How to Learn Japanese Step 2/2: Live It

There are 2 steps to learning Japanese.

1. Adjust to the characters (the easy and lazy way, and learn kana too)
2. Live the language

That's it.  No need to complicate things.

Following my numerous posts on kanji, it would seem that some readers have since applied these methods to successfully (and happily) achieve kanji fluency in just a few short months.  I guess it's time for me to explain where to go from here. lol

Am I even qualified to write this post?

I mean, kanji is one thing.  I wouldn't call myself a kanji expert or anything, but can write and recognize over 2,000 basic, everyday kanji?  Sure.  So I felt like I could share with you guys how I and countless others before me utilized a shortcut to overcome the infamous "kanji hurdle," which frustrates so many Western learners of Japanese.

But I'm not going to lie - at this point in writing, I have by no means "mastered" Japanese in general.  I have my up days and my down days.  When I talk to native speakers, it ranges from noticeable to painfully obvious that I still have a long way to go.  Contract talks occasionally frustrate me, as do some 3rd graders who I'm sure are talking about nothing but have to do so in such an incomprehensible way.  When I watch TV or movies, even if I can understand the gist of everything, at least 1/4 of the specifics tend to go over my head.

Having said that, I get by in everyday life in Japan with almost no problems.  There's never a time when I feel so overwhelmed that I tell someone I just can't understand and leave it at that.  I know how to pinpoint what I don't know and ask what it means, or explain around a word I forgot.  At work unless I'm helping out kids I'm using Japanese, often even with junior high school English teachers. lol  I'm reading my 5th book, have read countless manga, and am watching about 3-4 movies a week.  I passed the stupid JLPT 2 with no specific studying whatsoever just to show that I could.  If the average foreigner were to see me conversing in Japanese with a native speaker, it may be difficult to notice the gap.  While I attribute this primarily to ignorance, it gives me enough confidence to refer to myself casually as "fluent."  And though I don't like comparing myself to other Japanese learners, I'd put myself in maybe the top 10-15% range (though admittedly the difference from the top 1-5% is huge).

The important part is that I've come a long way from when I starting studying Japanese in fall of 2006.  Two years of classes, half a year of study abroad, a year and a half of self-study in the states, and about two more years of self-study in Japan later - even if I haven't hit native fluency yet - I feel like I'm on my way, and can give tips based on what I've come across, experienced, tested out, and found to have helped my Japanese the most in the last 6 years (whoa, has it really been that long?).  I started with classes and textbooks and learning from licensed, professional teachers.  In time I learned from these mistakes, and have made the most progress with untraditional methods and working things out on my own.  If I had done this from the beginning, I would have been fluent in half this time.

OK, so give us the method

You decided you want to learn Japanese, that's just peachy! But what method/technique/strategy/system should you choose in order to work toward fluency most efficiently?

Here's the thing.  Lean in close, now.  Closer.... wait, too close. Ok, perfect.  There is no method.

"I have not invented a "new style," composite, modified or otherwise that is set within distinct form as apart from "this" method or "that" method. On the contrary, I hope to free my followers from clinging to styles, patterns, or molds." -Bruce Lee 

Or more specifically, a method in the beginning (no matter how FANTASTIC it is or how many super cool people endorse it) will only hurt you, and it's not something you need to worry about it, so there might as well not be a method.

There's tons of specific systems on how to learn languages: AntiMoon sentences, LinQ, AJATT MCDs, 英絶方式 (the "Absolute English Method" from the book 英語は絶対、勉強するな), etc.  Some people will even try to sell you their methods.  Essentially what this amounts to is people worrying about which method to choose, before and instead of doing something, ANYTHING in their target language.  That's like a baby trying to develop efficient running techniques before learning to walk.  Or watching soccer videos to acquire skills before going out and kicking a ball around.  Or spending all of your time planning how you're going to write your book without writing a single page.

What if I put it like this: stop worrying about how you're going to learn Japanese, and go learn it.

Many people who are starting to learn Japanese go and look for classes, textbooks, teachers, and blog methods to tell them what and how to learn, without having spent enough time with raw Japanese to know what's going to be useful.  You're putting yourself into a box without knowing what lies outside of it, and trusting the authority of those carrying the box to get you to your destination.  We all have the right to choose what we want to learn based on our preferences, and the ability to go out and learn it on our own, something that school does a great way of conveying to its students (can't you just taste the sarcasm?).  And that's the problem.

So in place of the method is....

The language environment

It's all about exposure, immersion, and input, folks.  We want an environment that's fun and engaging on its own, but also immersive and in-your-face 24/7 so that you can't forget what you want: fluency.

A lot of people will say they "don't have time for Japanese."  They have "school work," "house work," "workwork," "a relationship," other "mandatory work."  First of all, you need to ask yourself whether Japanese is really something you want to learn.  If not, don't waste your time.  Stop reading this and go back to all that work you really want to do.

Anyone still with me?  Okay.  Second of all, does all that work stop you from using English?  "I don't have time for English, I GOTTA WORK DUDE!"

The environment destroys any excuse of "I don't have the time."  Take a look around you.  Do you have time to listen to music?  Do you have time to use a computer?  Do you have time to check Facebook/Google+?  Do you have time to listen to the radio while driving?  Do you have time to chat with friends?  Do you have time to write notes or to-do lists to yourself?  Do you have time to watch TV or movies?  Do you have time to wait in line at the store?  Do you have time to sing to yourself in the shower?  Do you have time to play video games?  Do you have time to use your smartphone?  Do you have time to read books?  Do you have time to search for things on Google or Wikipedia?  Do you have time to THINK?

OMFG.  If you answered "no" to all of the above, I think it's time to take a good hard look at your life, or see me for therapy in about 10 years...

If you answered "yes" to any of them, you'll know where to start your Japanese input environment.  This isn't the twice-a-week language class you go to for a couple hours, this is the language that's woven into the fabric of your everyday life.  Japanese is your chill time now.  I'm talking about a major overhaul of your personal bubble, as if you were Japanese and English were a boring foreign language you only use when you have to.  This bubble is the reason why there are weebos who have lived in Japan for decades but can't even read more than a handful of kanji, and why any Jane Smith can learn Japanese from her home country.

You won't understand everything in the beginning, and that's okay.  You don't even have to necessarily engage with the environment at first; passively living in high-input, high-interest Japanese immersion will slowly but surely encourage a natural curiosity on its own.  The important part is exposing yourself to raw, unadulterated Japanese (FunBun - for natives, by natives).  The sooner you do this, the sooner you can give yourself the chance to adjust to native-level speed and get a clear picture of the playing field.

Let's get this order of operations set now.  It's not "she can read books because she's good at Japanese," first getting awesome and then reading.  You're good at Japanese because you read books.

Sounds great! How do I start my environment Japanese?

The best way is to look at what you do and think about how you can do it in Japanese.  This may initially take a couple weeks, and require constant tweaking along the way.  But for starters:

1. Your computer - not just your keyboard input, but your entire operating system if possible (Macs can do this easily in system preferences).
2. Your internet - within Chrome or Firefox, don't forget to change your language preferences in Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and YouTube, and to friend/subscribe to/follow Japanese people or companies.  And search in Japanese on Wikipedia and Google/Yahoo.
3. Your smartphone - iPhones and Androids are language-adaption ready, just check the settings.
4. Your music - obtain lots of Japanese music, and take your English music off your hard drive and onto an external drive.
5. Your TV - watch live Japanese TV online for free with KeyHoleTV.
6. Your books - Amazon is your best friend.
7. Your movies - even Netflix has movies in Japanese.
8. Your news - I recommend FNN and Google for news sources, but there are a lot so check for more.
9. Your podcasts - downloading podcasts on iTunes has been a fantastic way for me to keep the Japanese sounds flowing.
10. Your friends - seek out Japanese who live in your area and befriend them, possibly through Meetup.

As long as it's in Japanese it's good for you, so within that single restriction decision find something you love.  If you were fluent today, what would you do?  Watch an anime without subtitles?  Sing karaoke?  Go have fun with it now.  Also try to sample as many things as possible - watch tons of movies and TV shows, listen to tons of music, flip through tons of books and manga.  That way you increase your chances of finding something you really like.  If it doesn't interest you after the first 2 minutes, you don't need it; THROW IT OUT!  It's the media's job to entertain you, so don't feel obligated to see things through to the end on principle.

Don't force yourself to only use Japanese and never use English, or you may become frustrated and quickly leave the environment.  The key is putting Japanese there so that it's easy to do, like a bowl of fruit on the table and a jar of cookies in box in a high cabinet.  Put a Japanese book within arm's reach of wherever you are, and the chances of you picking it up will only increase.

Learning Kanji with methods

"But Syk3," you say.  "You say not to use methods at first, but didn't we use Heisig and Lazy Kanji as a method to learn kanji?"  Yes we did, and I should make clear who that post was target towards: it's for people who have been frustrated with the characters for a long time, frustrated with learning in an inefficient way and want to know how to do it better.  If you're just starting out, I don't recommend Heisig right away.  First buy books.  Or at the very least, accumulate material with Chinese characters, so you can be inspired by their appearance alone.  Try to trace them, play around with them.  When you get to the point where you are honestly motivated to learn them, Heisig and Lazy Kanji will be waiting.

In the meantime, until you finish kanji should you put off your immersion environment?  Of course not!  If anything, you should use that time to train your ears.  Any time there's silence in your life, turn on your TV or computer, put in your headphones, and shove your head full of Japanese sounds.  That's all they are at first - sounds.  Sounds become words, become phrases, become sentences, become conversations.  Consider continuing this even while you sleep, literally approaching 24/7 as closely as possible.  You should be able to see at this point that we need lots of material to make this work.  I personally like ripping audio from anime and dramas.

Once you've gotten used to the characters with Heisig, your knowledge of the English meanings will do wonders in helping you successfully navigate your premature environment.  If you change your computer operating system, for example, you'll quickly be able to understand what a lot of it means using the characters alone.

In closing

Don't make the Japanese textbook your world.  Make the world your Japanese textbook.

I'll save explaining how to start looking for methods, and how to utilize the life textbook with specific methods for a later post.  But first thing's first: creating the environment and developing the Japanese habit.  Like kanji in Step 1, the finer details can come later.  But don't get me wrong, this is Step 2 of 2.  To achieve fluency, there are no more steps after this.  Fluency is best determined by how long you spend with the language, so the more you interact with your environment the less it matters what your method is.

I just heard a great story yesterday at one of my schools.  You may be aware that among the countries with the fastest runners in the Olympics, Kenya ranks at the top.  But do you know why that is?  Apparently, often times schools and transportation are very scarce, and kids have to travel around 20 km from home everyday.  To top it off, since there's no school lunch, they have to go home, eat, and then return to school.  Now that's an environment that's going to create some killer runners.

We want to set up an environment that'll create some killer Japanese skills.