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My (Girl/Boy)friend says I’m Studying the Wrong Way — 8 Comments

  1. In my work-study group, there was a fluent speaker. He was actually a translator who tried to steer me away from jalup. He mentioned that the methods may be too extreme and that I would burn out. My logic was that through massive exposure vs wrote/repetition, I could learn faster.
    Thanks for creating this system.

    • There shouldn’t be anything “extreme” here. People should be able to put in as much time as they feel comfortable. It just focuses on the long term, rather than short term, and gets you enjoying real Japanese now, rather than some future later.

  2. This is actually a really useful article because if you use anki or say you learn from some internet site, everyone you will eventually get some questioning you. I guarantee it. My wife is Korean and fluent in Japanese and because she can’t speak English, we only speak in Japanese (and some garbage Korean from me). She studied Japanese at a Japanese school and became fluent by living there and studying. So my method seemed really strange to her, as I was ‘on my own’ staring into my phone. ‘You have to study in a classroom with other people’ is the method she has in mind.

    I basically just brushed her off and said, ‘if I hadn’t used this method, we wouldn’t be able to talk right now. This is what works for me.’ Although I wouldn’t recommend brushing your partner off, lol, the point is everyone has a method that works for them. And I think that is the best way to explain yourself.

    I’ve met people with high level Japanese that have learnt entirely through text books and their Japanese is better than mine, but the second I glance at a textbook my eyes glaze over. Yet I can use anki for 2 hours a day with no issues. I’ve also met people with high level Japanese learnt entirely through anki and nothing else.

    Whatever works!

    • I fully agree that there are people who flourish in the traditional textbook/classroom setting. That used to be the only route. Now that there are hundreds of new legitimate alternative routes, let people choose what works for them.

  3. I always think it’s a good idea to try multiple methods. Pair Anki with a textbook or speaking in class.

    • Remember that these days, Anki is a textbook (people are just putting the information from textbooks into Anki format). But yes, trying multiple methods to find what works is important. I always recommend trying out some kind of class at some point to see if you like it. Some people get great motivation from being in a classroom.

  4. Interesting article. I thought i would share my experience (somewhat the opposite of the article). I dated a Japanese teacher for a short while, and she was super impressed with my progress (you can read kanji!!) and demanded i explain how i did it. So i explained the jalup system.

    On another note, none of the Japanese schools in my area recommend anki to their students which is a shame. My friend who is studying Spanish gets given decks from his school so i don’t see why the Japanese schools cant do that too.

    • Yes, not everyone is like the type of person in this article. There are plenty of open-minded language learners. You just have to learn to deal when you are not talking to one of them.

      That is a shame about not recommending Anki.

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