Hello I have recieved alot of positive feed back on other forum post and have really felt welcome here at edufire I like to hear some of other people struggles that they have overcome or some kind of inspiration that kept you going to achieve your goal? Let me express two of mine the fact that I depend on english so much and the r sound in japanese, so that is two of mine and yet I inspire myself to keep going because I really like what I am learning and the culture is so thrilling. No one has to post here if you dont want I just want to see if I get any responses. Thanks to all.

Great post Steven, I am sure you will get some interesting replies to your question.

Hmmm, well, considering I haven’t actually gotten to start studying Japanese yet, I guess my biggest struggle has been finding someone to teach me! But with that out of the way now (go eduFire!), I can already tell my major struggle is going to be getting counters mixed up. I’m bad about getting things mixed up, so I’m going to have to work extra hard to get them right, but I’m ready! ^^

Well, I have been studying Japanese by myself for about a month…. I have managed to get hiragana down, but I am having trouble remembering katakana. I can’t remember more than 5-10 characters, and with difficulty.

When I studied Japanese the kana weren’t the problem, it was the kanji and the two pronunications for each kanji (on and kun). The grammar and phonetics aren’t too bad.

@April – Counter/measure words – ARRRRGGGHH! Yes, a big deal to remember. I studied Chinese before Japanese and got my first taste of them there.

Regarding general struggles, my main struggle is finding the time to study as it is a hobby. Otherwise, difficulties vary depending on the language.

perfect that is what im meaning this is something i really wanted to hear. Thanks for the post al!!!!

Hi Steven!
The ‘r’ sound is tough, isn’t it? Plus, I try to watch Japanese tv whenever I can, and it sounds like it changes sometimes depending on the word, which makes it even harder …. ugh!

I’ve got hiragana down (except I keep mixing up ち and さ …. grrr) and I’m boycotting katakana for the moment and going to kanji. But my biggest setback is phycological—I find that the more you learn, you start to realize the less you know, and that you have such a way to go still! It’s hard sometimes not to get discouraged, but learning Japanese is so much fun anyway, isn’t it?

Oh my god that is what I am doing and thinking this is really scary that is the exact thing to I am boycotting katakana and doing some kanji but I am going to learn both at the same time and setback of physolgical understanding just trying to understand what I have learn and processing but you see I know what mine is. You see from birth I have this programmed code in my brain that is english, like a computer that say can not access this file my brain is only accessing english. Every time I learn something I think about english or try to understand it like that but I need to learn japanese not from a english point of veiw but in the veiw of a child and reset my brain. To be honest I feel so lost sometimes that I am like how do they understand it? Or maybe ill say that maybe I am not going to be able learn this! Then ill scream thinking about why im am doing and then it all comes back to me why im doing this. I love japanese the language and the culture also the idea of respect to others. In any case thanks for the forum post. Anyone else have something I would love to hear it it would help me so much and thanks to all!

The way I learned Katakana is I grouped together the ones that looked the same and focused on them one at a time: シ ツ　ンソ　フワウ　タクヌ　ヲラテ　マムス　(and so on….).

I had trouble differentiating between ル andレ but I started associating ”ル”　with the name ヒカル宇多田　(Hikaru Utada, a wonderful J-singer) — so I try to recall her name’s spelling when I’m unsure.

Don’t give up Meghan and Steven!

[BTW, I’m really bad at Kanji. The only ones that I know with confidence are 山 & 嵐. That’s it. LOL =) ]

Katherine, that’s such a great idea!! I’m definitely going to try that, thanks so much.

Steven, I’m with you on the English thing—I really want to be able to learn Japanese by “thinking” in Japanese. That’s why I’m resistant to using flashcards to memorize Kanji because you learn the Kanji by associating it with an English equivalent and that’s not thinking in Japanese …. but how do you re-wire your brain??
Ha ha, maybe we should just stop being so hard on ourselves and do our best, huh? :)
がんばって！

I am not sure how rewire my brain but just like in like in english that is where we use are reasoning skills I know I wont give up but I will say this much it is not easy sometimes any have any more ideas?

@Meghan You’re welcome. Japanese is a great language and I plan to study it again once I master Esperanto~

I think that it’s normal to still think in English when you’re starting. Children just “absorb” the language, but as logical thinking adults, we tend to leverage our native language when learning our target language. It’s normal to initially do the “thinking in English” and then gradually ease out of it (regardless of what language you’re learning). When you’ve acquired enough proficiency however, you should then be able to start thinking in Japanese. I agree with Meghan, don’t be too hard on yourself…. frustration (or lotsa stress!) can be a distraction and actually lower your motivation and your progress.

=)

Very wise but here is a question for anyone why do think in our native language? When I can relate to japanese a few words. How can me change that? I believe learning non stop is the key use the language as much as you you use english. I mean think about it if someone says something in your language think the other that you are studing in your head! That is what I believe anyone have any opinions on this? Also I am going to put up another forum check it out help with this one if you can! Thanks!!!

My biggest problem is word order. I feel like I can speak French and German better because they more closely resemble English than Japanese does. As a result, I can start a sentence in French and kind of “blab” when I forget how to say something. For Japanese, compound sentence structures and verbs at the end just throw me off.

I’m learning Japanese, and my only real problem is the most important thing: grammar. Agh, I hate grammar. I just haven’t found a source to teach in the way I want to learn it, you know?

My best thing is kanji. They come so naturally to me. I have to actually limit my time studying them, or they end up being all I study!