Learning Japanese in A Year
Hello there, folks! I know it’s been a while since I last posted something in this publication — Guess I’v been highly influenced by JonTron’s upload schedule — Jokes apart, it feels good to be back. With that in mind let’s get down to business.
A Little bit of context
According to Wikipedia, the Japanese Language is believed to have been originated sometime around early- to mid-2nd century BCE. As reported by Ethnologue, the language ranks 9th in the list of most-spoken languages around the world, estimated to have about 128 million speakers as of 2017.
Why Learn Japanese?
You might say “ I already speak English and some other language. What could I possibly get from adding Japanese to my repertoire?”. Well, running the risk of sounding repetitive, I make the point that a whole new world will be unraveled for you: you’ll be able to delve into an entirely different culture, you will have access to texts you wouldn't otherwise, there will be no need for you to wait until your favorite dorama or anime gets dubbed or subbed to a language you’re familiar with, and traveling to Japan will present you with a much wider experience than a non-japanese-speaking foreigner would have — Unfortunately I can’t attest for that last point, but it’s only common sense.
My previous experience with Japanese
As it often is for a western like me, my first contact with japanese language and media, in general, was through anime, from where I developed a liking for dorama and the niponnic culture itself, although I’m not one of the most versed in it.
As I want to learn more about Japanese culture and, of course, don’t want to keep depending on translations so I can sit back and enjoy my flicks, it only comes as a natural conclusion that the idea of learning a new language would cross my mind, sparking a thrill for studying such a beautiful tongue.
At least a couple of times before, I have studied Japanese, and I have made some progress — enough for impressing some classmates back in my high school years at the very least — but nothing concrete nonetheless. I attribute those, so to speak, failures of mine to a lack of discipline, compromise and set achievable goals and schedule. For that reason I am starting a new series of articles I’ll be publishing here along with a challenge to myself.
The Challenge
A few weeks ago I decided to take on the challenge of learning Japanese in one year, or at least learn as much as possible in that time span. Now, different from my previous attempts at learning the language, I’m going to tackle it down with a much more concise methodology, which I’ll be laying down for you in the following paragraphs.
First, I took a proficiency test to know at what level I am. I have scored 32 points out of a total of 150 as shown by the chart below. If you want to take the same test click here.
Secondly, with those results in hand, I have defined my goal to be scoring at least 100/150 by December, 2019. To test my progress I will retake the proficiency exam by the end of every month aiming at a monthly improvement of about 6 points, which I believe is a realistic task.
As for the supplies, I have bought copies of Japanese From Zero! books I and II, and Kana From Zero! by George Trombley and Yukari Takenaka — #notsponsored — which I’ll be using alongside Duolingo, ClozeMaster and Memrise, again not sponsored.
In regards to the immersion, I’ll try to only listen to J-music for the entirety of 2019 and set all my apps, social media accounts and devices’s language settings to Japanese as much as I find it viable. All my non-professional Google searches may slowly transition into the language as well.
Conclusion
I will be posting my progress at least every last week of each month, leaving room for some related posts during the sparring ones if something relevant ever comes up. I expect my Japanese to improve a lot in the following year and I dare you to join me in this venture, not just by subscribing to this publication, but also by trying this yourself, not necessarily with the same language.
I’d like to bid you all Happy Holidays — though I’m a bit late — and a joyful New Year! See you next time! And since Mary Poppins Returns has premiered just recently, remember guys:
DFTBS! (Don’t Forget To Be Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!)
// Yes, it was sort of a reference to FootofaFerret
