i have been taking Japanese classes at my uni for the past two years but i am so looking forward to being able to study at my own pace.
i started my journey by taking classes because i really wanted the structured environment of a classroom. i liked the routine that came with homework, quizzes, and exams. it was especially helpful in laying a solid foundation in my understanding of how Japanese works as a language and cementing the fundamentals. my professors have been excellent and my classmates have been a joy to learn with. i would definitely recommend taking a class to anyone who feels it too overwhelming to begin their Japanese learning journey. i know qualities varies, but if you find yourself unable to breakout of the early beginner stage, i highly recommend taking a class (especially one you can take in-person, or at least that meets in a group online).
but as much as i have loved my classes, i really cannot wait until the end of this semester. i no longer find the same value in homework, quizzes, and exams the same way i did early on. i, more often than not, find myself getting really annoyed at assignments that feel like busy work instead of opportunities to practice the language. the kanji/vocab/grammar i learn in class are immediately forgotten after the exam. practice out of the textbook have begun to feel repetitive and removed from real world application. it has turned me off to learning as i feel i am learning to pass the exam and speaking just to get participation points.
for a moment, this worried me because i thought i had lost my motivation for learning japanese entirely. but when im able to watch youtube videos, play videogames, read novels and magazines in japanese, i am much more motivated and excited to continue my learning. i am looking forward to graduating to self-study once my class is over so i can learn at my own pace and decide for myself what i want to focus on. i do a lot of self-study on my own time with a good mix of textbooks and websites so i feel much more prepared to study on my own than i did at the start of my journey two years ago.
maybe in the future, i'll come back to the classroom environment. like when im ready to prepare to take N2/N1 JLPT. but for now, as grateful as i am to my beginner/intermediate classes, im soooooo ready to be able to run on my own.
i guess as a question to y'all: if you've taken classes before, how did you know when you were ready to fly solo? what steps did you take to keep your study consistent after moving on from the class structure? any advice?
by semiswee