Online or remote study requires a great deal of self-discipline and self-motivation. There is no teacher at the front of the class requiring you to turn in homework or reminding you when the next exam will be. Buddy, that’s on you.
And the difficulty level goes from medium to hard when trying to study a language remotely.
Currently, I am studying Japanese and I am doing this remotely in Australia. I lack that immersive environment that makes learning a language easy and I have to create it for myself. And I have to create that environment as well as the drive to study and succeed. And it’s not easy.
However I have identified in my own study a few habits that have really helped take my language learning to the next level. Hopefully, these will help you too.
1. Daily Practise
I know, it sounds really naff, but daily practise is the key. I use Duolingo and Drops. I take about 15 minutes out of my day to do so. This is to expose myself to 15 minutes of listening and reading kana every day. My reading speed for katakana and hiragana has increased dramatically doing this.
2. Weekly One-on-One lessons
Don’t get me wrong, the lessons I do for my university classes are great but I spend an hour waiting for my turn to form a sentence from a textbook exercise. With a weekly one-on-one lesson with a tutor from iTalki I am able to spend a whole hour working on exercises and grammar. This also gives me a chance to get feedback on my written work.
3. Weekly Conversation Practise
Once a week I jump on Zoom with a Japanese community tutor and we talk for an hour. University classes and textbook work are great for learning the technical parts of the language but it’s not the same as conversation. And what are we learning a language for if not to gain the ability to communicate with people? By engaging in weekly conversation practise I am becoming more comfortable in speaking the language.
4. Reading
I took an extensive reading course last year and got into the habit of reading large volumes of Japanese daily. I’ve tried to continue that habit and have a huge stack of Manga ready to read. Even if I only read a few pages a day, it’s getting my reading speed up which is key. Japanese has 3 different scripts, if I don’t spend time reading them then I’m losing time forgetting them.
5. Remembering my goals
My original goal was to learn Japanese so I can better speak it when I travel there next. With the pandemic it was easy to lose sight of that goal. When will we travel? Who knows. Hopefully soon but nothing is certain. So I’ve changed my goals. I am speaking more Japanese with my children now, it’s become like our secret code and when we speak Japanese we’re in our bubble. I’m trying to read more complex books. I’m trying to make more sophisticated sentences. My goals have to be about more than just travelling or it won’t work and then I won’t do the work. So I have shifted my goals, but I still keep these new goals in my mind when I study so I stay motivated.
6. Doing the Work
There are a lot of apps and websites and courses that will promise to get you fluent in a few weeks or 15 minutes a day or while you sleep. The truth is they’re all bollocks. Learning a language takes work. Lots of work. Hours a day work. And if you stick with it then it’s very rewarding. But do not expect to do a 15 minute per day mobile game and be fluent in a few weeks, it won’t work. Build good habits, attend your classes, and keep going. In saying that, 15 minutes per day is a great place to start. I do a few bursts on some apps in the morning to start my day and to keep my language learning going, 15 minutes a day is an hour and 45 minutes a week or about 7 hours a month.
But please keep in mind this is on top of my university work which is about 10 hours a week minimum. The reality is that learning a language is not something you can do with a quick mind trick or 15 minute speed run a day. It’s reading, listening, speaking and writing every day for a few hours per day. It’s just putting in the time and remembering why you’re putting in the time will keep you motivated to do it.
Happy language learning!
The Otaku Mum 