How to make learning Japanese less painful

It’s the time of year again for the dreaded JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test; you can read about my experience last year here).

I have a love-hate relationship with language learning: I need the skill, but it is f—ing hard to master.

There are times which I just don’t want to look at my textbooks, especially after a warm soup dinner and episodes of Desperate Housewives, Dexter, and Gossip Girl beckon.

But if there is no discipline instilled, nothing would get done, so lately, I’ve been very preoccupied with juggling Japanese study, Beauty Box, and teaching English since my return from NYC, Toronto, and SF.

How do I make myself study? I think of how nice it would be to understand this extremely challenging language and have Japanese people comprehend me.

Life does get easier when you absorb more of the language, but I’ve to say, I’ve only just begun to feel quite comfortable in navigating daily life — for anything else, I need to consult my language exchange partner, whom I value very much and knows exactly what I struggle with in Japan. I pretty much tell her what I think and she does the same when it comes to her difficulties with English and dealings with foreigners for her work. She’s probably one of the few Japanese friends I have which is truly a rare thing in life here for me.

Recently, it struck me that some of my students have been studying English for almost 20 years and they are fluent. But they still strive to be even better, which is truly admirable because they don’t just rest on their laurels and think they’ve got it all figured out. I sense there is a great love for learning a foreign language and that is key to making progress.

But how do you keep loving it? One thing I’ve learned is not to push yourself over the limit when it comes to studying a language. Once you do that, you would just think it’s a chore. Find the speed at which you are comfortable with and stick with it.

It’s tempting to be inspired by others who are more hardworking — I have a friend who likes to study two hours a day, but after trying this for three days, I just gave up. What is optimal for someone else may not be so for you. What suits me best is a once or twice a week study schedule, on top of my weekly 90-minute lesson — I usually set aside a whole evening or afternoon and bury myself in the subject.

“What?! You are still taking lessons?” is something I hear quite often from friends. You would think that I should be done with the basics after living in Tokyo for three years, but I’m really far from done.

A lot of people give up or don’t even try at all because it looks like a Herculean task. It is, but if you break it down into small bits, and arm yourself with the attitude that you are always a student of life, you can conquer it somehow.

Or that’s how I like to think of it anyway.

A couple of real life role models: acclaimed Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami translates English novels into Japanese — he must be constantly studying English to perfect his translations. And Victoria Boutenko, a raw food author, who fled communist Russia to the USA, learned how to speak English quickly and eventually wrote numerous books on raw veganism and health in English.

When I think of these folks, I feel just a bit more encouraged, so if you are struggling with language learning, maybe it’s time to go look for some inspiration.

I’ll leave you with this quirky article about how Japanese are listening to Obama’s speeches as a way to learn English.

Photo credit: here

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