oh oops sorry not going on atkins. Every morning I have a huge bowl of cereal. I have granola bars too. So I get carbs every day. I am just cutting down. I feel great almost all the time.

Yeah atkins is a load of bull.

I will look into the swing thing and let you know.

Good luck jacf29! There will be lots of doubters who will try and put you off (either intentionally or unintentionally) - but just go for it. Keep remembering the end point - you'll be fluent in Japanese and happy!

And don't forget to keep us updated every quarter on your progress!

My one piece of advice would be to study hard too - you can't get to fluency by just 'existing' in an all-Japanese environment.

I think it's the regular use in real life of what you have previously studied, plus the study of stuff that you have heard in real life, that is the positive feedback loop that accelerates you to fluency.

Have you ever been to Japan before?

jacf29 Wrote:oh oops sorry not going on atkins. Every morning I have a huge bowl of cereal. I have granola bars too. So I get carbs every day. I am just cutting down. I feel great almost all the time.

Yeah atkins is a load of bull.

I will look into the swing thing and let you know.

Well just, stay open to rational ideas and be prepared to change your diet in case your current isn't suitable any longer. Remember there are different ways and you can take sidepaths to get there quicker.

Otherwise, nice poasting! The thread motivated me a bit, thanks for that.

Diets are like religions. ;p Atkins is decent, in that it suggests lowering all that excess carb intake, getting more protein, not being afraid of certain fats. Even that ketosis stage is very useful to reset the system, though I once experimented with staying in ketosis for several months and found it hard to switch back to normal eating (I suffered no health consequences, however, outside of being so damned chipper all the time). That Atkins died because he was fat and ate poorly is just an ad hominem anti-branding rumour based on stereotypes, I loathe that sort of thing.

That said, I'm not 'defending' a specific diet, just the basic ideas which are surprisingly common amongst them all. Just eat moderately and exercise. ;p (Edit: In other words, avoid the pitfalls of people who look at dieting from the outside-in and go through extreme fads and burn out, the same as with languages, come to think of it.)

jacf29 Wrote:So starting Thursday until fluency (whenever that comes), it will truly be 100% Japanese all the Time. (other than work). This forum has been awesome motivation and I will not forget to come back when I reach fluency and report back.

I respectfully disagree. I came to the US from Russia with my parents and I spoke nothing but Russian at home. At least 6 hours a day (during school weekdays, more on weekends and holidays). When I moved, I could speak only the basic English: greetings, simple nouns, verbs, etc. All in all, probably not much more than a dozen words. In 2 months of school I learned situational conversational English and by the end of December (2 more months) I could already ask someone in English the meaning of something (usually complicated words) and understand the reply in English (note: very useful skill in every language). But I still seeked out a lot of Russian speaking friends and now that I look back on it, I'm thankful that I did.

For the most part, I agree with Grinkers. As long as there is a large portion of the day in which you have no choice but speak the other (non-native) language, you will learn quickly. However, disengaging yourself from your native language entirely will make it more difficult for you to speak it later.

I know a little bit of a handful of languages now, more so of German and Japanese. German because I thought I was going to go to Germany after high school and Japanese because I'll be going to Japan for a graduate level degree in a few years (probably central Japan). I work part time at a hotel where I have practice speaking different languages. We have many different people from around the world come, usually contractors for the National Lab here, so I wont be out of practice.

Welcome to the forums but... why necro a year old thread in reply to a guy that said he's leaving the forum so probably wouldn't even be around to respond in the first place?

'Couz I thought it was an interesting topic

OP said he wouldn't return until he's fluent.

Well, according to his profile, he posted on here last month. Soo jacf29, want to update us on how your hardcore 100% AJATT period went, and did it lead to frustration or fluency??

bodhisamaya Wrote:@caedmon
Yea... right. Difficulty of kicking addictions:
heroin < cigarettes
cigarettes < air
air < Japanese girlfriends

So guys...LET'S DO HEROIN!!!! やったーーー！！！

jettyke Wrote:

bodhisamaya Wrote:@caedmon
Yea... right. Difficulty of kicking addictions:
heroin < cigarettes
cigarettes < air
air < Japanese girlfriends

So guys...LET'S DO HEROIN!!!! やったーーー！！！

LOLZ. Nah man, let's do herion with our Japanese girlfriends whilst smokin ciggarettes and breathing addictive air!