If you’re reading this article, I could make a few guesses about you.

Maybe, you’ve had thoughts of becoming a programmer in Japan. Or, you've dreamed of becoming a manga artist. You might have even toyed with the idea of studying the fine craft of katana making.

But…

It is only a dream.

You bring yourself back to reality. And you realize that you don’t know much Japanese. You want to start. The motivation is there. But, the how is missing.

How should you begin? Should you sign up for a class? Should you buy audio CD’s to listen to in the car? Should you go to one of these websites that promises fluency in 6 months?

There’s a lot of junk out there on the internet and in the book stores. Lots of people who want to grab your money and give you some old rehashed slum of ideas. Even the big publishers spend very little time stringing together a decent textbook. They put more money into marketing the book than researching the subject.

Over the years, I've had the luck of discovering some very powerful methods for improving my Japanese. Many people online will argue with me about my methods, but I’ve seen results. Results that will make you a true believer.

You see, there are some legacy methods of teaching and learning. You might know these methods. They involve flash cards, word lists and translations. They involve pain, sweat, and tears. And you know what? They can be slow. They can easily leave you burned out. But they work.

Yes, that’s right, they do work. Not without pain and effort and not for everybody, but they work. Anyone who has used flashcards and vocab lists will tell you that they do learn the words. They can learn the grammar too in much the same way.

However, there’s one thing that’s missing.

Acquisition

You can do all of these things and still not acquire the language. How do you know if you've acquired the language? You can understand and use the language without much processing power from your brain. And, you can do it months after the last time you had to use it.

If you've ever started to learn another language, you know the things that you’ve not acquired yet. They are the things that stick to the tip of your tongue. They are the bits of grammar that trip you up. It is the feeling that something is not quite right.

So, how do we get from nothing to acquisition?

You have to tell your brain that what you are learning is important. And you have to tell it that you'll need it later. And then, you must keep on telling your brain this, through experience and use.

This is how we can turn the language from something to be translated back to your mother tongue into another channel to transfer and understand messages. This is how we can use Japanese at the level of thought.

The first thing you need to do is build a foundation for your language. Without a strong foundation, your house will crumble. The urge is to skip this step, or get through it as fast as possible. And that’s why there are many people who start to learn a language give up. They skim through the basics, and don’t practice the fundamentals.

Certain bits of language are acquired faster than others. There is an order, but we can’t know the exact order to when these bits get acquired.

If you take an intensive course in a language, you’ll get a strong foundation for your language. If you have the time and the money to take an intensive language course, I’d say this is one of the best ways to get started. Depending on the teaching method, it would be the best way to get started.

So what’s the best kind of intensive program? Let’s take a look at a few of the top methods. They are not in any particular order.

TPRS

Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling. This is an amazingly powerful method for teaching languages. I’ve had the pleasure of learning Chinese for 12 lessons over Skype. Teachers can be expensive but they are well worth the extra money. Much better than any standard university course. The teacher builds a story from the very fundamentals of the language to cover the intermediate to advanced levels of grammar. And best of all, retention and usability is very high.

GPA

Growing Participator Approach. Here’s a cheaper method that takes a lot of work and some time, but the results are even greater. This method is where you get a language helper, or a teacher and play with them. This is all in the target language. The language is built up slowly in a few hour sessions. The learner will continue learning and growing until they can participate in the community with that language.

WAYK

Where Are Your Keys? This is no joke. This a real way to learn a language, and a quick and simple way at that. As long as you understand the game. And you’re not too hung up on translations. WAYK is a game that uses sign language as a bridge and memory technique. It was invented to save dying languages where only a handful of elders knew the languages to a high degree. How do we teach the elders to be teachers? In the same way that GPA uses the real world and the target language, WAYK does the same thing, and makes a game out of it.

DLI and other government training programs

These courses are very intensive and they are made to take someone from zero to using the language for intelligence gathering and practical use on the job. The length of the program is dependent on the target language and the learner’s mother tongue.

Missionary language training programs

Again, these programs have similar results. The program needs to produce people who are effective in the community for the target language. They need to build relationships with people in order to build their church community in the country that they are planning to go to. Most of these programs are very well done and if you’re the religious kind and looking to do some missionary work, I do recommend doing one of these programs. They usually draw upon a lot of literature and insights from field linguists.

Become a Field Linguist

Similar to the military and missionary job training courses, becoming a field linguist will give you all the tools you need and more to learn a language from scratch anywhere in the world! This may be the hardest way to learn a language and for good reason. Field Linguists need to do real work in the community with the language and for the language. This can include working on fundamental things such as sketching out grammar, to developing a writing system for the people of that language. I have high respect and appreciation for anyone who works in the field. It’s a tough and sometimes dangerous job, but the contribution to society is huge!

What’s next after these courses? Well, your language acquisition doesn’t end there, but once you are less dependent on teachers and books, you can acquire more language by participating in the community of that langauge and also by reading. Reading is where the native speaker can master their own language. You’re never really done learning.