Teaching Yourself Japanese

“Everyone has a success mechanism and a failure mechanism. The failure mechanism goes off by itself. The success mechanism only goes off with a goal. Every time we write down and talk about a goal we push the button to start the success mechanism.” -Charlie “Tremendous” Jones

You’ve come a long way, and you’re (probably) ready to start learning Japanese. Learning a language is actually a really big step and can be very exciting. However, the adrenaline rush of deciding to do something new and different often makes people dive in too deeply and burn out. That’s the last thing you want to do, which is why it’s so important to make the proper preparations before you begin. Weird, right?

The first rule of TextFugu is to keep you inspired and motivated to keep on studying (that and “to never talk about Fight Club). That’s why TextFugu is the first and only Japanese textbook designed especially for self-teachers of Japanese (though all manner of Japanese students will find TextFugu incredibly useful). I want you to enjoy what you’re doing, get real results, and feel good about your progression. Every single step you make should get you closer to your goal of learning Japanese and becoming fluent.

TextFugu’s entire foundation is built around one thing: Keeping you interested and keeping you motivated, because the moment you quit or become disinterested is the moment everyone loses.

There are very specific problems that all Japanese learners face. With self-learners of Japanese, there are twice as many. If we don’t think long term, and don’t tackle these problems in everything that we do, there’s a good chance you’ll end up joining 90% of all other self-learners and quit in the first two weeks.

Because of this, you’ll find lessons not only on Japanese, but lessons on time management, efficiency, motivation, and more. Studying all on your own isn’t all that difficult… but staying motivated and sticking with it is. That being said, there are some housekeeping things we need to go through even before you get started learning the actual language. These will help you stay focused on a goal, as well as assist you in figuring out if TextFugu is right for you (if it’s not, I’ll be more than happy to help you find an alternative that fits you better). Not everyone learns the same way, so it makes sense to try it out first!

Questions Before You Start

Before you continue, go find yourself a piece of paper (or open up Word / Google Docs, though handwriting is preferred). These steps are very important, even if they seem a bit silly or unnecessary. Something as simple as writing your goals and intentions down can make a huge difference. Once you write something down, it becomes real. Bear with me while going through these steps. You’ll find that it helps a lot in the end.

There are two big questions I want you to answer, and a few more smaller ones. They shouldn’t take you much time and will help you focus. Like I said, best if you write them out by hand. I think we make up for the tree killing by making the rest of this textbook digital.

Question 1: Why Are You Learning Japanese?

You’d be surprised at how many people make it this far without figuring this out. If you’re one of these people, it’s okay! You aren’t alone. I imagine that 90% of people don’t really know (which is one of the reasons why 90% of people quit learning in the first couple weeks). Now, I’m not talking generalities here. Answering “because it seems fun” or “because Japanese is cool” won’t get you anywhere. I’m talking specifics. Some examples would be:

I want to be able to talk to my Japanese grandmother in Japanese
I want to travel to Japan and walk the 88 temples of Shikoku
I want to live and work in Japan in a marketing department
I’m an anthropologist and want to study the Ainu people
I want to appear on Japanese television one day as a comedian

See how these examples were fairly specific and goal oriented? If you learn Japanese “because it’s cool” no matter what you do you won’t be closer to reaching your goal. “Japanese is cool” isn’t a goal, and it’s not something that’s actually attainable. Come up with an attainable goal (feel free to reach for the stars, though!) and write it down. Use your nicest handwriting, because you should peg this on your wall (or someplace you’ll see it often). It’s really important that you do this, even if it seems silly. It’s been proven that people who write their goals down are way more successful than those that do not, and I want to leverage that with you as much as possible. Remember, be as specific as possible, because everything from here on out will be to get you one step closer to achieving it.

Question 2: What Excuses Hold You Back?

“No one ever excused his way to success.” – Dave Del Dotto

Maybe nothing is holding you back (and that’s why you’re here right now), but chances are there are a few things that you’re either afraid of, or would be good reasons not to study Japanese. I’ve been there too. Anytime you make a big change in your life, or choose to do something great, “why I shouldn’t / don’t have to do this” excuses seem to pop out of nowhere. No matter how rational (or unrational) you are, they’ll come up sooner or later, so it’s better to do a preemptive strike while you’re excited, optimistic, and ready to go go go. Here are some possible excuses that could hold you back – figure out what yours are and write them down. You don’t necessarily need to come up with an “answer” to prevent them – just knowing what they are will prevent a lot of them from happening.

I’m too busy with work / school: Boo-hoo-dee-hoo. I know exactly what this is like. I used to be a 16-hours-of-work-per-day kind of guy. I felt like I didn’t have time for anything. “Being too busy” is probably the most common excuse out there. Really, though, you always have plenty of time. Ever notice how when you have a deadline, things “magically” get done? When I was working 16 hour days, it wasn’t because I had too much to do (sure, it was a lot, but not too much), it was because I wasn’t managing my time properly. In the last year, though, through a ton of research and trial and error, I’ve become pretty good at time management (and want to teach you all about it too). TextFugu will have you covered with some awesome time-management techniques that you can apply to whatever’s taking up most of your time (so you have more time for friends, family, and studying Japanese). It’s not about how much time you have, it’s about how effectively you’re using it. Part of that is management, and part of it is training your brain to treat certain things as more important than others. Don’t let time be an excuse. If Japanese isn’t “important” enough for you to fit in your schedule, I’ll teach you how to get it in there.
I don’t have the money to study Japanese: This is another common excuse I hear a lot. Sure, the economy’s a bit slow and a lot of people don’t have jobs or steady sources of income. I’ve been there too. Yet, somehow there is always money to go to that awesome restaurant once in a while, or to buy that neat gadget you’ve been wanting. That being said, TextFugu isn’t cheap. I believe it’s a great deal, but it’s not pocket change either. Learning a language is an investment. It will open up new opportunities, new doors, new friendships… Language learning is one of the single best things you can do for yourself in terms of professional and personal development. Also, with TextFugu’s bounty program, you can actually make your investment back by suggesting improvements. If you really don’t have the money, there’s always options for someone who’s really serious about learning Japanese.
- Make money on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk by completing hits.
- Sell some of your stuff on Craiglist / Ebay. I did this too – simplifying your life by getting rid of your “things” is a great way to clear your head, too. It’s difficult at first, but once you get going you’ll find that it really great. Be honest with yourself, you probably only really use 80% of your stuff anyways, right? Live a simpler life and achieve greater things.
- Ask a friend or relative for an investment. If they really care about you they’ll love to see you succeed – plus, this will help you to stay motivated. You wouldn’t want to waste someone else’s money, let alone your own! They’ll keep you in check, too.
- Don’t go out to eat this month. It’s so easy to save money if you cook your own food using fresh ingredients. Plus, it’s healthier too! A healthier you will make it easier to study as well!
I’ll end up burning out and quitting: I hope you don’t! Like I mentioned earlier, TextFugu was built around the foundation of “keeping you interested.” Burning out is the most common thing self-learners do, and it happens so easily. You can see how this first chapter is already tackling some of those issues. Although there is a “forever” membership on TextFugu, a good number of learners choose the monthly one. This means it’s TextFugu’s job to keep you interested, motivated, and learning. If not, then you just unsubscribe and TextFugu loses a customer. When the consumer has control, the quality of the product tends to get better, right?
I’m not very good at learning languages: Nobody’s good at languages, unless the information is presented in an easy-to-understand way. It’s really easy to regurgitate content, but TextFugu simplifies everything down to it’s core, which means anyone should be able to learn Japanese. Think of TextFugu like your Japanese learning Sherpa. I’ll carry your extra baggage, show you the way, and make things a lot easier for you. I’ve spent a lot of time simplifying TextFugu’s Japanese lessons (though you can hardly call them “simple”), which should mean a smooth ride for you. Hitting speed bumps makes people lose faith, so we’ve paved as many of those down as possible.

What Else? What excuses do you have? There are any number of fears out there that you could experience, and they depend on the individual. Whatever they are, write them down (just like you did with the previous question). Once written down, read them. Are they really that bad? Are they just excuses keeping you from even getting started? Most likely. Really, most of our fears aren’t that bad, it’s just that you don’t know what they are because you haven’t thought them through. Once you know the worst case scenario, also write the answer to this question: “How can I prevent this worst case scenario from happening?” More likely than not, this worst case scenario isn’t going to happen, but if you figure out the solution to this worst case scenario, you have nothing else to fear!

Setting Yourself Up For Success

“For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.” – Unknown

What does your work area look like? Does it feel open and relaxing? Or, like the image to the right, does it feel crowded and stressful? Is there even an area that you consider a “work-only zone?” Do something really quick for me. Take out four pieces of paper and put them together, side by side. Using any layout, can you put these four pieces of paper together in any one area of your desk? If not, then it’s definitely time to do some cleaning. I used to have a crowded desk, and without me knowing it my productivity was being affected. Each and every piece of “debris” was a distraction (no matter how little it was). Now, I have an external monitor, a laptop, and a cup of wonderful green tea, and it’s so much better. What about you?

One thing we have to do before you get started with Japanese is to create a great environment for learning and working. Like I keep saying, I don’t want you to quit, no matter how you end up learning Japanese. One really important thing (which will be even more important once we start diving into time-management and efficiency techniques) is your learning environment. Where will you be learning Japanese? If your answer is “hmm, I dunno,” then it’s time to take a step back and view your options. Here are my recommendations, though your individual situations may prevent this to varying degrees. Be flexible!

Choose a single location that’s your “Learning Japanese Happy Place.” Preferably, this will be at a desk, with a chair, and have very few distractions. You should feel disconnected from the rest of the world. Tell your family / friends / roommate that you don’t want to be distracted or bothered when you’re here. This space should be away from food, away from a TV, and away from anything soft and sleepy looking. It should be a designated work area, and nothing else. You’ll be training your brain to make the following association: “If I’m here, I’m working.”
Don’t listen to music, watch movies, etc., while you’re studying. I don’t know how many people I’ve run into that say “I can study / work with music because I can multitask!” NO YOU CAN’T. 99% of people who say this are just lying to themselves and take 10x as long to get everything done. The only exception to this is classical music, which has been shown (specifically Mozart) to not mess up one’s productivity (though it doesn’t increase productivity either). All other music, especially music that has words in it, will mess things up for you. You’ll need to develop good habits when you’re studying so you can get a lot more done in a shorter amount of time. TV programming, no matter what it is, is off limits.
Facebook, Twitter, Farmville, and other distracting things are a no-go. Just don’t touch them. At least wait until you’re between things. As you go through TextFugu, there will be opportunities to use social networks (“what!?” you say? We’ll get into that later) in order to practice your Japanese. When you’re in study mode, or in your Japanese learning happy place, everything else has to be shut off. We’ll break study sessions up into 30-90 minute increments (just because the human mind can’t focus for longer than 90 minutes for most people) so you’ll have opportunity to take breaks when you need them. It’s been shown that once you get distracted, it takes on average 45 minutes to completely refocus on your original task. That’s a ton of wasted time per distraction, and you want to prevent as many of these as possible.

Telling People About Your Intentions

Another thing I want you to do is tell a few people (or the world) that you’re going to be learning Japanese. Nothing like public humiliation and embarrassment to keep you going when times are tough (and I won’t lie, things will get tough every once in a while). I’m sure a lot of you out there are saying “that won’t happen to me. I won’t burn out, I never give up.” Sadly, statistics are against you, and although TextFugu does a better job than anyone else when it comes to helping you stay motivated, the overall Japanese learning success-rate is still pretty darn low.

Go right now and tell (or e-mail) some friends and family that you’re going to be studying Japanese. Tell them why you’re doing it (you figured this out earlier, hopefully), and how you’ll go about doing it. If you just tell them that you’re studying Japanese, that’s not good enough. You have to tell them more information so that they’re a little more invested and you can feel more accountable to them. Specifically ask them to check up on your progress when they see you. This way you feel like you need to get more done, otherwise you’re letting them (and yourself) down.

Another option is to start a Japanese learning blog. Preferably, this will be a blog that anyone can see and visit. In fact, telling your friends / family about this blog is another good way to stay motivated. If you have people visiting it, then surely you’ll keep writing in it (which means you’re also studying more). Here’s a step by step on how to start your very own Japanese language learning blog:

Choose which blogging platform you’re going to use. I recommend WordPress, but Blogger works as well. Sign up for one of these services and set up your account and website. Another option would be to get your own hosting and install WordPress (which means you can get a www.yournamehere.com domain name), though this costs a little extra. I use DreamHost for my hosting, so if you want to do that, you can get a 20% discount by entering the code TEXTFUGU when you pay for hosting. This of course isn’t necessary, and you can start a free Japanese language blog via WordPress or Blogger. All a matter of preference (and money).
Write an introduction. Tell the world why you are studying Japanese and how you plan on doing it.
Every time you learn something new, write about it in your blog. Talk about what’s giving you trouble, what breakthroughs you’ve had, what you’ve learned, what you want to learn, what you will be learning next… etc. If you write about these things, you are going to learn a lot. Learning something is one thing, explaining it is another. You learn twice as much by explaining something you’ve just learned, and although it takes more time, it helps a lot.
When you’ve written something, share it on Facebook, Twitter, etc. That way you know people are watching your progress, and it makes you feel like you need to keep studying (keeping you motivated!). It can be hard to have eyes watching you, but if you can get over that you’ll end up learning Japanese a lot faster in the long run.

Anyways, the more people you tell, the more motivated you’ll be to keep going. Make sure you tell only “positive” people (i.e. people who won’t try to bring you down) who will give you support and help you. Feel free to go right now and start your Japanese language learning blog, before moving on to the next section.

Getting Started

“The greatest amount of wasted time is the time not getting started.” – Dawson Trotman

Believe it or not, this is the hardest step. You’ll run into this problem time after time (at which point, think back to your goal and why you’re studying Japanese). It might not be hard to get started right now. You’re excited and want to get going, but there will be a time.

So, enough “set-up” talk, it’s time to start learning some Japanese! We’re going to start by learning about the different Japanese “alphabets” available to you, as well as a little more information on how we’re going to learn them in the coming chapters. One thing that’s really important to me is to be transparent about why you’re learning something. I don’t want you to blindly learn one thing after another, I want you to know why you’re learning it while you’re learning it. It makes things so much easier, and you’ll have more control that way (and know where we’re heading, so you can prepare).

I’m really excited to get started with you and help you along with your journey to learn Japanese. It’s going to be a lot of fun, and I hope to get a lot done with you in a short amount of time. Think you’re ready to get serious? If you haven’t already, consider signing up for a membership to get all the available features (and all future updates), if you haven’t already.

Okay! Get moving. The next chapter is waiting.

The Japanese Alphabets →

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