Study Slump

Well, for some reason lately I have felt kind of "stuck" in my studies. It is not because my class got exceptionally hard or anything like that, no. I seem to be having a hard time finding my motivation.. Especially last week, but it is comming back now, finally. This is normal I think. Learning Japanese is not an easy task, and I (unfortunately) am a perfectionist sometimes. Furthermore, because of my bad habit of comparing myself to others, I am left with a feeling of apathy (yes I am still Canadian) every time someone waltzes into the room and rolls off a ton of Japanese very fluently that I may (or may not) understand, but sure as heck cannot speak myself, especially not that fluidly.


Above: Flash-card sets, these are really common in Japan for all types of students.

Some of the factors that used to really motivate me don't anymore. Things like the sheer novelty of being in Japan - this has mostly warn off. I am still thrilled to be here, and generally smiling from cheek to cheek, but more and more because of the people I am with and the fun things we are doing than the feeling of "Hey, I made it to Japan!" that used to make me grin so much.

Also, no longer being on the look-out for a girlfriend kind of takes away a big chunk of motivation. I wont lie, I often dreamt of being able to speak more fluent Japanese so I would have more to say to the cute girls I meet. This is sort of a none-issue now.

Well, luckly.. the lack of motivation is passing.. And, honestly, this is nothing new or strange. In fact, doing a quick Google search, I found a few forum posts from other people going through the same types of feelings while studying foreign language. The key is to keep studying anyways. It is really difficult to see your progress, even more so when you get past the basics.

Above: A pic I snapped of a white board during class at GenkiJACS, usually the lessons are not quite THIS illustrated.

Anyways, I have 4 more weeks of GenkiJACS and I want to make the best of it. Some of my motivations now are taking the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) and some professional goals such as working as an interpretter for IT firms. I try to keep those in focus when the "funner" motivations are harder to grasp on to.

On a side note, I went to Dazaifu temple the other day with 2 guys from my dorm (A Japanese and a German). It was really really amazing, the video I got unfortunately does not come close to doing it justice.