How I’m Studying Japanese This Summer
夏でも勉強している！Even though it’s summer I’m studying!
As you might know, I am not in school but a full-time employee (yay adulting!). I thought I would update my summer study plan for Japanese to show you what (my) life after school looks like. Even as a working adult, the summer means kicking back, slacking off, and forgetting things in Japanese unless I keep up with it. My Japanese is fairly advanced but I still study every day because I’d like to continue to improve.
Things that I do to study Japanese
Post Japanese things daily on Tumblr. Whether it’s a long, planned-out post or even just a single vocabulary word with a cute gif, I try to post daily. That way I’m thinking about Japanese, I’m practicing even for a few minutes, and usually I’m learning something new. It’s fun and easy but still studying.
Participate in Tumblr challenges. When I find a challenge on Tumblr that appeals to me and that I think I can stick to I pick it up. I only do one challenge at a time, and I set a concrete goal so that I can stick to it. The three challenges I’ve picked up this summer are the 30 Day Japanese Challenge (30 days of different writing prompts), the Fifty Hours Club (fifty cumulative hours of language study), and the Top 1000 Summer Challenge (learn 10 new words a day for 100 days to learn 1000 words). The 30-day challenge was a solo challenge that I completed at the beginning of the summer, but the other two challenges are group challenges with a support group of people participating at the same time. These group challenges can help because you are inspired by others, you are held accountable by others, and you have people who share the same journey as you.
Reading/Writing. I love reading manga and magazines but I also make sure to write in Japanese as much as possible. Not only making vocabulary lists on the computer or my phone but also physically writing words and kanji out. This might just be me, but it helps me to remember the new words and kanji (as well as the old ones) better if I write it down. It also helps to make my own sentences, and to read things that I’ve previously written. That way I can easily notice if a sentence I’ve written is weird (aka not right) and have notes about things I want to remember.
Listening/Speaking. I spend a lot of time watching dramas and anime which helps with listening comprehension (especially with the subtitles turned off!), and I speak Japanese every day at home. Listening to just one person (aka my husband) means that I get used to the way he talks and am able to more easily understand him because I already know all the nuances of conversations with him. It also means that he understands me better (even if I mess up) and doesn’t bother to correct me often so that the flow of conversation can continue. But I try to find other people to have conversations with because then it forces me out of my comfort zone - I have to remember the right words for everything, I have to own my mistakes because I will get called out on them, and it challenges me to listen to someone else’s speaking nuances. Even without the benefit of a live-in Japanese conversation partner, I have always practiced speaking daily - whether it be to my non-Japanese-speaking parents (who allowed me to talk at them), to my pets, or even to myself. If you are at least forming the sentences out loud, even if no one is replying you will get better at speaking and improve your ability to think and speak quickly.
What I do when I’m not in the mood. On days when I am tired from work and get home and want to just watch some anime and go to bed, it’s still a good way to practice my Japanese. Reading some manga or turning on some anime while I relax is still a great way to get in a little bit of practice (and I really enjoy both of those options). If I’m just not even interested in any of those fun activities (which is admittedly rare) I will just not touch Japanese in any form for that day/night. It’s OK to take a break and spend some me time! Just don’t forget to go back when you’re done with your break!
My methods are pretty simple, but they involve the most important part about language learning - using it every day! Japanese is currently a very integral part of my life so it’s easy to incorporate it in small ways that add up to a lot. I hope that my study methods can inspire you! 頑張ってね！
