Re: Self Inflicted "Immersion" Program

From: Joshua A. Reyer (reyer_at_benchsumo.zzn.com)
Date: 09/13/04 

Date: 13 Sep 2004 05:12:41 -0700

tocamjapan@yahoo.com (tsubaki) wrote in message news:<8e0e9d25.0409120026.1a0e97f2@posting.google.com>...

> For those that have already obtained some level of fluency, did you
> obtain this through rigorous study, or by being around Japanese people
> and learning through the process of osmosis? How many new words did
> you try and learn everyday? How many words does one have to learn
> before can understand a lot of what is going on around them? (I
> mentioned before that I know around 4000 words at this stage)

Here was my method:

1. Take first year Japanese course in college, and enjoy it.
2. Naively switch major to Japanese Language and Literature.
3. Three years of intensive work, frustration, towering highs,
crushing lows.
4. Go to Japan and understand nothing said to me.
5. Speak Japanese with anyone I could at any possiblity and watch
oodles of TV.
6. After one year of seemingly no progress, realize my hearing had
drastically improved and that I could speak Japanese without conscious
effort.
 
> Some people have told me, "forget about studying and just talk",
> however my Japanese wasn't going ANYWHERE until I started structuring
> a solid study plan. My plan was to live in Japan and become good at
> speaking and understanding the language within 2 years, but at this
> stage it doesn't seem like it's going to happen. Has anyone been in a
> similar situation and can you give me some advice.

The loose treatment of language in popular media has created
unrealistic perceptions of the way languages and fluency work.
Fluency is hard. It takes a lot of time and a lot of study. People
who can just go to a foreign country and become fluent in that
language in a year or so are linguistical freaks and few and far
between. More common is merely attaining a kind of functional
ability: ordering at restaurants and communicating simple ideas in
heavily accented, unnuanced speech. This is often mistaken by the
uninformed as fluency. I can't count how many times I've heard of
Chiba Lotte Marines manager Bobby Valentine and L.A. Dodgers pitching
coach Jim Colburn described as "fluent" because of their time in
Japan. Well, I've heard them speak Japanese, and that isn't fluency.

Fluency requires a really solid grammatical base, followed by real
world use living in the language. One without the other is usually
not enough. And it takes time. There's no quick and easy fixes, no
set program that instantly deposits the knowledge required for fluency
into your brain. If all goes well, you'll probably feel your *just*
getting the hang of this Japanese thing by the time you leave.

The good news is, it seems to me that you are on the right track.
Keep plugging away with your study. Fluency requires proactive
effort. You also have the advantage of living in Japan, which should
help your listening ability (one of the hardest aspects of language to
pick up, IMO) as well as providing you with plenty of chances to speak
and experience the language. (Trust me, even the less than ideal
circumstances you live in are better than trying to learn the language
outside Japan.) Keep watching TV! When I mention TV as a method for
improving language ability, people often chuckle and assume I'm
joking, but TV is practically essential, I think. In two hours of TV
you get exposed to a wide variety of dialects, speech and vocal
patterns, and most importantly *usage patterns*. Even after studying
intensively for three years in college, I picked up more real-world
applications of Japanese phrases from watching TV than anywhere else.
Sure, a grain of salt is necessary so you don't start speaking and
acting like you're in a melodramatic drama, but TV shows you a highly
concentrated example of the language in action.

Finally, keep in mind that from the intermediate levels on up,
language acquisition is a seemingly invisible process. Rather than a
steady incline up the learning curve, it's more like plateaus: jump to
a new level, then nothing for a long time, then jump to a new level.
And while I have only my own experience to refer to, the moment you
truly reach fluency will not be a goal that's in sight and then
attained, but rather like a lightbulb going off. One day you simply
realize your understanding almost everything you hear and are able to
communicate intelligently on the fly.

Until that moment, though, frustration and fog are your constant
companions. Do not get discouraged! Except for those linguistic
freaks, it is or was like that for all of us.

&#38929;&#24373;&#12387;&#12390;&#12289;
Josh Reyer

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