[ID: A twitter thread of 10 tweets by lhkuroda that read:
Tweet 1: I teach Japanese (language) and one thing I often hear students say is that they want to become “fluent” in Japanese. I don’t think this is a reasonable goal. Instead I ask: what do you want to talk about fluently? Who do you want to talk fluently with?
Tweet 2: No native speaker of any language is completely fluent in their language bc no language is singular. If I were hanging around a group of rocket scientists speaking in English I would have no idea what they were talking about.
Tweet 3: Any language is almost always fissured by class, race, region, profession, even time (!) and the illusion that it is a singular thing that can be mastered is a myth created by nationalism / nation states
Tweet 4: There’s also no reason why “native speakers” should be the only benchmark by which you measure your progress as a language learner. People who were born and raised in Tokyo speak a particular kind of Japanese bc that is what is useful for their life. Maybe it’s not for yours!
Tweet 5: This is especially relevant when it comes to heritage speakers who have grown up in countries other than Japan. Why would you expect your Japanese to be the same as someone who lived their whole life in Japan? That would not have been advantageous to you.
Tweet 6: When Japanese people migrated to other parts of the world in the early 20th century, the Japanese they spoke changed too. Language adapts to circumstance because it is a tool for doing something, and you will need to accomplish different things in different places.
Tweet 7: When we think critically about how a student will or wants to use Japanese, it often turns out they want to talk to their family, or talk about manga, or read the news. Those are attainable goals that allow us to spend our time and resources in better ways.
Tweet 8: Don’t have expectations for what you’ll be able to do in a language you’re learning that are higher than the expectations you have for the language you use most of the time!
Tweet 9: You’re also not going to progress if you live in a place where there’s no need for you to use the language you’re learning. You have to alter your environment by creating the need to use it.
Tweet 10: Anyway learning a heritage language or reconnecting with a heritage language is a daunting task but I love to help people with it. Always open to DMs from heritage learners of JP or if you have thoughts on heritage languages 💖
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