I’m going through a period of 29 exams in the course of 4 weeks, 8 of which are other foreign languages and none of which are Japanese. Yet I can still make ALL my short leisure time Japanese (they tell you to take 15 min breaks between study sessions, you know) by watching Let’s Plays in Japanese, anime from crunchyroll.co.uk (unlimited, legal and free), and listening to music and podcasts when I’m travelling. Heck, I even have Let’s Plays in the background when I’m practising maths questions because the mathematical logic and language comprehension are very different skill sets that don’t interfere with each other. And I make time for an hour of SRS before bed.

I’m not quite sure why my last comment got so many thumb-downs though. Did I say something rude? Was it off topic? Was it too long of a run-on sentence? Or was my profile picture just plain cocky looking? Seeing it makes me kind of embarrassed now. O_O

You seem to imply that the US has a lower literacy rate here, which according to a bit of searching turns out to be false. Both Japan and the US share a literacy rate of 99.0%

I can understand what you’re trying to convey, at least I think I can. The thing is everything is relative, as I’m sure you know, and education isn’t perfect. Many feel it needs to be improved. I think Khatzumoto’s Japanese fluency is a testament to the basic idea.

On the other hand, you can learn all the grammar and spelling in the world, and it won’t make you a fluid speaker or creative writer without practice. To be sure, people should practice as much as possible, and thus immersion (natural or artificial) is a very useful method. To say it replaces class, though, is like saying that cheese replaces vegetables in your diet.

I think part of the problem is assuming you can make everything “fun”. Sure making it fun is, well, fun, and a good thing as far as it goes. At the end of the day, though, if you want to do something, you need some attention span and tolerance for the “boring”. Just like I need to suck it up and go to the dentist sometimes if I want to keep my teeth in good shape. We all hate going to the dentist, and I also don’t love doing kanji drills, but the *reason* we have 99% literacy here in Japan is because we *do* have Japanese classes for everyone, and they *do* have to do the boring stuff as well. Meanwhile in the US there are people who didn’t go to class, and are illiterate, despite being immersed in English 24/7 right?

There are things about class that are.. less than optimal, but let’s not throw the baby out with the onsen here. Most important is that school provides a higher base to start with. Granted my Japanese classes were .. normal Japanese classes at a Japanese school, not Japanese classes for foreigners overseas, but I am very sure that f.e. the three years I spend in high-school were useful in most subjects, including Japanese. In short, classroom learning does have value, but anyone who doesn’t study beyond that of course won’t make it far. That’s true with not just Japanese, but Computer Science, Medicine, etc.

I’m Gerson and I’m 15 (made in Brazil!). I am really confused because, I take advanced level classes in an English private school in my city, and I’m almost fluent in English but, I really want to take Japanese classes. The fact is that I’ll have to leave the English school to learn Japanese (Money issues), and after reading this I just don’t know what to do.
I have downloaded some really cool stuff to learn Japanese on my PC (I learned Hiragana alone!), and I’m having feedback.
Please guys help me!