Transcript

OLLY RICHARDS

Next I'll talk about my experience learning Japanese. Some years after learning Brazilian Portuguese in London-- it was about seven or eight years afterwards-- I went to work in Japan. Now, at that point, I was confident about my prospects of learning Japanese. I had a good track record with languages. Beyond Portuguese, I'd already learned three other languages. And not only that, but I would also be living in Japan. So how could I possibly fail?

Well, as it turned out, learning Japanese was far harder and more frustrating than I possibly could have imagined. The difficulty was not in the language itself-- although Japanese is certainly a tough language-- the challenge, for me, was in the community around me, or lack of. Despite living in Japan and despite my experience with languages, learning foreign languages, I had huge problems with motivation. And I struggled with feelings of isolation, linguistically speaking. I found it hard to meet people who would speak to me in Japanese. I didn't know anyone who was interested in independent language learning. I had no real source of motivation or support to keep me on track with my learning.

Now, as a result of this, I struggled to get dedicated speaking practise in Japanese. I had no one to help guide me through language challenges from a fellow learner's perspective, recommend me books and resources and things like that. I would easily fall victim to motivational highs and lows, resulting in erratic progress in my learning.

Fortunately, I did eventually succeed with Japanese, but it was only through a series of chance encounters and friendships, and only after three long years of frustration, emotional highs and lows, and almost giving up a number of times.