Sometimes learning Japanese is nothing but red lights!
This morning I was on my way to the station and to get there I have to pass through six sets of traffic lights. Each time I approached one it turned red and I had to stop. I thought ‘I am going to outsmart this’ and tried taking the back streets around each light. That didn’t work. My shortcuts took longer and when I arrived at the next light it turned red. I was getting frustrated as I like to race to see how fast I can get to the station.
Then after the third set of red lights, I had a thought. I can either sit here and feel frustrated or I can learn something from this. I can spend this time feeling annoyed that the lights keep turning red or I can use this time to prepare. As I approach I can put my bike into first gear and I can then catch my breath while I wait for fo the light to turn green. No matter what I do I cannot change the light to green. The light does not care. It will take its time and change as it has been programmed to do so. It doesn’t care if it is red or green or yellow (No orange lights in Japan). It is all up to me and my mindset how I approach each light.
The same goes for learning Japanese. There will be times when it will feel like you have nothing but red lights in your learning journey. Everything will feel hard and it will feel like you are making zero progress. You can be stuck at home trying to review a character that you just can’t find. You know what it means, You know how to read it but you just can’t find it in our dictionary.
You can spend all night feeling frustrated that your teacher didn’t include it in the homework or you can use this to your advantage. You can take the 30 minutes of study time you had set aside and instead learn another character for 10 minutes, then spend 10 minutes listening to a Japanese song and writing any words you think you know and then spend the last 10 minutes watching a Japanese video on YouTube about a new grammar principle you wanted to learn.
It's your choice. 30 minutes feeling annoyed and frustrated, or 30 minutes feeling relaxed and being proactive. Either way, you won’t know what the character is until morning. The teacher is most likely not stressing that they didn’t tell everyone and so why bother getting annoyed about something you cannot control. Instead, use the red light moments in your lives to your advantage.
What red light moments do you have that you could make use of?
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