Wim 🅾 is a user on octodon.social. You can follow them or interact with them if you have an account anywhere in the fediverse.
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I started learning #Japanese in 2012. I study about 1-2 hours a week (not counting Mastodon ^_^). I know you folks here learn a new language in a few months but I'm not like that.
In October 2014 I set myself a task: to read Haruki Murakami's novel "1Q84" in Japanese. It's a long novel, about 2200 pages in total. The Japanese paperback edition is split in 6 volumes. Initially, it took me over an hour to read a single page.
Yesterday, I finally finished reading the 2nd volume!
@wim_v12e I am learning Japanese now it's really hard
@extinctionratio It is, but I found it very rewarding, and fun. The hardest part is remembering all the characters.
My reading speed has improved a lot, to about 15 minutes per page; still, I frequently encounter kanji that I either have not learned yet or already forgotten, so I have to look them up. If I just skip them I can off course read a lot faster, but my aim is to learn them.
I think at this rate, it will take another 3 years to finish the book.
Anyway, the bottom line is: when you're learning a foreign language, reading a novel may seem daunting, but it is great fun and I totally recommend it.