This weekend marks six months from my very first Duolingo Japanese lesson. I haven't come quite as far as I hoped, but I'm still proud of where I am.
What I hoped to get out of this time is the ability to understand spoken Japanese at a natural speed pretty solidly. I'm not quite there for everyday speech, for example podcasts and TV. But if I hear somewhat basic Japanese spoken slightly slower than normal speed I can understand just about all of it.
I took some JLPT sample tests this week, which range from N5 (easy) to N1 (hard). I got 93% at the N5 level and 53% at N4, about what I expected based on what I feel I can understand.
I focused on listening more than reading, but reading is getting easier and easier. My vocabulary is decent now (~2000 words according to Duolingo), so I can almost always understand what a conversation or article is about, although a lot of the complexity is lost when I'm listening at normal speed. I did Duolingo every day for anywhere from 20 minutes to a few hours, plus passive listening (podcasts) and active watching (Japanese TV with Japanese subtitles). It's been a lot of work, but certainly manageable.
So... will I keep it up?
Absolutely! I was talking to someone about when you're trying something you've never done before, and you're struggling or have hit a plateau, when do you know it's time to give it up? I don't think there's a hard-and-fast rule, but I like to set milestones where I re-evaluate whether or not the "juice is worth the squeeze." As an absolute beginner at something, give it a month or three. See how you feel after that. Are you enjoying it? Is it difficult but rewarding, or is it just frustrating? If it's frustrating, is there a way to make it fun? Do you see a breakthrough coming?
There's no reason to stop doing something just because you didn't hit an arbitrary goal. There's also no reason to keep doing something just to hit an arbitrary goal. If the time and effort I'm putting into something stops paying off, I'll put it down and see if I'm drawn back to it after a break.
You can't do it without feedback though. If you can't see your progression you can't know if it's worth it or not, and in my experience the more frequent the better. If you wait a month or three to check in with yourself you might get bored or discouraged sooner than that and never make it. If you look back at the end of each week, you see small improvements that go unnoticed day-to-day.
The same rule applies to a lot of situations outside of learning something new. At work I set myself a weekly reminder on Fridays to write down what I accomplished that week. Most weeks now I'll skip the writing (I have other outlets for it) but just having a reminder reflect on the week's accomplishments does two things:
- Helps you appreciate small things that add up
- Makes you think of what you can do next week so you have something to appreciate
It's like being your own accountability buddy.
All things considered, I'm finding this learning really rewarding. I enjoy little breakthroughs when something I struggled with a few weeks ago just makes sense now. I also feel like I'm close to a good breakthrough. Even if not, I'm looking forward to what I'll learn in the next six months!
