostels, and possibly couch surfing as much as I can. Oh, and I feel I should visit both the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum to pay my respects; it’s the very least I can do since it was my own country that dropped the bombs on civilians in the first place.
Textfugu should line up fairly well with WaniKani in that you should learn more at WaniKani faster than what you’re learning here. I think everything up to Season 3 is covered in the first two levels or so.
Well, if you *do* eventually have kids, at least they’ll have a family more accepting of learning Japanese than you had :P
Hey :)
I am in a similar situation where, although there is a small Japanese community where I live, most of them would rather speak English to me anyway…
I have always had a huge interest in Japan/Japanese/culture since I lived in Japan as a young Air-Force brat, and see nothing wrong in learning a language just for the sake of it.
In fact, those who would tell you that you are wasting your time learning a language are crazy! It is so good for your brain, in addition to being super fun!
I am currently hammering my way through wani-kani and would highly recommend it since it is something you can do anywhere to learn (provided you have a smartphone) I am slowly making my way through textfugu for grammar, and have plans on learning, mostly, to read natively in Japanese.
If all goes well, I even plan on speaking in Japanese to my children (as my wife speaks to them in English).
In short, do what makes you happy :-)
That would have been so cool as a child to have one of my parents speak to me in a different language so I could pick it up.
Good job! ^_^
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