日本語の勉強

[ureshiimanga]

Hi everyone,

I’m really happy with all the response I’ve gotten on my posts. You’ve all been so kind. 😊
I don’t know if there are many people also here who learn Japanese, but let me know. I’d love to talk about it.
Let me start me start with why I want to learn in the first place.

In 2010 Gundam Wing released a series of official novels called Frozen Teardrop. I’ve been a fan of the show and I must admit particularly the character Heero Yuy since I first saw him. I was mesmerised 😂

So they released it. I went trough a lot of hurdles to collect some of them I just wanted them for the art. But when I got them and flicked trough it. It really peaked my interest and I wondered Is it possible to learn this.

Mind you I never finished high school due to circumstances, so my confidence in studying was pretty low. But then in 2014 I took the plunge and enrolled in a weekly Japanese class. Over the next 4 years I went to the classes, but to me it was sometimes a bit too difficult. So in 2018 I gave up. I couldn’t remember all the kanji, I just wasn’t feeling confident. (I also met my boyfriend then so I had other things on my mind 😂)

In the beginning of 2020 I was feeling restless again. Struggling a bit mentally because of the boredom I suddenly experienced at work. I wanted to be productive, learn something. So I decided to study as hard as I could. In the months jan-aug I really studied hard. Probably everyday. It became a bit of an obsession.

So the following year I decided to enrol again in those weekly classes. The sensei was probably very surprised to see me back. My obsession with studying has lessened a bit. But I still have the goal in sight to read Japanese, not necessarily those Frozen Teardrop novels, but I realised there are so many good Japanese books out there that are not available for the west and I kinda want to read them.

To anyone familiar with JLPT levels. My level is about N4. I’ve been trying to break through to N3, but there are still a lot things I need to learn.

In September classes start again. I’m kinda happy to get into it again. This summer I have been a bit lazy, but sometimes your mind needs to rest.

I apologise for any grammatical errors. English isn’t my first language.

Comments

[temris]

I love learning languages, and Japanese is one of them that I've been interested for nearly a decade now... 😅 I understand your struggle -- no matter what anyone says, the Kanji is a very hard obstacle to cross. But you actually persevered and it's very inspring to read your journey. You can do it!!

My problem is that I want to learn every language I come across haha !! o(￣┰￣*)ゞ I've studied Korean, Japanese and Russian; but the only one I feel comfortable with is English (I'm also a ESL human💃). The one that I've studied the most would be Korean, but I had to give up on studying it further because I don't think it was really my thing. When you start to learn a language, I find it very important to just bathe yourself in its culture. I'm not really into Korean culture except for some K-pop groups I listen to sometimes, so it was hard for myself to practice, save for a few interactions I've had with some artists on Twitter who enjoyed the same series I did.

It's not the case at all with Japanese -- like you, I like reading manga and I've also had the opportunity to try and scanlate a few chapters. I also enjoy J-drama and anime as well, so that checks the box for speaking and listening. However, because of how many other projects -- and other languages -- I've given time for, I've never actually got past the beginner level unfortunately. So I hope you don't give up!!

[ureshiimanga]

I totally understand you. I’ve also been interested in learning Korean and French. But then I saw all the Hangul I needed to learn and realised maybe that time is better spent learning kanji and progressing in that. 😅

I get what you mean with fully immersing yourself in the culture, that’s also one of the reasons why I didn’t push trough with Korean. While I do enjoy Kdramas, that spark I experience when I hear Japanese just isn’t there.

It’s nice to hear another language learners experience. The internet is full with people who learn so quickly. I’m definitely not one of those.

I hope you don’t give up on learning Japanese It’s never too late if you really want to do it.

一緒に頑張ろう!

[temris]

I think Hangul is one of the easiest alphabets I've ever faced. It's very systematic, therefore doesn't take long to learn in my opinion -- if you ever decide to return to it, you'll realize that too. And since you've progressed in Japanese; with how similar the two languages' grammars are, I think you'll be at a pretty good advantage as well!

The internet is full with people who learn so quickly.

That's so true, and it can be really disheartening sometimes. Like, you ask yourself, is the problem with me? Am I this stupid? 😭 Or at least I've done that multiple times while studying Russian! 😂

Why did you want to learn French if I may ask?

[ureshiimanga]

Especially when I first started learning Japanese and couldn’t understand simple grammar points. I am a very visual learner. So I always need lots of examples. I feel like learning any language you always feel like an idiot. 😂 Once you get comfortable with that uncomfortable feeling, that’s when you really can advance. Unfortunately I like staying in my comfort zone 😅

Maybe once I achieve N3 I might return to Hangul. I want to learn French because I live in Belgium. Here we have 2 (actually 3; German) official languages and French is one of them. I feel like it could come in handy for when I need it. I always admire people who can speak both.

[temris]

OOH I didn't know German is also an official language! I wish you good luck if you ever decide go with learning French too :)