How I self-learn Japanese
and my best resources for that
About
The purpose of this article is threefold. It first relates my own experience towards Japanese self-learning, one of my greatest achievements so far. It also shares helpful tips and resources for current self-learners. Lastly it goes beyond language learning considerations and anyone intersted in self-development will find it worth the read.
Motivation
I am an adult European citizen, who grew up in France, always studied and worked in Europe, and who will probably continue to do so for a long time, if not my entire career. So why learn Japanese? Like anyone, I need strong good reasons to achieve what I perceive as a big challenge and a long journey forward. And despite what many book covers pretend, learning a new language so different from your native one is definitively a long term goal. It took me a long time to come up with a simple way to answer this question:
I learn Japanese because I want to deeply understand Japanese culture and interact with Japanese people. I learn Japanese because it’s a challenge for me in multiple ways: memory, interaction with others, resilience, language learning, etc. I learn Japanese because achieving language proficiency would make me feel immensely proud.
