What I Needed to Hear as a New Language Student
From the perspective of just having finished my first year of community college learning Japanese
When I first started on this journey to learning the Japanese language, I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I was super eager and impatient to just be fluent already, and I did everything I possibly could to race to that perceived finish line.
Welp, I’ve survived an academic year (3 quarters) of Japanese classes, and I have learned a lot of things about myself, my learning style, what it takes to successfully learn and study a language, and so much more.
Here are a few things I would have told myself when I first started my classes and this journey in general.
There’s no substitute for time
As much as I dreamed about a shortcut to learning, a la Rocko’s Modern Life, learning a new language simply takes time.
When I first began studying, I wanted to learn as much as possible as fast as possible. I researched tips and tricks for studying, bought several tools and books, and was generally in a…
