u/ByteSizedDesign

Hi everyone! Long-time lurker, first post here.

I'm half-Japanese on my mother's side and grew up speaking the language at home and with family. I went to hoshūkō (Japanese Saturday school) for five years through elementary and early middle school, visited Japan every summer, and even spent two summers attending school there. At my peak I was genuinely functional. Reading, writing, speaking with relatives, navigating daily life, etc.

Then life happened. The past decade I've been almost entirely in English-speaking environments, and my Japanese has faded a lot. Right now I can hold casual conversations with family and close friends, but anything formal is gone. My kanji is basically back to first or second grade level. It's honestly a little heartbreaking to think about how much I've lost.

I'm now motivated to get back, partly for career reasons (I'd love to work in a Japan-facing role eventually and am eyeing JLPT N2 as a first serious milestone), but honestly mostly because I want to reconnect with that part of my identity, my family, and my culture. It means a lot to me.

A few things I'm curious about:

1. Other heritage speakers: did you go through something similar? What worked for you that might not apply to someone learning from scratch? I still have a natural ear for the language, intuition for natural speech, and a deep emotional connection. All of those things are still intact.

2. Kanji relearning: I'm looking at WaniKani. Is that the right call for someone who has faint memories of kanji rather than zero? Or is something like RTK or a simpler Anki deck better for reactivating rather than learning fresh?

3. Keigo/formal Japanese: this feels like the biggest gap alongside kanji. Any specific resources, tutors, or approaches you'd recommend for someone who can speak naturally but has never really learned the formal register?

4. Immersion that doesn't feel like homework: I respond really well to content I actually enjoy. What shows, podcasts, or media helped you most? I'm not a huge fan of anime/manga or video games personally but I wouldn't mind some genuine recommendations.

Any advice, shared experiences, or resource recommendations are hugely appreciated. Excited to finally be working on this again. よろしくお願いします！

I’m currently trying to figure out the best order to learn a few languages long term. I know people usually say “just learn the one you’re most interested in” but I’m also thinking strategically about which languages might help with the others later on.

Languages I’m interested in:

• Korean
• Russian
• Swedish
• German
• Turkish

I already know English and Japanese (not fully fluent in Japanese but I know most of the language already and can communicate/read fairly comfortably).

I’m pretty sure I want to learn Korean first and Turkish last, but I’m not sure about the order of German, Swedish, and Russian in the middle.

Part of me wants to learn Russian earlier because I’m really interested in Russian literature/history/culture, but I’ve also heard it’s a huge difficulty jump compared to Germanic languages. At the same time, German and Swedish seem like they would reinforce each other a lot.

For people who’ve learned multiple languages or are into polyglot/language learning stuff:

• Would it make more sense to do German + Swedish before Russian?
• Is Swedish easier after German?
• Would learning Russian earlier make the Germanic languages easier afterward or just cause burnout?
• Does knowing Japanese help at all with Korean/Turkish structurally?

I’m mainly learning languages because I genuinely like culture/history/media and want to broaden my worldview, not just for career reasons.

Would appreciate any advice from people who’ve gone through something similar.

I've recently started getting really interested in literature, film, and media analysis after watching movies like Fight Club and American Psycho and reading The Catcher in the Rye. What fascinates me is how people are able to notice recurring symbols, themes, contrasts, and underlying meanings that completely go over my head when I consume media normally.

For example, I never would’ve connected things like the IKEA furniture in Fight Club to identity/consumerism on my own, or noticed how repetition and contrast are used to reinforce themes. Usually I just follow the plot and the literal events happening on screen/page. Then I look online afterward and see people discussing symbolism and themes that seem obvious in hindsight.

I think part of my problem is that I’m very used to consuming things at a surface level and moving on quickly once the novelty wears off. I also tend to second-guess my interpretations because I assume there’s some “correct” deeper meaning that smarter or more cultured people are seeing that I’m not. I feel like high school should have prepared me for this but I still feel very lost.

How do people actually develop this skill? Is it something that naturally comes from reading/watching more, or are there specific things you consciously look for while engaging with media?

Like:

• How do you notice patterns without forcing it?
• How do you tell the difference between a meaningful symbol/theme and just overanalyzing?
• How do you get better at articulating why something feels important or emotionally impactful?
• Is there a good way to practice this without turning every movie/book into homework?

I'm especially interested in becoming more artistically/literarily well versed in general (film, classics, theater, poetry, philosophy, etc.), but a lot of “serious” works feel inaccessible or boring to me at first, so I’m trying to figure out how people train their attention and appreciation for this sort of thing.