Summary: Reflecting on four years in the Japanese department, I hope I can still have a calm heart to accept those things I cannot change; I hope I still have the courage to change those things I can change; I hope I have the wisdom to distinguish between the two.
Re: Starting Life in Japanese Learning from Zero#
Preface#
I have wanted to write an article recalling how I learned Japanese for a long time, but due to various reasons, I delayed it for a long time. Until I saw someone asking on the [[freemdict]] forum how adults can self-study Japanese, I finally made up my mind to systematically organize my long-accumulated thoughts.
Friendly reminder: The first half of this article is all about memories, while the second half is about sharing methods.
Questions#
I want to self-study and don’t want to enroll in a class anymore. I once attended a well-known foreign language training institution in Xi'an called Modern Japanese-Chinese, which is primarily focused on making money. The teachers there used a rote memorization approach, and Japanese was their strongest and original specialty. A class often had thirty to forty students, mostly college students from local universities. Considering that there are so many tutorial videos and textbooks available online, and since I can control my own study time, I decided to self-study.
I have tried self-studying Japanese twice before, but I am ashamed to say I gave up halfway. The first time I bought a book on modern Japanese, but I gave up when I reached the fifty sounds chart. The second time was three or four years ago when I followed a famous Japanese teacher's free course on YouTube, where he taught Japanese from scratch in Chinese. I finished the fifty sounds chart, and at that time, I could immediately react to how to pronounce each sound when I saw it, but I could only do about one-third of the time when I heard the pronunciation and had to react with the writing. I also gave up halfway. Now I want to start self-studying again. My learning goal is relatively low, to reach a level where I can read Japanese web pages and some simple Japanese books with the help of machine translation. For example, I like to read travel books by Japanese travel enthusiasts, some of which are only available in Japanese without Chinese or English translations. I have always wanted to learn Japanese to read these books. I am not setting any goals for listening and speaking for now. I think I need to reach N3 level for reading.
As an adult self-studying Japanese, I would appreciate it if experienced seniors could share their learning processes and experiences, including learning materials and some methods.
Thank you!
https://forum.freemdict.com/t/topic/27770
Learning Process#
Streamlined Version#
Although I majored in Japanese in college, I only chose it because I didn't want to study math. I only knew about the Japanese major because my score was just enough to get into a foreign language university not far from home.
However, when I started trying to self-study Japanese during the summer vacation, I realized something was wrong: I was actually a complete beginner in Japanese, and after two whole months of summer vacation, I hadn't even memorized the fifty sounds chart; as for my interest in Japanese, I am ashamed to say I didn't even know about Bilibili before entering university.
However, I didn't realize the seriousness of the problem until after military training.
In my freshman year, I felt no joy in learning Japanese at all; every day I was thinking about "how to drop out," and my mental state was "I have never thought that learning Japanese is fun."
Fortunately, I encountered a few good teachers whose encouragement and help allowed me to persevere.
Starting from my junior year, I gradually began to experience the joy of learning Japanese, and after graduation, I found a job related to Japanese, so I can be considered somewhat of an "adult self-studying Japanese" experiencer.
Detailed Version#
Freshman - Sophomore Year#
End of July 2019: I received the admission notice for the Japanese major and then went to buy an introductory book on the fifty sounds chart, but I hadn't finished it by the time school started (laughs, so I guess I can be considered a self-learner).
October 2019 - January 2020 (first semester of freshman year): After military training, classes officially began, and under the pressure of the teaching schedule, I resumed the study routine of my senior year in high school.
January 2020: During winter vacation, the homework was N5 past exam papers, but it was very painful to do. Moreover, due to the pandemic and online teaching, I was too lazy to even copy the answers. Since I was at the bottom of all my major courses, the intensive reading teacher required suggested that I must watch three Japanese dramas during the winter vacation, but after much deliberation, I only managed to finish [["Unnatural Death"]].
February - June 2020 (second semester of freshman year): Although it was online learning, my routine was still close to that of my senior year in high school. Because I was not very efficient at home and couldn't go out to relieve stress, I doubted myself every day, repeatedly struggling with whether to drop out and retake the year or to apply for a computer science major that I "seemed" more interested in.
Out of curiosity, I started self-studying programming, but soon realized that retaking the year wouldn't change anything: during my middle and high school years, apart from what was required by school, I never "actively" learned anything. Changing my major would not make much difference from being in the Japanese department.
Fortunately, during the final exams, I finally wasn't at the bottom anymore; in the Japanese Overview course, I even achieved a perfect score of 5.0, the only one in the entire grade. Speaking of which, I was somewhat like the original poster; I was very interested in Japanese culture and customs at that time, so I read the "Know Japan" series in my spare time, which finally sparked some interest in Japanese.
July 2020 - August 2021: The summer homework was N4 past exam papers. Due to poor performance in the intensive reading course, I was closely monitored by the teacher: I had to send her a one-minute audio recording of my Japanese reading every day. The topics were not limited, as long as it was in Japanese, she would point out the areas where I read poorly, but I completely slacked off after about ten days. The slacking off was partly because I was constantly being pointed out for a bunch of pronunciation errors, which gradually broke my mentality; on the other hand, I started systematically learning Python and didn't spend as much time on Japanese.
September 2020 - June 2021 (sophomore year): If I couldn't pass the Japanese major Level 4 exam (N2 level) in the second semester of my sophomore year, graduation would be a bit troublesome. So, it was pretty much the same as my freshman year, still following a high school-like routine. At this point, the teachers had actually started to let us be more independent, but I was still self-studying Python, so I maintained the high school routine, but I still spent a lot of time on Japanese, mainly to keep up with the school's teaching pace.
The winter vacation homework was N3 past exam papers; since the intensive reading teachers from freshman and sophomore years did not participate in junior year teaching, there was no summer homework.
Additionally, during my sophomore year, I received a scholarship for the first (and last) time. It's a bit regrettable that I missed the first place by just a little bit and didn't get a first-class scholarship. Although the amount was small and it was just a departmental award, it was a very important encouragement for me personally: when I learned that I received the scholarship, it was the first time I felt that "the Japanese department might also be a good choice for me," and I finally wanted to delve deeper into Japanese. Although I had already decided not to pursue literature and translation, but rather a more peculiar direction of "computational linguistics" in "natural language processing."
Junior - Senior Year#
July 2021 - December 2021 (first semester of junior year): I registered for the N1 exam. Since I saw an internship I was very interested in at the end of October, and I started researching the v1 version of the "Japanese Non-Dictionary Dictionary," I basically didn't review and took the exam without preparation (囧). The embarrassing thing is that I didn't pass (I only scored 91, and you need 100 to pass N1).
January 2022 - July 2022 (second semester of junior year): I interned at RWS China, but not in a translation position; instead, I developed internal translation tools for the company using Python and VBA.
While interning, I prepared for the N1 exam again, but this time I still didn't finish the red and blue textbooks and just did a few years' worth of past papers before going back to the exam. Fortunately, I was lucky; not only did I pass, but I also scored 139 (well, I’m just a slacker; it took me three years in the Japanese major to achieve this score).
The only thing I can show off is that I scored 59 in reading, probably because there were fewer classes in junior year, and I spent every day in the library, going through all the Japanese original books available at school, and I wrote a School Library Tour Guide, recommending books that I thought were suitable for undergraduates in my alma mater's library. However, this guide is not suitable for students outside the school; first, the library is not open to the public; second, these books are relatively old, and it's hard to find electronic versions online.
Starting from my senior year, I was basically focused on how to "use" Japanese rather than learning it.
July 2022 - June 2023 (senior year): Since the school only allows senior students to take a month of internship leave, I could continue my remote internship openly. While slacking off, I began systematically researching Japanese natural language processing and computational linguistics, reading many papers from teachers at the National Institute for Japanese Language, releasing versions 2 and 3 of the "Japanese Non-Dictionary Dictionary," and writing my first paper titled "Database Index Design for Japanese Dictionary Applications Based on Morphology." Since I planned to come to Japan for my master's degree, I switched from an internship at a foreign company where I had been slacking off for nearly a year to a 995 IT outsourcing company (mainly because I could be dispatched to work in Japan, making it easier to collect materials and prepare for the master's exam).
July 2023 - now: After working in Japan for nearly a year, I found that the so-called "after coming to Japan, your Japanese will be great" is completely a joke: just "speaking Japanese" does not improve conversational ability; what truly enhances conversational ability is "repeatedly reviewing recordings of oneself speaking Japanese" and "targeted extensive practice." Many of the older employees around me speak worse than I, a fresh graduate. Moreover, due to not having a Japanese corner twice a week for two or three hours each time, I feel that my speaking ability has regressed. Since I am not in a sales position, what I say daily is just a few words, completely lacking the satisfaction of chatting with foreign teachers and classmates in the Japanese corner...
Since I took the N1 exam in junior year, I have rarely looked at grammar books. However, I have consistently participated in the Japanese corner since sophomore year, and even during my senior year when I returned to school for my defense, I stayed a few extra days just to participate in the Japanese corner one more time. Now, when I listen to music on "shuffle," I occasionally hear recordings of myself awkwardly chatting with classmates and foreign teachers in the Japanese corner, and I can't help but laugh actually, my skin has thickened, and I can face the fact that my speaking is garbage.
In senior year, I accidentally came across jidoujisho, a very powerful immersive learning tool, which finally allowed me to read extensively in a more efficient way. I have now completely read the subtitles of 4 or 5 anime series and made nearly 1000 Anki flashcards, feeling that my Japanese has finally entered the door.
Although I don't have plans to retake the N1 exam in the short term, I can still feel that my Japanese is indeed improving: in junior year, I could only nibble through a paper segment by segment; now I can switch back and forth between extensive and intensive reading according to my needs. I can read books in the field of Japanese natural language processing and computational linguistics at a faster speed and efficiency, which can be considered some preparation for my future master's studies.
Learning Methods#
My first suggestion for the original poster is: have enough time and patience. As a student majoring in Japanese, I spent almost all my time in college on Japanese and computer science, rarely participating in campus activities, and basically spent every day in the library. But even with such intensity, I only passed the N1 exam in the second semester of my junior year (which took about 3 years), so please be patient.
The second suggestion: review more. I don't just mean reviewing vocabulary; I mean that all important things related to Japanese that you see should be reviewed regularly. I don't recommend using any vocabulary memorization software; instead, I suggest using Anki directly (you can add anything to it, and it will automatically schedule reviews with far greater efficiency than the "Ebbinghaus forgetting curve").
The third suggestion: definitely don't just look at grammar books and textbooks; spend more time on extensive listening and reading—the earlier, the better. In fact, once you reach N4 level, you should start extensive reading. From my personal observation, starting to read the "subtitles" of anime and Japanese dramas that you have already "watched" several times will be relatively easy.
Additionally, I strongly recommend using apps like jidoujisho and yomichan that can assist in looking up words to help you quickly adapt during the initial painful phase of extensive reading.
The fourth suggestion: give up on MOJi, Hujiang, Youdao, and other Japanese-Chinese dictionaries early, and strive to adapt to Japanese-Japanese dictionaries that provide more accurate explanations. If you have an Apple device, buy the dictionary from Moku Shoten. If you don't have an Apple device, go to the freemdict forum to download mdx format dictionaries.
By the way, since the original poster wants to read travel-related content, then go read materials in that area. Don't worry about the difficulty, and don't care whether the content you read will be on the N1 exam; the most important thing in extensive reading is that you are interested. As long as you pay attention to reviewing the content you have read in a timely manner, reading anything can improve your language ability.
Sorry for rambling for so long, but I still want to share something truly useful: