Are you learning Japanese?
Not “Are you thinking about learning Japanese?”.
Not “Are you trying to learn Japanese?”>
Are you learning Japanese.
If you’re just thinking about it, what’s holding you back? Are you worried about the time and effort required? Well, it does take time and effort. There’s no getting around that. You just have to accept it.
Have you heard too many people tell you that Japanese is just too difficult to learn? Many many Japanese babies learn Japanese every year. Are you saying that something a baby can do is too hard for you?! Don’t believe those people. Is it difficult? In some ways. In other ways it’s easy. Is it too difficult to learn? Of course not! Lots of people do it.
You can, however, always learn how to learn better. Sometimes you might find yourself even making up tricks on your own.
例えば (for example), lots of my posts have Japanese words splattered across them. Like that one. Why do I do that? If you’re here reading this, then you know that I’m writing about the process of learning 日本語. You don’t need random Japanese words to tell you that, so what’s the point?
The point is that, the more I use the words, the better I remember them.
例えば, yesterday I wrote about my 宿題 (homework). Today, I was reviewing vocabulary on Memrise, and it asked to write the Japanese word for homework, and, for just a second, I couldn’t remember it. Then I suddenly recalled typing it out yesterday while writing that post and the word came back to me.
Use the words you know. Write them, type them, talk to yourself, talk to your pet, talk to the trees, just use the words. It will help them stick.
頑張って
Japanese Language Journey 