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Search engine addiction and other maladies | ||
Tags: Loss of confidence | Difficulty | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| robsolete Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5389 days ago 191 posts - 428 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 9 of 16 28 March 2010 at 9:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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I like the above comments, plust one thought.
I wonder if maybe your Japanese studies are "crossing your wires" so to speak? I only wonder because Japanese grammar is so different, and requires you to formulate your thoughts in an entirely new way. If you spend a lot of time in this way of thinking, you may feel a bit odd or unsure when you go back to English or Portuguese. Sort of like a computer trying to run two different operating systems at the same time. Maybe you should distance yourself from Japanese for a bit? Take a week off and hang around with English and Portuguese speakers until it feels natural again. Then once you feel comfortable resume your Japanese studies. And, by the way, everything you've typed so far is fine. It's all in your head! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6129 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish | Message 10 of 16 28 March 2010 at 9:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah, this does remind me. Years back before I really was studying properly, I was massively watching Japanese TV. I wasn't trying to learn anything, and I never picked any actual language. What did happen is I just went crazy, and I actually got committed to a mental institution for 3 days. I think the intensive focus on incomprehensible media was a kind of sensory deprivation and triggered weird paranoid thoughts and strange hallucinations.
Honestly, books and media to excess is not so healthy. Even today, the solitary aspects of studying languages today make me seem a bit withdrawn. These days I also take classes which gets me involved with other students. I still do watch some incomprehensible TV though I try not to zone out so much. I do think Japanese studying may have affected my native speech a little bit. With Japanese I do need to be deliberate, or what comes out is just incoherent. I suspect this is what the 'op' is experiencing also. With Japanese at my level I really do have to consciously reject English instincts about how to say things. Maybe that extra thinking step leaks into other languages? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5770 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 11 of 16 29 March 2010 at 1:09am | IP Logged | ||
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Funnily enough, I've stayed in Spain for nine months now, and I experienced the opposite effect. I've always had a frail mental constitution, with depression, anxiety issues and especially social anxiety. Communication has become more natural during my stay here, both because I have to talk a lot every day, and because people are actively helping me.
Some things you can do to find your balance back: Make sure you get enough sleep and exercise (but don't overdo it), eat healthy (I see alot of difference when I make sure to get enough vegetable fat), do something enjoyable every day When I notice a lot of interference in my languages and it bothers me (when I'm tired I always have interference, can't do anything about that), I might take a short break and then focus on the language I want to use, until I get the feeling for it again. Actually, interference isn't bad (even though it makes me sound like a moron at times). It shows that I still am learning. Of course I would prefer to speak all of my languages perfectly, but that's unrealistic and I can't allow myself to measure my own progress using unrealistic goals. What's more important is that when I want to say something I can get my point across. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| nescafe Senior Member Japan Joined 5413 days ago 137 posts - 227 votes | Message 12 of 16 29 March 2010 at 1:35am | IP Logged | ||
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I do not understand Sayumi's situation well, but if you feel you have to secure yourself from the external world (You must be exposed to the flood of Japanese language in Japan), it will be good to use iPod (if you have it or it is available). Downloading Podcasts in English or Portoguese, listen to them, not to Japanese, till your confidence is recovered.
It may also be good to connect Japanese with your own language. You know there is a great gap between Japanese and Western languages. It is not easy to hold Japanese and English in one mind. Very confusing. As for me, I practiced writing my diary in a modified language (I invented it) which consists of Japanese words but employs English word order. This pracitce gave me an impression that, nevertheless the gap between Japanese and English seemed so big, human languages have much in common and English is essentialy not so alien to Japanese. You are going to feel easier if you find Japanese (or any human language, maybe) is not so exotic as it seems so. I think, you got exhausted with hard study, lost confidence and confusing. You may have better to take a break, but if you feel guilty of not studying, adapt a learning strategy in which you can use your own languages and cultural background. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| starst Triglot Senior Member China Joined 5518 days ago 113 posts - 133 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, Japanese, EnglishC2 Studies: FrenchC1, German, Norwegian | Message 13 of 16 29 March 2010 at 4:21am | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting... I don't know this is a Japanese-learning issue or not, but I do have similar inclination as the OP after living in Japan for 1 year or so. I used to write a 8-page technical paper in English without looking much up in the dictionary, however, recently I have noticed that I turn to google (search and translate) more often when I write something, no matter in English or in Japanese.
Personally, I don't think it's a problem as long as it doesn't discourage me from being social. I still talk a lot with friends in foreign languages, and still makes lots of mistakes during talking. That's no big deal! I'm not sure about the reason. My English is definitely getting worse. This could be part of the reason, but I think that the general social atmosphere here in Japan encourages one to be more careful with what one says and to talk less before mastering a language. This can certainly have an impact on newcomers as well. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sayumi Groupie Japan Joined 5422 days ago 51 posts - 75 votes Speaks: Japanese | Message 14 of 16 29 March 2010 at 7:27am | IP Logged | ||
Close, but it's a little bit more complicated that. I want to study contrastive linguistics and one day teach in a University, just like Professor Arguelles, whom I greatly respect and admire. Because I wanted to study in Japan, I was given a choice either to study international relations or whatever, in English, or well, study English (and Mandarin) in Japanese. I chose the latter because I wanted to challenge myself and learn yet another language. So, right now I'm "learning" English (basically learning how to teach the language, grammar, pronunciation, etc), Mandarin and things like modern Japanese literature, political science, etc, all in Japanese. It's pretty tough, though. Everyone's nice to me, but the language barrier is still there. Worse yet is how everyone reacts when I say I'm studying to be a teacher, that is, getting my degree in a Japanese university in Japanese. They seem puzzled and I was once told it could negatively affect my employment prospects. I've also been told by one of my teachers my being "fluent" in three languages would be a great asset...It feels like I've down the rabbit's hole and come out in some strange world where nothing makes sense anymore. My goal has always been not just to sound near-native but to actually surpass the natives themselves. I'm studying for level 1 of the Kanji Aptitude test. If I pass (that'll probably take me 3 or 4 years but it's okay) then I'll feel like I've accomplished my goal. Edited by Sayumi on 29 March 2010 at 7:36am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| bushwick Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6248 days ago 407 posts - 443 votes Speaks: German, Croatian*, English, Dutch Studies: French, Japanese | Message 15 of 16 29 March 2010 at 10:39am | IP Logged | ||
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you've already accomplished your goal.
you're studying for a teaching degree for English in japanese in japan. seriously, that's awesome. it's normal to get disheartened and to lose confidence in language, but I can only tell you not to care too much. my German deteriorated to a huge extent when living abroad, now I live in yet another country, but for a change my German is getting better (because of studying Dutch and having Germans to talk to) but I feel my English is getting, not worse, but down-graded (since I had to reduce my vocabulary in order to be understood; I used English in a highly academic environment before, now it's just a lingua franca, and English of all levels is present). It's somewhat devastating for me, knowing how much I had to write and read before, and now only having to write a single 150 word article, seems like years of building the language up goes to nothing here. but the only thing I can be sure of, is that it doesn't. it happens, if you only get crazy because of, it'll kill you. try to read books, skype people etc. but don't let it get to you. (level 1 kanji!) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5964 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 16 of 16 29 March 2010 at 6:16pm | IP Logged | ||
I think you can surpass the natives by passing 準１級. １級 is just crazzzzzzy. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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