Mon, 01/11/2010 - 00:50
I stumbled across this blog earlier, The author describes how he learned Japanese in just 18 months through some pretty intense methods (immersing himself in Japanese for 18 to 24 hours a day, yikes), but one thing he's big on is that you have to have fun while you're learning Japanese. It's an interesting read nonetheless, so I thought I'd share. :)
Yep, I follow this guy on Twitter. He's a manaic. (^-^;
I have a few issues with some minor points of his recommendations for Japanese learning ("learn kanji before you learn sentences"? huh?), but on the whole I think that he's spot on.
Honestly, the more exposure to Japanese education that I get, the more I'm convinced that there's really only one truly important rule for learning Japanese (or, probably, anything):
As to the first, most people find out that their desire to learn Japanese is outweighed by the amount of effort it takes, especially when they have other, higher priorities. Khatzumoto (and I) dedicated a couple of years to making learning Japanese our #1 priority, and so we learned the language.
As to #2, I don't think that it matters so much what you do, just that you keep plugging away. There are certainly better and worse ways to learn, but in the end if you really want to learn the language, and keep at it, every day, constantly trying to push yourself and learn new things, then you'll learn it.