You know Japanese?!
I do! I majored in Japanese language (graduated in 2007) and I passed the N2 level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test in 2010.

Does that mean you’re fluent?
I don’t consider myself fluent, primarily because there are still a lot of situations I don’t feel confident I would be able to navigate as smoothly as I do in my native language (English).

If pressed, I would concede to being conversationally fluent, but that’s not what fluency means to me.

How long have you been studying for?
Over 15 years.

Seriously?
Yes! I first began seriously studying Japanese when I was 17 and I’m 33 now!

How did you learn Japanese?
In my senior year of high school, I got a Japanese tutor who helped me learn a bunch of basic Japanese including hiragana, katakana, some common sentence structures and conjugating verbs using the polite form. We also studied some kanji.

In college, I took Japanese language and conversation classes each year, and in 2006 I studied abroad in Chiba prefecture for four months.

After graduating, I continued studying on my own and eventually passed the N2 level of the JLPT in December 2010.

Did you live in Japan?
My longest stay in Japan was four months in 2006. I hope to surpass that record soon!

How did you stay so good at it if you don’t live in a country where Japanese is common?
Honestly, the only reason my language skills haven’t degraded more is simply because I consume a decent amount of Japanese media (TV shows, comics, books, music, etc).

Oh and I’m a huge nerd for this language. I actually enjoy studying vocabulary and kanji (although more reading than writing) and find it relaxing. My goal is to pass the N1 in 2019 or 2020 and I plan to take the KanKen in progressively harder levels until I pass at least level 2. (I’d love to pass 1!)

While language aptitude tests are not in and of themselves the ultimate measure of one’s language ability, they are helpful for getting a job as a foreigner and I personally find them helpful to focus my studying.

So you’ve never used a language school in Japan?
As of right now, no, and I’m unlikely to go to one as I’m in this weird place of being an advanced learner who isn’t fluent and structured textbooks are less likely to teach me the things I really need to become fully fluent. There’s just no substitute for being surrounded by the language and interacting with thousands of other native speakers over the course of years.

How specifically did you study?
My most intense period of study was between 2003 and 2007, followed by 2009 and probably the last couple years (2016-18).

In college, my first year of Japanese classes were held 5 days a week – usually in US universities classes are held 2-3 times each week. We had two main classes where the teacher would go over new vocabulary and grammar, and the other three days were speaking classes that had only about one third of the students in each session.

I was top of my class easily because I’d already studied quite a bit before entering college, to the point where I probably could have skipped Japanese 101 and maybe 102. Even in subsequent years I remained one of the highest scorers on all our exams and presentations.

However, study abroad in Japan was completely different.

I did test into the highest level language class – with less than 10 students total – but my kanji knowledge was laughable. I was so bad that the teacher would constantly call me out on it, not understanding how I could communicate at that level but be functionally illiterate.

The reason for this is my home university didn’t focus as much on kanji, and we were tested only on what we’d been learning recently for the most part. I didn’t absorb all of this or put it together, so while I could test well, I didn’t perform well months after the fact. Kanji still remains my weak point even today, although I’ve made a lot of progress.

After graduating, I tried to buckle down and study a lot on my own so I could pass １級 – the highest level of the old levels of the JLPT. In 2010 the test would be changing, and the N1 was supposed to be even harder. I figured there was no loss in trying – if I failed, I could just start with the N2 the next year.

In December 2009, I failed １級 .

Honestly, I wasn’t as successful studying on my own, and previously I had been able to skate by using my intuition for the most part since I had started to get a good feel for the language. Failing that test made me realize that if I wanted to get better I had to take this seriously.

In 2010 I spent most of the year studying kanji – I probably increased my reading comprehension from under 1000 characters to around 1700. You’ll notice I said reading comprehension and that’s an important distinction – although I can probably read most if not all of the common-use kanji at this point, I cannot recall them to write without prompting. When you write Japanese on a computer, the IME suggests kanji combinations based on most frequently used for the reading you’ve typed. Using this, I can pick out what looks correct most of the time, but once we return to pen and paper I’m closer to a grade schooler than a university student.

After I passed N2, I slacked off for a long time. I wasn’t sure I needed to pass the N1, and many people will argue N2 is just as good for most purposes. I took a solo trip to Japan in 2011 and got around just fine. I also went on a solo trip in 2014 with no issues to speak of.

Once again, we approach 2016, the year when my perception started to change. First, I was going to be in charge of planning a trip to Tokyo/Osaka (and other major landmarks) and bringing along someone who did not know the language, so I wanted to brush up to avoid any awkward situations. It was also around this time that I revisited using iKnow on my phone. I’d previously bought a lifetime subscription and figured I’d get more use out of it. I don’t recommend iKnow as anyone’s sole study tool, but it’s good for vocabulary and hearing new words in the context of whole sentences.

After beginning to seriously consider actually moving to Japan again, I committed to completing the vocabulary courses on iKnow – marketed as containing 6000 words but some of them are more variations on a theme, think “a walk” versus “to walk.” While I understand the purpose of doing this but, I would have preferred more totally new vocabulary.

In 2017 I decided I was going to study for N1 and pass it, in order to get a job in Japan! (Note: those two things are not necessarily dependent on one another, although they can be related.) I started studying, signed up for the test and then…. my day job and searching for work overseas zapped all my extra energy and I just could not find a way to stay sane and study for the JLPT. So when December rolled around, I just didn’t show up. I greatly overestimated the amount of non-working time I had and the amount of time I would need to recharge each week. Lesson learned, I’ll do better next time!

That brings us to the present – 2018 – where I’m currently challenging myself with kanji yet again, but this time with writing. I’m using an iPad program designed for Japanese elementary school students so it’s immersive (meaning absolutely no English), but still kind of difficult because it reveals gaps in my vocabulary knowledge.

I plan to write posts periodically on my continuing language study and any resources I find along the way that I think will (or won’t) be useful to new, beginner, intermediate, or advanced learners.