The Real Reason You May Fail to Learn Japanese

My 7-year-old's middle name is Zen.

No, really, it is.

We gave him the name hoping naively that it might, I don't know... infuse qualities of calm into his nature?

He is, ermm, not calm. He is like a tightly coiled spring, ready to bounce off unpredictably in any direction. His spirit animal is, I think, Tigger.

2020’s adventure in ‘home schooling’ rapidly led to clenched fists, hyperventilating, hiding under the desk, shouting ‘NO!’. And that was just me!

All the lessons in the meaning of Zen are for mummy.

Something I had to quickly understand is to follow the path of least resistance. Make it easy. Make it fun. Make it interesting. This inspired me to think more deeply about learning Japanese, and how it can be Omoshiroi.

Really, this applies to all learning, doesn't it? EVERYTHING we do in life. It's just got to be compelling and enjoyable, or else we resist doing it.

In episode 6, I will talk about The Real Reason You May Fail to Learn Japanese, including 3 steps to take to smash it to smithereens:

Step 1: How to Break Your Learning Up into Small Chunks
Step 2: How to Get the Habit of Learning Japanese
Step 3: How to Create Your Japanese Language Community

Thank you so much for listening! I have been so touched and overwhelmed by your kind support. It makes it all worthwhile.

I’ll be back in January 2021 with my next Japanese London Living series of podcasts. So you can be first to know about, please do sign up to my newsletter.

I have defined 6 simple steps to OMOSHIROI learning, which I can’t wait to share with you in this series of podcasts!

Start uncovering your UNIQUE visions, goals and tactics to learn the Japanese that YOU WANT!

To grab a copy of the playbook that accompanies this series, click here:

The OMOSHIROI Method Fill-in-the-Blanks Playbook

Visit JapaneseLondon.com to get more info about learning Japanese, and enjoying a Japan-full life in London.

Vanessa connects learners with 1-1 native speaking Japanese tutors for private lessons and runs the Japanese London Conversation Club.

She also blogs about Japanese living in London, and can be found on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu. ♡