About 30 years ago my mother and I moved to a small town which was a boring place. It was a popular tourist spot in Summer but for the rest of the year, it was quiet with few things to do there. The library was one of the more interesting places for me to go to as there were books to loan and CDs, and videos to hire. I could entertain myself in those ways as I had no friends there in the beginning.
With very little to do, I visited the library frequently, occasionally the library would sell old or damaged stock. One day, while browsing through this section I saw a book called, “Teach yourself Japanese”. This was way before knowing I would end up living in Japan married to Masami; coincidence? The book was very cheap so I bought it out of interest and without looking at it.
Introduction to the Japanese language
After getting home I looked at the book and then understood why it was so cheap; the first 20 pages were missing! The pages that explain how to use the book were missing, without this reference, I didn’t understand a lot of the information written. There was a cassette tape that went with the book to help with pronunciation and listening practice but that was missing too.
The content, although useful, was a bit dry for my taste, explaining things in too much detail. A lot of the scenarios in the exercises didn’t interest me, either. I didn’t learn Japanese from this book, I did learn Japanese was difficult to learn and this experience put me off learning it for fun.
Dedication, learning materials, guidance
Three things stopped me from learning; dedication, learning materials, and no guidance.
To learn a new language, it is essential you dedicate time and effort to studying; no one can learn for you and just pop it into your head. I had a casual interest in the language without any dedication to learning it.
The learning materials didn’t suit me and were incomplete; it wasn’t fun and I didn’t relate to the exercises, which was demotivating.
Lastly, I had no guidance from the book because of the missing pages and cassette tape. I neither had anyone who could explain things to me nor practice with which left me with questions and confusion.
A better understanding
Now that I teach English for a living, I understand why I could never learn Japanese by using that book alone; that’s how not to learn a language. In my opinion, there are pros and cons to self-studying, also one-to-one lessons, and group lessons, too, which I’ll write about another day.
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