Do you remember the language classes you took in middle school and high school? Chances are, all you remember is the odd phrase here and there along with some swear words you looked up with friends on the internet. If you’re anything like me and the people I knew, you might’ve already figured out that you’re not a “language learner” and that neither French nor Spanish nor Latin are for you. After all, you took four years of high-school level Spanish, can’t you even read a children’s book by now? Maybe if you had a better teacher or you were smarter, you would be complaining about tourists with Parisians.
You may not like what I’m gonna say next, but you also might have realized it. The only one to blame for your complete lack of understanding is yourself. A key point that must be understood is that learning languages is similar to learning to create art, as pretentious as it may seem. You won’t get anywhere without taking your own time to practice and honing your craft. Sure, there were some English essays that you wrote in a day and math tests you aced without studying, but arts don’t work like this. Can artists perfectly draw photorealistic art right after a lesson explaining the principles? Can musicians instantly nail every solo after they see the sheet music? Even though there are some outliers, the general answer is “of course not”. So what makes languages similar to the arts? And how should this change your perspective?
Everyone speaks a language. If you told someone you started playing the drums at 2 years old, they’ll be surprised. If you told them you were speaking at just 2 years of age, they’d start to think you’re fishing for compliments. Learning languages is deceptively difficult, but think about what it takes just to become a literate first grader. There are many months of nothing but LISTENING, and it takes 6 years to be able to create simple sentences full of grammatical errors and mispronunciations. If English is your native language, it took thousands of hours to even understand this article. Please understand this: You are not stupid if you didn’t learn anything from school classes. Even if it feels slow, I promise everyone can learn as long as they find systems that work for them.
In my Junior year of high school, my classes were fully online and I was losing motivation to do any work. Soon into the year, I spent most of class time playing games and watching anime. Being the weeb that I was, I suddenly decided learning Japanese would be a cool skill to hyperfixate on, and I expected about the same commitment as high school Spanish class. Keep in mind, I only spoke English at this point in time and had no idea how I would learn Japanese. I decided to start with what I already knew about, so I downloaded DuoLingo and began my learning journey.
For the first couple weeks, progress feels fast because EVERYTHING is new, including the script to read and write the language. I started to look more into online learning communities and what others were using to learn, and my daily time commitment started increasing without me even noticing because I was so enamored by the language. All in all, I could spend over 4 hours per day reviewing and learning new things. This piled up over the course of a little over a year, and I can proudly say that I am proud of the level I’ve reached.
At the time of writing this article, I’ve spent several hundreds of hours on Japanese content. One thing that makes me particularly proud is looking at my bookshelf grow over the past year, where now I have over 15 volumes of manga I like and understand. When I read my first volume fully in Japanese, I was looking up at least 3 words on each page. Now, I might look up 1 word every 5 pages. You may be surprised and think that is still a lot of words, and I fully agree. But that’s just how it is.
When you start any new language, you won’t be able to read books made for preschoolers or even speak as well as them. A year in, you might be reading books for 2nd graders and speak like a preschooler. Again, that’s just how it is. Instead of focusing on your low level, focus on your improvement and the discipline it took you to get there. Imagine spending 1 hour every single day for a year learning Spanish with methods you enjoy and that work for you. You’ve spent over 300 hours that year on a hobby you can enjoy, and created habits that prove your strong dedication.
As shocking (and cringy) as it may seem, learning Japanese changed my life. I started learning at a time where I had no discipline and lost my motivation to improve myself. Now, these habits are impossible to break. I HAVE to finish my vocabulary reviews and I HAVE to do my lessons and I HAVE to listen to music in order to satisfy that itch in my brain.
If anyone reading this has started considering learning another language, I’m asking you to take 30 minutes a day for a week for DuoLingo and see how you feel. Watch some shows in the language and let yourself fall in love with it. I promise that if you can honor the commitment, your future, disciplined self will thank you for it.
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