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
Kevin,
I can believe what happened to Sarah. I have discovered that language learning is about passion not intellect. For years people told me I needed to learn Spanish to be promoted; although I wanted to be promoted, I just couldn’t retain what I had learned. When I started learning Japanese; I could remember everything I learned. That was because I loved the language sooo much and I loved learning even more. Basically the discovery of a new language was about passion for me, not about the approval or direction of others. By the way I got the promotion without the Spanish, so it can also be about believing in yourself despite what others say or think.
Good luck to everyone with the passion to learn Japanese.
Gambatte ne!
T. Reign
Hey, that’s nice. I totally agree with that.
What works the best for me is trying to make my own sentences (about 3) with every single new word I learn. This way, I can’t learn more than 5 words a day, but I won’t forget them either.
On the top of that, I usually try to to the same studying pattern for the next three days, which leads me to studying 15 words a day, in which 5 words are new, 5 words are yesterday’s and 5 words are from the day before yesterday.
Notice that not everytime a “word” is actually a “word”. Sometimes it’s a part of a “word”.
That is such a useful trick to follow on from the kore wa pen desu. I shall keep doing it.
I find that I can read romaji quite well, understand quite a lot when I listen but what I cannot do, is make up sentances and speak it myself.
Doing your suggestion might really help.
Thanks a lot!!
Jill.
Jill,
What I have done over the past several months is to composite a list of everyday saying. My list initially started with the “Survival Saying” Kevin and Aaron gave us in the 1st 5 lessons. Currently my list is 14 pages of responses that would occur in everyday conversation. Going over and adding to this list at least 2 or 3 times a weeks helps me to remember sentences versus vocabulary. That way I can have a conversation if necessary and I can change the sentence around when necessary. For example: Ii tanki desu ne. (The weather is nice.) to Warui tanki desu ne. (The weather is bad.)
Just like English, by changing one word you have two sentences and just go from there. Of course you need a Japanese/English Dictionary handy.
Jaa mata
I can believe what happened to Sarah. I have discovered that language learning is about passion not intellect. For years people told me I needed to learn Spanish to be promoted; although I wanted to be promoted, I just couldn’t retain what I had learned. When I started learning Japanese; I could remember everything I learned. That was because I loved the language sooo much and I loved learning even more. Basically the discovery of a new language was about passion for me, not about the approval or direction of others. By the way I got the promotion without the Spanish, so it can also be about believing in yourself despite what others say or think.
+1
Very interesting, as I was reading, I kept thinking about how if I see something that I know what its called in Japanese, then I’ll look at it and say what it is! This so far has helped me to not forget what it is in Japanese, which should come in handy when I study abroad in about two years or so. Also I find that it is easier to learn if you’re motivated. Thank you, Kevin and Aaron, for your lessons!
Matane,
RemMoo
hi guys
when i starting to undergo a lesson in japanese language, i felt that it is hard to study .but later on Im getting to love the jap. language and also the culture of japan .
there are 2 kinds of how to speaks japanese which is the polite and impolite form.
just focus first in polite form so we can easily to understand all the sentences and we can give a lot of words that we can used in our pattern of sentences .
minna , gamabate kudasai
rainger san