Joined: Oct 2006
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Hey guys!!
I've been learning japanese for over 11 years.
During my language learning i have encountered many mental blocks and challenges which have stopped me or added friction to my learning.
With experience and reframing of certain limiting beliefs i have taken my language skills to new levels.
My quesiton here is , what language barriers, blocks, challenges are people experiencing right now and how are they addressing them?
Which ones are the most frustrating?
Technique is very important but mental inner game towards language learning i think is extremely powerful.
Looking forward to hearing everyone's responses.
Joined: Oct 2006
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Thanks jettyke
Okay i'll start
One of my current challenges is that i'm at a level where i can
write , read and basically say anything i want.
However my new level to reach is
better explanation skills on a professional level.
Be more logical, be more precise, have better japanese word cushions and seem more fluent.
Another one is business letters and writing.
I work in the technical customer service world (in japanese),
and i used to think that i had to write super fancy de gozaimasu stuff,
but now i realize that the cleaner , the simpler, the better because the customer wants to get their problems solved, but also since japanese people tend to be so anal about the details, i have to be very logical and precise.
Also (crazy idea) working in a full japanese team around me
tends to be demotivating (and motivating ) sometimes because
you can't avoid comparing yourself even though you are foreign.
So this is a very huge internal mental challenge I experience.
Reading long and hard email threads with yaritori (interactions with customers)
is also a huge challenge for me now.
I can be reading a huge 20 email post about what cause a problem, how they will fix it, how they will prevent it and being able to contribute to that is a pretty strong challenge for me, because it requires reading , comprehension and writing skills.
Just my current blocks, doesn't matter what the level everyone is
i'm looking forward to hearing everybody's challenges.
Joined: Nov 2010
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Procrastination is my biggest problem. Progress comes so slowly, and I can't seem to put down the video games to get any work done.
Joined: Feb 2009
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I wonder if there are people that got to the point where the TV shows become boring (you know, the never ending variety shows, where the crowd always goes "Heeeeh~" and the hosts are always the same celebrities and always eating...), most anime and manga seem so otaku (after you've talked with real otaku and stopped fooling yourself into thinking you're one). Mixi seems superficial and you've given up updating and commenting a couple years ago, etc. etc.
My main mental block is that I think I took a bit long and now a lot of things that are exciting to learners of Japanese have lost their glow. Yet I'm not in Japan, so that leaves me with little to go on.
One other block (mental or not) is that when you're over 30 you can't just go meet Japanese students in your area and expect to make friends.
Joined: Jun 2009
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What I've found to be difficult is, once you reach a certain point, it may get harder to reach new heights. Starting something new is probably the hardest thing to do but maintaining it is probably even more harder. If you can maintain a learning environment, you will succeed. It really comes down to a mindset. If you keep thinking and doing something about your learning. You will get far.
What I find really annoying now is, I want that complete fluency but I know it will take more time. It's hard but I know I will get to my goal in a few years, I just need to keep myself interested and also keep learning.
Joined: Jun 2009
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@vix86
Time is a huge factor for me. A lot of people want to do a lot in a day(me too) but I've found setting a certain amount a day(small amount) will get you farther than setting a high amount daily. This can relate to adding cards,immersion,reading,speaking,writing,etc.
I've revamped my decks and now I only add 30 new cards in my sentence deck(break it down to 10 each, so it's one for general sentences, MCD sentences and production type sentence cards). Vocab I try to add 50 new cards per day but adding monolingual cards+looking up any words I don't understand in JP-JP dictionary is time consuming. It may take time but I was doing at least 5 times more than what I'm doing now.
So break it down and set your standard low and you will get more down each day. I know it sounds like I'm saying put yourself down but I'm just saying make it smaller and you will get far.
