( Teach me, Buddha)

The Mindset Prep section of this guide is all about getting yourself prepared for the challenges that await you as you tackle Japanese.

People (including me) talk about speaking practice and flashcards and interactive study videos and lessons and all these things that are “the keys to learning a language." But I think that, more than anything, learning a language is a battle of will. It's like losing 100 pounds, like writing a novel—it's simple, but it's really, really, really difficult.

Just because something is simple, that does not mean that it is easy.
- Niko (quoting someone from somewhere that I don't remember)

I know that if I have a negative caloric intake, I will lose weight. I know that if I write ten pages per day, eventually I'll have written a novel. But, well, beer bellies. No novels. No money. That stuff's easier said than done, yeah?

Learning a language is about becoming the type of person who learns languages. It's about becoming the type of person who loses weight, the type of person who writes novels—it's about becoming the type of person who does great things through consistent and persistent application of systems.

I'm not a life coach, but in the Mindset Prep section, I'll talk about the key factors that kept me going in my struggle with Japanese. Also, just some generally awesome advice that I wish I'd had when I started out on my own Japanese-acquisition journey.