[Audio] How Do I Get Started With This AJATT Noise? + Why Time on Project (Years of Study or Even Hours Per Day) Is Literally The Worst Metric For Language Study and What to Use Instead (Patreon)

WHERE TO START?

Immersion.

Typically in the form of for-native-by-native (FUNBUN) media exposure.

This is literally and figuratively the alpha and omega.

First thing in the morning: immersion.

Last thing at night: immersion

All during the day: immersion.

Time is the worst metric for gauging language study.

"I've been studying Japanese for seven months"

Really, ninja?

5040 hours of Japanese exposure over 210 days?

Really? Are ya sure about that?

"I've been studying Japanese for 4 years"

Really, playa?

35,064 hours of Japanese exposure over 1461 days?

Really? Are ya sure about that?

Days are at better than months and years in that if you say you've been learning a language for N days and then someone asks you "all day every day"? You have to deny it and that forces you to face reality. But nobody really uses days.

So then, I once suggested that seconds are a better metric.

And they are.

But they still suck.

Time is gonna pass no matter what you do. You could be strung out on that good-a$$ Fresno meth (Fresno meth: The best meth) half the time and time would still pass. That's how time works.

So a much better metric is words.

HOW TO COUNT: WORDS PER DAY IS YOUR NEW FRIEND

It's estimated that children from good (that is, well-to-do, etc.) families are exposed to 30,000 words per day.

That's about 54-55 million words from age 0 to 5. 60 million range if you count gestation (unborn babies do hear).

In 18 months of 30,000 word-per-day exposure, you would get 16 million words. 22 million over 2 years.

This is what you need to shoot for.

Hearing as many words as possible in your adopted language.

Not hours. Time passes independently of your action.

Words.