Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyororin
I think you have the right idea, at the least.
I believe that the level of difficulty someone is going to feel has a lot to do with their expectations. If you expect to come out of it fluent in no time at all, then you are probably setting yourself up for failure. If you have realistic expectations, then you will probably have your ups and downs, but most likely will be satisfied with the outcome. If you just have the dream and low expectations, then you`ll probably be amazed at how easy things are in the end.
I think that too many learners simply make their goal fluency... Which is great, but that is very very far away. It`s sort of like starting a hike from New York to Los Angeles, and setting your first goal as LA. You`re not going to make it all the way there in one go. Walk as far as you can in that direction, and end up collapsing somewhere along the way with the feeling of total hopelessness... After all, you wouldn`t have even made it out of the state, let alone anywhere close to LA.
But if you say "I want to walk as far as I can toward LA - my first goal will be *insert small town within a day`s walking distance*" chances are, you`ll make it to the first goal with time to spare and feel good about it. Have a good meal, get a good night`s sleep, and be ready to walk to the next town in the morning. And when you look back, instead of feeling that you aren`t any closer to the ultimate goal, you`ll be impressed by how far you`ve come.
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That's some sound advice, thanks. My final decision I've made thanks to everyone who replied to this thread (thanks everyone!
) is that I won't be taking the Japanese university course because I simply don't think I'll have the time or that I'll be willing to spend the time it takes to be successful because of the work load of my other courses. Essentially, I've come back down to earth about my plans to study in Japan not just because of the language barrier, but just my realization that I don't really want to undergo such a huge change of environment, despite the fact that I think it would be awesome. I still have my dream of going to Japan one day as a tourist and for that trip I would like to pick up some basic conversational Japanese, but for that I can refer to the internet, books, or some extra-curricular classes. Thanks again to everyone for the very useful help.