The problem with school, at least with respect to getting used to Japanese, isn’t that it’s boring or lame or slow or that it sucks (although it is all of those things and more), but that it doesn’t work. All pain, no gain. All filler, no killer. It seems almost deliberately designed to punish you for deferring gratification, producing battered, defeated people who have learned nothing but helplessness.

All that, and depending on the country and your classmates’ medical histories, you might even get shot (lol). Columbine references FTW!

Seriously, though, I know plenty of people who got good at Japanese outside and without school, and not one, not one single person who simply took classes and got good. What am I, taking crazy pills here? That has to mean something! And, no, it doesn’t mean “Japaniizu izu muzukashii” — learning Japanese is as easy as boiling water — it means a certain method or set of methods literally does. not. work. and is never gonna work.