December 3, 2009 by Eric Nishio
How I Taught Myself to Read Japanese in Six Months
No comments
Languages, Learning Methods, Success Story
In September 2006 I couldn’t read Japanese. Well, I could read the basic Japanese syllabaries (hiragana and katakana), but that didn’t help much since I didn’t know any Chinese characters, or kanji as they’re called in Japanese, to combine with them. If you’re familiar with written Japanese, you know that there are about 2000 unique characters that we should know if we want to be able to read newspapers or other sophisticated pieces of text in Japanese. We don’t necessarily need to know all of them to survive in Japan, but we should know several hundred—or close to a thousand kanji characters—if we want to reach a comfortable level of competency in reading Japanese.
The date I mentioned earlier is important in that it marked the date when I would be going to Japan as an exchange student one year later. I decided to apply for the exchange program, but I couldn’t read any Japanese. My Japanese speaking abilities were adequate enough because my father is Japanese, and we have communicated in his native tongue since the beginning, but I knew that if I wanted to join the advanced Japanese class, I would have to learn how to read and write kanji. The only way was to start learning how to read and write Japanese. So I made the decision.
The important step was the moment when I made the decision to commit myself to learn how to read and write Japanese before my departure one year later. I had a clear deadline. If didn’t acquire the skill until that time, I wouldn’t be able to study Japanese at the appropriate level. I knew that I would also have trouble getting around in Japan, because any official documents would have to be filled out in Japanese. The deadline was the driving force that helped me focus on consistently studying Japanese. But that was not the only factor. I had to also make a learning strategy.
A simple learning plan was all I needed. I decided that I would learn five new kanji characters everyday and also spend time on revision. Most of the time I would review characters and practice using them by writing example sentences and other short bits of text. I would assign no tasks for the weekends. An hour of effective kanji practice was what I did on the weekdays. I would put the computer to sleep and remove all distractions from the desk to boost my productivity. I would allow only three objects on the desk: a pencil, paper, and my kanji book.
And the winning factor was to stick with the plan. I would’ve probably slacked off and ended up sacking the project, but what kept me going was the inevitable deadline. I knew that I would lose many opportunities in Japan if I stopped studying kanji, and I wouldn’t be able to improve my Japanese skills at school. So I decided that I’d stick with the plan, because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get there.
The fact that I had to reach the goal within a limited time period made me find alternative ways to boost the learning process. I started writing a simple diary in Japanese. I used instant messengers to hone my reading skills. I started reading blogs written in Japanese. Having a strategy and a clear deadline really took care of the learning process, and I didn’t have to get stressed about it.
In the end, I could achieve a comfortable level of competency in reading and writing Japanese in less than six months. So I could finish what I wanted in half the time, so I still had six more months to improve my Japanese before I would go to Japan. The reason why I could accomplish the task so effectively was that I had a deadline to meet and a strategy to follow. The rest just took care of itself.
Subscribe via RSS
Self-Learner is a blog that guides people to become self-educated
individuals who can achieve success in life.