How to not waste your time with Japanese classes

Hey KoreKara Squad, 

So I know lots of people who are on their Japanese journey are in school, college, or university. That might mean some of you are mulling over the idea of signing up for a Japanese class. I wanted to discuss some of my ideas on classroom learning, the good and the bad, and maybe even help you make your decision.

💡 Tip of the week

Language learning classes often move at a snails pace because they have to accommodate to the lowest common denominator. I was shocked when I found out it took an average of 2 years to go through Genki 1 + Genki 2, whereas you could easily go through all of it by yourself in 3-5 months.

If you follow the KoreKara Method or any other immersion-heavy method you’ll find that you will quickly accelerate beyond the level taught in the classroom, but that doesn’t mean it’s completely useless.

If you view classroom learning as “the way you’re going acquire Japanese”, then you’re setting yourself up to fail. Instead if you have the opportunity to take classes, you should view it as an opportunity to practice your Japanese and surround yourself with other Japanese learners (+ 1 native speaker).

Not only could being surrounded by students motivate you, you also get direct access to a Japanese teacher where you can ask them questions for more clarification. I took classes briefly for a semester and I maximized this opportunity by going in to every office hour and preparing a list of questions I had from my immersion and self-study.

The class became something that was fun to attend to because it was easy, and I could review my understanding of basic Japanese grammar + vocabulary by doing those basic drills and exercises. People will start to notice that you’re somehow way ahead of the class, and that feeling can push you to study more. This feeling is a positive flywheel known as the winner’s effect, where the more confident you feel about your Japanese progress, the faster you will accelerate in your Japanese learning.

Classroom lessons (whether that’s in person or online with something like iTalki) can also help create a sort of structure and accountability with learning Japanese. It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you are just thrown into immersion, but with a private tutor or class to attend to, it can help keep yourself accountable with studying Japanese and not fall off. (btw, this is also solved by joining the KoreKara Club!)

📺 Immersion of the week 

This is a great recent video you can use to practice your Japanese. So basically this baseball player Shohei Ohtani has been in a gambling controversy recently and this video is his official statement. The translator is on the left, he’s on the right. You can test your own Japanese by hearing the Japanese, pausing, and then listening to the English translation.

Kinda interesting to see that the translator was having trouble translating midway through because he’s trying to translate the sentence structure directly lol.

🗣️ KoreKara Club 

We just hit 46 members!! Really happy to see the community grow and to see you guys making progress towards your Japanese. Glad to see that the Japanese guide has been helpful so far too!

You’re making it possible to continue posting videos on the channel so thank you 🙇🏻‍♂️

This small community is what I wish I had when I started out learning Japanese. Awesome to see people sharing tips they’ve learned along the way.

If you’re considering joining, I’m hosting another call in a week so hop in and come hang out!

See you soon

Eric