Learning Japanese: Packing for the adventure
One of the things that I found while trying to learn more about Bear Blog was a video titled "How to blog your way to success in a new language" by Refold, where he talks about how blogging in the language you're learning can help with becoming fluent in it, at least typing, and why it's a good idea to publish your progress and resources you find.
Now, this may sound rough, but I like the idea of publishing my progress, mostly because it's motivation by shame... Skipping days? Not putting in the effort? Ring the bells!! Let the people of the town know that Skeleton's public shaming is about to start!!
It just works for me, okay?
Well, don't think that this is my only motivation, and that I'm shooting myself in the foot by "forcing" myself to study, because I'm also moving to Japan in October, so I gotta prepare myself a little, I must reach at least N5.
Strategy: First steps
I've been doing a bunch of research this past week, and I think that I'll use the "30 Day Japanese" routine by UsagiSpoon. It seems like a good way to get started, especially if you have little free time, as you only need 3 hours a day to follow the guide. That may seem like a lot to some people, but for those who know the amount of time required to learn a language that's not related to your mother tongue, it's not really that much, especially considering how much you're expected to know at the end of the guide.
Taken from the site itself:
- An understanding of the most common Japanese grammar patterns.
- A vocabulary of at least 500 words.
- An understanding of basic sentences in slice of life anime.
- The ability to read hiragana, katakana and some common kanji.
- A good foundation to continue learning Japanese on your own.
A different start
One of the first things that the guide says is that you're allowed to make changes to the routine, because it's not a definite guide.
I'll be taking a different approach to Day 1. Since the main goal of Day 1 is to learn the Kana (Hiragana & Katakana), and I know a great resource that, in my opinion, is better than the ones listed in the guide.
The way I'll be learning Kana is by using the book "Remembering the Kana" by James W. Heisig, because it helps you remember the characters and also teaches how to write them properly, since stroke order is quite important.
Then I'll be using this great tool to not forget the Kana so easily during the first couple of days/weeks.
Some extra resources
Lastly, I may be using Minato, which is an e-Learning site hosting many courses made by the Japan Foundation, and it seems like a great way to check if you're properly learning. Oh, and they also give you documents as proof of completing courses, though I’m not sure how important those will be for me.