Can I learn Japanese in 3 months?

Summary

In this video, the speaker embarks on a challenge to learn Japanese in just three months, debunking the myth that rapid language acquisition is impossible. Despite having a busy schedule, they commit to one or two hours daily of focused study, incorporating mnemonics, listening, and repetition. The speaker outlines specific goals, such as mastering 1,000 sentences for conversation and understanding 2,000 verbs, aiming for 100,000 repetitions to solidify learning. Weekly updates will track progress, and by the end, the speaker aims to demonstrate fluency through a one-hour conversation in Japanese.

Takeaways

• 🗣️ The speaker is committed to learning Japanese within three months as a personal challenge.
• 🏋️‍♂️ Despite common skepticism, the speaker believes that learning a language in three months is achievable and plans to demonstrate this through their experiment.
• 🚫 The speaker acknowledges the 'impossibility' excuses often cited by critics but dismisses them as illogical.
• 🌐 The speaker's language learning approach is influenced by their European background and the languages commonly spoken in the regions they frequents.
• 🔒 The speaker will not be learning Japanese full-time due to other commitments but will allocate one or two hours daily.
• 📅 The speaker plans to provide regular updates on their progress, aiming for daily but acknowledging the reality of life interruptions.
• 🎯 The speaker sets specific goals for vocabulary, grammar, and conversational ability, emphasizing the importance of quantifiable objectives over vague notions of fluency.
• 📚 The strategy includes learning 'Language Islands' for speaking and 'Mass Sentences' for comprehension, along with extensive listening and repeating exercises.
• 📝 The speaker will not initially focus on reading Japanese characters (Kanji), prioritizing spoken language comprehension and speaking ability.
• 📈 The speaker outlines a rigorous weekly plan involving memorization, repetition, and gradual expansion of language knowledge, aiming for rapid progress through focused effort.

Q & A

What is the main goal of the speaker in the video script?

The speaker aims to learn Japanese within three months, demonstrating that it is possible to achieve language proficiency in a short period through focused and intensive learning.

Why does the speaker believe that learning a language quickly is often met with skepticism?

The speaker notes that skeptics often dismiss rapid language learning achievements by claiming that the language learned is 'too easy' or that the learner already knows many languages, thus implying that their method wouldn't work for others.

What is the speaker's native language, and how does it relate to the languages they typically learn?

The speaker's native language is not a Romance, Slavic, or Germanic language, but most of the languages they speak belong to one of these families, which they learn primarily because of their geographical relevance to the places they frequently visit.

How much time per day does the speaker plan to dedicate to learning Japanese?

The speaker plans to spend one to two hours a day learning Japanese, acknowledging that they have other commitments and will not be learning full-time.

What is the speaker's approach to providing updates on their language learning progress?

The speaker intends to provide almost daily updates on their progress, either through videos or posts, detailing their learning activities, such as the number of repetitions, words memorized, and sentences reviewed.

What are the speaker's specific language learning goals for the first week?

For the first week, the speaker's goals include learning 100 sentences from their language island list, memorizing the vocabulary from these sentences, and completing a significant number of repetitions with both the language island sentences and 2,000 mass sentences.

What method does the speaker plan to use for memorizing vocabulary and sentences?

The speaker will use mnemonic associations to memorize vocabulary and a method of listening and repeating sentences multiple times to reinforce learning.

Why does the speaker choose not to learn to read Japanese during this three-month challenge?

The speaker decides not to focus on reading during this challenge because their primary goals are to understand and speak Japanese, and learning to read would significantly slow down their progress.

What is the speaker's overall strategy for achieving fluency in Japanese within three months?

The speaker's strategy involves setting clear numerical goals, such as learning a specific number of sentences and vocabulary words, and completing a high volume of listening and repeating exercises to achieve fluency.

How does the speaker plan to demonstrate their language proficiency at the end of the three-month period?

The speaker plans to demonstrate their proficiency by engaging in a one-hour conversation in Japanese, showcasing their ability to speak and understand the language after the intensive three-month learning period.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Setting the Challenge: Learning Japanese in Three Months

The speaker embarks on a challenge to learn Japanese in three months, dispelling the myth that it's impossible. They acknowledge the skepticism but are determined to prove it can be done. The speaker discusses the common excuses people make when faced with the idea of rapid language learning, such as claiming certain languages are too easy or that prior knowledge of other languages makes the process unfair. They also touch upon their own language learning journey, explaining why they've chosen to learn languages that are commonly spoken in the regions they frequent, despite not being related to their native language.

05:01

📅 The Plan: Daily Updates and Weekly Goals

The speaker outlines their plan for learning Japanese, which includes daily updates on their progress, though not every day due to other commitments like travel and family. They emphasize the importance of consistency and accountability in their learning process. The speaker also details their weekly goals, which involve learning a set number of sentences and vocabulary through repetition and memorization. They aim to demonstrate that with dedication and smart learning strategies, significant progress is possible even with limited time dedicated each day.

10:03

🎯 Specific Goals and Methods: Language Islands and Mass Sentences

The speaker sets specific, quantifiable goals for their language learning journey, focusing on vocabulary acquisition and the ability to speak and understand Japanese. They plan to use 'Language Islands' to build conversational skills and 'Mass Sentences' for comprehension. The speaker explains their approach to memorization, which involves associating new vocabulary with mnemonic devices and repeating sentences multiple times to reinforce learning. They also discuss the importance of listening and repeating as a core part of their learning strategy.

15:04

🏋️‍♂️ The Commitment: Hard Work and Smart Strategies

The speaker reiterates the importance of hard work and smart strategies in achieving their language learning goals. They describe the intensive repetition and memorization techniques they will use, emphasizing that while the process will be challenging, it is designed to yield quick results. The speaker also mentions their intention to share their materials and methods with their audience, potentially offering them for free or behind a paywall. They conclude by expressing their excitement for the challenge and encouraging their audience to follow along as they document their progress.

Keywords

💡Language Learning

Language learning refers to the process of acquiring new languages. In the video, the speaker is embarking on a challenge to learn Japanese in three months, which underscores the theme of rapid language acquisition. The speaker discusses various strategies and goals, such as vocabulary acquisition and sentence memorization, to achieve fluency.

💡Fluency

Fluency in a language implies the ability to speak, write, and understand a language with ease and without hesitation. The video's theme revolves around achieving fluency in Japanese within a short period. The speaker aims to challenge the notion that fluency is a vague goal by setting specific, measurable objectives.

💡Language Islands

Language Islands are a concept used in language learning where learners focus on a set of sentences that cover common conversational topics. In the video, the speaker plans to use Language Islands to build functional speaking skills in Japanese, aiming to learn 100 useful sentences in the first week.

💡Mass Sentences

Mass Sentences involve learning a large number of sentences to internalize grammar patterns and vocabulary. The speaker mentions a goal of learning 2,000 example sentences to enhance comprehension and speaking ability in Japanese, illustrating the intensive approach to language learning.

💡Listening and Repeating

Listening and repeating is a language learning technique where learners listen to a phrase or sentence and then repeat it to practice pronunciation and comprehension. The speaker plans to use this method extensively, aiming for 10,000 repetitions of sentences to reinforce learning.

💡Pneumonic Associations

Pneumonic associations are memory aids that help in memorizing information by associating it with something more familiar or easier to remember. The speaker plans to use this technique to memorize vocabulary, which is crucial for building a strong foundation in the new language.

💡Shadowing

Shadowing is a language learning method where learners listen to a piece of audio and try to repeat it simultaneously, mimicking the speaker's pronunciation and intonation. The speaker mentions using shadowing, particularly with Gloss, to improve listening and speaking skills in Japanese.

💡Comprehensible Input

Comprehensible Input is a language acquisition concept that suggests learners should receive input (listening or reading material) that is slightly above their current level but still understandable. The speaker's goal of understanding spoken Japanese aligns with this concept, aiming for meaningful interaction rather than rote memorization.

💡Repetition

Repetition in language learning is the act of repeatedly practicing phrases or vocabulary to reinforce memory and improve proficiency. The speaker emphasizes the importance of repetition, planning to repeat sentences multiple times to achieve a high level of proficiency in Japanese.

💡Gloss

Gloss is a language learning tool that provides translations and transliterations of sentences, aiding in comprehension and pronunciation. The speaker mentions considering Gloss for later stages of learning Japanese, suggesting its utility for intermediate learners.

💡Vocabulary Acquisition

Vocabulary acquisition is the process of learning and memorizing new words in a language. The speaker sets a goal to learn a significant amount of vocabulary through language islands and mass sentences, highlighting the importance of vocabulary for both speaking and understanding Japanese.

Highlights

The speaker is undertaking a challenge to learn Japanese in three months.

Common skepticism about fast language learning is discussed, with the speaker aiming to prove it possible.

The speaker clarifies that language learning ease is often unfairly attributed to language similarity or prior language knowledge.

The speaker's language learning focus is on European languages due to geographical relevance and travel habits.

The speaker's native language is not Roman, Slavic, or Germanic, adding complexity to language learning.

The speaker will not be learning Japanese full-time due to other commitments.

A daily learning schedule of one to two hours is planned for Japanese.

Daily updates on progress will be provided, though not every day due to other obligations.

The speaker will maintain a daily log of learning activities, including repetitions and memorization.

Weekly plans will be shared, along with how effectively they are implemented.

The speaker sets a goal to have a one-hour conversation in Japanese by the end of the three-month period.

Quantifiable goals are set, including learning 1,000 language island sentences and 2,000 mass sentences.

The speaker will focus on spoken Japanese, deferring reading and writing until later.

A detailed weekly goal is outlined, including specific numbers of sentences and repetitions.

The speaker emphasizes the importance of working hard and smart for effective language learning.

Materials used in the experiment will be made available for others to use after the challenge.

The speaker's approach is compared to training like an elite athlete, focusing on results and effective techniques.

Transcripts

all right here we go let's talk about

learning Japanese in three

months uh there's going to be a lot of

talk about learning Japanese in three

months because I'm going to try to I'm

not going to try I'm going to learn

Japanese in three months um I talk a lot

about learning languages fast and

there's always someone in the comments a

bunch of people in the comments saying

that that's impossible even if there are

lots of people who've done it with a

bunch of different

languages and there will always be some

sort of excuse if you learn X language

they'll say that it's too easy or that

you already knew

languages you already knew too many

languages that are similar to that so

it's too easy so your system doesn't

work it doesn't work because you already

know too too many languages that's um

pretty weird logic but okay um and then

they always mention really well non

European languages always um for some

reason they never mentioned Finnish or

Hungarian or languages like that that

are not related to uh Romans or that

they're not Romans languages they're not

Slavic or Germanic which are most of the

languages I speak are Romans Slavic or

Germanic and obviously although my

native language is not Romans it's not a

romance language it's not a Slavic

language and it's not a Germanic

language it doesn't really have a family

it's its own thing but uh yeah most of

the languages I speak belong to one of

those famili simply because not because

I want to say I I speak more languages

and so I go for the easy ones simply

because if I'm from Europe and I mostly

spend time in Europe I and I travel in

Europe and especially like the

Mediterranean and Eastern Europe I do

like Germany as well um it makes sense

for me to learn the languages of the

places I go to

often yeah

so if obviously it makes sense for me to

learn Portuguese French

and Italian not because of easy so I can

tell you that I speak more languages but

because I go there much more often than

I've never been to Japan honestly uh or

I've recently been to Korea I didn't

learn the language I just didn't have

the

uh time or

motivation uh anyway I'm starting to

ramble a little bit let's let's go let's

go straight to a point yes you

absolutely can learn a language in three

months or

less and I'm going to conduct uh three

month or 12 week experiment in which I

will learn Japanese from

scratch uh this is what I will do first

of all I'm not going to learn Japanese

fulltime because I've got things to do

I've got business I've got family and

friends Hobbies things to do you know

got projects side projects other

languages I'm I'm

learning uh not from scratch just trying

to get better at slowly simply because I

enjoy doing that and also I always learn

several languages at the same time um

for a very specific reason if I'm

coaching a bunch of people who are

learning different languages and they're

all at different level I always need to

be with at least one language I need to

be at the beginner level another one at

the intermediate level and another one

at an advanced C1 C2 level and still

trying to improve because otherwise if

the last time I was a beginner or

intermediate level was years ago I can't

really relate to uh my clients so I need

to be learning several languages at the

same time also because obviously I'm

really into languages but anyway I will

spend two one or two hours a day with

Japanese not more but I will still get

results and I'll show you how so what

I'll do is um daily

updates not every single day

because well I've got you know holidays

and things to do and and plans and trips

and things like that so I won't I won't

make a video on my Japanese progress

every single day but um most of the time

I'll try to do it

daily um if not a video if I don't have

the time for that I'll this a post and

I'll give you specific details on what

I'm doing how many reps how many words

memorized with associations how many

reps of listening and repeating or

shadowing how many sentences reviewed

how many flash

cards everything yeah I'll keep it as a

log a daily log uh I'll I'll write it

down for the days that I am not making a

video or maybe not some days I won't

even touch Japanese because yeah I'll be

traveling I've got wine trip coming up

to rioa if you go to Spain come to Spain

I say go to Spain because I'm the best

country and we don't really anyway let's

not talk politics um if you go to R if

you go to

Spain you should visit rioa if you're

into wine really good

uh okay um yeah daily updates as as

often as possible I've got yeah a bunch

of trips and a bunch of family things

and obviously I won't

be uploading videos does but the rest of

the time away and the days that I will

that I don't upload videos if I still do

some learning I'll let you know the next

day anyway yeah so I'll give you exactly

the weekly plan I got and how much

I'm actually implementing the plan

sometimes things happen or you're busy

or you just don't F like doing it it's

usually not my case but for a lot of

people that's it does

happen um so I'll give you the weekly

plan and later on in this video I'll

tell you the plan for the first

week and then how much of it i' I've

been implementing every day all right

and uh at the end of each week I'll try

to talk on camera it'll be pretty bad

the first time but I'll be able to say a

bunch of stuff badly but I'll be able to

say it uh second week I'll still speak

badly but I'll be able to say way more

and third week I'll speak even more and

better and so on uh and uh at the end of

the whole 12 week three month uh period

I'll try to have a one hour conversation

well I'll have a one hour

conversation and uh

I probably won't speak perfectly but I

think I'll do pretty pretty well there

so let's talk about specific goals let's

talk numbers

because because uh being fluent is very

vague and or learning the language is

very vague and doesn't

really it really depends on the person

right what do you what's that's that's

something you get a lot in those videos

becom fluent in language first let's

let's spend 10 minutes talking about

what fluency is and now let's just

quantify what I want to do and then you

can I'll do all of this 100% I'll

probably do more than this but um you

will be able to tell if this amount of

work for for this amount of language

learning work for

Japanese uh you'll see the results

obtained after this amount of reps

language is mass sentences blah blah

blah you'll see the results so that you

can tell if it was worth it or not maybe

you decide that you rather do uh 3,000

hours of comprehensible input or

something but uh yeah let's let's talk

about numbers so three main

things uh I want to be able to speak and

I I want to be able to understand so I

know I need lots of vocab I need

to um obviously the grammar but the

grammar I learn it with the m sentence

but lots of vocab I need to learn my

language Island so I'm that's my list of

sentences I use to learn to have

conversations so everything I want to be

able to say in usual conversations this

will be really helpful for uh the that

final final video in which I I have a

conversation because if you if you learn

1,000 lines you're able to have a

conversation the problem is if you don't

understand the other person yeah so my

my language Islands which I learn in 12

weeks um Mass sentences that I'll have

to create and I'll make them available

lat Lang natural language learning in

the platform for you to learn Japanese

with if you want and two 20,000 of them

I

think around 20,000 so

2,000 verbs and then all the

conjugations with lots and lots of

vocabs so all the common vocab and all

the all the common verbs with all the

all their conjugations

everything in a huge

list uh lots of

examples and I learn

that with

audio I will not learn to read because I

don't need to for now I want to be able

to understand Japanese and I want to be

able to read so if you want me to try to

learn Kani or something we'll have to

wait for a while once I understand

spoken Japanese well

in December if something terrible

doesn't happen before that once I

understand spoken Japanese well and I'm

able to speak pretty well then yeah

looks interesting so maybe I'll try to

learn to read but um yeah it's not

particularly useful if you

not

well if you don't want to Read Manga or

something which I don't care about uh or

you not moving there or something you

don't really need to all I want is to be

able to

understand spoken language and to speak

so and it it it would slow me down

immensely if I try to learn I don't know

how many characters there are but my lot

so language Island a thousand each of

them probably more MTH sentences 20,000

is with all the uh grammar and

vocabulary included and

um 100,000 reps of listening and

repeating SL

shadowing for this I will use glower at

some point I think but that's going to

come later because gloss is I like it

but it's

very confusing and very unstructured

and it's good when you you're already at

an intermediate level and you want to

learn a bunch of a few thousand extra

sentences to use in ation but if you're

learning from

scratch um it's probably not the best

idea so what I'm going to do is focus on

my language Islands first and mass

sentences so language islands for my

speaking and um Mass sentences for

comprehension what I'll do is lots of

listening and repeating well first of

all no let's jump to the uh weekly

weekly goal so first week again language

Island Mass

sentences and listening and repeating so

100 sentences of language Island

learning 100 sentences in a week doesn't

sound crazy right it's very doable those

will be useful sentences that I've got

in my list so that I'm already able to

speak some Japanese with that I learned

that by fast

memorizing uh the key

wordss with pneumonic associations

and uh then loads and loads of listening

and repeating I'll have a translation

next to each sentence and I listen and

repeat the sentence as many times as

necessary until I can I can understand

them and say them not flawlessly but

pretty

well Mass sentences this is going to be

weo 2,000 verbs or 2,000 example

sentences and I know well actually I

don't know how grammar Works in Japanese

but I I want to learn the grammar with

this but what I want to learn is

the uh basic non- conjugated version of

of all those verbs in a sentence maybe

some of them will be conjugated I don't

care it just just be able to these are

the verbs blend the verbs that's it

later on I I learn each one of them in

all of like for each

verb each one of those 2,000 verbs I

learn 10 or 20 different sentences or as

many conjugation there are on forms in

Japanese and for each one of them I

learn an example sentence but I will

start with just an example sentence of

each one of the verbs to just get as

much data as possible fast and then

expand to the whole list so for this

again I

will first use

associations so a couple hundred words a

day I guess should be fine

can do that in less than an hour um with

pneumonic associations I memorize them

and then loads and loads of listening

and repeating around 50% of the

listening and repeating will be the

language Islands the stuff I want to be

able to

say

um no actually let's not do that let's

not do that because um you

see

no that that be yeah yeah I just started

doing the math and and if I do 5,000

reps of 100 sentences I'll

just I'll hate myself because it's each

sentence 50 times which is insane now

each sentence 10 to 20 times will be

more than

enough uh with the language Island

to be able to say them relatively

well

um and after that I'll just turn them

into flash cards and I'll translate from

English into Japanese and get the

feedback and that way I'll learn to say

fine but yeah 10 times each listen and

repeat will be enough and then the rest

of the Reps

so I don't know nine 8 to 8 9,000 8

9,000 reps each one four five times yeah

that's good uh with the m senten 2,000

sentences each one five times more or

less so it'll be more more than 10 reps

10,000 reps in total but it'll be quite

a lot um the way I'll do this and I'll

show you uh tomorrow or the day after

I'll show you I'll upload a video and

showing you how I'm doing it but what I

what I'll do is

um repeat each sentence five times so

it'll be my name is mik and it be my

name is mik my name is mik my name is

five times and the next one nice to meet

you nice to meet you nice to meet

instead of doing 100 sentences one after

another and just just for forget

everything I'll do five times the first

one five times the second one five times

the third one

so sounds like

torture but um again if you this is not

for the

lazy if you're willing to gogin it if

you want to put in the hard work and

learn really seriously this kind of

learning will work and you will get

really good results very fast as long as

you doing working habit also working

smart this is this is super

effective but it's going to be hard

work if you instead want to spend many

thousands of hours watching content and

hoping that someday you'll be fluent

okay then go do your thing but here I'm

going to show you what happens when

you work hard and you work smart and you

go for results and you only do the

things that will get you results fast

right this CH is about results it's not

feel good stuff and telling you some non

no no no this is here we learn languages

like an athlete like an elite athlete

trains uh for competition all right so

it's going to

be memorize the whole well all the vocab

in in the 100 sentences then listen and

repeat the 100 sentences over and over

and over memorize the vocab in the

2,000 sentences of the mass sentences

and then repeated 2,000 sentences over

and

over for the whole week this is going to

be my week um it's not going to be my

whole week one or two hours a day of

this will be will be good already and by

the end of I mean not the end of the

week it's already the end of this week

but by the end of next week

um I think I'll be able to speak a

decent amount not well obviously but

I'll be able to speak a little bit and I

know a couple thousand words which is

not bad in a week of work

right and this I said if you're

interested in learning Japanese I will

give you links to the materials I'm

creating for

myself that you'll be able to

use after the experiment I'll just put

everything under behind a payall and

natural language learning but during the

experiment you can come and use them

right because

um yeah it's I think it's going to be

interesting and a lot of people are

interested in

Japanese uh or who knows maybe I'll just

give it all for free like I did with

Spanish

anyway Japanese long story

short it's going to

be uh three

months lots of learning daily updates

almost daily updates and by the end of

it you'll have 1 hour video of me to

speaking Japanese

I will have learned basically all the

vocabulary that you need to learn in um

to learn the langu to speak the language

and I'll be able to speak pretty well

that's the plan right St tune because

there more com in