Learn Japanese Today

I’ve always had problems with the whole Japanese for Busy People, series of textbooks. I mean, if I had time for a textbook, I couldn’t really be that busy right?

I’m a strong believer that the amount of time you spend on a language should be measured in hours, not years, a belief strongly shared by AJATT and Antimoon (a site for learning English). However, I feel like these sites act like you don’t have work or other things your doing when you can instead be surrounding yourself with Japanese media. The big things they advocate are essentially just spending more hours of the listening to, writing, reading or speaking Japanese.

They’re right of course. Watching Japanese TV instead of watching English TV is always the right choice, but should you watch Japanese TV instead of say, reading the newspaper, or exercising, or writing on your Japan-related blog. This is the area where you start having to give up important other things if you want to learn Japanese faster. It’s tough, because although I’m sure you want to become fluent in Japanese, you probably want other things from life too. And why shouldn’t you? Being in shape, being good at a sport, being well-read, being a good parent, these are all great things. I can’t tell you that learning Japanese is more important than any of those things. It’s all up to you. What I can tell you though, is that you can make it work, no matter what you prioritize. Don’t give up on Japanese.

I work about 40 hours a week on the paper, do an additional 10 hours or so of freelance writing for extra income, and an additional 10 hours or so managing this blog. That’s 60 hours a week. Add the requisite 8 hours a night for sleep (which I don’t even get), plus about an hour a day for eating meals, and that comes out to 123 hours out of 168 a week already gone. That’s 45 hours a week, or roughly 6.5 hours a day to do everything else, including social interaction, reading, cooking, cleaning, exercise, hygiene and laundry. And maybe you have a family. Are you supposed to exile them while you immerse yourself in Japanese?

The point I’m trying to make is that you have to find away to put in all your Japanese hours while still doing all the things that are important to you. A lot of this revolves around multitasking. A basic and overgeneralized way to start thinking about this is to think about your day, and think about all the time when your eyes and ears aren’t picking up any necessary information. Then fill all those voids with Japanese. When you’re driving, listen to Japanese music. When you’re waiting for something like a doctor’s appointment, read a Japanese book. Watch a Japanese TV show with your kids. The list goes on.

So clearly, there needs to be some form of Japanese for Busy People that actually works, that’s not just a textbook and another class you’ll get bored of and stop doing it. I think it’s about time that someone tried to tackle the problem of learning Japanese while still doing all the other things you want to.

That’s why I’m starting this series of blog posts, which will become a weekly tradition here at Learn Japanese Today. Japanese for Overworked People, or in Japanese, hatarakasaresugita hitotachi no nihongo (働かされすぎた人たちの日本語). Tune in every week for tips and strategies for maximizing your exposure to and proficiency in without giving up the other parts of your life that mean something.

I don’t think I can wait til next week to start on this though. Come back tomorrow, and every Wednesday from then on for more.

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