I am majoring in Japanese Studies and have good (sometimes even great!) grades. I spent a year abroad in Japan, translated an academic paper for a seminar, and can with absolute confidence say that I am not at the Japanese level I should be at all.
I am studying Japanese for over 4 years now and barely passed the N3. I don't have much time studying the language outside of university context, yet I should at least be able to speak semi-fluently, at least about everyday topics. I should be able to watch children's movies in Japanese like My Neighbour Totoro without subtitles now, yet I still have trouble understanding them. I should be able to write small texts, yet I still use the dictionary all the time, because I always forget simple vocabulary.
In four years, some people are already beyond N1, but here I am, passing the N3 with 105/180. Is that a reason to give up? I don't think so! This is a setback. A hurdle. Just because I didn't do N1 or I got out of practice ever since I returned from my year abroad, it doesn't mean I'm not improving. In the long run, I did improve! I didn't get good grades in my tests in university for nothing. I didn't speak to native speakers for a year just to learn nothing. Just because I didn't prepare as much as I should have doesn't mean I'm bad at Japanese!
The reason I am writing this is because I think a lot of us only look at others really overwhelming successes without looking at people's more "whelming" ones, or even their failures. So here it is: 4 years of learning Japanese and I'm still bad! (人´∀｀)｡ﾟ+
In all seriousness, if you feel you're not improving like you should be, don't be hard on yourself, you're not alone! If you have a "whelming" success story to share, I would be glad to read it! 😀
by junglmao
21 comments
I’ve also been studying for about 4 years and barely pass N4 now. I don’t do it in any professional context, only on my own time, which is rare so I progress slowly and often regress even. I recently changed study techniques and feel like I make progress way faster now.
I I didn’t really consider myself good until I was like 10 years in, and I struggled a lot with methodology and efficiency. Looking back I realized it doesn’t matter and I remember on the fun parts of that journey with a lot of nostalgia. One of my big regrets is actually rushing it so much, and getting caught up in trying to impress people. I miss the days where it felt like I was unlocking new areas in an rpg.
I started studying Japanese in my first year of college in Fall of 2016. I wanted to be a psych major and eventually become a psychiatrist at the time, but I quickly switched to Japanese after my first semester. After my 3rd semester, I flunked out of college. I regrouped and went to community College for a couple years and finally transfered to a new university and graduated in May of 2022 (Japanese Language and Literature). I then joined a Japenese automotive company in June 2022 to do Sales. In December 2022 i failed the N2, and relaxed my studying after that. However from December 2024 I transfered to my companies HQ in Japan for a year (so just finished up my second month in Japan). I started studying roughly 7 years ago, and I’m working towards N2 levels of comprehension still, but I think I’m set up pretty well here to achieve that! Just gotta put in the hours that I didn’t previously.
I’m an adult with a full-time job and a family. I’ve been studying for 10 years, but have probably only averaged about 15 minutes a day. Despite developing a popular kanji app, I “only” know around 800 kanji, putting me somewhere around low-N3 level.
I can read books meant for children with minimal dictionary usage, and books meant for teenagers with (very) heavy dictionary usage.
I’ve been learning for 1,5 year for like 2 hours a day. Never skipped a day. Dunno if I would pass N3.
The only skill I acquired is that I can read NHK yasashi-kotoba news quickly, with no furigana and mostly without lookups. Grown-up NHK is way beyond me, so is comfortably reading manga. Hearing is abysmal (but that is my general problem, not only in Japanese), cannot speak at all.
My problem is that I overdid on Kanji, finished WK, but still i am unable to recognize like half of them due to lack of practice. My other problem is that I am mentally unable to immerse in contents unless I have like 90% understanding.
Day by day I am trying to push through.
As someone in her mid/late 30s with an emotionally and mentally draining day job, I have spent the last… 4 to 5 years studying, taking multiple month long breaks, and while I am quite certain I could pass the N5 exam, I am not so sure about the N4 exam. I now and then find myself to be able to understand tiny bits and pieces of jdramas without reading the subtitles, but that’s about it. Sometimes reading these overwhelming success stories (and hearing about them IRL too) makes me feel beyond stupid and like I should quit… but then I remember I am doing this because I think Japanese is a beautiful language and because I enjoy learning languages and not for any other reason.
I’ve been studying for 6 years with occasional breaks. I have a busy life and job I can read/watch stuff (with Japanese subs) for enjoyment with looking up the occasional word, I can’t speak for shit and my listening is still pretty bad with native speed stuff.
https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/s/pQYBhgidfA
It took him 10 years to get to N1
It’s just the harsh truth that just doing well in classes does not mean you will get good at Japanese. People actually dedicating their time to self-studying the language will always be more effective than the rather slow pace of university
I’ve been living alone in Tokyo for 3 years as an English IT programmer. I passed N2. But realistically, I can’t speak any Japanese. I don’t have any close Japanese friends. I go out every month to different hobby meetups where I end up being the only foreigner, and I feel like shit cause I can’t hold a conversation and Japanese ppl just move on.
This entire thread is so comforting to read.
After more than a year of studying, I took the N5 and barely passed with the skin of my teeth. Wish I made more progress in that one year but I’m happy!
I work a full time job and learning Japanese is such a fun hobby. I don’t think I can realistically hit N1 in 4 years time unless I seriously pick up my pace, but I don’t see it as a failure if I just get a little better over time.
Well, 27 years ago I was born.
That is whelming, edging on underwhelming.
I guess that isn’t quite what you want.
My deepest regret was quitting Japanese 10 years ago initially. Back in 2016 I took up Japanese so I can play Japanese exclusive games, I learnt Hiragana and Katakana quickly, and took up learning Kanji. Back then I was enthusiastic and spent a lot of time early on driven by that enthusiasm, and I soon played through games like Yakuza 0 and the then released Persona 5, just trying to get by. But after I did so, actually committing to studying got tiresome as I lost that initial drive I usually get. So I just dropped it after roughly learning all of the N5 kanji and some N4 kanji.
I returned to it just last year, and have since been fairly disciplined, as I’ve learned to fight back my urge. I don’t know what it is with me but in any given period of my life I will be obsessed with only a certain thing, and will have overwhelming enthusiasm for it, but once it wears off trying to keep that thing up is neigh on impossible. That’s what got me to quit, but now I am fighting back against that voice in my head and continuing.
It is really wonderful to read this thread. The honesty is refreshing. I did two years of Japanese while in graduate school (I’m a China person by training and career) – I did fine for an academic context but obviously two years classroom work doesn’t really prepare much for life). Then I didn’t do much of anything for … um… coming up on forty years (other than frequent travel when I’d stumble through ordering in restaurants and finding my way around). I started agin this year and I’m loving it .. but know it will be a long hard slog before I’m anywhere near my Chinese or German (or, of course, English). But who cares. Comparison is always the thief of happiness. Just do.
I’m 33 and have been “studying” for a long time but never took it seriously. Around 2021 I started being more serious about it and started reading web novels with the assistance of Jisho, Rikaikun and some language learning websites. I spent maybe 5-15 minutes a day reading. Did that until late last year when I moved to Japan and simply forgot/had other priorities. I could maybe claw my way through N5 if I tried hard enough.
Now that I live in Japan, I’ve found myself just naturally absorbing the language more. I started watching some anime I’ve seen many times before without subtitles and put on some Japanese youtube as background noise when doing other stuff. I think I’m doing fine, just lazy. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
One year in, I have finished Tango N5 Anki deck and some Genki 1 lessons. With consistent practice, I could manage it within a season or so, but hey, milestones are milestones.
I’ve been studying for over 5 years. Can’t say exactly for how long because at the beginning it took a lot of attempts to even properly start. The last 3 of those 5 years have been just “immersing” everyday with a digital dictionary, playing games, reading books and watching anime/TV shows, with occasional youtube video.
I still have to use the dictionary more often than I would like to. Sometimes I even have to use translation tools. There are times when I can go for an hour with googling maybe one or two words, and then there are times when I cannot make sense of whole paragraphs. I still have trouble with listening and heavily rely on Japanese subtitles. And don’t even get me started on Japanese old-man mumble-speech or all the dialects. The diction of real life Japanese speakers is such a hit or miss. One guy has perfect anime like diction and then the other guy will proceed to just ‘orrrrrrra ’emeeeeeeee ‘oros’zoooooo. Also, I have zero speaking experience. One time on VRChat one guy laughed me off when I told him I was studying for 3 years already, it was that bad. I has gotten better but really I am ashamed of my speaking which further makes things worse.
Been Learning for 3 and half years and I passed N3 . I am able to speak with japanese people on a surface level in vr and I’m happy about it. Wouldn’t change anything
I’ll say this, Ghibli movies are not as easy to understand as you might think.
A fellow Japanese Studies major! Huzzah!
Despite being immersed in Japanese culture I always feel like my understanding of Japanese is half-arsed.
I’m preparing for the Japanese proficiency test to attend IUC tomorrow. Wish me luck. :/
Started learning 25 years ago (suddenly feel old), and admittedly not trying very hard, but there was a spurt of studying somewhere in the middle got me through N2, failed N1, and have been not trying all that hard since then. Light conversation is ok, explaining things in detail is hard. Trying to translate most songs as they play for friends is hopeless.
As long as you create reasons to go on, it’s not for nothing… I guess