sou iu koto
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
For a long time, studying Japanese has been a kind of entertainment for me. The whole thing got started at an adult education class which presented a phrase-book introduction to the language. I bought some self-study books and picked up some of the writing system as well as some basic grammar. I wound up enrolling for some formal education at the local community college, and eventually transferred into the lecture sequence here at the university. I knew that if I didn't take the course officially, I wouldn't be able to force myself into the regular pattern of study necessary to improve at the language. In addition to learning about a fascinating language, I met some interesting people and made some good friends.
This semester, I enrolled for what I assumed to be the last course in the Japanese sequence that I was willing to commit to. It's basically the second half of a third or fourth year undergraduate curriculum. The course is taught completely in Japanese, and the new material is largely idiomatic or stylistic, as opposed to the core vocabulary or grammar taught in previous courses.
A strange thing is happening, though. I find that I no longer enjoy studying the language.
Part of me believes that this is a normal thing. It's time to move out of the classroom and do something interesting with what I know. I had to scrap plans to travel to Japan a few years ago due to changes in my project schedules and work responsibilities. At that time, I think taking these classes became a proxy for experiences I knew I would have to postpone for a while. Without a clear goal of how to use or apply the language, my motivation is flagging.
The other part of this is that the class has become difficult. Though I still have deep curiosity about the culture and the language, I struggle to keep abreast of what is going on in the class. I have to admit that I have several times considered withdrawing from the class. The deadline to switch my enrollment to pass/fail (something I have avoided because I know that the grade is a motivator to put in a good effort) is approaching. I have to admit that with each lecture that passes it becomes easier to consider making the switch.
I don't mean to say that I want to quit because the course has become hard. What I mean is that I want to try something else because I don't feel as though I am learning with the current strategy. I think that I have adopted some bad language habits (the details of which would bore you even more than this post already has) which need to be unlearned and reacquired. There are grammatical constructs which are necessary to success in the course and progress with the language in general that I now regularly misuse, as well as idiomatic expressions I no longer understand the meanings for. In other words, as this semester progresses, I think I am getting worse.
So what is the solution? The easiest one, to quit learning a useless language and move on, is unsatisfying. So is the obvious one, to continue to flounder until the end of the semester. If I really want to get some degree of mastery of the language, I feel that I really should go back to some of the basics and relearn some of what I have forgotten or underappreciated over the semesters. I don't know that I have the time for that, nor do I know how far back to go. I confess that re-enrolling at the community college to retake an intermediate-level course has its appeal.
But then it becomes a matter of priority, because I have ongoing problems with putting together my graduate research, which is even more important to my long term goals. The more I think about it, the more likely it will be that I'll have to switch this class to pass/fail, muddle through, and focus on getting through with graduate school. Once I get through this, I may have some chances to actually go to Japan and practice the language on the ground, and getting to the point where I have the chance to do that may be the best motivation yet.
This semester, I enrolled for what I assumed to be the last course in the Japanese sequence that I was willing to commit to. It's basically the second half of a third or fourth year undergraduate curriculum. The course is taught completely in Japanese, and the new material is largely idiomatic or stylistic, as opposed to the core vocabulary or grammar taught in previous courses.
A strange thing is happening, though. I find that I no longer enjoy studying the language.
Part of me believes that this is a normal thing. It's time to move out of the classroom and do something interesting with what I know. I had to scrap plans to travel to Japan a few years ago due to changes in my project schedules and work responsibilities. At that time, I think taking these classes became a proxy for experiences I knew I would have to postpone for a while. Without a clear goal of how to use or apply the language, my motivation is flagging.
The other part of this is that the class has become difficult. Though I still have deep curiosity about the culture and the language, I struggle to keep abreast of what is going on in the class. I have to admit that I have several times considered withdrawing from the class. The deadline to switch my enrollment to pass/fail (something I have avoided because I know that the grade is a motivator to put in a good effort) is approaching. I have to admit that with each lecture that passes it becomes easier to consider making the switch.
I don't mean to say that I want to quit because the course has become hard. What I mean is that I want to try something else because I don't feel as though I am learning with the current strategy. I think that I have adopted some bad language habits (the details of which would bore you even more than this post already has) which need to be unlearned and reacquired. There are grammatical constructs which are necessary to success in the course and progress with the language in general that I now regularly misuse, as well as idiomatic expressions I no longer understand the meanings for. In other words, as this semester progresses, I think I am getting worse.
So what is the solution? The easiest one, to quit learning a useless language and move on, is unsatisfying. So is the obvious one, to continue to flounder until the end of the semester. If I really want to get some degree of mastery of the language, I feel that I really should go back to some of the basics and relearn some of what I have forgotten or underappreciated over the semesters. I don't know that I have the time for that, nor do I know how far back to go. I confess that re-enrolling at the community college to retake an intermediate-level course has its appeal.
But then it becomes a matter of priority, because I have ongoing problems with putting together my graduate research, which is even more important to my long term goals. The more I think about it, the more likely it will be that I'll have to switch this class to pass/fail, muddle through, and focus on getting through with graduate school. Once I get through this, I may have some chances to actually go to Japan and practice the language on the ground, and getting to the point where I have the chance to do that may be the best motivation yet.
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