On my language learning journey, I listed some goals regarding my Japanese learning. Here is the updated list:

After reaching 1.5k words from the wonderful AnkiDrone Foundation deck, I started mining words (the process of creating Anki cards from content I consume) from anime using mpv and the mpvacious script, as explained here. And here I am at 2k words.

Honestly, it is tough. I cannot read manga or any book at all. Far from it, I even have difficulty reading NHK Easy News. What I notice, thou, is that I grasp the gist of every conversation or phrase, and it doesn't matter if it is written or spoken.

My guess is that 4k words will be a turning point where I'll be able to understand far more. At my current pace, which is learning 10 new words per day, I'll reach 4k words by the end of this year. Yes, at this pace, it will take 2 years and 3 months to learn these 10k words, but I don't care. It is easier playing the long game and not getting burnt out on the path, consistency is the key here. Also, this does not feel like a grind to me, all of this has been enjoyable. How could watching anime and reading manga not be fun?

While I'm not focusing on outputting, by following Stephen Krashen's hypothesis where I'll start speaking only after I am able to fully understand the language (or when I do feel like I am ready for that), I think I can get by in Japan with very basic phrases. Usually, when people speak with someone who is learning their language, they unconsciously reduce the "grammar" difficulty and tend to use simpler words, almost the same as if they were speaking to kids. So this all means that speaking to natives will probably be easier than I think, at least as a tourist. They'll know for sure that I'm a foreigner and make the communication easier on my part. With 2k words, I know all the basic stuff like asking directions, buying food, seeking help, etc.

Some people say speaking first is the right approach to language learning since you train recalling the words you learned, thus "cementing" the words in your head. And to be honest, I do feel interest in this method, but for Japanese, I'll keep following the AJATT methodology, and later on, when I'm ready to learn another language, I'll try the speaking first method.

I brought this up because, by speaking, you also kinda learn at the same time, and these 2k words would be immensely helpful. Some people are even able to sound fluent with this amount of words, just to give you a perspective... because even though it seems like few words, you recall them easier and are able to use them effectively.

But, I'll stick to AJATT because the con of the "speak first" method is that you internalize wrong grammar patterns and wrong pronunciations that later on it'll be far more difficult to fix. And of course, I'm not talking to any Japanese people so soon, so I'm comfortable simply learning the way I am.

AnkiDrone Foundation has 1.5k words, but every word is not displayed alone (except if it is a concrete noun and its meaning doesn't change with context). Every word comes in a target sentence phrase, which is simply the phrase with the word I want to learn highlighted. There are a lot of benefits with this since I learn grammar naturally, nothing teaches more than practical examples!

So anyway, after finishing the deck, I started sentence mining from anime. The anime I chose was a slice-of-life school romance anime called イジらないで長瀞さん！(Stop Teasing Me, Nagatoro-san!). I am almost finishing the 1st season, and I have mined over 500 words from there.

The thing is, the phrases I mined are very different from the ones from the premade Anki deck. They are full of slang, contractions, and colloquialisms, and while it is generally more difficult to understand, the words I learned gave me a glimpse of how Japanese people normally talk in their daily life, which is far different from what textbooks usually teach you.

It is kinda like English. The textbook will teach you "It is not," but when people are speaking, they just say "It isn't" or even "Ain't." The same concept applies. Here is the same example from Japanese:

じゃないか (janaika) means "It isn't?" (seeking confirmation) it turns into じゃん (jan)

Here is a full example phrase:

今日、テストあった**じゃん**！ (Kyou, tesuto atta **jan**!) - There was a test today, **wasn't there**?! (Implying: "You knew that!")

There is also another distinction from the Anki cards I make compared to the premade deck: While I use the same card template, I don't add a translation for the phrase, only for the word. Since I'm focusing on i+n sentences, it means every phrase has just a piece of information that I don't know, which is the word itself that I'm learning from that card.

By doing this, I'm starting to understand the language more naturally without translating it in my head, and it is a step towards my plan of using only Japanese definitions instead of English definitions.

I have always enjoyed watching anime and reading manga, therefore, immersion (the act of watching content in your target language even if you understand nothing) doesn't feel like a chore to me. But Anki, oh Anki, does feel like a chore. My secret is pretty simple: I do it anyway. It doesn't matter if I'm in the mood for reviewing 200 flashcards, I simply do it. It became a daily habit at this point, a duty that I have to fulfill, non-negotiable. Therefore, it has nothing to do with motivation anymore. I don't even think: I just do it.

However, in the very beginning, when motivation was important, I used a technique. I'd clear my mind, count to 3 without thinking about anything at all, then start the review. Guess what? Starting was the most difficult part. After doing it for like 3 minutes or so, I simply kept reviewing until the last card.

There were times when I second guessed my choice of learning Japanese since it is a time consuming daily task to which I have to dedicate a minimum of 1 hour per day. I almost gave up, thinking about what usefulness I have by learning Japanese. Just to watch anime without subs and read manga? I could simply watch it with subs on and read translated materials! Why bother? In those times, I had to imagine myself in the future, reading manga, books, watching anime, and talking to people in Japanese, and that felt truly great. So, by imagining how good it would be knowing Japanese, I kinda overcame these difficult periods of demotivation. It's been 3 months where I don't have any feeling of regret or second guesses, on the contrary, I feel glad that I pushed through and reached those 2k words.

Learning a language comes not only with the language itself but with the culture. I'm feeling the same thing I felt when I learned English: that a new door is open, and there is a whole new world that I didn't even know existed.

I am excited for the next 8k words!