I am trying to learn Japanese. When I am not working my butt off or exhausted from it, I crack the books. I am fully aware that learning a language isn't going to come overnight but I am also afraid that in 3 months, I've not made much progress. Granted I've not been going to classes the entire time but I feel like I should be learning things. I would like to think I'm quite intelligent but for the first time I feel infantile and stupid. I try to tell myself that everyone is a baby when they learn a new language but sometimes this doesn't help.
Today I hit another inability to function in Japan due to lack of Japanese wall. I hate these walls. They hurt my already fragile pride. Again it's something that's seemingly so simple but made impossible without the language. I fully respect and commend anyone who goes to another country and learns the language. Because it is during this process that the most difficult and the highest hurdles stand in a person's way. We must run faster and jump higher than those who have been running all their lives. We often fall but we must get back up and continue to run. The trials will make us stronger, better and faster runners. Winning this metaphorical race means understanding a difficult language in a sometimes even more difficult culture.
I guess I'm saying I don't want to give up running. I've fallen trying to scale yet another high hurdle but I must get back up and brush off the scrapes and push myself to run faster and jump higher.
Just wondering, what books have you been trying to learn from? A lot of people use the Genki series of books to learn the basics, and the books have gotten really good ratings -- you could probably get a copy of the 1st volume pretty cheaply on Amazon or eBay. For learning kanji, you could try the "Remembering the Kanji" books by James W. Heisig. His method doesn't work for everyone, but you can try it. :) Best of luck with learning Japanese. You can do it! I've been busy and just stop learning and I hate it. I want to fully be able to commit to learning the language.
ReplyDeleteI use みんなの日本語 and I like it. I also have lots of kanji books too. It's just hard ya know.
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