This massive undertaking has all been just one important step that I wish I’d taken 20 years ago. Better late than never, I suppose.
I first went to Japan in the summer of 2001 on the JET Programme with three words I learned from a guy down the street.
どうも
こんにちは
ありがとう
In walking around my little town, I realized that while I had a degree in English literature, I could only read the stop sign because … well … it looked like a stop sign. It was a very humbling experience, and it shaped much of my adult life.
Fast forward 21 years, and now I’ve got a few more words thanks to WK, about 6,000 more, which is pretty nice. There’s obviously much more to the story, but it doesn’t really matter. I’m here now with 2,000 kanji under my belt and I feel genuinely ready for literacy.
To those of you making your way through now, just keep moving forward. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Sometimes, you just need to get it wrong until you get it right. That’s not a problem; that’s just learning. Also, if you have the luxury of time, use it. Don’t rush. I think this program probably works best at a slower pace than what I took (around 513 days). Do as I say, not as I did.
Good luck to everyone and much respect!
Here’s a little 懐かしい treat for my fellow old-timers!
Congratulations! If you have leveled up to 60, log in and out again & you can move this thread to the new Level 60 Celebration category (and get that well-deserved gold badge if you want it)
Just drop in to say, I love the song of this version. I wish I could see the series with 転校 part. I don’t even know a thing about Japanese 21 years ago. Actually I do, there was untranslated Pokemon; but someone translated into a walkthrough.
I love reading these success stories and hearing how people made it to the top of the mountain. I also happen to personally relate to your story because I also started studying Japanese years ago, more than a decade now, and even studied in Japan for a summer, but I never really committed to working on improving seriously, in a long-term way (I’m sure others can relate). That’s finally changed now and I’ve been grinding away for the last few months and can really feel progress on this language I’ve wanted to learn since I was very young. Here’s hoping in a year or two I’ll be joining you on the top!
Just wanted to let you know that your success is also an inspiration to up-and-comers like me, so thanks a lot for sharing! もう一緒に勉強しましょう!
There’s plenty of room up here at the top. There’s also still plenty of room to go up from here too actually.
Seriously though, I’m so happy to provide some positive inspiration. My journey with Japanese has been such a weirdly circuitous one with years-long breaks, and kanji has always been the massive wall halting my progress. That is no longer the case and it feels great.
For me, Japanese literacy is now primarily about enjoying video games, but I really do look forward to a time when travel is a more realistic possibilty to see what it’s like to walk around being able to really read.
I was doing my new cards at 9am, so now that they’re all in the hopper, and I don’t need to worry about the 1pm and 9pm cards, it feels like I’m getting off of work early. Sweet.
Glad you liked it! I do hope you get to enjoy some real cake though.