So, my journey with Japanese is a weird one. Had a mild interest in trying to learn Japanese years ago, learned to read kana, signed up for WK free tier, lost interest after a week, quit.
This year, work sent me to Japan in January for a month – didn’t need to know Japanese for the work I was doing, but I knew about the trip four months ahead, so I crammed kana knowledge + basic grammar in a panic, since I felt like I would be completely lost otherwise. Finished the trip having learned…not as much as I’d like. I was always embarrassed to try to say anything half the time so after I got home, I figured I would passively read up on vocab and actually try WK this time. Fast forward to today, I’ve learned a lot of kanji, and can parse simple grammar, but I never get any in-person practice!
Lo and behold, there’s a private Japanese school literally half a mile from my home. I’m going today for the first class, and realizing that I spent little to no time actually practicing writing! Typing yes, writing no. I spent all day yesterday trying to make sure I remembered how to actually write kana, and I keep forgetting how to write things like レ so, anyways, nervous as hell.
I’m going to figure out this language though…somehow.
(yes, this reads like a 日記 entry but I do wonder if anyone has had a similar experience)
I was super nervous when I first signed up for Italki. It took a lot of building up to get me to even message a teacher. Although not in person, there was still that same anxiety.
Maybe reading over my old thread would help?
The first one is always the hardest, it definitely gets easier with each new lesson.
Don’t worry about making mistakes, you’re learning! Their job is to teach you, so they expect you to need help. And besides, I’ve found the more mistakes I make, the more I learn. If you’re automatically perfect at everything, then you have no room to grow
I’m certainly not the sharpest knife in the drawer and it took me a long time to get comfortable reading kana (about 4 years, YMMV). Even now I still can’t read kana as quickly as, say, English. Especially when it’s katakana. But it’s getting there.
August my 5 month class ended, it was good and when I started I was nervous to. I’m glad I took it it gave me a big insight inside N5 grammar and how to approach self study.
Writing katakana is so hit and miss for me. Don’t ask me to write ヌ because I can never remember. Even reading it I am still not always sure what I am looking at.
Anyhoo, I find that as an adult learner I’m taking it easy. With so much other real life stuff, I hope you can relax and not worry about what you can or can’t do. In regards to writing, there are a lot of resources that you can either buy or print out for free to work on in your free time, so don’t stress about that.
I was once in a situation where an instructor was making me feel bad because I just wasn’t getting a grammar point or something, and the twenty- something me protested but still stayed. The me now would not stand for that kind of behavior so I hope that you end up in a pleasant classroom experience.
I HATE katakana… I really don’t want to even learn them… especially since they are mostly used to mangle perfectly fine words into incomprehensible garbage.
I know a few japanese natives who cannot be bothered to figure out how to translate english words into engrish and just use the goddamn romaji…
The most recent source of RAGE I came across was this here: “ウェブページ”.
I started learning Japanese a year ago and on September 7 this year, I decided to sign up to a Japanese language school. I wanted to go in intermediate 1, but there was no space left so I got put in intermediate 2(a level higher). Intermediate 2 is the fourth year at this school.
I only practiced writing kana like 10 times each character so I forgot how to write さ during class. The good thing is I will never forget that character lol. I struggle with talking but I noticed that my kanji knowledge is better than most people in my class. Thanks Wanikani.
I also made a fool of myself by saying the wrong thing in front of everyone but whatever. I will not give up . We sometimes see N3 grammar points and I’m only halfway through N4 in Bunpro.
At least, I’m not the only one in my group to have been put in a level higher than they were supposed to.
I just wanted to express that venting out your concerns like this is absolutely valid, and you’ll find that you’re absolutely not alone in these things.
Some Katakana characters are used way less than others, and those ones often are what I’d forget. Even in karaoke, when there’s a flurry of katakana characters coming through, I’d just struggle even reading.
I just know that though, you’ve been able to already memorize and parse through a respectable amount of kanji and grammar already. Those katakana characters will stand no match once you get down to it and get into the study zone.
Keep practicing, make some self-study quizzes, and I’m sure those jitters will start melting away!
I feel a lot better having read these replies! Class went well basically there are only three others besides me in the adult class, and this will be a chance to fill in the gaps in my ability…and maybe finally be able to actually get grammar down.
I took classes in university, but stopped studying for a long time and now that I’m in my 30s I decided to go to language school last year. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I understand your concerns. Since it had been so long since I had studied Japanese I was put in a beginner class. I was disappointed at first, thinking I at least had the basics down. When I looked at the book to review what I would be learning I realized that a lot of the material would be a good refresher or things I didn’t remember at all (the books I used differed). Honestly I don’t regret it at all. It helped me with a more solid foundation.
I do think it’s important to find the right school/class/teacher. I have had good and bad teachers. I had one teacher who didn’t know english well and sometimes when students asked questions you realized that the teacher didn’t understand the questions. They wouldn’t answer the question correctly (sometimes responding yes to a question that was not a yes or no question or sometimes explain the wrong thing). For the students that were struggling to understand it made things harder or gave them false understandings. Some teachers are strict about pronunciation and grammar while others can be too relaxed. I know someone that took a class that was too slow. I know some students that needed a slower class. Hopefully the class you have is good. I know for some people they limited by options for learning Japanese in person, but there are only tutors and some online classes.
so after I got home, I figured I would passively read up on vocab and actually try WK this time. Fast forward to today, I’ve learned a lot of kanji, and can parse simple grammar, but I never get any in-person practice!
so, anyways, nervous as hell.
. We sometimes see N3 grammar points and I’m only halfway through N4 in Bunpro.