Studying Japanese.
21:45
Hello everyone, welcome back to my blog, I hope you are all well and today I shall be sharing my tips on studying the beautiful language spoken in Japan.
I then moved back home, focused more on the language exchange and I found this website called Japan Guide which helped me connect with Japanese people who wanted to do a language exchange somewhere luckily in a city close to mine, I made wonderful friends who have now gone back to Japan.
I mainly started because I wanted to yes watch Anime and JDoramas without reading subtitles, but then it grew to become a way for me to communicate with, my new friends and hopefully the day I do visit Nihongo, I will be able to know what is going on. I just fell in love with the culture and the country their mannerisms everything was so fascinating to me, I wanted to know more.
In January 2015 I began self-teaching myself and I came across this website called Japan Guide, where I met online friends and luckily they were in a city near mine, but they have gone back to Japan as they came as students. Around May 2015 that is when I first mastered the hiragana characters.
I was so happy and my friend Michiko whom I met from that website advised me to download the Japanese Hiragana and Katakana keyboard and Line Messenger so that we could chat with each other using the characters. This was fantastic and I learnt so much from her, we would video call and she taught me the days of the week, numbers and some pronunciation.
During the year, my then boyfriend become my fiancé he proposed to me, like any bride to be I started planning a wedding and let’s just say learning Japanese was no longer a priority. I then started full time adulating, full-time employment and getting married so I no longer had the time for studying. Life just became so busy and at the time I felt I was doing everything I was supposed to do as an adult but I didn’t have enough time to do things I loved like watching anime and learning Japanese.
So since 2015, I have not been learning to practice and Japanese, I only started again in May 2018. They say when you cannot stop thinking about doing a particular thing then you must do it. For all these years I have continued to watch Anime, and as hectic as life currently is for me I have decided to pursue the thing I think about most. I have made a timetable to make sure that I have time to learn the language, I have a book that’s called learning Japanese from Zero and it’s been great so far.
I have learnt to believe in myself, and my ability to learn. After a few weeks of trying to re-master Hiragana, I found myself struggling to remember what I learnt. I became so impatient with myself and I started to hate it. So I took time out and stopped. Then I remembered the reasons why I wanted to learn in the first place and this made me happy again. I was in a mood to start learning. Like our favourite anime characters, they don’t quit until they win or achieve their goals no matter how hard or broken their body or spirit is, all they can think about is that goal. I have decided to become obsessed with the goal until I achieve it. I have decided to keep learning until I am fluent. I have become more confident in myself and have made lifetime friends such as Michiko who is now one of my friends, she even came to my wedding.
What I have done differently to ensure success
- I scheduled days and times that are going to ensure I have time to study.
- Using a book to study, not just learning random things, I now follow a textbook.
- I have an accountability partner, my friends who check that I have studied and what I have learnt, plus you guys on my Instagram.
- I understand that things don’t happen overnight, I am teaching myself so it will take more patience and self-love. I remind myself its ok if I get frustrated and its ok to feel annoyed but Juliet you are learning this is part of the process, be kind to yourself.
- · Just to have fun, have fun and find other ways to learn, Youtube videos and anime are the best.
Are you teaching yourself a language ? What tips do have that you can share to help me?
Let me know in the comments, Until next time, see you on my next post ...xo
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