2 years of Japanese Immersion - 2,600 hours of Japanese Progress

Walden has spent 2,600 hours learning Japanese over the last 2 years. How well did it go?

If you want to ask me questions, join my discord:

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - I'm learning Japanese
00:58 - How good is my Japanese?
04:32 - Making Japanese Fun
08:12 - Study Methods
09:50 - Analysis of my time spent learning Japanese
21:57 - Misc categories
24:29 - Japanese goals for 2023
27:53 - Outro

[Eoaiyerrhei]

I like the way this guy is like "Amazing" "my progress is incredible". Good to get a bit of positivity! Japanese is such a long grind, wouldn't surprise me if that attitude is part of the reason he's lasted 2 years when the vast majority do not.

[ariah]

I just passed the one-year mark!! It's so much fun. Every day I learn new words and immediately hear them being used in anime and everyday use! It makes it so worth it to study❤️

[stronglikebo]

Bro keep it up, this video was inspirational. Honest analysis and no bs clickbate stuff. Good stuff, I’m a fan

[synthessencee]

Wow!! Thank you for this it was SO helpful. Im just finishing out Japanese 100 series at school and wanting to take it to the next level independently, this was really useful for where to start, also just inspiring

[glass-yuzu]

The searching in the language is wicked useful !
For me, restricting my interactions with my most common daily tasks to solely my target language made me way more confident using and reading in such a short timeframe (note-taking, google, basically anything on my phone, too)

[charmantcoeur]

This is super helpful. I’m at 70 hours and this is really inspirational. But 3-4 hours a day is so much! On a good day I can get 90 mins in. So I’m looking at at least 4-5 years to get to your level. But to be able to say podcasts and conversation about stuff you’re familiar with is easy and comfortable? That’s definitely my target!

[PatChatGC]

Great update! Always love seeing updates that talk about non-japanese health stuff. I always “knew” I should focus on health but it took me 6+ years to truely understand it and actually make a change.

Congrats on all the progress and good luck on the goals (which I know are already 9 months old now haha)

[bluemoonefl]

The geoguesser thing is actually big brain I never thought of that

[gabetweedie]

You are awesome dude. The fitness part at the end was unexpected, but showed a ton of progress. I love seeing people improve themselves, it motivates me to do the same. Awesome Job!!

[j]

I'm half a year into this myself, just hit 5k cards. I still have a very long way ahead of me but DANG was your video a motivational bombshell! Will definitely come back to it in times of despair. We're all gonna make it :)

[Theywantthedro]

I just started a few weeks ago and I’m trying to find the best approach to practice and learn Japanese. I’ve been consuming a lot of YouTube on people’s journey into learning and their recommended method of learning.

Big takeaway is making it fun and engaging!

[MapleLeafTranslations]

Ah, a fellow ルイ友. Birds of a feather and all that. Thanks for the recap/analysis and the all around great advice! This vid will be a solid source of motivation for the people lucky enough to stumble across it, for sure.

Look forward to more!

[rhynemusic]

Hey! Thank you for posting, have been looking forward to an update video for a while.

[rovingmauler]

Dude, I just hit one year. I feel like this next year is going to be big progress. Even when I feel like there is still a mountain to climb, the mountain is fun. Immersion helps a ton.

[CooldownCentral]

fantastic work, man! i'm late and i'm sure your year 3 is gonna be much better lol!

[SoC-idvg]

I just want to really back up one of the points in this video starting at 20:27
I have no idea why the immersion community is so reluctant to recommend beginners to produce Japanese.

I watched the "1 year of Japanese Immersion" video first and it repeated a misunderstanding of the theory behind immersion learning that is common in the community: A child learns the language by hearing it over and over again that, for example "this is a chair" and so they internalize that. Actually, children frequently learn the wrong words for things and have to be corrected by adults and THAT is where a lot of learning actually happens. In actual immersion classrooms, half the time is spent on core studies like grammar and vocab, half is spent immersed in the language with a mix of both lecture and practical exercise. I've seen news clippings of Japanese children learning math in English and it's really impressive how well they can speak.

For me, one of the greatest motivators to learn more and get better is that I found a Japanese native penpal and we became fast friends. But they can't always express what they need to in English and I can't always do so in Japanese. The frustration of such situations fills me with a burning passion to learn more and more.

Interacting with the grammar and introspecting on how it functions ties into reading comprehension and being able to read more lets me write more and, magically, hear more, and understand more grammar; not just comprehend the language but feel it.

I've been studying about 3 months at this point and I can express a good number of thoughts with accurate grammar and without looking up words, but I do often need to look up terms to complete my sentences and I always check with ChatGTP to be safe. I watch Mario Maker troll level youtube videos and can generally follow along, though the language is generally quite simple. I'm playing through Rage Loop by my penpal's recommendation and can fallow along, but often with some difficulty.

[moditb]

For me, writing is the most fun part of japanese. Kanji's are just so fun.

[jaelncampbell]

Awesome progress and very inspirational. I have been learning Japanese on Duolingo for about 160 days and want to take it to the next level. I think im going to try the immersion technique and find YouTube videos about things I find interesting in Japanese and listen to more everyday conversations.

[nika]

This was amazing. All the things we can take away from your studying, especially the "make it fun part". Using geoguesser is an amazing idea! I would've never come up with it, inmerse yourself in the culture too even when you're not studying the language per se, brilliant. And it's also so encouraging what you were able to achieve for your health. I always get the feeling I have to put some things on hold for the sake of learning languages, but this was a wake up call, thank you so much. Looking very much forward to your next videos!!

[phen-themoogle]

Nice job on the video! I noticed the Japanese-diet did wonders for you (just messing, but on a serious note I almost starved to death in Japan at one point in my life when I had horrible allergies lol but congrats on following through with everything!) . Definitely takes some discipline but good to see you doing/did immersion and not just crazy about anki like some other people that become zombies I've seen. Seems like you had a healthy balance.
Really clear and organized route. I've been using Japanese 25 years and been fluent for about 20 (did everything you did too or at least showed in this video at some point or another) but it probably took me a couple years to even just get that dedicated like you. It's really cool seeing people get to a high level in 1-2 years, gotta break that stereotype of Japanese being an impossible language (that still lingers in the back of Japanese people's minds)
And also I sometimes watch videos like this to get myself back on track if I get too lazy, or maybe to find another perspective sometimes.
Your video is very useful for many types of language learners.
Good luck to everyone! xD