My 10-year experience learning Japanese (now fluent). The ups and downs

It’s been a long time since I started learning Japanese. I started in 2010 and in 2014 I was already in Japan studying and working here. It’s been 10 years since I first arrived and I can say I am completely fluent in Japanese. <br><br>I would like to share with you how it has been my path up to this point, as well as the good and the bad moments.<br><br>To begin with, I am a native Spanish speaker and I am from a small city in the south of Spain. From a very young age I became interested in Asia. I remember that I took some Korean classes, but they didn’t last for too long.<br><br>It was around 2010 when I decided to give Japanese a go with the classic textbook “Japanese for Busy People”. I remember staying hours and hours by myself practising the very basics, from the pronunciation to simple conversations. <br><br>It was a very lonely path. There weren’t many people where I lived learning Japanese. Furthermore, social media was not as widespread as today, so I practised with not many people for a long time. Only with the help of some online tools (Anki, Rosetta Stone, language exchange apps, Netflix).<br><br>The real leap forward was in 2014 when I finally came for the first time to Japan. <br><br>I was 20 years old and it was the time when I was practising with native speakers the most. Back in the day there were not many apps like there are today for language learners. The main tools were Italki, Tandem, HelloTalk…<br><br>The real leap forward came when I was in Japan, practising with native speakers. I met tens of people with whom I practised my Japanese with. <br><br>But it wasn’t all up and downs. I had a very hard time in 2018. I had come back to live in Japan for the second time and I would say my Japanese was worse than when I was here for the first time. I was only practising with native speakers and completely stopped practising with other learners. <br><br>It was a year with ups and downs. I practised very irregularly and I had a hard time finding a job. Not only that, but I also had a hard time finding a place to live. <br><br>But then 2019 came. It was the annus mirabilis of my time in Japan, so to say the wonder year. I got a very good job, where I practised with native speakers everyday and I got a very good flat. I met dozens of people and I had the best time of my life. <br><br>I also had a Japanese girlfriend for a year, which helped a lot. <br><br>In 2020 I won a scholarship to do a Master’s here in Japan. I had to take an exam in Japanese and I got a full scholarship, 50,000 USD per year. <br><br>From then on I thought my Japanese couldn’t improve any further. It was perfect. So I decided to learn a new language, Korean. It’s been a year since I decided to learn this language and I can already watch TV shows without subtitles and speak with Koreans from time to time.<br><br>Weirdly enough, I would say that learning Korean has helped me improve my Japanese further. I have discovered many tricks about the languages that I didn’t know and I could apply them to my Japanese as well. <br><br>To sum up, learning a language is a very long path. There’s up and downs, and it’s very lonely as well. One has to be very consistent. But with perseverance and effort, one can achieve anything. <br><br>EDIT: thank you for your comments, they are very much appreciated. I could give tips on learning Japanese if anyone wants. I know I haven’t given specific tips here. Thank you very much.