In this series, I’m going to share how you can better use your commute time for learning a foreign language. In today’s post, I will talk about the benefits of studying on your way to work or school.

The benefits of studying a language during your commute

Regularity

Your commute is a regular time slot that repeats every day. Over time, small increments of time add up to big returns. Let’s do a quick calculation of what this means. A 30 minute commute by train is 60 minutes per day. Assuming you studied Chinese every day during this time (instead of texting your friends or mindlessly browsing Facebook! not that I would ever do that ) and did the same amount study during the weekends, this amounts to 21,900 minutes a year. Not bad going! In reality, it is much easier to stick to studying during a regular commute than is putting aside time for studying.

Stress relief

I can honestly say that I now look forward to studying Japanese during my commute. When I have a bit more time, I even take the slower train to fit in a bit more learning (I know I am a bit weird for this). I’ll cover the specifics of how I study in another post, but I usually add new material in the mornings and focus on reviewing in the evening. I have found that doing something useful before I even get to work helps relieve some of the stress that comes with working in the hectic concrete jungle that is Tokyo. I feel less rushed and more at ease.

Rewiring the brain

Practically all of the apps you use on your mobile phone, especially social media and games, target the dopamine reward systems in your brain. Each new update, prize, or notification is linked to dopamine release (I once interviewed a gaming company in Singapore who openly told me they base their gaming experience on addicting their users). This might not be so bad in the scheme of things; I’d rather be addicted to Angry Birds than tobacco. But replacing these time killers with something useful (you do want to learn a language, right?) literally rewires your brain. Three months into my new schedule, I am now far more addicted to adding and mastering new words than social media. Rewiring the brain is something that interests me. The internet is such a great tool, but I feel that many of us have been led astray into wasting time and money on it instead of using its full potential for our own long-term benefit and well-being. I recommend reading a book called The Shallows, which is a fascinating (and foreboding) take on the internet’s role in neuroplasticity.

Fun

Following a regular study habit during my commute time has made my enjoy life more. I no longer view my train to work as an annoyance. It’s a marvelous part of the day where I discover new and interesting things about the Japanese language. There is also a sense of achievement as the unknown transforms into the familiar before eventually becoming an old friend.

These are just a few of the advantages of studying your target language every day during your commute. Whether you take public transport or drive, it’s safe to say that you can fit some learning time into your routine. Do you currently study during your commute? Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below.

In the next post, I will share the method I am employing to boost my Japanese knowledge during my commute to work. Until then!

Rohan

Rohan has spent years studying Japanese, Chinese and Korean, and currently lives in Japan. He created the perapera pop-up dictionary plugins to help other learners of Chinese and Japanese.

Tracking back a little, if you read this website, then you will be aware that here are certain timeless principles to follow when it comes to learning a foreign language. Namely:

Learn new vocabulary.
Listen a lot.
Read a lot.
Find interesting content that will motivate you to stay immersed in the language.

And so on. These principles are fundamental and unchanging. And you know what? Maybe in years gone by, they may have been enough. But things have changed.

So what has changed exactly? OK I’m sorry to disappoint, but I’m not about to unveil a secret new method of learning that beats all the others. That would be dishonest. The basics are still the same.

No, what I’m referring to is the massive brain damage that is going on these days. OK not literally, but I’d estimate that 90% of us are total scatterbrains trying to achieve too much all at once. We are constantly distracted by our phones, internet sites and a hundred other things. The challenge is clear. We need to reclaim our brains in order to push ahead with mastering another language.

1. Turn off your smartphone

Listen, I understand how much you love your iPhone, Android or whatever zany phone model you are a fan of. Admittedly, I spend way too much time on my iPhone. But when it comes to concentrated study, smartphones are a killer. Turn it off. It will only serve to constantly interrupt your study sessions with phone calls, texts and other random updates. Who is in charge here? You or your phone? Now and then, you have to show your smartphone who is boss.

2. Massively cut down on social media

While many of you might manage to follow the first point and turn off your phone for an hour or two, things are about to get real now. I’m telling you to massively cut down on your  social media. Facebook and Twitter are perhaps the biggest existing distractions for the modern language learner. Any time spent on these mindless sites is time you could have spent learning Chinese, Swahili or whatever cute language you are currently dating.

And don’t give me that “I need to enjoy my life” line. Nobody really enjoys looking at Facebook. Surprisingly enough, language study is much more fun once you get a regular routine going.

3. Go old school

Next, you need to go old school, by which I mean that you should read physical books now and then. I’m a fan of digital books as much as anyone else (hell, I was reading interesting Japanese ebooks before my Japanese friends!), but going old school can help your brain to recover from all the electronic stimulation that is confusing it. Going old school will stop the rot that is turning your concentration levels into something more fitting to a goldfish than a human. Read good books in your target foreign language if you can. If you aren’t at that level yet, then some moderately challenging reading in your native language is just fine.

4. Meditate

Meditation has been shown to help improve concentration levels and memory retention, both skills that directly translate into more effective language acquisition. Even 5-10 minutes a day can make a noticeable difference, so give it a shot. If you are new to meditation, I strongly recommend Finding Peace in a Frantic World as a great introduction.

5. Show up

Honestly, I’d conservatively estimate that showing up is 80% of the language learning game. It’s probably much more than that, but 80% is a nice round number that everyone understands. Let’s say that 20% of your results come from the method you follow and the quality of materials you use (good job you have this blog to help you with those!).

Either way, what matters is putting in the study time, day after day, week after week. I don’t care how much talent for languages you believe yourself to be lacking. You will make progress. And, over time, your brain will change with regular practice. Months into a solid learning regime, you will begin to feel the difference in your thinking. You will hear the sounds of the language differently. You will start singing in the shower. It’s a beautiful thing to experience and it makes you feel more alive.

Fin

Hopefully, the above hints give you something to play with. Nobody is perfect. We all procrastinate and fritter away time. And that’s OK. But if you are regularly missing your language goals and getting frustrated, then reclaiming your brain is a solid first step on the road to fluency.

Rohan

Rohan has spent years studying Japanese, Chinese and Korean, and currently lives in Japan. He created the perapera pop-up dictionary plugins to help other learners of Chinese and Japanese.

Procrastination is a common problem. It affects us in many areas of life, including language learning.

I am going to break down the issue piece-by-piece and show you how to solve it. Fortunately, the cure is an easy one but it requires some self-reflection.

Bossing yourself around never works. It never did work and it never will.

“Damn. I haven’t done any Chinese study for days. I have to get back to it.”

Or maybe it’s:  “I need to learn more vocabulary for the HSK. The exam is a couple of months from now!”

Or:  “Yikes. I’ve missed doing my Anki for the last 3 days. I’ve got to catch up on it or it will be unbearable.”

Does any of the above sound familiar? Take a look at all those command words in there.

Got to! Have to! Must! Need to!

Is this what you are telling yourself? If so, you are most likely stuck in a “school mindset”. It is at the root of your procrastination problem.

Confused? I thought you might be. Make yourself a coffee because this will be a long and soul-searching post.

The school mindset

Think back to your school days. It could be any subject, any teacher. Were you ever asked what you wanted to study? Were you ever consulted about the quality of the lessons? Did you ever get to choose what homework to do?

Of course not. That’s because as a pupil at school you didn’t have the power to choose your curriculum. You didn’t have the right to an opinion about your own learning. You were there to obey the teacher and meet external expectations.

Now think back to your homework. That homework that you had zero input about. Did you love doing it? Of course not. Well mostly not anyway. So why did you do it? Because you had to! You were scared of getting into trouble. Hmm, sounds like a healthy paradigm for learning doesn’t it?

At school, you were coerced into doing what the teacher wanted. And then along came the endless tests and exams. More “musts” and “got to”s all the way up through into college and beyond.

Got to. Have to. Must. Should. Need to.

Let’s do away with this destructive language.

We can treat ourselves better than this.

The truth of the matter is that procrastination occurs for a reason. When you don’t want to do something, you procrastinate.

Conversely, the opposite is also true…

You can’t procrastinate over something you want to do.

Do you procrastinate over eating when you are hungry? No.

Do you procrastinate over sleeping when you are tired? No.

Do you procrastinate over socializing with your best friends? No.

Do you procrastinate over opening that bottle of champagne? No.

Do you procrastinate over having sex? I hope not!

You want to do these things so you do them! It’s as simple as that. Procrastination never even enters the picture. If anything, you have to exert some discipline not to do these things all the time. That’s how enjoyable they are as activities.

Why do we procrastinate with language learning?

Sadly most of us didn’t develop this natural form of decision-making towards language learning.

It’s an unfortunate truth that languages are disliked by generations of school kids, who later grow up into adults with an allergy to foreign languages. It’s quite tragic. What should be a fun activity has been hijacked and turned into something that people dread.

Bossing yourself is counterproductive because it stops natural intrigue and enjoyment from developing. It fuels the procrastination inside you.

You don’t have to study a language!

Wake up and open your eyes. You don’t have to do anything at all!

You don’t have to study Chinese. So you’ll fail your HSK exam. So what? There’s always next year.

You don’t have to study Japanese. What will the consequences be if you don’t? None whatsoever. All those kanji characters are pesky and irregular anyway.

You don’t have to learn Korean. What is going to happen to you if you stop? Well, nothing to be precise. Kim Jong Un won’t come for you in the middle of the night. Nothing will happen that you can’t deal with.

The key to breaking down procrastination is to ask yourself your own opinion

Stay with me on this. I’m not telling you to stop studying! Far from it.

I’m reminding you that you are free to do whatever you like. Most of us live our lives on auto-pilot forgetting that we control our each and every action.

Imagine you are back at your home. Those Chinese books on your desk make you feel guilty because you have been slacking off lately. Then comes the thought:

“All that money I spent on those books. I really have to do some Chinese again!”

Stop right there!  We are done with the school mentality. Instead of bossing yourself around, try asking yourself your own opinion:

“Do I want to study Chinese now?”

If the answer is yes, then pick up your books and get started.

If the answer is no then leave those books right where they are. You can ask yourself the same question another time.

With this new freedom mindset, there is no more “have to” or “got to”. There is only “I want to” or “I don’t want to”. So simple yet so liberating.

Take the pressure off yourself and watch your procrastination melt away

If you want to study, then study! If not, then ask yourself what you want to do. Maybe you want to laze around watching movies. No problem. Go and do whatever it is you want to. This is your life and nobody else’s.

It’s a funny old process. Once you remove all that pressure and self-bullying your procrastination will melt away. By only studying when you feel like it, you will actually begin to intrinsically enjoy the language more. This is a huge deal. Next time you see your Chinese books you will want to study even more. So you will. And then you will get better and enjoy it even more. It’s a virtuous circle of awesomeness.

This is part of why we study by ourselves. Self-study is not just about saving money or being more efficient. It’s actually more enjoyable than going to school and contributes to your personal growth. You call the shots now. It’s a nice feeling, isn’t it?

P.S. Few ideas are completely original. The mindset I have developed towards learning and work in general was greatly inspired by Stefan Molyneux. I love his ideas on personal freedom. If you are interested in hearing his views on the subject of procrastination that inspired me to write this article, check out his video here.

Rohan

Rohan has spent years studying Japanese, Chinese and Korean, and currently lives in Japan. He created the perapera pop-up dictionary plugins to help other learners of Chinese and Japanese.

I arrived in Japan in 2005 to teach English at a language school in Saitama. I had a few lessons of Pimsleur Japanese under my belt but an otherwise rudimentary Japanese level.

Having read Barry Farber’s inspiring book How To Learn Any Language: Quickly, Easily, Inexpensively, Enjoyably and on Your Own, I decided to go it alone. I avoided Japanese schools, classes and teachers like the plague. I bought a bunch of books and audio courses and did a lot of trial and error.

In the end, I probably made more progress in my Japanese studies than my students did in English. It’s totally possible that I sucked as an English teacher but something bigger is at work here. Simply put, self-study is the way to go. I learned a great deal in that six months of studying alone and all this before helpful tools like Perapera’s dictionary tool.

Why You Should Self Study A Language

So why is self-study so powerful for learning a language? Here are some of the reasons I think learning alone beats language courses or academic studies.

1. It’s fun

I found it was more enjoyable to learn alone. Not because I was a loner, but because self-study gave me more freedom and was more fun than a class. Japanese study time became the best part of my day and I would look forward to hitting the books. The kanji were fascinating and it was satisfying to hear a new vocabulary word I’d learned that day on TV or in the local bar.

2. It’s cheaper

However you look at it, studying alone will save you a load of money. You could conceivably buy all the books out there available for learning Japanese and it would still be cheaper than taking language classes! I often reminded myself of this when I was getting stingy about the price of a particular book. I did buy some less helpful books along the way (avoid our mistakes by sticking to our 10 best books for Japanese) but it was definitely worth it in the end.

3. Self-reliance

When you study by yourself there’s no homework. Nobody is there to put pressure on you to learn new vocabulary. This is liberating but it also means that you have to get on with it and take responsibility for your learning. Time and time again as a teacher I’d have students who evidently thought that coming to my English class a couple of times a week was “enough” English learning for the week. It’s easy to fall into this way of thinking when you are a passive student in a class where someone “teaches” you the language. When you self-study, this kind of self-deception doesn’t happen because you are lovingly grappling with the language day by day.

4. Efficiency

Self-studying also saves you time. No more lost time getting to class. The classroom is your bedroom or your favorite cafe. No more classes that are below or beyond your current level as we all know ourselves best. You are in a better position than any teacher to see your weak points in a language and work at them.

5. Immersion

With the vast resources available for any foreign language, it is today easier than ever to immerse yourself in the target language without living in the country of said language. The subject of immersing yourself in your target language is a fascinating one that deserves its own post.

6. Native speakers are your teachers

Spend too much time in a language class and you will pick up bad habits and non-native intonation. When you watch a Japanese variety show you’re not just enjoying some fun entertainment. You are also learning real and authentic Japanese and getting a glimpse into Japanese culture. The irony of language classes is that you end up making friends with other non-natives and speaking English with other students becomes your routine. Getting out there and struggling in the language and making friends will serve you better in the long run. Even if you don’t live in the country where the language is spoken, there are now many options for language exchange by email or Skype that make your current location irrelevant for learning a language.

7. Your learning material can be anything

Studying is a lot easier when you are interested in the content. Enjoy baseball? Watch the Japanese major league in Japanese. Fashion buff? Buy a Japanese apparel magazine or even better, read it online with Perapera and save the new words The freedom of choice self-study gives you is truly exhilarating.

Of course, the learning never ends. I still encounter kanji I can’t read or miss the meaning of something in a meeting. But when all is said and done, I still have to pinch myself at times. I have reached a level of proficiency I never dreamed of when I bought my first Japanese book. My job and daily life now depend on my Japanese and it all started with a humble few books and audio courses.

Next lets look at some pointers to give you a better study experience for learning languages.

How To Self Study A Language: Our Best Tips

This isn’t gospel, just our informed opinion after having studied Asian languages for over a decade. Feel free to follow the parts that vibe with you and discard the rest. With that caveat in place, let’s get started!

1. Invest in your learning

As 21st century learners, we all live in an age of abundance. There has never been a time when it was easier (or cheaper!) to learn an Asian language. Useful tools such as Perapera and limitless foreign language media are available for free.

Free is fantastic but it does have its limits. Despite all the good free stuff available, it is still better to invest in your language learning. There are several reasons for this.

First of all, we as humans do not value what is free. It’s like having a gym membership – paying for it is part of what motivates you to go. Or it should do anyway!

Second, learning a language is also an investment in yourself. The money you spend now will pay you back many times over, both financially and personally. I now earn more yen in a week of work than the total of my spending on Japanese books and courses. This initial investment has given a massive financial return which continues to accrue every day. By all means, take steps to decrease the cost of your learning, but always invest, invest, invest.

The third and most important reason is that physical books and courses that cost some money are almost always better (see below).

2. Prioritize the offline over the online

In the early stages of your learning you should spend more time offline than online.

This might sound strange coming from us – after all, we write a blog and make language plugins, but traditional offline resources are still vastly superior to (most) online language courses.

An insightful book will save you hours of time. A solid audio course will get you acquainted with the grammar and pronunciation of the language. A helpful language tutor will give you a huge boost in confidence. So invest in all of these offline resources to hit the language from different angles.

The danger with online resources is that, despite the best of intentions, you end up surfing around random sites. This represents wasted time that you could have spent being immersed in the new language. In addition, many internet forums and websites give outright poor advice and misleading information. Other free resources online are of low quality and produced by amateurs.

Once you are intermediate, you can (and should!) read news sites and check out blogs in the foreign language. But until you get there, it is more effective to focus on offline resources that give you a base proficiency. So turn off your laptop, make yourself a coffee and get to work.

3. Watch movies in your target language

You need to have some fun with your learning. In fact, that is the whole reason for doing this language thing!

Find some foreign movies that interest you. It is is fine to watch with English subtitles, although movies with both the audio and the subtitles in the foreign language are optimal.

In the beginning, most of the dialogue will still sound like random syllables, but your ears slowly adjust. You will begin to recognize words you have learned from other sources. This is highly motivating. As you progress, you will find that you increasingly follow the plot and grasp the gist of conversations. Eventually you will struggle to remember a time when you couldn’t understand films in Japanese or Chinese. Trust me, that moment will come much quicker than you expect!

You can watch a large selection of Asian movies for no cost at all by signing up for a free 30 day trial with Amazon Prime. If you prefer, just cancel the membership before the month is up and you won’t be charged anything.

In the near future, we plan to do a series of posts on the best Asian movies we have seen to date. Watch this space!

4. Remove distractions

People are becoming more and more addicted to their smartphones. This is a problem for language learners. You simply cannot study efficiently while you are texting friends, checking the weather and reading Twitter all at the same time. Even just having a phone in your pocket serves as a distraction more often than not.

The only solution to smartphone addiction is to turn your phone off or, at the very least, put it into airplane mode while you study. You do want to learn this language right?

I know the idea of turning off your smartphone will strike fear into the hearts of many of you. Admit it, you are paranoid of missing out on something. But how many of those notifications are actually urgent? The world can wait an hour or two, so take a break from being connected for a change and let your brain focus on the task at hand. Remember that the benefits of good habits build up over time.

There you have it: my advice on how to self study a language.

Have you successfully learned a language on your own? How did you do it? We would love to hear your stories!

Rohan

Rohan has spent years studying Japanese, Chinese and Korean, and currently lives in Japan. He created the perapera pop-up dictionary plugins to help other learners of Chinese and Japanese.

The secret lies in attacking the language from many different angles. This is not an original idea. In fact, I borrowed it from a personal hero of mine, Barry Farber. His method works!

Apply a multi-front attack to win the war

When Napoleon was busy conquering Europe, do you think he did it all with one army? Of course not. He deployed a multitude of armies and brigades with infantry, cavalry and artillery, not to mention skilled mercenaries hailing from close and afar. The enemy’s defenses were broken down by the sheer force and variety of Napoleon’s armies.

Studying a language isn’t all that different to warfare. Over time, you may grow to love your chosen language. It will become closer to you, like a friend or eventually even a lover. But do not be fooled! As a beginner, the language is your enemy. You must attack it on multiple fronts with a variety of armed units. You must show no mercy!

Infantry (books)

To build an army, you need to assemble some basic troops first. Your infantry, also known as books, will form the bulk of your armed forces. Get as many books as you want. I’m totally serious. As many as you want! Buy several different books and experiment with them to see which you like the most. It’s impossible to know which book is best for you just by looking at reviews on Amazon.

Before you cheapskate yourself out of your studies, think about this rationally for a moment. Even an investment of 15 or 20 books is peanuts compared to what you would shell out on going to language school. These books can be consulted whenever and wherever you need them. A good investment if I ever heard of one.

For the cost-conscious among you, buy your books used (veterans always come in handy!).  Either way, your books will be vital in the war against an enemy language. To save time, you might want to check out our book reviews:

Chinese books we liked
Japanese books we liked
Korean books we liked

Cavalry (audio courses)

In warfare, you need to move forward rapidly in your attacks and for this you need cavalry. You will want to buy a minimum of 2 audio courses for your target language. This is vital.

These courses will act as your teachers in the beginning stages. I’m a huge fan of the Michel Thomas series – We have used it for Chinese, French, German and Russian and can vouch for the quality of each course. In addition, I have heard good things about the Japanese course.

Pimsleur is another great choice if you can afford it. Assimil and Living Language are also excellent. I will cover these courses in more detail at a later date.

Artillery (vocabulary aids)

Vocabulary aids are the hard-hitting firepower that is your artillery. In the language wars, vocabulary trumps all, so you need to build up your vocab base as much as possible.

Books and audio courses will give you a start, but you should also seek out vocabulary yourselves. Use our free applications to discover new words online and save them to your preferred flashcard program. Vocabulary acquisition is truly the bread and butter, whether you are studying Chinese or Zulu. After all, at their core, languages are made from words.

If you prefer, you can also buy flashcards ready-made. This makes for easy revision so that you can learn any place, any time. You can find tons of sets for available for Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

Mercenaries (personal tutors)

As with any armed force, you need some skilled mercenaries in the mix.

After reaching a certain level of proficiency, having a native speaker available to correct your errors will be extremely valuable.

You can now find personal tutors on sites like LingQ. A tutor can correct your errors and give you some gentle pointers on how to express yourself. But remember that nobody ever fought a successful war with mercenaries alone! The important point here is to use tutors as an extra boost. They are NOT there to teach you the language. The learning part will be achieved by your hard work alone.

So now you know how to raise an army ready for linguistic war. The rest is up to you.

Follow Perapera on Facebook to receive updates on our latest foolish pursuits.

Rohan

Rohan has spent years studying Japanese, Chinese and Korean, and currently lives in Japan. He created the perapera pop-up dictionary plugins to help other learners of Chinese and Japanese.

1. Self-study

I tend to repeat myself on this site but it’s for a reason. This point alone could save you thousands of dollars! You do NOT need to go to school to learn languages, period.

You can discover Chinese, Korean or Japanese on your own terms, with your own books and in your own time. It’s a wonderful experience.

Studying on your own transforms your learning experience from a passive one into an active endeavor – it’s more effective, cheaper and, most importantly, more enjoyable. The benefits extend far beyond learning a language. You will become more confident and believe in your abilities.

However, many prospective students are still stuck in the mindset that they need to pay to go to an expensive language school. As far as I’m concerned, if this blog convinces one person to study on their own then it will all have been worth it.

2. Buy used books

Hypochondria aside, there is no reason to avoid second-hand books or courses. It’s the same information available for less.

When there’s a book I want, I usually check out Amazon to see if there are any used versions available for cheaper.

There are occasionally some real bargains. Last time I checked, Pimsleur Chinese was available for under $100 which is much cheaper than buying it new. Just make sure that the book listed is the latest edition and verify the seller’s past ratings.

3. FSI courses

FSI Language Courses is an incredible website with free US-government courses available for download in their entirety. The quality can be variable and a little old-fashioned but hey, it’s free!

I’ll leave you with the links. You can do the rest.

Chinese courses – Download here
Korean courses – Download here
Japanese courses – Download here

4. Read the Bible

I’m the last person to push religion onto anyone, but the Bible is a useful resource for your language learning. This site has FREE audio recordings of the scriptures to download. Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Japanese, Swahili, Zulgo – You name it, they’ve got it!

Find the accompanying text online and you are gold. This source alone provides you with hours and hours of learning material for free! The fact that the content will be somewhat familiar to most makes it a lot easier to comprehend and therefore helps you to pick up new vocabulary and grammatical patterns. Again, this is not an endorsement of the Bible so take it or leave it.

5. Make friends with native speakers

While using a tutor is the ideal way to improve your language skills, budget is an issue for most of us. One alternative is to seek out native speakers in your area.

Is there a Chinese community nearby? Engage them and make some friends.

Is the chef at your favorite sushi place from Japan? Try some Japanese on him. He may speak English back to you. That’s fine too. Go with it and then switch back later. A little politeness goes a long way in these situations! Being keen is a charming trait, acting like a linguistic steamroller isn’t.

6. Do a language exchange

Language exchanges can be a good way of practicing your target language but require discipline and organization. If there are foreign students living in your city then you may want to advertise at a local university.

Alternatively, there are sites where you can find online language exchange partners. These internet friends tend to be much flakier though – be careful to avoid wasting time on the web. All things equal, an offline exchange partner is vastly superior to an online one.

The most common problem encountered with language exchanges is that the stronger partner (usually the person learning English) dominates the conversation. Avoid this situation by deciding on some ground rules in advance, such as splitting the time 50:50 between each language so you can both practice.

All this said, I prefer to find native speakers in a more natural way. It’s simply more fun to make new friends and have the language practice as an added side bonus.

Well that’s all for today folks! Do you have any money-saving tips to add to the above? As always, let us know in the comments below!

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Rohan

Rohan has spent years studying Japanese, Chinese and Korean, and currently lives in Japan. He created the perapera pop-up dictionary plugins to help other learners of Chinese and Japanese.

What is intermediate fatigue? 

Intermediate fatigue is where you start to feel discouraged with your rate of progress in the language you are learning. You might even lose motivation too. I’ll lay out the possible symptoms before suggesting how to get through it.

1. You are at the stage where you no longer need textbooks.
2. You’re definitely not a beginner, but not yet advanced.
3. You study online with the help of some amazing language extensions (shameless plug :)), reading material intended for native speakers
4. You listen to podcasts in your target language but get frustrated you can’t fully follow what is going on.
5. You can slowly read books in the language but you struggle without a dictionary.
6. You are frustrated that you still fumble for words when speaking to native speakers.
7. You haven’t finished Heisig yet (that’s an in-joke for Japanese learners)
8. You are constantly berating yourself with variations of “I should be better by now!”
9. You have moved onto reading literature but still get stumped by questions from the restaurant waitress.
10. You have no problem talking to your native speaker friend but get lost in group situations when he brings his friends along.
11. You can follow the whole dialogue of comedy sketches but don’t get the punchline.
12. You receive constant praise for your linguistic ability, but the taxi drivers don’t understand you. And so on…

Once intermediate fatigue sets in, all the gains you make in the language feel much smaller than before. Sometimes they will even seem nonexistent. But the important thing to remember is that you are progressing. All the time you spend picking up vocabulary and exposing yourself to new content in the language builds up into something much greater. Even if you don’t feel that you are improving, you need to suspend disbelief. Just when the fatigue seems to be at its heaviest, you are about to step up to the next level.

It all adds up! 

Always remember the snowball effect. As the renowned polyglot Alexander Arguelles reminds us, 15 minutes of study every day adds up to over 90 hours in one year. 30 minutes a day is over 180 hours! These are amazing numbers. Just imagine what is possible with just 45 or 60 minutes per day. In fact, Arguelles used this fact to study multiple languages at the same time, dedicating hours per day to keep them up. You don’t need to become a language monk like Arguelles, but a steady time commitment each day will build into a sizable snowball over time. It all adds up!

When I can, I like to sit down with my books for extended periods, but it’s tough to find the time. Life gets in the way. Being a true Tokyoite, I can be on-the-go for several days at a time. This makes it challenging to keep up my study regime. Sometimes it even gets discouraging but but there is no need to despair! All the time you invest will pay off. Language is a marathon, not a sprint. You need to remind yourself that it all adds up.

The little moments

Barry Farber is a talk show legend with a knowledge of more than 25 languages. He brilliantly describes in his book How To Learn Any Language about making the little moments count. What do you usually do when you are on the train or waiting in line? These periods are fantastic opportunities for learning.

Micro-study

I would estimate that over 50% of my language knowledge comes from micro-study during those little moments. Minutes spent on the bus and waiting for traffic lights to change add up to hours over time. Use them! Not only does it all add up but it also makes those moments more pleasant. As well as learning a language, you are improving your daily quality of life! Not a bad deal if you ask me. And guess what? It all adds up.

Farber is old school. He prefers to use index cards for his mobile learning (iPhones didn’t exist when he was learning the ropes) but I think that he would approve of helpful flashcard apps like i-Sokki and Anki. In any event, it’s much better than wasting your commute tweeting and looking at wedding photos on Facebook!

One more tip.

Still not feeling it? If you are lacking motivation, one good tactic is to look at old emails or letters you have written in the foreign language. It’s like looking at homework you did when you were a kid. You will laugh at your mistakes and wonder how you used to write so badly.

Reading old examples of your writing is a great way to show yourself how much you have improved. It reminds you that all the time you put in was worth it and motivates you to battle on. One glance at my gmail account is undeniable proof of my progress in Japanese. Give it a try! And remember, it all adds up!

I hope this post was helpful. Do you have any other tactics for beating intermediate fatigue? Let us know in the comments below!

For those of you who are interested in a wider discussion of mastering a skill (such as learning languages), I recommend reading Robert Greene’s latest work on mastery. It’s a very enlightening read.

Rohan

Rohan has spent years studying Japanese, Chinese and Korean, and currently lives in Japan. He created the perapera pop-up dictionary plugins to help other learners of Chinese and Japanese.

But there was one big hole in Heisig’s book. After 500 or so characters he drops the bomb when he leaves you to make your own stories alone. In my case,  I found it difficult to make my own kanji stories. Perhaps I was lacking creativity, I thought as I continued to struggle. Unfulfilled New Year’s Resolutions came and went and I cursed Heisig for not finishing his book. Other long-term Japan expats have told me they had similarly frustrating experiences with Heisig’s book.

Happily though, I found a great free online resource, Reviewing the Kanji. The Reviewing the Kanji site has kanji stories for Heisig’s book made by and voted upon by users. You can add the characters as you work your way through the book and schedule reviews. It’s a nicely designed site and easy to use. This is a great addition to the book. Suddenly, you have countless stories for each character at your disposal.

The combination of the site and Heisig’s book allowed me to vastly improve my knowledge of the kanji and their radicals. The readings had to be learned separately by wide reading (hint, hint PeraPera ) but I’m of the opinion that being familiar with the characters and their radicals is useful and these resources certainly helped me along the way.

Hope those starting out or wanting to refresh their kanji knowledge found this useful. So how did you learn the kanji? Any advice for our readers? We’d love to see other advice people have!

Rohan

Rohan has spent years studying Japanese, Chinese and Korean, and currently lives in Japan. He created the perapera pop-up dictionary plugins to help other learners of Chinese and Japanese.