(//_-) ← emo bang

One of the most common questions I'm asked is some variant of "what's wrong with you?" However, the second most common thing I'm asked is "how did you learn Japanese?" or something related to my language knowledge. So I decided I might as well write about it. I do have suggested resources, but before I give those out I have things to say to all the beginner or considering-beginning learners. Parts of this entry might be useful advice to learners of any language, or just those targeting languages that greatly differ from their native language.

Before I give any tips directly related to language learning, I want to give my two cents on a common belief: A baby learns language better than adults. After a certain age, learning a new language becomes really hard. Try as you might, you'll never be the linguistic machine that a baby is. Blah blah blah. I've seen the research; I'm sure there's stuff going on in a baby's brain related to language that's very interesting and unique. But I simply don't believe that babies learn languages better than older people.

( [completely skippable cutscene] )
( Just give me the resources! )