Let me tell you a quick story about a very close friend of mine. She’d kill me if she found out I was writing about her, so I’m going to call her ‘Sarah’ to save her any unintended embarrassment 
So Sarah is one of those straight-A model student types and is a super-disciplined, hard-worker.
She also studied Japanese like crazy. She went to Saturday school as a child to learn the language, aced every Japanese class in middle school and high school, and even earned her college degree in Japanese and graduated with honors!
If I told you she was fluent in Japanese, you probably wouldn’t be surprised, right? Well, that’s what I always just assumed.
Now what if I told you I recently found out that Sarah can’t speak Japanese at all?
Are you completely shocked, baffled, and confused? I was too! I just had to know more.
Sarah told me that plain and simple, none of the information stuck. Even though she studied hard for all of the tests (and aced them), she was shoveling the information in her mind using simple memorization techniques. The second the information was no longer necessary, her brain clicked the permanent delete button and said sayonara to all of it.
Well, are you depressed and disheartened yet?
Don’t worry, I was too at first. But then I figured it out. I found the common thread amongst all of my fluent Japanese speaking friends that Sarah didn’t have.
So here it is:
Aaron and I always talk about staying motivated and having fun learning Japanese. That’s important for sure. But you also need to challenge yourself and make language discoveries on your own.
If I told you that ‘kore wa pen desu’ means ‘this is a pen’ in Japanese, your immediate reaction should be to try to make similar sentences like ‘this is a house,’ ‘this is a car,’ etc.
Challenging yourself and discovering the language on your own is like building a bomb shelter around your castle of Japanese knowledge. Once you start making discoveries, you never forget them.
Don’t believe me?
I bet the guys who discovered the Ichabodcraniosaurus (a dinosaur) will never forget its name, where it was found, and what bone they unearthed first.
You and me, on the other hand? Chances are pretty good we won’t even remember the name of the dinosaur 30 seconds from now.
But back to being serious, don’t make the mistake Sarah did. Studying hard is good. But don’t rely 100% on your tutor, your textbook, or your nifty software program.
Find something that works for you, and let it push you along to help you make your own discoveries.
Ganbatte,
Kevin
