Momoko's Musings: Finding Good Things in the Strangest Places
Free LARD Trilogy Audiobook
LiveStation
NHK High School/NHK高校講座
Kanji Pict-O-Graphix
KanjiPoster
Remembering the Kanji
Remembering the Kanji III
Remembering the Kana
All About Particles
Japanese In Mangaland
Japanese In Mangaland 2
Japanese In Mangaland 3
Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication: A Self-Study Course and Reference
Mangajin's Basic Japanese Through Comics (Part 2)
Mangajin's Basic Japanese Through Comics Vol 1
13 Secrets for Speaking Fluent Japanese
英語は絶対、勉強するな！２：不安が消える・疑問が打っ飛ぶ・マジでペラペラ
英語は絶対、勉強するな！：学校行かない・お金掛けない・だけどペラペラ
Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You
The Quick and Dirty Guide to Learning Languages FastA while ago someone asked me whether I still maintained a Japanese environment and why…I told him that yes, I did. And that it was because I believe that while sucking ends, learning never does.
Don’t I sound so deep and wise? HahaHaha. That reason may be partly true, but it may also be self-righteous B.S. on my part (in which case, it wouldn’t be the first time).
Perhaps the most important reason why I maintain a Japanese environment long after reaching fluency is because I’m used to it. I almost don’t know what else to do; I hardly own anything in English. It’s pure inertia; I am continuing to move in the direction of a mental force I applied to myself way back when, even though the force is no longer being applied. This is my default state now.
But that’s not a bad thing, necessarily. In fact it’s a wonderful thing. Pushing the Japanese environment boulder up the hill was hard in the beginning, but now it pretty much pushes itself. It’s a habit. Japanese is a part of me. My PC is in Japanese…my books are either Japanese or Chinese. The TV is on whenever I’m home, and it spurts forth Japanese shows (the good, the mediocre and the bad; I take it all!). This website is one of only three or four English elements in my life (incidentally, I would never have run this website while in the “pure hardcore stage”).
But I don’t actively work to do any of this, not any more. I just do it because it’s there, because it’s what I do. The movements and thought patterns involved are almost subconscious — like reflexes.
So have hope. It is a bit rough in the beginning. In fact, the biggest hurdle to get over isn’t laziness or lack of motivation, but forgetfulness — constantly forgetting that knowing Japanese is your major goal, and everything else has to wait; sometimes I simply forget to do Chinese — it literally slips my mind. As someone once said “discipline is remembering what you want” [emphasis added]; it’s not really a matter of suffering and willpower and self-denial, but more one of your ability to maintain a queue in your mind, and keep Japanese at the very front of that queue; remember the dream. After a while, you’ll forget that there was anything else. Your ability to maintain a Japanese environment — and by extension, to recall Japanese, to read Japanese, to understand and of course to write and speak Japanese is going to increase. Every day, it’s getting easier and easier to do it than before. Every day, every moment, you are getting better. Every repetition you do, every word you hear and see and say is bringing you closer to fluency.
Wow, from one wise platitude to another, you’re just a goldmine of knowledge! Hehe.
“Discipline is remembering what you want.” That’s so true for so much; dieting, studying abstaining from alcohol. I’ve always been a pretty self-disciplined person and I can’t understand what sometimes makes it so difficult for people to stick to a plan, like not drinking cola.
Some of the most successful life coaches – and I know because my mum loves life coaching and all that – really focus on positive visualisation. In ‘positive visualisation’ you take time out of your day to image yourself really slim, or really healthy, or fluent in Japanese as the case may be. By reminding yourself of your goal, you stay on track more easily.
A bit of rant, but I suppose I’m just affirming your wisdom oh mighty one, hehe. (If you haven’t seen already, I’ve a link to you from my now-functioning blog at alecinjapan.com/)
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Maybe I totally missed the point here, but I already feel a bit of that inertia in the Kanji phase. When I’m doing Kanji, I try to think things like, “what else could I possible do right now?” I’ve already told myself that Kanji comes first, and doing anything else now would be a waste of time.
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I can’t believe I found this site! Its like a gold mine… Full of Knowledge, its so… well… so simple really, and it all can be done on your own!
Its really REALLY strange because in 18 months I plan to move and live in Japan, PRECISELY 18 months. I suppose I should get started!
I don’t know if your going to read this or not but,
Thanks man!
Or should I say Arigato Sensei:]
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[...] I only mean to do 2 minutes, I get so sucked in that I stay well over 2 minutes (run-on); simple inertia also plays a role — I’ll just forget to turn it off. Nevertheless, I keep to the same [...]
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[...] knew how to get there he knew where he wanted to go. One of my favorite quotes (first heard through AJATT) is “discipline is remembering what you want.” So while maybe people would view this [...]
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[...] the rest of the day. Broadly speaking, the rest of one’s day often seems to run off of the inertia from these two times of [...]
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