I had my final Japanese lesson of term this evening. We’re now up to lesson 47 of Minna no Nihongo II and had a test on the kanji from lesson 34 of the blue Basic Kanji book Vol.2.

It’s been a good term overall and definitely good to get back in the saddle after six months out. I do regret somewhat the gap, though I really was flagging badly back in March. I’ve had to redo Term 2 at SOAS this term to catch up again, but that’s no bad thing considering I didn’t really take in much between January and March!

I was really surprised at how much I lost in the downtime. Simple vocabulary and, most distressingly, kanji just fell out of my head. The other week I couldn’t remember the kanji for 車 and got 車 and 東 mixed up. >_< I also forgot the word for black (黒い). It’s true, with languages you use it or lose it.

I’ve been studying nihongo for four years on and off. The last break I took was two years ago when I stopped lessons to concentrate on my MSc. However, half that year I spent cramming for the JLPT and still watching a hefty bit of anime and dorama, so I kept up some practice. I guess it got really bad in March when I was totally exhausted from other parts of my life and stopped doing all those things. I was even questioning my whole love of all things Japanese. How could I? T_T

I tend to keep up my knowledge through regular lessons, conversation clubs (at various times I try and get to three different meet ups in London), JapanesePod101 podcasts, and my daily doses of anime, dorama and Jpop ^^; I also have  bunch of kanji programmes on my iPod Touch, which are good for random practice whilst waiting for the bus/train, but I use them so rarely I wonder if I was just procrastinating by downloading when I should have been studying. ^^;

I can’t say I really apply all my newfound grammatical knowledge. For instance, I often forget to use things like 〜とか and 〜し. Tonight we learnt all about 〜そうです and 〜ようです to say when things look/seem like X to you. These are really useful grammar to know, but I tend to forget to make use of them when I’m speaking Japanese with someone and just speak in simple broken sentences >_<

Having said that, I do notice the grammar when watching anime/dorama, which I enjoy. It’s great to get that extra level of understaning, particularly of teinei, which adds to the context of the story. Moreover, when I think about it, I am amazed at how far I’ve come. Four years ago I knew nothing of Japanese. Now I can read hiragana and katakana without thinking and can easily conjugate (admittedly far from perfect) sentences in a general conversation.

I read a blog post that reminds students not to lose their reason for learning in the first place and to stop  obsessing over levels and measures of ability. Certainly I wouldn’t want to rest on my laurels, content with only a little advance, but the little progress made shouldn’t be sniffed at. It’s something to be proud of. That and the 3kyu JLPT certificate I have hanging at home. ^^

Of course, it’s a long long way from 2kyu and any kind of fluency. I doubt I’ll ever be fluent without actually living in Japan (something I may still do sometime). But when people ask me why I’m learning Japanese, I still state my original aim: to deepen my understanding and enjoyment of Japanese media — particularly watching stuff without subtitles! And it still applies today.