Effectivity

How to learn Japanese

I have been working on structuring a new goal around the subject of becoming conversant in Japanese.  I have been living in Japan for 18 months now and I have had a few half hearted attempts at learning the language and except for my Kanji study, they have all been nearly fruitless.  This week I have taken a look at why I have not had more success and the answer was fairly obvious.  What sort of a goal is “Learning Japanese”?

1. Is it specific?
2. Is it motivating?
3. Does it have a deadline?
4. Is it broken down into actions?

I would call “Learning Japanese” a wish rather than a goal, and as such it has very little power to make anything happen.  Wishes are much like dreams - they can lead to action but they are never effective in themselves.

In order to turn this wish into a goal, I have fixed up the limitations that I mentioned above:

1. I am learning Japanese so that I can perform routine personal and business interactions without significant help.  This includes the ability to read, write, speak and understand common Japanese to the extent that if nobody else in Japan spoke English, I could still get by.
2. I am enjoying the challenge and satisfaction of learning this exciting language.  I have experienced the frustration of poor communication for long enough to be motivated and ready to work hard to solve my language limitations
3. My car is due for inspection, insurance, and registration in May 2008.  I am going to display my competence by organising it all myself myself rather than asking someone else to do it for me.  This will involve conversation with a number of different organisations, reading and filling out a bunch of routine documents, and researching instructions about the whole process.  This is the first major deadline and it will take a lot of work to get there.  After this I have approximately 7 months before the next Japanese proficiency exams are held.  On the first Sunday in December 2008 I am going to ace the level 3 JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test).  I may even up the stakes and go for level 2 JLPT if I feel like I am on top of it by August 2008.  I will leave this one open.
4. Here are the action steps:

• Finish my Kanji challenge (remembering the Kanji I) before the end of October
• As soon as this is complete start Japanese For Busy People part 1 (From the beginning again), Complete the course an average of 10 lessons per month until complete and then continue with part II and III at the same rate.
• At the same time as Japanese for Busy People, engage a private tutor once a week to concentrate on vocabulary and conversation exercises.
• Sign up for JapanesePod101. And follow their pod casts to practice my listenning skills, vocabulary and grammar.  Complete an average of 10 lessons each month.
• Find a copy of Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji part II and complete one lesson each week.
• Deliberately use my everyday contacts to practice what I am learning.  This includes listenning, speaking, reading and writing. 

While my goals are 6 months away and 14 months away, each of the action steps is becoming a sub-goal.  I will have a success rate of 90% execution of these action steps and reward myself by buying extra resources (Japanese readers, magazines books etc.) each time I complete 3 weeks to 90% success.

All this, just to learn a language?  Not exactly.  I believe that being bilingual will become a minimum for effectivity in business.  On top of this I will experience the richness of communicating in another language and the lifestyle benefits that go along with that.  I consider this to be a reasonably small investment for a large payoff.

So the key is kicking my super Kanji Challenge as quickly and as effectively as I can.  Then I am can swing full tilt into the rest of my plan. 

Thanks

Tom