Shane Jones - Confessions of a Japanese Linguist - How to Master Japanese: (The Journey to Fluent, Functional, Marketable Japanese)

Forward

Most beginning learners of Japanese embark on their journey toward mastery of the language with excitement, optimism, and perhaps a bit of trepidation at the unknown path ahead. They envision the day when they will soon be conversing fluently with friends in Japanese, reading manga and novels, watching movies and anime and consuming other media in the original language, and even living in Japan and working in a career in which they use Japanese on an everyday basis in the workplace.

Then day one of the first day of Japanese 101 arrives, and the learner is hit with a cold, sobering realization: learning Japanese is hard , and the journey ahead will be a long, arduous one in which only the strong, studious, prepared and persistent will survive.

In order to survive any long journey and arrive surely at ones destination, a reliable roadmap is essential. How to Master Japanese is the story of my own long, arduous struggle to master Japanese. It is the story of many false starts and early failures and many frustrations along the way. It is a cautionary tale of the many pitfalls to avoid. But it is also a story of persistence and overcoming of obstacles, and the eventual rewards that come from continuing to climb, even after being knocked down repeatedly, to eventually reach the promised land of mastery of the Japanese language, and with it, the key to Japanese culture and many incredible relationships and experiences with even career rewards to be gained as a result.

I wrote How to Master Japanese to provide aspiring learners with a roadmap to their own successful journey toward Japanese mastery. This is NOT your run-of-the-mill Japanese textbook. You wont learn Japanese grammar, hiragana, katakana, or kanji by reading this book. But follow along with me and I will show you how I went from a 24-year-old Midwesterner who couldnt speak a word of Japanese to someone who quickly evolved into a highly fluent speaker and reader of Japanese and, within just a few years of beginning the study of Japanese, was and still is today teaching, translating, interpreting, speaking and using the Japanese language on a daily basis at a high level of fluency in a professional capacity.

You see, there is no shortage of excellent resources for learning the Japanese language. There are countless high-quality textbooks and kanji books, online learning tools and even apps, as well as many fine institutional classroom programs all over the world. If simply having access to good study material or a learning environment were the key to language learning success, anyone today with an Internet connection or a good textbook would become a successful learner. However, without the proper insight and understanding of what it really takes to master Japanese, the reality is that most aspiring Japanese learners ultimately fail in their quest to master the language or even gain a basic level of fluency.

In How to Master Japanese , I will take you with me on my journey from my initial aspirations and motivation to learn Japanese, to my early failures to complete even Japanese 101 before finally gaining a measure of success in the classroom, to struggling with and eventually conquering kanji and gaining the ability to read Japanese at an advanced level, to struggling to live and work in Japan and fit into its oftentimes hard-to-crack culture and eventually succeeding at finding a level of comfort and acceptance and forming many lasting relationships with Japanese counterparts, to becoming a professional Japanese translator and interpreter and Japanese language instructor, and continuing to maintain and even improve my Japanese years after moving back home in my life after Japan.

As you read, a full picture of what it really takes to succeed at Japanese, both inside the classroom and beyond, in order to attain a true functional proficiency in the language will emerge. Equally as important, you will learn how to negotiate the many unique nuances of Japanese culture, as well as avoid the many pitfalls and detours in the learning process that can result in years, if not an entire lifetime, of lost time and frustrated effort in attempting to learn the Japanese language and understand the complicated intricacies of Japanese culture.

Embarking on the journey toward mastery of the Japanese language is by far the most challenging and rewarding thing I have ever done in my life. It is a journey that is still and will forever be in progress, and one that has bestowed upon me rewards, in the form of friendships, experiences, career fulfillment and even monetary gain, beyond my wildest expectations.

I wish you the very best of success on your own journey toward mastery of the Japanese language and discovery of the Japanese culture, and sincerely hope that this book will help you realize your own Japanese aspirations. If a young, not-so-bright Midwestern adult with no special aptitude for language learning like me can master Japanese, than so can you!

Introduction

First, a word about what it means to master Japanese. What does it really mean to master Japanese, or any language for that matter? Does mastering Japanese imply knowledge of every vocabulary word, every element of grammar, and every single kanji? Does it mean speaking, reading, writing and comprehending the language at a level equivalent to a native speaker? Since few if any of us have mastered every single nuance of our own native language, clearly it is not possible to master every single nuance of a foreign language, let alone Japanese. If that is the case, then what are we really talking about when it comes to mastering a foreign language?

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines mastery as follows:

Knowledge and skill that allows you to do, use, or understand something very well.

As it relates to Japanese, when I speak of mastery in this book, I simply mean gaining a sufficient grasp of the language at some satisfactory functional level that enables you to use the Japanese language, and by doing so directly access the Japanese culture, for whatever purpose you may have, whether that be using your Japanese for your business or career, making and communicating with Japanese friends, living in Japan, traveling to Japan, studying in Japan, consuming Japanese media, such as novels, manga and anime, Japanese film or TV, in the original language, or perhaps even forming and maintaining a romantic relationship with a Japanese-speaking partner.

When it comes to Japanese, mastering the language also means mastering the many unique nuances and social conventions of Japanese culture, so that you not only use the language fluently, but in a culturally and socially appropriate manner as well, for when it comes to Japanese, the language and the cultural context in which it is used are intimately intertwined.

In my own case, mastering Japanese has meant gaining verbal fluency in the language so that I can carry on conversations in Japanese with Japanese friends and acquaintances, conduct business in Japanese with Japanese clients and associates, and negotiate my way through Japanese culture and in Japanese-speaking social circles without any reliance on English whatsoever.

It has meant gaining enough competence with the written language so that I can read Japanese newspapers, magazines, websites, novels, manga, and read and write emails, letters and other correspondences. It has meant acquiring sufficient listening comprehension so that I can watch Japanese film and TV, including news and variety shows, Japanese dramas and Japanese anime, without any reliance on English subtitles.