Warning: Japanese is Insanely Difficult
For English speakers, Japanese is one of the hardest languages to learn. It's more difficult than Lithuanian, Somali, Finnish, and Mongolian, and I bet you thought those were at the top of the list. Nope, it's Japanese. Japanese even has a little asterisk on the Wikipedia page Language Learning Difficulty for English Speakers that states:
“Languages preceded by asterisks are typically somewhat more difficult for native English speakers to learn than other languages in the same category.”
That means that of the most difficult languages in the world, Japanese is not only in the hardest category but arguably the hardest language of them all.
So, why learn it? Do you want to travel to Japan? Do you need it for work? Trying to impress your Japanese girlfriend’s family? Everybody has their reasons, so, more importantly than anything else you learn in this book or anywhere else about Japanese, you need to find your “why.” Why learn Japanese?
But before we jump right into it, let me introduce myself. I’m Maria, and you will be spending a lot of time with me for the next 90 days. I, like you, am just beginning to learn Japanese. At first, I searched the internet high and low for every single resource I could find. I’m not the type to sit in a classroom, so it was important to me that I could teach myself. But, I fell into the common thinking trap of how hard it could be. Well, I learned pretty fast that Japanese is really hard, and if I wanted to teach myself, I would need to do it right.
So, when I asked my friend and fellow Japanophile, Qu, how he learned Japanese, he said two things: immersion and LearnJapanese.com. Qu is a local tourist in Japan. He's not just slurping ramen for fun, he's out there living like a local and that inspired me. My “why” is travel. I don't expect to ever be truly fluent in any language I try to learn and I am okay with that. I love to travel to new places, but I never just want to be one of the tourists. I want to experience life exactly like the people who live there - I want to go to the locals’ favorite restaurants, see the city’s hidden history, go to the rural grocery store, hell, I’d even tag along to someone’s doctor's appointment to experience their healthcare system. None of these things you can do as a complete novice to the country, and if you aren't willing to put in the effort of learning the language at least minimally, stick with the tourists.
So, when I ask myself, why do I want to learn Japanese, I try to think like a local. Not everyone reading this book is going to achieve N1 and that’s fine. We have found the quickest, most efficient ways to learn Japanese and that's exactly what this book is all about - rewriting the Japanese language learning process for the modern learner. Learning a new language will never be easy and there are many ways to do it. You will have some periods of rapid learning and others where it feels like nothing will stick in your brain. Before you feel discouraged, remember, it's hard to learn Japanese!
That's exactly the reason I need you to find your “why” so badly. Without it, you might not make it to the finish line. You are going to have good days, but you are going to have many bad days, too. Days you might wake up, get that kanji wrong and feel tempted to light Genki II on fire and walk away. It's these days you will need to remember why you are here, why you started this journey in the first place.
But how do you figure that out? For some people it might be obvious - I need to learn Japanese to communicate with my Japanese coworker, or I want to learn Japanese to live in Tokyo. Maybe you want to pass the N1 or maybe just the N5. Knowing what your finish line looks like is so important to getting there. Without understanding your own “why,” you may lose sight of your motivation as well.
Let’s pause and do two things: reflect on your “why” and write out your mission statement.
Here are a few questions to help you start:
- What do you need?
- What are you interested in?
- How much time do you have?
- What motivates you?
Now that you have had time to reflect on those questions, take a minute to write out your language learning mission statement.
Here is an example:
“I'm motivated to learn Japanese because my granddaughter is being raised in a mixed household and I want to be able to communicate with her in both her native languages while she grows up.”
Use your new mission statement to your advantage when you start to feel the weight on your shoulders. Good habits are important to progress, but motivation will take you all the way to the finish line. The key is to follow our lead and just keep going. Good days, bad days; remember your “why” and just keep going.