Filling in the Gaps: Back to the Basics of Japanese

Does anyone else still have a stack of college Japanese notes from eight years ago?

I've had a growing urge to review some basic Japanese grammar. You know, the stuff I learned my first few years of college so many years ago. I would say I've integrated a lot of the knowledge just from using it when talking with Japanese people, living with daily exposure to Japanese for 4 years, and by casual reading, but there are still so many gaps that I want to fill. I've been using Japanese more frequently for my different jobs recently, so I think it would be helpful if I made sure I understood the easier stuff to make fewer mistakes while working.

Today I would like to introduce my 4-step process to get back to the basics of Japanese:

• Review old lesson notes: I'm questioning why I still have this huge stack of notes from college. Let's be honest, if I don't review them now, I'll never actually look through them. Time to say goodbye and give them one last review.

• Question what I think I know: I can base my daily study topic on questions I have about real Japanese I encounter. I'm going to look at messages from Japanese friends and read Japanese books that I own to come up with basic questions of things I take for granted, such as, “how does this particle work here?” “How can I use this pattern in my own sentence?” “What other uses does this word have?”

• Report daily to a friend who is also interested in filling in his Japanese knowledge gaps as well. Teaching someone else is a great way to check if you really know it.

• Ask Japanese friends or people on the app HiNative whenever I have questions about something I can't figure out myself.

My goal is to keep up with this study plan until the end of August. I plan to share some of the interesting things I learn about Japanese on here as well, so look forward to more updates!

What is a skill you want to learn or relearn by the end of summer? We’re halfway through July, but it’s never too late to start!