Finally broke through from “learning” to “speaking”
Obviously, we’re all always learning, but after about a year and a half of dedicated studying, constant input, struggle, self doubt, wanting to quit, frustration, wanting to cry because i felt so stupid, and perseverance, i had a tutoring session today entirely in Japanese! I forgot easy words that i use all the time too like 子供 都市 and even 彼, which is pretty embarrassing.
I work with a tutor who is an c1 English teacher so i constantly have the safety net of switching to English when things get frustrating, but my tutor is traveling for the next month so i booked a lesson with a different tutor who is b1 English, and we were able to speak Japanese for the entire hour!
Granted, my Japanese is broken, i make a lot of mistakes, and if any of you on here heard me speak you’d laugh, however I’m proud of myself for breaking through and not being scared to make mistakes.
I know what i need to work on, where my weaknesses are, but i think it’s important to not let perfect be the enemy of good. I had that mindset for quite a while. I was scared to make mistakes, what if i accidentally say が instead of は or を?
I really stopped caring if i made those mistakes and am now opting to learn as i go, make the mistakes, take the corrections and try to fix them the best i can.
Hopefully this will inspire some other folks who are struggling! It will click! I promise! I’m 43 and this is my 3rd language, so if my dumbass can do it, so can you!