The key to learning Japanese is the ability to pick yourself up after humiliating yourself

At least that’s what I tell myself every time I make a mistake and feel like a fool 😅

But really, no matter how much study you do nothing will prepare you for speaking your Japanese besides… speaking it.

I held off speaking it for two years out of fear of sounding stupid but the reality is I WILL sound stupid and that’s okay. I have and will continue to mistakes constantly and sometimes I’ll leave a conversation thinking ‘god kill me I never want to speak Japanese again’, and that’s okay too, as long as I try again the next day. Because it’s the culmination of my mistakes and learning from them that have got me as far as I have today and will continue to do so.

If I never tried and failed—if I never made those mistakes I never would’ve improved at all.

So every time I have a chance to speak and the fear comes over me I think ‘So what if I sound stupid?’ and try anyway.

I made a mistake and felt like an idiot five minutes ago so this post was more to make myself feel better more than anything, but hopefully other people resonated with it.