To be a good student, one must show up to class. This was my downfall in 2024. To be fair moving and buying a house literally blew up all my goals, but so did my intention to grow my Instagram. With these distractions, Japanese was not my priority for three-quarters of 2024, and I’m ashamed to say 2024 was a wash for progress.
But there was one bright spot in the year, I found a new learning app for Japanese called renshuu. With renshuu, I was able to dive into learning Japanese syntax and begin learning how to think in Japanese. It helped me see phrases and sentence structure so when I was watching videos with Japanese subtitles or listening to Japanese spoken or sung, my mind was primed to notice the familiar building blocks.
Another feature I liked about renshuu was its user-friendliness. The renshuu app developers seemed to care about learning, ahem, compared to the green owl, my learning nemesis named Duo. renshuu has Kao which looks like a mochi-based character which is our language learning guide.
Like I believe I mentioned before, I spent the fall watching Haikyuu for language immersion and a little Nana. In addition, Stray Kids’ Giant album was a Japanese release so I have been listening to music in Japanese too. The songs ‘Falling Up’ and ‘Night’ I played on repeat after their release with the new season of anime, Tower of God. I’m hoping I learned more passively than I believe. It’s hard not to feel discouraged by my lack of focus. I like excelling at things, but I can’t excel if I don’t try. My focus for my language learning in 2025 is simply to do it, no more excuses.
Are you learning a language? How do you stay focused? I wish you well on your language-learning journey, be a better student than me! Until next time, thanks for hanging out with me today. You reader, keep me accountable to keep learning Japanese.
I rarely do a Japanese update so close together, but something discouraging happened yesterday and my last update seems inaccurate to what I wrote now. When I began my language learning journey (to learn German), back in 2016 I chose Duolingo and it was a fantastic free option. Yes, the 5 heart health system was frustrating but they reloaded in a few hours and the amount of ads was limited. There were few bugs and it was an easy interface to use. Fast forward to 2024, when I returned to Duolingo to pick up my Japanese learning because I was stuck in a rut from the move, things were very different.
My experience this time lasted a week. A whole week, that’s it. The ads between lessons were 1-3 mins depending on how long you used the app. The more you progressed the longer the ads between lessons. The ability to practice mistakes fully moved behind the paywall. The AI voices were normal at first but then I began to notice pronunciations that seemed incorrect to what I learned other places, and a quick reddit check and I am not alone in that experience.
But then, the nail in the coffin happened. Yesterday I was taking a final lesson review to move on to the next section in Japanese, and the app and AI format truly sabotaged the learning process. I was working on a listening exercise where you have to select words from a word bank based on what the voice says. I listened, listened again, listened on slow-mo, added some words from the word bank, checked my work, added a few more, checked my work, listened again, and submitted my answer. My answer was declared wrong and I lost a heart, although my “incorrect” answer matched the correct answer they showed.
I flagged it and submitted feedback and carried on with my lesson. No big deal. I went through the lesson, this was a review to move on to a new level, so you have to complete it to keep learning, well Duolingo presented the exercise again that I “missed” to do it again. I listened again, reviewed my work, and submitted. The same thing happened and I lost another heart. I flagged it again and moved on.
But I can’t, because this is the last obstacle to finishing the review. So I try again, maybe it will be fixed now? Nope, 3 hearts down. So I back out hoping it will reset the error and I forgot it would reset instead my progress, but not my hearts. I can pay for more hearts or pay for the Super Duolingo service for 99 USD a year for unlimited hearts. I was incredibly frustrated. I didn’t have enough hearts left to practice Korean too.
The hearts now reset after 24 hours. Plus, I can’t progress in Japanese nor can I go back and review previous lessons now because the app is gamified and you need gems to practice anything not just to convert your practice to “legendary” which means they go gold and your “practice streak” is frozen for a while.
Honestly, what the heck? They’ve made it unusable unless you pay money and I’d say that the current app is questionable enough to not justify a subscription even if you have 99 USD that you can spare because this is not even the equivalent of a virtual tutor anymore. I’m pretty disappointed. Having a free app that learning and language practice at its focus was such a good idea. It was accessible regardless of your financial status and it felt authentic.
This is a sham now. The language learning app are all expensive whether its Babbel, LingoDeer, Rosetta, etc. That’s why I would try Duolingo here and there because it was free and it kept you limited by hearts but it wasn’t unusable. That is no longer true.
Now I’m back at square one. I need to figure out a way to practice vocabulary and listening exercises, which I will it was just nice to have those practice sessions at the ready. I’ll go back to my books and flashcards and develop something. I’ll also keep watching Haikyu and Coupy Camper channel.
For Korean this will be a full new adventure. I’ll obviously continue to listen to Kpop and watch Kcontent but I’m going to make some Hangul flashcards and find some Korean language learning books. It will be fine. I’m sorry this post was a bit of a downer but I didn’t want to let my previous Japanese update stand as it was. It’s no longer accurate to my learning process.
Moving and all the little details involved with purchasing a house wreaked havoc on my routines and productivity. I stubbornly vowed that I would not fall behind on my knitting project, my sewing plans, my writing goals for this blog, my Bible reading plan, and my language learning but honestly, it did! I lost all those good habits and since then, yeah my language learning has been spotty at best.
I did a little bit of learning while at my mom’s house where I spent an afternoon reviewing my hiragana and katakana flash cards where I felt like I was being defeated by the language. I would quiz myself and make some gains, do it again, and then I would forget the ones I had remembered previously. There was no perceivable progress and I was frustrated.
Frustrated by my lack of focus and lack of consistency in my life at that point. Frustrated that my Japanese study books were stored and questioned if I should have kept them out. Worrying that I was going to lose all my progress. It was a downward spiral. When I was studying my life was still in chaos and I think it showed in my studying. My perfectionism was coming on strong instead of being willing to learn, to fail, and to keep practicing.
Once we closed, June was basically a month of hauling cubes, cleaning, and finding our life once again. But in July I began to feel the lack of habits getting to me. I had a place to work, but instead, I was prioritizing sewing, knitting, and recording the process for Instagram and the blog. Although those are productive, not having that sense of order and balance was irking me. I was pleased with how balanced I was in the spring, I was working on, creating, learning, and progressing. Instead of letting myself get bummed out, I needed to keep fighting to reclaim those habits. I’m so excited about this new home and the space it has to pursue the things I want to do. I needed to accept that this chaos was temporary and discover a new plan.
To get started I’ve been blocking out activities for focus. Laundry on one day where I balance with knitting. If I sew I tend to do it all on one day where I can stay in my sewing studio. Cleaning in the morning, and my personal projects in the afternoon. I’ve been challenging myself to be in the moment and let things be out of my control. If I forget to workout, or read my Bible, instead of making myself feel bad I’ve shifted my perspective to looking forward to tomorrow and the ability to do better.
But what about my Japanese language learning? This idea came to me randomly. I was watching a video that had to do with K-pop and the person was saying she was also learning Korean through Duolingo. Well, I remember Duolingo. It was an option I tried before and got tired of. I questioned whether I would actually learn Japanese to the level I would like and if it was a gimmick. Feeling like I needed to break up my studying routine, something to jump-start my drive and get me motivated again, I decided to re-download the app. This time I mixed up my plan though – I signed up for Korean lessons and picked up my Japanese progress from 2022.
So yeah, I’m learning both now. This probably sounds insane but I watch so much K-pop content on YouTube, particularly the SKZ Code episodes. I listen to K-pop most of the time, and I like K-dramas. While watching M*A*S*H, I realized that they were actually speaking Korean and that I was picking it up because I was already learning Korean by exposure to Korean content. So why not start the process officially?
My plan is to practice on Duolingo and then pick up actual learning books because I have learned in the past year that Duolingo is a tool to practice with but it does not replace other resources and taking the initiative to study. Duolingo has its limitations but it also has one good feature – reminders! And pre-made lessons which are such an amazing thing when you are feeling stuck. This has been the jumpstart I’ve needed for Japanese. I’ve been getting into a habit again!
The last thing that I’ve added to my learning routine is watching Haikyu, a Japanese anime about high school volleyball. It is epic! I’ve been watching it with subtitles and getting immersed in the language like I have been able to do with K-dramas. I’m so encouraged by my enjoyment of Haikyu because I would love to find more anime shows to watch.
Oh, I almost forgot – I have also started listening to J-pop through an Ateez collaboration with the Japanese boy band Be First. I’m hoping this will continue my immersion into the language so that I can improve my listening skills and pronunciation. Things are looking up and I am feeling encouraged! 🙂
Since starting this language journey over a year, my learning style has changed a lot and I feel like I’m falling into a rhythm that is helping me retain what I’m learning instead of feeling overwhelmed. Let’s get into it!
When I started learning in 2023 I decided to go “by the book” I thought and bought the books, used college textbooks to be exact, and dictionaries, thinking it would help me tackle this with ease. What I learned as the process went on is that I don’t have a lot of experience learning languages like I thought. I got distracted by the process I set out for myself – working through the textbook, and in turn, procrastinated like a champ.
What helped me get my motivation back was diving into the language itself and leaving the grammar rules of the textbook behind, like diving into hiragana, katakana, kanji, and some vocabulary. I made hiragana flashcards and katakana flashcards. I began learning kanji from an account called the Joy of Kanji on Instagram, as well as started learning vocabulary from Hamasuke’s Japanese Learning channel on YouTube. This was a great way to start learning words and putting the sounds and the alphabet of syllables together in my mind. I would watch Hamasuke’s channel when I rode the exercise bike to try to keep me motivated and it was fun.
Getting Advice From A Native Japanese Speaker
Online I follow several Japanese language teachers as well as many Japanese creators, one of these creators shared advice on an ‘Ask Me a Question’ story post after a follower asked for Japanese learning tips. He said to memorize hiragana and katakana, learn vocabulary and kanji, and immerse yourself in listening to people speak Japanese and worry about grammar and sentence structure later on. Starting in 2024, that’s what I’ve been doing. It’s been back to basics and it’s working.
Kinda obvious actually, I mean that’s how we learn our first language, but I think when we are learning as adults or learning a second language, we overcomplicate. I was doing that! I’m so glad that this person shared this advice because it’s taken the pressure off and given me a clear path to follow. It’s been game-changing!
My new learning plan has been to copy down hiragana, katakana, and the kanji I started learning on an app so it’s in front of me and in my notebook. I take my flashcards of hiragana and katakana and I write them down. I go through each stack. Sometimes I go through the stack again, and again depending on how focused I am that day. As long as I keep to schedule and do this several times a week, I see progress. When I skip, I notice I don’t make progress and that is motivating to be consistent. This has been better practice for my own retention of the language than reviewing the flashcards on their own.
Recently, I’ve been marking which ones I can guess and which ones I have guessed wrong to begin tracking my own memorization. That has helped me track my progress and I would recommend after you’ve given yourself enough to practice and learn. Where I’ve seen the most growth is in the next thing I’ve added to my learning – immersion in listening to native speakers.
Forget Anime, I’m a Kei Camper and Bunny Girl
It’s been interesting to find that there are a lot of rabbit channels based in Japan on YouTube. Technically I should clarify – they are usagi channels, the word for rabbit in Japanese. I follow several channels – Pocket Usagi, Kogarana’s Bunny Popo Channel, and Hana-chan no Usagi Channel. I’ve been watching Pokke and Milk of Pocket Usagi and Bunny Popo since 2022 and Hana-chan I found this year. They all include subtitles, which I’ve had some trouble following even when I was learning in 2023, the only word I could pick out quickly from the subtitles was Popo-chan. Since following the new learning strategy, I’ve been able to quickly recognize syllables and pick them in the subtitles as well as words like Hana-chan, Usagi, and some kanji that stand out to me like the one for rest.
Where I have felt the most growth has been since watching Coupy Camper Channel over the last few weeks because he has closed captions, and Japanese subtitles to the side, and he also speaks on camera, which the other channels do not. His channel lets me experience the cadence of speech which is different from my English comfort zone and Korean which I hear watching K-dramas. It’s been such an interesting way to either just listen and see what the words mean in my native language or listen and follow the subtitles to see what the Japanese syllables I’m learning sound like and how it all get put together in conversations. It has also shown me how Japanese is written and how to navigate the lines of characters in their vertical structure. Through recognizing the sounds and characters I learned that it is read vertically right to left. It’s helping me understand pronunciation, which is huge!
Coupy Channel is giving me a taste of Japanese culture too from seeing the country from the perspective of a resident, exploring the countryside through his trips, learning about the cuisine from how he cooks, and seeing how it is not that different from life here. I feel common ground and that is helping put the pieces together. I am incredibly grateful for his content because I am not a big anime fan. I’ve tried watching anime and while I love the style, I’ve struggled to find the right ones to pull me in. I will eventually try again. Until then Coupy Channel will be my guide.
LALALALA and ACNH
The R sound in Japanese has been confusing me from the start but unexpectedly, a song has helped me remember the pronunciation to keep me focused on learning the sound when I am practicing. That sound is ‘LALALALA’ from Stray Kids’ ‘樂-STAR’ album. The song is a wordplay of rock in English and ‘rak’ in Korean, the Chinese character means delight and pleasure but rock is the first part of ‘rock n roll’. It’s quite clever. I’ve used this to help me remember to not read the Japanese syllable as ‘ra’ but remember to pronounce it with the softer ‘la’ r-sound.
Animal Crossing New Horizons’ I’ve learned from watching Coupy Channel and the Rabbit channels, features a lot of little details from Japanese culture which is such a cool way to immerse even if it is being played in English. For example, the Firefly squid came to the game in April and I later watched Coupy Channel prepare while camping. In this, I learned the Japanese name for it hotaru-ika. I’ve learned about festivals in Japanese culture and traditions, it’s been a fun primer.
In conclusion, I’m optimistic that I will make some real progress in 2024. Hopefully, the next update will be an exciting one!
I began learning Japanese in January 2023, and I have to say when I started this journey I bought four college textbooks thinking I would be through most of the lessons by the end of the year, and that statement did not come true. In fact, I haven’t finished the first unit book.
Now is this because I’m saying Japanese is so difficult that I couldn’t do it? No, I managed my time poorly and put my language learning sessions as a third or fourth priority in my day which made it easier to procrastinate and not do it all. I made choices that took my attention away from language learning. Now some of these choices were really good choices!
Like I chose to start writing on this blog which has been a huge blessing creatively! It required discipline to keep going and make writing a habit. I also decided I wanted to become a more skilled knitter this year and chose to tackle several sweater projects this year. That stretched my patience and time management skills to get those projects completed quickly to use them in the colder months. As well as sewing my new summer wardrobe, a new coat, and new pajamas.
These were a good distraction, one that taught me about tailoring and fit. I became a better pattern drafter through this practice and learned how to duplicate designs. This was a great use of my time! But it wasn’t language learning, and so in my head I am wrestling with the fact that I didn’t complete my goal yet I achieved many goals that I had. I became a better student and more prepared to learn Japanese through the ways I spent my time this year, ironically not learning Japanese.
I think coming to terms with the fact that we as humans cannot be perfect, is a tough pill to swallow no matter how mature we are or how “laissez faire” we approach our time and therefore when we feel like we need to tick every box off our list and smash every challenge set before us in rider to feel like you did your best, it is hard to show yourself grace that you came short. I hope I did the best I could this year and I hope I gave Japanese my all! I made flashcards to help myself practice hiragana and katakana and tried to immerse myself in culture, grammar, conversational practice, vocabulary, etc.
I have a lot of respect for the language since trying to learn it, more than I did going in. I was intimidated going into the first day of learning but now I am more in awe of the way Japanese as a language works and has worked for 1300+ years. I learned that the first written example of Japanese dates back to the 8th century. I’m amazed by the way Japanese has multiple writing systems and blends its own language with the Han characters of traditional Chinese.
My own native language is a blend of Germanic, French, Latin, and Greek origin words. I understand the blend but I am amazed by the unique way Japanese did it compared to how English did. Dipping my toes into the study of Kanji has made the process of Japanese feel like a full circle, maybe it is just the fact that Kanji seems less scary since my mind is training itself to recognize a new writing system or maybe this is progress, although small, towards understanding Japanese.
Being ready to commit my time to learning next year is a top priority.
It’s bigger than a New Year’s resolution, it’s a plan for my time next year. It is that time of year when we reflect, take stock, and dream for tomorrow. So, what are you planning for? I hope whatever it is dear reader, that it goes well and you have the confidence to chase your dream.
Domo arigato gozaimasu for spending time with me today!
One Rabbit Riot 