My Impressions: Fluent in 3 Months

So…  I’ve been trying to learn Japanese for more than half of my life.  Literally.  Since 5^th grade, my grandfather wanted to teach me Japanese.  I never got all the alphabets.  I got a Japanese minor in college after taking it for 3 years.  Then, I kind of just let it go.  Never understood television shows, never understood manga (my main purpose), never understood what they were saying in Japanese porno (my second purpose).

So about 1.5 years ago, a friend wanted to learn Japanese.  She wanted to set it as a goal.  Then somehow…  Instead of her learning, it became me learning again.  About 1.25 years ago, I went to Japan for vacation.  I found out I couldn’t communicate even on a basic level with the locals.  The locals understood nothing I was saying.  I understood everything they were saying.  They were saying to me, “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

Anyway, long story short…  I’ve reignited my passion to learn Japanese.  I’ve tried to commit and allocate time on a daily basis.  I read this book hoping to find any tips or tricks that could help me. 

Fluent in 3 Months: How Anyone at Any Age Can Learn to Speak Any Language from Anywhere in the World

I still can’t speak fluently.  But a lot of the methods of learning in the book, I wish I would’ve known earlier.  Like…  More than half my life ago, earlier.  

Here are some of the things I wish I knew:

1. It’s not about the perfect tool

I’ve spent countless hours, days, weeks, months looking for that perfect tool.  Researching the different tools available, comparing the pros and cons, even making my own tool…  Just dive into it.  You know too little to know the difference in the beginning.  Readjust your learning later, when you know what to focus on. 

2. Don’t hold unrealistic expectations on fluency

I always want to be good at what I do – at EVERYTHING I do.  I don’t like to do something and suck at it.  I don’t like embarrassment.  So, the goal of course was to speak Japanese like a native.  But the truth is, my mother tongue (Mandarin) sucks.  My fellow Taiwanese don’t even think I sound Taiwanese.  The Chinese don’t think I’m Chinese.  How can I have a higher expectation at my second foreign language if my native tongue already sucks that bad?

2. 1 Speak from day one

The expectations of being fluent also helps masks the embarrassment when you sound like a n00b when you make that move to talk to people and are not yet fluent.  The truth is, you can’t “speak well” if you’ve never gave it real world experience. 

I used to think experience is overrated (in terms of learning, work, everything).  Now, I start to understand the value of experience.  Looking back at my other learnings – Swimming.  I probably drank 2 pools’ worth of water while learning how to swim.  Of course, I was embarrassed, it sucked, and it felt like failure…  But to learn to swim, it was inevitable that I had to drink the water myself.  Nobody else could drink it for me, or suffer it for me.  It’s the only way to go.  Drink quickly, and learn quickly.  Kind of disgusting to think how much pee was in there.  But anyway.  There is a lot of latent learning from just constantly doing and speaking.  The improvements from speaking right away and speaking daily are also non-linear and very difficult to measure.  Instead of trying to measure it, just start doing it. 

Oh, point on experience: 15 years of experience is not the same as one year of experience done 15 times.  

3. Actual Tricks and Tools

If you want to take a class, I suggest taking the very basic class at the beginning of your learning, and near the mid-end.  I’ve took courses in college, courses outside, courses online…  I recommend take a course to setup the basics, then run hard on your own, then come back to the courses when you have a wide reach.  The formal system will stick better that way.   Now here are some actual tools and tricks:

3. 1 Mnemonics

Use mnemonics for vocabs.  Make a story or a phrase out of it.  Use your imagination and creativity.   

3.2 Anki app

There are only two apps I actually paid money for (thank God to the gift card from my internship).  For someone as cheap as me to whip out money and buy an app, it is very difficult.  Anki is also not one of those $0.99 apps.  Bitch costs $24.99!!  I use it every day.  I recommend it.  That should mean something.  The tool is not perfect and there are a lot of things that could be improved…  But so far nothing else comes close. 

Anki is an SRS tool -> think of it as flash cards on steroids.  Instead of practicing every card equally, the app exposes the cards you are not familiar with more often.  Learn some basic coding if you can, and learn some excel if you can.  I’ve created thousands of Anki cards for myself incorporating my own mnemonics. 

I use Anki for Japanese (Kanji, vocab), Acupuncture, and plan to use it for Esperanto. 

3.3 Esperanto

Consider learning this new language created about a century ago.  The aim of this language is to be the easiest among all, and serve as a milestone/connector in learning a new language.  Using the skills of acquiring such an easy language, practicing these skills, then step up to the big boy league and learn your target language.  I just started at duolingo.com.  So far it’s been pretty fun. 

Now go learn that new language and go pick up some cute gals/guys.