All Japanese All The Time is a great blog for learning Japanese.
I've read a great post from this site about immersion to prepare yourself and to make the transition into speaking and writing the Japanese language smoother. The suggestions in the article might be too severe and hardcore for some people but they're still food for thought.
I'm going to quote a few sentences here and there, just because I'm so crazy about the article. You can read the whole article at this link, but here's the gist...
Before you jump, make sure you have somewhere to land - "When you want to Japanize your environment/de-English your environment, you need something to de-English to. If you give up watching non-Japanese movies, do you have Japanese movies to watch? If you give up non-Japanese music, do you have Japanese beats to which to bop your head in rhythmic fashion?"
I don't know about giving up English movies but I do have a pile of Japanese animes just waiting to be watched. I already love Japanese music and I don't mind giving up English music for the time being so that wouldn't be a problem at all.
Do one thing at a time, one day at a time - "So change out all your music one day, and nothing else. Next day, do the movies. Then, the posters on your wall. The books on your shelf. Et cetera! Either way, make sure you do something every day, just don’t try to do too much in one day."
One day at a time... ok that makes sense. Hey wait a minute... the books on my shelf? Get rid of them? No way! I'm willing to ignore them for a while but definitely not get rid of them.
Don’t just put it away, get rid of it - "So where do you put the artifacts of your pre-immersion life? Where do you put your English-language stuff? In a closet somewhere? No. You get rid of it. Mp3s? Delete them. DVDs? Scratch, sell or slice them apart. Posters? Post them to someone else. Get rid of it. Delete, destroy, dispose."
Like I said, no freaking way. But, I'm willing to compromise and just pretend that I got rid of them! Ok, moving on...
If you don’t yet know all the dialogue and the lyrics, then it’s still worth repeating - "Remember, if you still don’t know all the dialogue to that one movie or all the lyrics to that one song by heart, then it still warrants repeating. I don’t care if you’re bored and have seen or watched it a thousand times. Listen to it more carefully; try to pick out something new; I guarantee you’ll learn something."
Ok, my goal from now on is to translate all the Japanese songs I know. Of course, I'll post all my translations here. This is definitely something to look forward to.
Get it - "Is it in Japanese? Then get it. Get the book, get the movie. Even if you don’t understand it yet. At first, just having it around you will be motivating. It’ll be another reminder of your goal and your future."
I said I was going to learn Japanese on a budget, so let's see how this one goes. Although, I wouldn't mind buying a few things that I really like every now and then. This is another thing I can look forward to. :-)
I probably won't follow every advice written above to the letter, but some people might find this to be very helpful in learning Japanese. I however, don't intend to make learning Japanese a chore, so I'll do whatever sounds like fun to me.
So... bring on the anime, manga, Japanese songs and books!
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