I’m Learning a Language, and I’m Tired

Written by Jeremy Grifski in Blog Published October 3, 2025Last Updated October 2, 2025
A photo of cherry blossoms with the title of the article overlaid.

Today, I’m being a bit lazy and just sharing a bit about my day-to-day life. After all, it’s Thursday evening, and I have nothing written for tomorrow morning. Sorry if this seems uninspired!

That said, I thought it would be fun to talk about something that I’ve been investing quite a bit of my free time into: learning Japanese.

Table of Contents

My Language Learning Journey

I am monolingual. That means I only speak one language—the one you’re probably reading this in—English.

My first attempt at picking up a second language was in high school (sometime between 2008 and 2012 for those wondering). Back then, I took a couple of Spanish classes, but I don’t recall ever practicing speaking. At best, I got pretty good at solving Spanish word puzzles.

Funnily enough, I picked up Spanish again in the UK as I was studying abroad at the University of Manchester in the spring of 2014. The schooling was quite a bit different from what I was used to in the US, so I had a lot of downtime. In that downtime, I started using Duolingo, back before the CEO decided to compromise all of his morals.

For anyone who has used Duolingo, you know that you don’t really learn a language. At best, you get really good at language related puzzles, but it’s in no way applicable to real world interaction. Sure, you might get good enough at reading and listening to consume your favorite media, but that’s about it.

Despite how bad Duolingo is at teaching a language, I picked it back up a little over seven years ago. I know that because I currently have a streak of 2,725 days, which doesn’t include the handful of streak freezes I’ve used over the years.

In addition to Duolingo, I eventually took Spanish a bit more seriously by putting my phone and other apps in the language. By now, I can’t speak a lick of Spanish, but I’ve somehow developed enough pattern recognition to understand Spanish text. Listening is a completely different issue.

To try to solve the listening issue, I used to listen to a lot of anime music covers in Spanish. In fact, my favorite anime music cover artist just made her return, IlonqueenOpens in a new tab.. Also, there was a stretch of time where I listened to Reggaeton, and there was another time where I took a short work trip to Mexico. Ultimately, Latin America has a soft spot in my heart, even if I never quite picked up the language.

Unfortunately, I eventually gave up on Spanish on Duolingo. I don’t know exactly when I pivoted, but you can see I dabbled in several other languages on the app (e.g., German, Polish, Italian, French, Irish, and Dutch). As is hopefully clear from the intro, I settled on Japanese.

Before I go into my reasons for learning Japanese, I wanted to briefly talk about how I’ve always been fascinated by languages. In fact, that love for languages actually made it’s way into programming languages. One of my biggest series on this site, Hello World in Every Language, began as an exploration of programming languages. That love for languages became the basis for a rather healthy repository I help maintain called Sample ProgramsOpens in a new tab.. And since I’m mentioning that, I might as well also mention that we accept pull requests; it’s HacktoberfestOpens in a new tab. after all.

I’m Learning Japanese: Here’s Why

With the massive preamble about Spanish out of the way, you might be wondering, “Why Japanese? How could that possibly be useful in your day-to-day life? Are you just a weeb?” And, while I wouldn’t necessarily take issue with any of those points, I do have my own reasons.

The pivot to Japanese was largely for weeb reasons. At the time, I was watching quite a bit of anime, and I have since become a manga reader—one that is caught up in One Piece. The anime journey is long and not one that I’m really interested in hashing out, but I’ve been watching anime since I was a literal child. I think most folks from my generation remember watching Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, Sailor Moon, and YuYu Hakusho. To put this in perspective, I was that weird kid who brought a copy of Newtype USAOpens in a new tab. in the fifth grade for show and tell.

By the time I was in college, I remember picking anime back up with shows like Sword Art Online and Tokyo Ghoul. In fact, I even joined my university’s anime club to watch a few shows as a group every week.

Since then, the weeb allegations have really only gotten worse. I’ve been really into Japanese music lately, which includes popular groups like Creepy Nuts, Yoasobi, and The Peggies. If you were ever trapped in my car, you’d be driven completely mad from the music genre whiplash. One moment you’d be listening to Creepy Nuts, the next Modern Baseball, then Bad Bunny, and finally Sabrina Carpenter. I like variety.

Anyway, what started as a desire to learn a language to engage more deeply with a cultural export became a desire to connect with Japanese people. As I’ve probably mentioned before, my dream of running a study abroad program became a reality in the last year. That study abroad program just so happens to go to Japan every single year, so my language learning journey has been given a bit more meaning.

Taking Japanese Seriously

Prior to traveling to Japan for the first time this past May, I figured I could go about language learning the way I always have: Duolingo. In addition, I picked up a few Japanese workbooks, and I engaged with Japanese media pretty regularly.

Then, when I got to Japan, I realized that I was dramatically ill-equipped to engage in Japanese society. Sure, I could get around with tools like Google Translate, but that wasn’t really giving me a cultural experience with any depth, right?

To illustrate this, I tried to use my Duolingo Japanese to talk to the hotel staff, and they literally busted out Google Translate immediately. Apparently, my Japanese was just that bad.

As a result, I didn’t even wait to get back to the states to start asking my university how I could take Japanese classes. I was no longer going to play with these apps. I wanted to engage with the language seriously.

Flash forward a few months, and I am taking a Japanese course at my university. It’s pretty interesting because it’s purely spoken, almost completely the opposite of my Duolingo experience. In fact, I’m taking the individual track, which involves meeting up with an instructor for brief sessions to show off what I’ve learned.

Of course, even individualized, the class is really intense. I was originally taking four credits, which was four 15-minute sessions a week. That might sound reasonable, but between working a full time job and raising I toddler, I found it really hard to balance.

Fortunately, I was able to adjust the credit load down to two credits, so I only have to go in twice a week to show off what I’ve learned. However, it’s still challenging. I’m responsible for memorizing two dialogues a week, and I need to consider how those dialogues might be different in different contexts. I also am responsible for all of the old content, unsurprisingly, which may pop up in each session.

Naturally, when I’m not working, I can be found at home reciting lines in Japanese into the void. I can only imagine how much fun it is for my wife and kid to listen to me repeat the same lines over and over again, but I’m really enjoying it. It feels like I’m actually learning something.

I’m Tired, Boss

As it turns out, even with grad school out of the way, I’ve found a way to keep myself busy. Since taking on this Japanese class, I’ve felt really tired. Very few things seem to tire me out as much as learning a language. I don’t know what it is, but it’s clearly very taxing on the brain. I have significant respect for my kiddo now who can only say a handful of words. I know she’s working hard!

Ironically, I figured this would be a lazy post, but here’s me treating this space like a diary. I suppose it’s time for bed! As always, thanks for reading. Here’s maybe a few other posts you might find interesting:

Likewise, you can take your support a step further by checking out my list of ways to grow the site. Otherwise, take care!

Jeremy Grifski

Jeremy grew up in a small town where he enjoyed playing soccer and video games, practicing taekwondo, and trading Pokémon cards. Once out of the nest, he pursued a Bachelors in Computer Engineering with a minor in Game Design. After college, he spent about two years writing software for a major engineering company. Then, he earned a master's in Computer Science and Engineering. Most recently, he earned a PhD in Engineering Education and now works as a Lecturer. In his spare time, Jeremy enjoys spending time with his wife and kid, playing Overwatch 2, Lethal Company, and Baldur's Gate 3, reading manga, watching Penguins hockey, and traveling the world.

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