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Creating the Daily Need to Learn Japanese — 11 Comments

  1. After I read my first manga in Japanese, Love So Life, I became so excited to get to the next volume again and again. I have to pace myself because of a budget, but it’s absolutely true! A need has been created!

  2. Nice article :)

    I discovered some time ago now the greatness of 実況プレイ, that is people recording themselves playing video games. Some series are great, many not so great, so that would be a good guide series too I think.

    Can’t wait for your other guides!
    Comedy guide? Need!
    Movies guide? Yeah!
    Novel guide? Hell YEAH!

  3. My suggestion is to make it a Habit. Make it harder to forget to include Japanese in your life. Find something you do every single day and include it right next to it. Right after you wake up, right after lunch, during your drive to work, while your at the gym, or right before you go to bed. These are good times to include Japanese in your life.

    Research shows it takes something like 21 days to make a habit, if you can get it to stick, you won’t need to worry about giving in easily or about it fading away. This can help establish a bare minimum amount of Japanese in your life. Obviously it’s important to do much more then this, but but at least you will do something.

  4. まさにその通りです。ハマるって大事ですね。大変貴重なアドバイスをありがとうございました。I started learning Korean basically because it has similar structure with Japanese. And I’m doing your advice, changing my laptop environment into Korean, in my case. But then G-mail and Facebook makes changes so often, it gave me headache… so I changed the language back to Japanese which I’m much more familiar with.

  5. I started learning Japanese because my wife is Japanese. The need will always be there for me. And it’s great because I can always ask question 24/7!

  6. #3 and the above are reasons I wish I liked anime, manga, and to a lesser extent Japanese dramas. I’ve always hated anime and manga, and the few J-dramas I’ve tried to get into have lasted about 3 episodes before I was bored to death by them. This stuff just isn’t any good if you’re over 16 years old typically. It’s one of the main things that kills my study of Japanese – I have no motivation to see it through other than to talk to people. Of course, being a shy introvert means this isn’t a great reason either. Everyone always mentions anime and manga as a great motivator/reason to learn Japanese, but what do us people who hate these things look to?

    • I’d have to seriously disagree that J-drama isn’t good if you’re over 16 years old. First, are you sure you are finding j-drama that matches your level? And second, are you watching a wide enough variety to find what you like? Every new season of dramas, probably 15-20 new shows come out. Most people personally find 1 to 2 that they like. However, if you are just new to the Jdrama world, you have the past 10-15 years of dramas to look through, so you should have no shortage of material to find some great gems that really resonate with you. Once you do, I promise you will change your view.

      Trust me, there are plenty of Jdramas that I get bored of in the first few minutes and give up (let alone 3 episodes).

      Have you been through the jdrama guide on this site?

    • Well, what is the reason you decided to learn japanese in the first place? I know you say that you want to talk to people but you also say that you’re shy and thus don’t really like talking to people that much.. was that the original reason? Try to remember the other reasons and that might help you :P

    • Hey,
      I love anime and more precisely, I love Dramas, but I see where yo uare coming from.

      Talking to other people is a definite advantage.

      Can you remember why you wanted to learn Japanese in the first place? Was it the culture? Was it the language? And just think of that. Another motivator is wanting to more there…

      I agree with Adshap in that you probably just haven’t found the right Drama for you. I am 18 (and a girl) and completely obsessed with a lot of dramas.

      Gokusen is a really good series, and so is GTO (2012).

      Can’t say we would really be into the same Drama’s as I watch mine to stare at the cute japanese boys ;)

      Good luck in finding a Drama that suits your taste. I am sure there is one out there you will like.

  7. Changing my phone and computer language to Japanese seems to help quite a bit. Since I’m on my computer for much of my free time, the extra association forces a more immersive environment.

  8. I’ve recently created a need for Japanese. There is not one day I can’t go by without watching at least two drama episodes or 1 movie, listening to drama audio or a podcast or reading a manga (even though I can only understand around 10%). I even enjoy doing exercises from my textbook simply because it’s Japanese.

    I thought I would never be able to create a need and that I would always have to force myself to do anything Japanese.

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