Comments

Fluent Fantasy — 40 Comments

  1. Adam,

    Congrats on getting the book completed – I imagine its immensely satisfying.

    I will be checking it out, and I’ll let my (not learning Japanese but learning a second language) friends know about it.

    Great stuff.

    • Thanks!

      Yes, it feels ridiculously good. I spent most of the past year putting this together, so I’m hoping people get some value out of it.

  2. I went from finishing this post to buying the book faster than Usain Bolt can run 100 meters. Congratulations on finally finishing it!

    • Paperbacks make better gifts anyway. You can wrap them, they take up physical space and so are less easily forgotten, and the recipient will eventually be sucked into reading it and thus become trapped.

    • That’s Yumeno Yo for you. He did a great job this time as always. And I also hope for the widest of widest reaches of audience!

  3. I don’t know … Dungeons and monsters sounds dangerous, while sleepy student sounds safe and warm.

    • A hardcover version is a bit further away if I decide to go down that route, but the paperback should be released in somewhat reasonable time frame.

      Thanks!

  4. Ah I wanted to read the whole book in one sitting but a wise man said not to ”greedily down too many (potions) at once”….so I’ll put it away for today…

  5. Please write a post on how to incorporate this into the Habitica website (a habit tracker, RPG style)

    • Here’s my personal setup: https://imgur.com/BgFodaN I’ve put the minimum of the things related to japanese that I want to do, and then I’ve put extra in the habit section because right now my goal is just to do the minimum, so every extra is worth some sort of bonus. I’ve set them up as actual video game monsters, with the task description saying what I have to do for them. That way, it feels like I’m hunting monsters, instead of doing a to-do list.

  6. I read the book and thought that the video game analogy is a fun way to organize the book. For someone into video games it might be an appealing way to get them to focus on language learning.

    I felt that it didn’t have as much specific information as on your website and if someone only reads the book they won’t understand how to use your method. Perhaps at the end you could include a section on quick strategy guide that includes a modified version of the walkthrough.

    If I had only read the book I wouldn’t really appreciate why and when to switch to Japanese – Japanese study, the crucial early role of Anki, and the need to switch to native materials early on and separate out Kanji readings from the meanings, and the need to study sentences rather that individual words. These are all clear from reading your website but not so much from the book.

    I’d also suggest including more personal information about your own story. Your prior article on your personal journey was very interesting (http://japaneselevelup.com/reflections-decade-studying-japanese/) and it would be great if your book included more material like that. You did include some of this, such as talking about meeting a friend of yours years after you both started studying and being able to speak together in Japanese in Tokyo but more stories would be great.

    I appreciate all the great material you’ve put together on the website and hope you can reach a larger audience with the book. Hopefully these suggestions are helpful to you. I was hesitant to post anything but praise as I really appreciate all of your great material but figure honest feedback is most helpful if you are trying to use to book to expand your website audience.

    • Thanks for reading it and I appreciate the feedback.

      The focus of the book was intentionally on the mental video game side, rather than going into detail on specific methods like J-E, J-J, Anki, and native materials. I wanted this book to be able to appeal to all language learners, and I didn’t want to press the specific Jalup methods too hard, since everyone uses different methods (especially when you add other languages).

      While I did include personal stories, of course there are many more. I didn’t want to make it all about me, but you can expect me continuing them on the site as always.

  7. Whoa, it’s out! Nice work, man. I’m excited to read it.

    BTW, in addition to posting your praise here, loyal Jalup readers, I would definitely encourage leaving it in the form of Amazon reviews. As someone who used to work in book publishing, I know how big a difference even a handful of good reviews can make for a product on Amazon.

    Now if you’ll pardon me, I’ve got some reading to do :D

    • it was a pretty good read, great for anyone wanting to start in the language learning game. also, like the other person said, some quick quick actions steps at the end of every chapter would be good, in case they might get an information overload.

  8. I went ahead and purchased this book today. I’ve got my strategy guide now and with the Jalup app I’ve got my controller in hand. Japanese is the game to be played. I guess I can sign off the site now and when I return I’ll be a different person entirely. Thanks Adam, for everything you’ve done here for us :)

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