The Obligatory Intro Post

 

    It's always difficult to begin something new (say learning a new language perhaps), and the first blog post is no exception.  Instead of trying too hard to make a standout first post.... just start.



    I've been an anime and video game fan for the last 20 years.  And like any typical anime/game fan, I garnered a fascination for Japan.  I've seen my fair share of subtitled shows, heard much of the language, and have been lucky enough to eat a good amount of delicious Japanese food.  And for many years I've wished I could understand more of what I was consuming.

    For the last 5 years I've been re-attempting to self-learn Japanese.  I've tried many times before, but with no good starting point I kept failing every attempt.  No direction and being land-locked in the middle of the United States, I had very little help to really get me started.  But now, with the internet and more people willing to devote their time to teach on youtube channels, getting the help I needed to get started properly has been a million times easier.

    Even after 5 years of getting a much better understanding of the language, learning hiragana, katakana, and first grade kanji, I'm still not very advanced yet.  I'm not even past the first grade level.  I'm a slow learner when it comes to scholastic topics.  I need to learn in the way a child would.  I am also a slow reader and I do believe that I may be dyslexic.  A lot of resources I've seen that teach English speakers the Japanese language are nothing but walls of text... Walls of text make my brain shut down.  I need simplicity and colorful images to actually be able to retain things like this into my long term memory.  For instance, I've been stuck making my own flash cards for myself. Here's an example....

Here is a White Rabbit Press style flashcard

VS

One of my flashcards I saved from a Japanese children's site

     You see can see there's a very stark difference to how I retain things.  And seeing as how I seem to learn some things so differently than other adults, my learning style doesn't really seem to be catered to.  This is a topic that saddens me and makes things more difficult when I search for resources to learn from.  

    But over the years of a burgeoning internet, there has arisen a plethora of excellent resources.  Many of which go unnoticed.  I have overly full bookmark folders of helpful things.  In making this blog, it is my intent (first and foremost) to make an organized area in which I can keep ideas, notes, and links to good resources that help me.  I would like to make posts that will reflect how I'm retaining concepts.  My hope is that while doing this, maybe other people will find and use this blog to help themselves learn as well.  I can't claim to be a teacher and mistakes might be made on my part, but isn't that how learning is done?

Just gotta take it slow.   We'll make it~