It's not THAT hard to learn a language....
Well...depending on what you mean by learn a language.
There is a level where you are able to get around, asking for directions, ordering, making small talk. This is way easier than most people are willing to admit. You can learn it in a few weeks, just studying an hour or two a day.
There is learning to the point where you are able to have a conversation, not only about self introductions and small talk, but the ability to say most of what you want to say. This takes many people years but it really doesn't have to. If you take a first principles approach to the language, then it can be done in months, and if you have someone patient to talk to, you can begin practicing within a few weeks.
Then there is a level of deep understanding and nuance in another language. This can take years, or even a lifetime, even if you put lots of time and energy into it and even if you have a practical approach. You can begin this journey after a year or two if you are really proactive, but it takes much longer to get to a level where people can treat you the same as a native speaker.
Of course there are various levels of understanding within each of these levels, but the point of bringing them up is to say that people really really overestimate the first two, and really underestimate the third.
I find the first two incredibly easy if I have a few months to focus my free time on the language, even just an hour or two a day, or even better if I have more than that. I've become very good at hacking the basics.
Becoming able to converse at a near native level though, that's always evaded me. The primary reason for this is vocabulary. Languages are MASSIVE.
And so I was able to learn Japanese and Mandarin to a level where I can talk about most things and send and receive messages, and when I watch something with simple dialogue, I can understand...but when I hear something out of context I miss 40-60% of what is going on, and I read about 4-5x slower than native speakers.
I've tried countless things over the years to try and speed up the process...and I guess you could say I've done that...but it's still a VERY long process.
As an example, I tried using games to learn vocabulary, reviewing the dialogue on Youtube 3-4 times after playing. I got through the first half of a 40 hour RPG game and already had a list of about 2000 words. I imagined that after learning 2000 words, I'd start to find fewer and fewer new words because I would have already learned a bunch of them.
But the second game I played wasn't any easier, even though the dialogue was the same level of difficulty. For every 100 new words there were about 10 that I'd studied in the last game. If I do some rough math...that means I'd need to study 400 more hours of games. That's not 400 hours of study, but 400 hours of dialogue. Each hour of dialogue would be studied about 5 hours total.
That's 2000 hours of study before I'll be able to understand most of what's going on in these games or a TV show or novel without a dictionary. THAT'S INSANE! I'm already conversational.
I don't blame this on Japanese being difficult. I don't the vocabulary harder to learn than Spanish or French. The basics were rough but I've got those down. It's just that languages are HUGE.
If I study about an hour a day....2000 hours will take me about another 7 years.
WHAT!?!
Of course I don't really NEED to learn Japanese anymore to live here. But I want to be able to read a friends novel, and listen to a discussion or interview and know exactly what is going on. I want to be able to join group discussions and not speak with a handicap, but like a native.
No matter how much I look for hacks, there is no way around this...I've got to put the time in. And so I continue to spend about an hour a day on studying through games. I've started 3 games and I plan to spend the next 6 months learning all the vocabulary in them. Then hopefully, after learning around 6000-8000 words, I will begin to feel the amount of new words that show up in every new game is shrinking.
If you've read any posts about my studying before you know I previously used Tales of Vesperia and Persona 5. Persona 5 is a 100 hour game though, and I couldn't be THAT patient to finish it. I decided to stop using it to study and study through Persona 4 instead because it's about a third of the size. I'll also use Final Fantasy Crisis Core and potentially some Star Ocean game and Xenoblade 2.
Here are some of the words I'm studying. I don't think any of my friends here are studying Japanese, at least not at this level so it won't be of any use to anyone, but just for my own practice, I'll write them here.
(Vocabulary from Tales)
| Kanji | English | Hiragana |
|---|---|---|
| 長雨 | long rain | ながあめ |
| 氾濫 | to flood | はんらん |
| 水位 | water level | すいい |
| たたり | curse | たたり |
| 寝言 | nonsense/sleep talk | ねごと |
| 実体化 | materialize | じったいか |
| 実在 | actually exist | じつざい |
| 司祭 | priest | しさい |
| 不束 | rude / incompetent | ふつつか |
| 末永く | evermore | すえながく |
| 不可欠 | indispensable | ふかけつ |
| 手間 | time/labor | てま |
| 微力 | small power | びりょく |
| 王宮 | palace | おうきゅう |
| 内務 | internal affair | ないむ |
| 辛苦 | hardship | しんく |
| 見張る | to stand watch | みはる |
| 王位継承者 | heir to the throne | おういけいしょうしゃ |
| 親密 | intimacy | しんみつ |
| さぞや | surely | |
| 勘ぐる | to doubt | かんぐる |
| しばし | a short while | |
| 客室 | guest room | きゃくしつ |
| 円卓 | round table | えんたく |
| 整う | to prepare | ととのう |
| 内示 | unofficial announcement | ないじ |
| 別命 | a separate order | べつめい |
| お近付き | make someone's acquaintance | おちかづき |
| 司る | unification | つかさどる |
| 聖職者 | clergyman | せいしょくしゃ |
| 司教 | bishop | しきょう |
| 輔弼 | advising the emperor | ほひつ |
| 腹を割って話す | speak frankly | はらをわってはなす |
| 王族 | royalty | おうぞく |
| 人気取り | publicity stunt | にんきとり |
| 致命的 | fatal | ちめいてき |
| 醜聞 | scandal | しゅうぶん |
| 救済 | relief / aid | せいきゅう |
| 求める | to ask/demand | もとめる |
| 低俗 | vulgar | ていぞく |
| 有効 | valid/effective | ゆうこう |
| 単刀直入 | straight to the point | たんとうちょくにゅう |
| 配下 | subordinate | はいか |
| 士気 | morale | しき |
| 高揚 | enhancement | こうよう |
| 便宜を図る | to accommodate | べんぎをはかる |
| 義理立て | doing one's duty | ぎりだて |
| 左遷 | demotion | させん |
| 強情 | obstinate | ごうじょう |
| 身の程 | (knowing) one's place | みのほど |
| 思い知らす | to make someone understand | おもいしらす |
| 風情 | taste/charm | ふぜい |
| 武装 | arms | ぶそう |
| 兵団 | army corps | へいだん |
| いかさま | fraud | |
| 謀る | to scheme | たばかる |
| 矜持 | dignity | きょうじ |
| 曲者 | ruffian | くせもの |
| 返礼 | return present | へんさい |
My latest work:
