I lived in Japan for 2 years back in my mid-20s teaching English. This was around 2006 or so. I had a great time, but mostly stuck to my little English bubble and really didn’t learn any Japanese beyond basic survival. I did end up returning to Canada with an absolutely wonderful Japanese wife, though.
In the mean time, I’ve been through medical school, residency, had 3 kids, and found a great job. Every year or two we’d all trek back to Japan to visit the inlaws for 2-3 weeks. I was always the happy nodding husband, and just let my wife chauffeur me around the country. My kids speak Japanese, my in-laws not a word of English.
So last time I was there about 2 years ago, I became really annoyed at my inability to communicate. Long story, but it involved being stuck on a mountaintop, missing a bus, and not being able to find my hotel. So with my supportive wife I buckled down and started studying Japanese about an hour a night. I’m in my 40s now, so learning is slow. I managed to pass JLPT N5 last December. I’m going for N4 this year. I was really struggling with kanji and vocabulary. I started using WaniKani as my wife and textbooks could always help me with grammar, listening, and vocabulary, but relying on her for kanji just didn’t stick. Over the last 3 or so months I’ve reached level 11, and I’ve already started to pick out words and phrases that I hadn’t learned from other contexts. My textbooks have started making more sense, and my wife is always impressed when I can read parts of what she’s doing online. I feel like WaniKani has really supercharged my learning when added to the studying I was already doing.
You have a similar story to others here. It sounds like you have great motivation now, and that you have good complimentary learning resources. Japanese requires a multi-pronged attack.
Also, I think that you spelled “wanikani” wrong in your title! ':0
Honestly, I mostly checked out your post to make sure that someone wasn’t being a jerk on purpose.
Then I read your post and realized it was not.
It is funny how people make their way to WK. The whole reading thing truly requires a separate study focus. But, when the written language starts to link up with the spoken language in your mind, suddenly there is a giant leap in understanding.
The community here is a fantastic resource too. Enjoy your studies!
Welcome! Great story, and I can imagine you will get a lot out of this being able to communicate with your Japanese family and enjoy your trips more.
Don’t worry about age, plenty of us that age or older making cracking progress. If you keep that up consistently it will pay huge dividends in the next two years!
I love this! So great that it’s really making learning smoother and quicker for you. Wishing you so well with busting through the levels
I’m also in my 40s (just, I’m 50 end of next year) and whilst I don’t feel super quick I definitely think it still works well for my slightly slower brain.
Bonus: I bet you’re under-estimating how much your wife appreciates your honest effort to not just consider her your built-in interpreter. I know a lot of Japanese women married to English speaking husbands in Japan (teachers, assigned for business, etc.) While they don’t mind helping out (or even enjoy it to some extent), they all admit a tiny (or in some cases not so tiny) feeling of irritation if the husband is too lazy to even try.
That’s probably a bigger deal for people who live there full-time, not just visit, but it’s the effort that counts. As they say, happy wife → happy life.
I’m curious how you got started teaching English in Japan and what you would recommend to others on that subject. Can you tell me more?
I’ve considered doing it but I haven’t been ESL certified and I don’t know if it’s what I want to do, but maybe it’s a great way to get started in Japan.
Seriously though, better late than never. If you made it through everything else (medical school, etc.) already, Japanese will just be a matter of putting in the time and effort (as opposed to having to try to balance anatomical terms with compound kanji or whatever). And it’s great to have a support system around you for your learning journey as well. Enjoy!
