What type of japanese should i learn

How discouraging. And I was just planning on learning Japanese Good thing I'm Asian so maybe I can "blend in. I lived and worked in Japan for three years and I do agree with a few points in this article that you can definitely get by with only knowing a few words and phrases and that Japanese people do like using you to practice their English.

What I don't agree though is that being more fluent wouldn't have mattered. I saw my more fluent friends order pizzas with ease, get things ordered and delivered to their homes and having conversations with people on the street. Their experience in Japan was much richer than mine. I lived in an ex-pat bubble only speaking to fellow gaijin and at home my apartment was a mini America watching TV shows in English and listening to American music.

I missed out on so much and it still bothers me to this day. I now take Japanese lessons with no intention of living in Japan and while a lot of people think that might be crazy I find it fun and enjoyable.

I love watching J-Dramas and I'm getting to the point where I don't need the subtitles. I pick up a lot more culturally than I ever have and wished I would had been this fluent when I was in Japan. I know full well though that when I go back to Japan for a trip in a year or so I will use what I have learned and although I might not have anywhere near native level conversation I think my trip will be better off.

Yes there are some Japanese that will only speak English to me and yes I won't have profound deep conversations but I will get around a lot better and have a much more enjoyable trip and probably speak to some Japanese that would rather speak in their native tongue to me than struggle with remembering their English they probably learned years ago in High School that they probably never spoke anyway.

Japanese when they learn English in schools don't really speak a lot but write a lot of it so unless they went to a language school they probably won't talk to you in English. That is what I personally encountered anyway. So with that said I'm going to keep on keeping on learning and studying Japanese and having fun with it.

Hey Japanese is the best languages ever it very easy to learn it maybe just easy for me and the rest of the Asian people but are you gotta do is take your time. Well, I believe the opposite. Instead of going through all those text and workbooks, you should just listen and get an understanding of it before learning how to read, write and speak you should also take your time.

I really enjoyed this posting and many of the comments. There's obviously a lot of serious thinkers in this group. I have studied Japanese on and off for years. They put me in the 5th year level, so there was 1 person better than me and 65 worse. That said that level is not enough to really understand Japanese well. The reason that I want to study Japanese is that I may have to leave China and I want to do something related to what I already know. From the very beginning I was always better in Chinese.

People said I was fluent by the time I was 19 and I could pass for native over the phone in Mandarin by the time I was in my 20s. I was born in Now I can pass for native on the phone in Taiwanese-Hokkien and Cantonese also.

But despite all of this I have found it difficult to make a living in China. I have spent most of my time working in the energy industry and the last 10 years, I have worked in the power industry. I suppose I could have chosen another line of work, but I ended up staying in this industry because I was good in the technology and I am not an engineer, so while I may be good at what I do now, I might have real difficulty starting for scratch in a new field with my weak understanding of engineering fundamentals.

Read this a while ago but remembered it today because it's been relevant to my recent work experiences, haha. For my private life, I'm very glad that I kept at it, though the article is definitely correct in saying that there's always a higher goal to reach for and occasionally that is effing frustrating.

But for work, I'm definitely beginning to wish that I could just fake not knowing Japanese. I've worked at a few places with other foreign employees, and the difference in treatment is pretty striking for those that don't speak Japanese. They can show up late, leave early, piss off customers, etc.

It took me the same time to learn English to a high level my mother tongue is Spanish and as an English teacher, I can tell you that it's really hard to find someone whose knowledge of the language is over the lower intermediate level. Is Japanese your second language?

That usually happens with second languages, you know, because we're adults and our brains are not as flexible as they used to be and that makes it harder.

Unless of course, you're learning a language that belongs to the same family as your native language, say: you know French and you're trying to learn Spanish or Italian, but even so, it's really hard to get rid of the foreign accent or not to make grammatical mistakes every now and then, so it's normal, even the fact that there's always a higher goal to reach: I can completely relate to that in my English learning process.

I don't need to know how to write or speak it. It literally gives me butterflies to even consider being competent in speaking Japanese. It would be astounding.

And not some land chosen by fate; a land I truly desire to inhabit. Part of me thinks that many men my age 24 have similar thoughts desires and therefor I should compare and decide. But I don't think that's right. I need to make large decisions like this with gusto and confidence. To write a story for myself that doesn't end in the U.

Anyway, thank you for writing this and please - if you even consider writing more about your take on the subject - do so knowing that at least one guy'll read it.

I'm currently living in Japan with my girlfriend. I began studying Japanese a few years ago to satisfy my growing interest in the language and culture.

I'm able to hold a casual conversation now and I can understand the spoken language well, not because I'm living in Japan that seems to be people's excuse for not studying enough! The best site I've found so far sells Japanese picture books, but they each come with what's called a "Nihongo Recipe" which essentially is an in-depth translation, filling in all the "whys" and "hows" of the language. The site is called memories-bunko.

Also, Japanese picture books may sound easy, but the language is certainly upper-intermediate in many of them. For anyone that's studying Japanese using textbooks, please remember that people don't really speak like that in Japan. Its far more casual, even in stores! Which they don't tell you in class I showed my girlfriend "An Integrated Approach to Intermediate" which I brought with me when I first arrived here, and she was saying how odd and unnatural the language and scenarios were.

Since then, its been native material for my study and I don't regret it. Best decision was to dump my textbooks on the shelf and read children's books. I'm at the stage now where I just take notes on some vocab I don't know and enjoy the story! I have never been in Japan and I don't know if I would ever go, but i have started to pickup some words and phrases by watching anime. It's the same way as learning English. I was born in Sweden so my native tongue is Swedish. I started learning English English in 3rd grade but it was not until we started getting cable tv that i started comprehending the language better.

Now 35 years later I live in United States since being pretty fluent in English both speaking and writing. I believe the same can be done learning Japanese. It takes time and effort but it can be done.

I think my goal is not so much speaking the language but it would be good if i learned it, but to comprehend what is spoken and what is written. I think a lot of content is lost in translation.

Now I came down out of the tree and I am moving away from learning Japanese Language, just the basics will be enough ;. I'm profoundly irritated by the fact that this article still arrives on a Google search for "how long does it take to learn Japanese? There is literally only ONE reason why anyone should forego learning Japanese: they don't want to.

Even if you fail miserably at learning the language, you have still expanded your knowledge, exercised new areas of your brain, and made yourself increasingly aware of just how diverse and spectacular the world is.

Mr Seeroi, you are forgetting about the people that maybe just want to learn a new language for fun. I've got to admit, having just passed the JLPT N2 and been living here for 2 years, I basically agree with this article. Sure, I've made some friends and made many situations easier with my Japanese skills, but I could have done that with a lot less language skill than I have. I've gotten some opportunities at work, but because of the convoluted Japanese work dynamics and the problem of keigo, it's not generally advisable for me to use it in the office, since many native speakers even have trouble with the appropriate level of formality.

My Japanese is better than many of my coworker's' English, but it's just less likely to offend people if I let them stumble along. I'm making headway at keigo, but I think I'm years away from feeling confident enough to try it on my boss.

Besides, nobody is going to expect you to learn or speak Japanese. Some language study institute once declared Japanese the hardest language to learn, and the Japanese have never, ever forgotten it. Your ability to speak will be a perpetual novelty to every single person you meet, which will be fun for the first couple months and vaguely insulting ever after.

Don't get me wrong - I'm ultimately glad I learned Japanese, because I loved the process, I'm passably bilingual now, I like being able to consume Japanese media, and I've made a few relationships with people for whom I'm not a novelty or a walking English lesson.

Also, it's helping me learn Chinese, which is a hell of a lot more useful. But Japan is basically the only country I've heard of that offers you almost no incentives to learn the language and in some cases actively discourages it. Learn Japanese if you want to, but understand that there is essentially no situation in which you will HAVE to. I agree to some extent that if you are learning Japanese for anything other than a hobby - then it's not worth it.

I happen to have a fascination with logographic writing systems in particular, chinese characters and japanese culture and wanted to speak another language; Japanese was the obvious choice. The simplifications are massively over-exagerated, only some are simplified, and when they are, it's usually very slight. So if you want to learn Mandarin too as I do then this will give you a big head start as far as the writing system goes.

It takes years to master the guitar. With all that time 'wasted', you could've learnt a new language What if you're learning it because it's the language of the land you live in, and you want to be able to live like an adult taking care of yourself instead of needing other people do everything for you? Is it still not worth it?

I don't think that there are any reasons why you shouldn't learn Japanese. Some people give up learning Japanese, because they this that this language is too hard to learn.

But it actually isn't. You can learn Japanese with different websites like Duolingo or Memrise. Hi guys. If one has 4 hours of lessons a day, plus studying in the afternoon, 5 days a week, for months, while living in Japan, is it possible to became fluent in months? Thanks in advance for your feedback!

This is totally false, and completely ill informed I'm afraid. You think you should learn Chinese to get jobs globally? Think again - there are tens of millions of Native speakers of both Chinese and English - how are you going to compete with that? Japanese though? Only a few people in Japan speak English to any level of competence, which leaves a massive job market open for you, even in the US companies there deal with Japanese companies every day.

I could go point by point and pick apart every argument you try to make, but I'll just focus on the "Safe Return Doubtful" reference. Your argument is essentially "don't even waste your time trying because you'll probably fail.

For me, learning fluent Japanese in 2 years, thanks to a great teacher has opened up countless opportunities, helped me make life-changing friendships, and has given me some of the most enriching experiences of my life. Just because you struggled with the language or maybe just the motivation of studying it , I can't imagine why you would want to share such a discouraging message to potential language learners. I hope no child ever reads this.

This is exactly the article I needed. I even registered an account to say my thanks! It seems like no person is willing to admit that Japan isnt exactly the dreamland western ding-dongs seem to think it is me, white girl western ding-dong head of foreign relations. I sincerely look forward to article III! I hope you find it easy and maybe even liberating to write.

However, I am still going to continue my journey. I might be one of those linguist dinguses. Who knows!? It makes me so sad to read such an article. Just that. Depending on how much you love learning that language,how much you are insterested,the amount of effort you put into it and it ofc can take years and even decades,depending on person to person.

What you wrote here was such a disservice to all those people who want to study and expand their knowledge. The part where you said that people think Japan is heaven I totally agree,but it mostly comes from immature teenagers who just discovered how wonderful and interesting Japan can be,despite it's dark and sad side such as suicide and the misoginist way some japanese men see women including many others difficulties japanese society has to deal with,like ANY other country in the world,my dear.

On the contrary, learning Japanese is easier than ever thanks to programs such as Google Translate and rikaikun. While I vehemently disagree with the clickbait title, I think this article has some merit in the sense that language learners beyond the level where it's fine just to experiment and explore should indeed consider calculating their return investment, i. From my experience as a Japanese major, about years of consistent study gives a solid foundation for moving toward fluency through self-study and practice and will definitely help with travel and making friends in Japan.

For those who have trouble communicating, raise your charisma and stop blaming others. Take a public speaking course or something. The biggest difficulties seem to be kanji and environment immersion. I think kanji is probably the least important, but for certain hobbiest or those who wish to write in Japanese, it is an essential obstacle that must be overcome. If you can learn to be passionate about it or brainwash yourself into finding the beauty in it , that will help you through the long, repetitive grinding process which does start to pay off after the first few hundred kanji.

As for the environment immersion, yeah I get it, you're a gaijin millennial and Japanese people aren't as apt to coddle your fragile ego as your American friends and family. Tough shit. Watch a samurai movie or something and grow a pair. Or, you know, you could just make a friend by being kind, genuine, and a good listener and maybe people will be attracted to you for more than just your English speaking one-trick pony ability.

There's also this amazing contraption called the Internet where you can find free anime, manga, games, news, TV shows, dictionaries, forums, discussion boards, pen pals, and other useful information that will help you on your quest. If you do that, you won't have to throw pies out of windows or whatever this article suggests because you'll have enough resources to get the job done and keep your motivation up.

And if it's time to move on--do so. Yes, language ability degrades over time, but it can always be picked back up. Not only that, but to reiterate what some others have said, learning a language regardless of how it's actually used on the job or in personal life fosters memory recall, focus, and strengthens one's neural network of information for other knowledge-based activities. I would like to say thank you for writing this. Even the title got me heated. Throughout this article ill admit, you had some good points.

But I noticed that you seemed to focus on one 'problem'. Its time consuming. The reason I say thank you to this is because, as an eager 14 year old with many passions, I am extremely interested in the Japanese language and culture.

I plan to move there for a few years before going to South Korea. You have inspired me to quicken my learning proceed and learn the Japanese language in 8 months to a year. I was originally planning to give my self 3 and a half years, as that would allow me to perfect it just before I move there, but I've just now decided against that.

In a maximum of one month I will be able to communicate with a native Japanese citizen in basic conversation. Next in two months I will be able to understand business related topics. In 3 months I will understand all recriational topics. In 4 months I will learn slang and commonly used phrases that are not taught in books.

And so on. By the end I will be able to read a write with the basic knowledge of a 9th grade student. My conversational skill will be close to perfect. Keep in mind that this is all thanks to you. I want to prove you wrong. And as a side note, I may be young, but its quite possible that I have a buisier schedule than the average American. So I have no advantage. If you really want to learn a language, then stop procrastinating. That is your only problem.

Just putting it off. Don't do that and it won't take you 3 to 7 years and it won't cost you your work outs and guitar learning. I think other than just relying on textbooks which is really a hard thing to do Practicing conversation skills is really a must. I'm a textbook learner. My first months was overwhelming actually. XD but it didn't stop me from talking with the Japanese people. I attended language exchange every week and free Japanese classes.

After 6 months i kinda a little bit get used to the language. I can just converse in a simple not very long topics. I've met someone who doesn't even take JLPT but is very fluent xD but he's not good in reading though. But the desire to be fluent in Japanese makes me wake up in the morning and try harder..

Build discipline. It's really a pain in the ass to study but if you really like something.. You'll get it. No matter how hard it is.. The problem is how Japanese is taught in colleges and universities. The emphasis is on grammar and writing. There is not emphasis on speaking. I studied Japanese for four years as an undergrad. I chose Japanese because I had always been fascinated by the culture.

I enjoyed it until the fourth year when I ended up with a really bad teacher. The amount of time actually speaking Japanese in these classes is very minimal, which is the major problem. The method of instruction for foreign languages in U. The romance languages would be easier to pick up for native English speakers because English is part of the same family of languages. But, then would you really be learning a "foreign" language? I was beaten by your article.

But you're very late. I'm falling deeply in love with Japan. Oh, no!!!!??? What am I gonna do? What am I thinking? Well, I have most of my selfishness right there, and right now I'm gonna lay it all down. I'm afraid they would lose the so-so-homogenous culture they've been busily resurrecting for centuries! But sure, nobody knows how it's gonna be, right? Japan is Japan, and it is still my Dream Country all this time. I made an account just to reply to this stupid article.

Its very much possible to become fluent in a language without dedicating the time you mentioned in this article. I learned to speak fluent Chinese Mandarin after just two years of studying it.

Now Im several months into Japanese and can safely say that its alot easier than Mandarin At least in the beginning. You dont neccesarily have to go to the country in order to study it, alot of people do it just for the sake of studying other cultures and for broadening ones horizon. Unless you were studying Japanese on academic terms, you should not set unrealistic goals while you study by yourself.

I mean, you want to be extremely high fluent at speaking and at writing Japanese, both are extremely high objectives. You should choose between set realistic goals at speaking and writing Japanese, or set high objectives at speaking or at writing, but not both. All about this is a typical mistake on autodidacts who learned their skills by their own. Splendid, I can't wait to read part 3 in your series. It's would be great if the next article mentions about Japanese's characteristics, mindset or their culture.

Before reading this article I got some rumors that Japan folks are famous with hospitality. Can't wait to read your next article. Wow, at least your bottom line was correct.

It is insane to waste that much time for a language you will use for one year and that is assuming you live here, on average. That is one expensive hobby for almost no benefit.

The idea that you should learn Japanese to "understand the culture" is intellectually insulting, as a linguist can easily understand the philosophies behind the language better even than the Japanese people themselves. Other than elite students at national universities have ever read Confucius or the Dhammapada much less have they read about Zen with any zeal beyond the ritual practice for show.

I have yet to meet one who was capable of discussing Mishima or Kawabata with any depth. And they look at you with a blank stare if you mention the Kyoto School regarding "nothingness".

When I ask why a foreigner should learn Japanese, they almost all say, "because you are in Japan" as if this is the only country you will ever work in professionally. They are well aware and embarrassed that you studied Japanese zero years and speak it better than most of them speak English after minimum of 6 years of "dread" studying English.

SO basically, they are saying the only reason to study Japanese is because they refuse to speak English, despite a minimum of 6 years of English study.

Good luck with that. Sounds like a cute hobby rather than an actual need for anyone other than foreigners who will marry in Japan and live there immediately after college. Because, you clearly will never need it outside Japan and shouldn't need it inside Japan if the Japanese would truly prepare for the global economy. And even if you marry someone who is Japanese, they likely speak English better than you will ever speak Japanese, and on average will end in divorce within 5 years.

But at least you will be able to speak to her mother. Face it, in speaking and listening Japan scores the same or worse than Amazonian and African aboriginals, according to the most recent report of TOEFL scores; and those are people who take that test specifically because they want to go abroad for university study. It is an English crisis in Japan for the ability to compete for business allies.

Imagine how many people would come to Japan for hospital care or even general university study if only Doctors and nurses and professors actually spoke the international language they studied on average actually ten years as opposed to the general population. Any Japanese professor who actually does speak English and has taught in an English country can tell you Japanese students just sit there and say nothing by comparison to the enthusiastic gab they saw in American classes for example.

And that is in normal subjects. The English classroom is virtually silent. It was refreshing to at least see one editorial that told the truth, that learning Japanese is a waste, but left the reader with the impression that somehow they will have no problem finding enough English in Japan.

They will not. But then again, maybe I and every other long term American resident of Japan are "just anecdotal". Laughably bad reasoning. If you are planning to live in Japan, learn Japanese. Unless you don't care about making deeper friendships or love with Japanese people who might not know much or any English, being limited in your employment opportunities and your career upside, understanding the culture, being limited to living only in major cities, etc.

In which case, why are you here in the first place? In that case, I agree, don't start learning Japanese and don't move here either. Even as an English teacher, having an adept grasp of Japanese will open more doors for your career and probably help your students learn English better if you can actually explain things in Japanese. You can always speak English only too if they want that, you know? Nobody says you have to be fluent or anything, but if you're making the effort to meet Japanese people more than halfway which you should, as you're the one who chose to live here , most Japanese people certainly do appreciate your effort.

I'm far from fluent, but I can talk to any Japanese person about just about anything semi-competently and get my point across in most cases. I can read signs and labels and fill out forms. The Japanese language is considered one of the most difficult to learn by many English speakers. But how hard is it to learn Japanese? Keep reading to find out what makes the Japanese language so difficult. First off, there are the three writing systems: katakana, hiragana, and kanji. Hiragana and katakana are phonetic alphabets.

Unlike English, which treats vowels and consonants separately and has multiple pronunciations for many of the letters , phonetic alphabets are always written and pronounced in one specific way. With hiragana and katakana, the vowels a, i, u, e, and o are best visualized in five rows, and the consonants are added across the top to create a grid the table below presents the corresponding vowels on the far right side, as Japanese is read vertically right to left.

Katakana, on the other hand, is sharper in appearance presented on the right side of each square. Unlike hiragana and katakana, kanji is pictographic. Each symbol, or moji , stands for a concept rather than a sound. There can be several pronunciations or readings for these symbols.

Japanese grammar, as a whole, is one of the most difficult things for English speakers to get their heads around. In Japanese, the verb goes at the end of the sentence, something that feels instinctually wrong for English speakers. The Japanese form is actually much easier to conjugate, and there are also no pluralizers.

However, these readings can be really difficult to understand for most Japanese learners. Luckily, you can make things a bit easier for yourself by mastering katakana. This is because katakana is important for anyone to have a good understanding of kanji readings.

In general, some kanji radicals resemble katakana characters. Such kanji radicals are named after such katakana characters that they look like. Therefore, if you want to have a quick and easy understanding of such kanji radicals, it will be helpful for you to learn katakana characters.

Another important reason why you should start learning katakana after hiragana is that there is some resemblance between hiragana and katakana characters. Therefore, when you start learning katakana, you already have a good knowledge of hiragana.

The learning process will be faster and easier than learning katakana before hiragana. You just have to breeze through the 46 characters of katana and then take the next step to learn other important aspects of the Japanese language. After you have gotten a grip of hiragana and katakana, you can start learning kanji. Kanji is believed by a lot of individuals to be the most tasking part of the Japanese language.

Therefore, you should be prepared for what you are bound to deal with as you are trying to learn kanji. Basically, kanji is a Japanese writing system that was adopted from some Chinese writing characters. It is often combined with hiragana and katakana whenever people are writing Japanese. Therefore, you need to know kanji to be able to read Japanese fluently.

Some people may tell you that learning kanji is not essential to speak Japanese. However, this is not entirely true as there are tons of things you can gain from studying kanji. Below are a few of the reasons why you should learn kanji:. With a good knowledge of kanji, you will be able to guess the meanings of new Japanese words that you have just learned. In general, kanji looks like the affixes that are found in the English language.

Each kanji character has a particular meaning. If you understand the meaning of a character, it will be easier for you to understand any new words that have this character.

You should know that kanji characters often appear inside Japanese sentences. If you are interested in reading Japanese, you cannot do without learning Japanese because it is the basis for it. It is noteworthy that you cannot boast of understanding a specific language if you cannot read it.

Therefore, you can only rest assured that you know Japanese properly if you have learned kanji and can read it. If you have it in mind to learn Japanese and live in Japan, then it is crucial for you to learn kanji. So, if you want to use a train station, bus park, restaurant, and so on, you may have a hard time reading descriptions and other things written on the signboards or posters. Therefore, if you want to stay in Japan and enjoy your stay, learning kanji is paramount.

To master kanji characters, you cannot afford to just learn them once and stop. There is a need for you to continue practicing characters that you have learned to ensure that you understand their meanings and also know the right way to write them. Once you have completed learning katakana, you should proceed to learn pronunciation. You should note that pronunciation is one of the most difficult aspects of Japanese for most foreigners.

Some people start pronunciation earlier than this, and this is good. However, learning pronunciation after katakana is also great. So, what are the ways to learn pronunciation? Japanese TV shows, anime, and movies offer you a chance to listen to Japanese from native speakers.

This can go a long way in helping you to master how to pronounce Japanese words. Another way to learn the pronunciation of Japanese words is by listening to podcasts. There are tons of Japanese podcasts on YouTube and other channels.

Therefore, it should be easier for you to find podcasts that will take care of your need. Like other languages, you cannot learn everything about Japanese at the beginning. Finding other people to help you along your journey will allow you to ask questions, get tips, share struggles and more. HiNative is a site that offers language checks by native speakers of a variety of languages. Finally, Renshuu offers a game-based Japanese learning experience with an active community. You can also utilize study lists created by others as well as share your own.

Best of all, you can access them from anywhere at any time! Everyone loves low prices, so free courses are always something to be on the lookout for. There are many free Japanese learning programs out there, which offer the opportunity to find the learning approach that works best for you. In each lesson, students are shown a skit portraying an everyday situation. The vocabulary list, key terms and quizzes are then constructed around the skit.

With 48 lessons in total, this course will guide you through all the basics of Japanese! Their videos not only provide instruction on the Japanese language but also insight into the culture. This combines the structure of a traditional classroom course with all the freedom of self-study.

Italki provides one-on-one tutoring for aspiring language learners. Through italki, you can find a Japanese tutor and set up a personalized learning plan so you get exactly what you want out of Japanese.

For private tutoring as well as group lessons, Coto Academy is worth looking into. Lessons are split into speaking courses and study courses, enabling you to get a well-rounded learning experience.

They provide you with learning materials and set you up with a Japanese instructor who will work with you on your schedule. Plus, for those who want to study in a small group, Coto Academy provides a fully interactive online classroom so you can engage with your teacher and your fellow students.

This program is most likely designed to teach you grammar, vocabulary and written Japanese. Learning Japanese in a classroom has a ton of benefits. Seeing yourself progress through each level is thrilling, with each new skill feeling like an unlocked achievement. You also get, more or less, the complete package: spoken, written and literary Japanese all tied up in one neat bow.

But if you only study in the classroom, then your immediate learning outcome is limited. Take a look at the following reasons why self-teaching Japanese can take you leagues further in the long run. After all, the classroom is designed to teach a large number of people the same material, and as such, the majority rules when it comes to progression.

There are no worries about the class going too fast or too slow for you. Just not getting the difference between causative and passive sentences?

No worries, take a little more time to review them. Read a few specific articles, do some extra practice exercises. This is the most important reason for teaching yourself. At some point, after learning a bit of grammar you typically want to start focusing on vocabulary. This is an amazing feeling and you fully deserve it.

You decided what you needed to learn and now you are reaping the rewards. When learning on your own, you need to figure out exactly what your needs are and how to meet them. Making cohesive lists of terminology, finding relevant study material and coming up with effective ways to check progress are all things that teachers of any subject have to do.