こんにちは！
Today is my 60th day using WK and I want to share my progress here!
I am M30, and have watched anime since high school, but never took any opportunity learning JP (aside from mandatory foreign language class) until my recent trip to Japan.
I was a casual learner, do not have a good learning habit. Sometimes I open a book, reading, scrolling but there is no real commitment, that was going on for 4 year or so, all I was doing was cramming and watching anime, but I somehow pass JLPT N4 which I took for fun.
However, having poor habit mean, I got easily demotivated and burned out quickly. After taking the JLPT, I took a “short break” (aside from watching anime) which last around 1 years and plus. Guess what, I forgot most of it!
I work in a Japanese company but hearing the native speaking to each other, I got NONE of it, my JLPT is practically useless, but it is not enough to motivate me to pick up Japanese again. There is no real need to do it.
Fast forward until spring this year, I went abroad the first time, to Japan. 楽しかったです。One thing that frustrated me is, my Japanese is useless. All I can manage is すみません、ありがとうございます！はい、いいえ、大丈夫です、四階ください、SUICAおねがいします。悔しい！
Japan is really wonderful place to visit, and I really wanted to go again. So I got an idea, if I properly learn Japanese, and if I can get to at least Level 30-35 (paired with BunPro) by November next year, I may able to make a decent conversation with local, and it will be more interesting!
I have ample time (roughly 490 days) to study, improving and saving. I think it is plausible. I have been to Japan, missed it and very motivated to keep learning.
WK make it easy to learn, while I spent roughly 120 ~ 180 reviews a day, but since it has hourly gap for example 8 reviews on 9am, 12 reviews on 11am, 31 reviews at 2pm, 15 reviews 3pm and so, but it add up.
Since, I used Tsurukame (iOS), it sent me notification every time I got new review, and I got the urge to clear queue as soon as possible, small bite at time, while keeping apprentice below 100. It is fun, like playing a puzzle and very manageable. At some point, I keep checking the app, but there is no new review! The next one is in 2 hours!
I sincerely believe that I can clear this little goal of mine. It even started to have an effect. Since I lived in multi-cultural country, there is a lot 中国語 signboard in the street at my area. It used to be gibberish, like some kind of scribble, but now I started to recognized the character or sometime the radical. Well, it still gibberish, half gibberish. I know the individual character, but the arrangement doesn’t make any sense but I still happy regardless. あれ？これ、知てるよ。
So every time, I saw character that I know outside WK, I was like “Wow, I know this character”. For example, in anime credit scene, I used to understand none of it, but recently, it was like I know some character, a bit. As I leveled up, I recognize more character. I cannot wait to be able to understand more and more of it (how is it going Level 60 folks!).
I wonder if anybody ever read until this point, there is a lot to type (and time) since well, my queue is empty, but hey, if you did, thank you! Leave me holler if you did!
So anyway, when I was at level 5 or so, we had a dinner with our company president in my country. Wait did I ever wrote on how he treat me Kyushu Motsunabe in Tokyo? あれは美味しかった。も一回食べたいな。So back then, my Japanese is real suck. Unusable. So when we met again last month, I had a little bit of practice (as I started using WK), "I was surprised! Your Japanese got a lot of better since the last time we met!"って言った。
I know that 日本人 like to “nihongo ojozu desune~” while they don’t actually mean it, so I don’t really take it at face value, we able to make somewhat a decent conversation? Although, since I’m lacking of a lot of vocabulary, it is hard to deliver my message and I had to mix with 仕草 and a little bit of English if I don’t know the word in Japanese. He told me that my Japanese did improve since I was conversing around 80% in Japanese with him, so he is really surprised. My other Japanese colleague told him that (in Japanese, so my interpretation may not be 100% correct), if my visit to Japan really did improve my Japanese, then my trip to Japan is not a waste after all. (I think he said mudazukajanakatta or something)
Regarding that, I wonder what he meant by that (not a waste). I was aways for 10 days after all. Does it mean that, if my Japanese not improved the trip is pointless or it just a way of saying? It doesn’t sound like a sneer remark so I don’t take it as issues, but if you know what he meant by that do let me know.
Phew, that’s a lot. I will keep writing on this thread to mark my progress every now and then. すぎは、多分、日本語？まだ分からないけど、お楽しみ下さい！
ありがとうございます！
