Unlocking Japanese Fluency - The Overlooked Factor

Hey folks, welcome back to the channel. So learning Japanese is an incredible journey, but let's be real here, it can be quite overwhelming and frustrating at times. And this is commonly where we're trying to optimize our learning approach. We're tinkering with switching out methods, trying out new apps, or just simply trying to study harder. Which is all good and these are all important things to do, but I don't think that's the whole story really. So what if I told you that the key to learning Japanese isn't just about your methods, your What if there was one crucial factor in the equation that is often overlooked? So today we're going to talk about the huge role that our mind plays, and more specifically our mindset, in learning Japanese. And next to my own experience on the topic, we're also going to draw from actual evidence by science. So specifically, we will look into what role our mindset plays in learning a foreign language, why this is especially important for Japanese, and how to practically nurture a mindset that makes learning a language easier and faster. So no matter whether you're a beginner just starting out, or an advanced learner looking to break through a plateau, this video may change the way you approach learning Japanese or any new skill really. If you're new here, hey, my name is Matt. I self-study Japanese consistently for nine years now. And on this channel, we're exploring strategies to make learning Japanese more effective and more enjoyable. Without further ado, let's dive in. So first things first, what do I mean when I say mindset? Asking Google, a mindset is a person's way of thinking and their attitude towards themselves and the world. It's like a mental lens through which people view and interpret their experiences and challenges. Nice one. Good job, Google. But the important part is this, there are actually two types or two categories of mindset. And every person tends to fall into one of these two categories, either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. So a fixed mindset is the belief that your abilities are static, that you either have a talent for something or you don't. People with a fixed mindset have a tendency to avoid challenges and give up easily. And they're usually more focused on the outcomes than the actual journey. On the other hand, a growth mindset embraces the idea that you can develop your skills if you just try hard enough. And people from that group tend to thrive on challenges rather than avoiding them. And they view a journey filled with struggle and failure as a path to actual mastery. So to put it simply, someone with a fixed mindset might say, I'm just not good at learning languages, while someone with a growth mindset would think, I may struggle now, but with practice I can improve. And research suggests that this difference in mindset has a huge impact on our ability to actually learn a foreign language. So let's talk science for a minute. Numerous studies have found that people with a growth mindset had an overall higher proficiency level of the language that they learned when compared to the peers that had more of a fixed mindset. And also, language learners with a growth mindset were found to improve their ability in spoken language faster, as they were less afraid of actually making mistakes. They are often more effective in coming up with language learning strategies that work for them. And they have a higher likelihood to actually continue learning the target language and avoid quitting. So what the research is telling us that a growth mindset seems to have a positive impact on not just one, but actually many areas that are involved in learning a foreign language. And there are several things we can actually do to foster a more positive growth mindset. But we will come to that later in the video. Let's first talk about how all of this relates to learning Japanese in particular. By the way, if you find this video helpful, don't forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more tips on learning Japanese. Would appreciate that a ton. Back to the content. So first, let's face it, Japanese isn't exactly known for being a walk in the park kind of language to learn. Now, personally, I wouldn't say it's difficult to learn per se, but there are definitely some things that make it a bit tricky. So first off, you don't have one, not two, but actually three writing systems, Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. And Kanji really deserves a separate entry on that list here. So we're talking thousands of characters, each with multiple readings, depending on the word in which they're being used. And then there is the grammar. And that's a quite different ballgame compared to English or more Western European languages. You've got word order that feels somehow backwards sometimes. You've got particles like wa, ga and wo to indicate words function in a sentence. And you've got different politeness levels that sometimes feel like small languages altogether with their own verb conjugations and vocabulary. Then there is pitch accent, which is different from stress accent that speakers of English are used to. There are tons of homophones, so words that sound exactly the same. And you've got to rely on context or Kanji to figure out which one is which. And speaking of context, Japanese is quite context dependent in the sense that it's quite about reading between the lines and adjusting the way that you phrase things, depending on the situation you find yourself in. And a lot of that is tied up in Japanese culture and social norms, which can be pretty difficult to grasp if you're not actually used to it. And because of these tricky aspects of Japanese, I think that people often get it completely wrong when it comes to their mindset when learning Japanese. Let me give you a small anecdote here. When people find out that I speak Japanese, what generally happens is that I get reactions like, wow, that's so amazing. Learning Japanese must be so hard. Japanese is such a difficult language to learn, right? And to that I can just say, well, it's not difficult, it just requires more effort than some other languages do. But if you stick to learning it, you will absolutely improve and master it someday. So having learned the language for nine years myself, I can assure you that there's absolutely nothing rocket science about Japanese. And that's why I believe that nurturing a growth mindset is absolutely key in learning Japanese. So let's pick kanji to illustrate. You can think of kanji in two ways, really. Number one, there are just so many of them. They all look very similar. They basically look the same and it will take me several years until I've actually learned an amount that is somewhat decent and that helps me to read a book or newspaper. And then there's a second way that is more like, huh, kanji look complicated, but once you really start getting into them, it's actually not that bad. Sure, it would take me several years to learn a few thousand of them, but for now, I just enjoy the process of learning them and the feeling of accomplishment that I get whenever I remember a new kanji. And similarly, you can just watch one of the many Japanese natives react to foreigners speaking perfect Japanese videos on YouTube. And you can think, wow, that person must be really good at learning languages. I wish I had a talent for learning languages as well. Or you view the same video with a growth mindset and think, damn, that's pretty sick. I didn't even know that foreigners could reach such a fluency level in Japanese. I wonder how they did it. And if I understood that process a bit better, there must be ways for me to get there as well. And the point here is none of them is more real or true than the other. Both of them are conscious choices that we make. One of them serves us in actually learning the language, while the other one, well, serves us in avoiding the risk of even trying in the first place and potentially failing. And chances are that if you're watching this video, you're actually interested in how you can build that sort of growth mindset to help you learn the language. So how to do that? Good news first. We are not born with a mindset. It is something that we build over time and that we actually have control over. So if you feel that you tend to lean more towards a fixed mindset, there are certain strategies and methods to help you get out of that. So here are a few practical tips that helped me as well. The first one is reframe your thinking. And this is the overall theme, really. So what I try to do is download an update to my brain. So whenever I realized that I felt frustrated or overwhelmed with any aspect of Japanese, really, I stopped seeing those things as problems or my lack of talent or ability. Instead, I try to think of them as solvable challenges because that's what Japanese really is. It's a bunch of challenges or puzzles that will align eventually and make sense if you just keep going. To be honest, I think that we're actually lucky that learning Japanese takes some time and effort. If there was a chip that you could just plug into your brain and unlock full Japanese fluency, at least for me, Japanese would lose a lot of its appeal, really. It's actually the process of unlocking the language bit by bit. And that makes the whole journey worthwhile, I think. The second tip may sound fluffy, but for me, it really works. So let me explain. When there are days that I'm really exhausted from work or I didn't sleep well or whatever, and I jump into my online Japanese conversation practice, I can really tell that my ability to speak the language is just not anywhere where it should be. So I really struggle to find my words and I can't seem to get into a flow. So whenever that happens and I just give in to that thought of, well, today my Japanese just sucks, chances are that indeed the entire lesson will be pretty much a mess. But when I tell myself in these situations, wait a minute, I actually can speak Japanese just fine. This is actually easy. It sort of pulls me out of that hole and more often than not, I'll actually recover and turn things around. And of course, sometimes I don't really. And the entire lesson is just a hot mess, but that's just life. So the point here is, give yourself some good old positive self-affirmations when you find yourself struggling. And if you're not into that kind of thing, at least try avoiding negative self-talk and giving yourself a hard time, because that really doesn't serve you. And the next tip is probably the most important one on the list. Stop seeing mistakes as something that is bad. If you've done that so far, here's your wake-up call. Making mistakes is a natural part of the language learning process. You cannot avoid them. If you don't make mistakes, you're either stuck at a level that is way too easy for you or you're not actually acquiring the language, but just repeating stuff that you wrote, learned or wrote, remembered at some point. So whenever you make mistakes from now on, just see them as a marker for potential improvement opportunity. And I can tell you, the phrases, words or grammar points that I've used incorrectly and had corrected by a native speaker are actually the ones that stick with me the most. So the more you practice and experiment with the language, the more mistakes you'll make. These mistakes and the corrections that follow are actually your fastest path to mastering Japanese, I think. But of course, mindset is just half of the equation, really. And the other one is using an effective approach, including methods to learn Japanese. So you may want to check out this one up here next. It's a full beginner's guide on how to learn Japanese with an immersion-based approach. So I'll see you in the next one. Bye now.