I just found your blog. I don’t know how come I did not find you sooner because you’ve been around for awhile. Anyway, thank you so much for your very honest account of your Japanese learning experience. I read your chapter on ‘It started with a language requirement’ really impressive and really inspirational. I agree that it all comes down to two things: hard work and consistency. I first tried Japanese lessons exactly 10 years ago and I am so ashamed to say this because if I had continued then, today I would have 10 years of Japanese learning. (sniff) I must say that I prefer your school’s approach, that is class every day. I studied in a private Japanese school in Paris, three times a week and often it clashed with the Maths courses that were compulsory at university. I gave up because of the clash and I feel bad when I think about it.

Today, I still really want to learn but there is a twist now. I am currently learning Mandarin (8 weeks and counting) and in 2 months time I’ll add Japanese. Both being completely different and Chinese (to me) being much easier than Japanese, I feel that Chinese is demystifying the Japanese Kanji and that really boosts my confidence and gives me more energy to trudge forward.

I really really appreciate your blog, I have added you to my blogroll and will be following you starting from the beginning and I hope someday I’ll be in Japan sipping the Mighty Sake from a straw and probably draw the attention of the curious, why? So that I’ll be able to talk to them and explain to them the reasons for my bizarre bar manners.

The failure I encountered last time, I believe is largely due to not documenting my progress in any way. My blog represents my diary and once a week we meet up and I write down the week’s progress and how I feel. It helps to reflect.

Thank you ever so much!!!

I was wondering though, seeing as you’re still studying Chinese, whether you are planning to do an update on the ‘which is harder, Japanese or Chinese’ subject you wrote about nearly 2 years ago.

As somebody who is learning Japanese in Japan at the moment but is keen to start studying Chinese in earnest at some point, I’d be very interested to hear if your opinions have changed. Back then you were pretty much 100% convinced that Chinese is easier in most every way than Japanese. Is that still the case?