EDIT: Just editing this post to make my phrasing clearer. This post was more asking about why people, beginners especially, avoid interacting with the language and emphasize textbook study. This post was not made with the intent of singling this sub out specifically.
So something I've been wondering when it comes to Japanese communities is why do beginners avoid interacting with the language so much? When it comes to matters of preference, e.g. not feeling comfortable having to look stuff up, thus delaying native material, that's understandable. But a lot of people I've seen tend to relegate that to the side to focus on textbook studies, often citing that they are not "ready" to go into things like inputting with native materials. (Personally, I find that no matter how much you prepare, that level of input will be difficult either way so you'd rather take the plunge now and incrementally develop the skills, even if you use material that's just above your level).
A lot of the time, when people do get asked these sorts of questions, they tend to cite that they do things like grammar drills, memorize kanji, etc. all in preparation for receiving input, but then they often still struggle with immersing later on. Like, if the goal is to dive into native content, then building a modest foundation is reasonable, but even then, I've seen people who perform activities that "prepare them for input" rather than inputting with materials at their stage in order to prepare for native material when material like comprehensible input exists, allowing them to do both, not only building a foundation, but helping people to learn to comprehend the language properly too.
I'm not particularly bashing on anybody with this post, but I do find it strange that a lot of the people I've encountered swear off reading, even during the earlier stages, because they're not "ready."
by LupinRider