Shiira.Shiira

An interesting phenomenon seems to be occurring in my Japanese language learning:  instantaneous cognizance.

Instantaneous cognizance is the ability to immediately recognize particular elements and/or concepts within the Japanese language and to…

…okay, you caught me.  There’s no such thing as instantaneous cognizance.  It’s not some hot, new theory being studied by masses of multiple-degree carrying researchers and it isn’t the nouveau trendy topic of discussion of the moment.  It’s simply my attempt to understand what’s been transpiring here lately with my quest for Japanese fluency.

Recently I’ve been watching a lot more anime and Japanese drama television than before.  I’m also listening to quite a bit of Japanese music (mostly Pop, Rock, and a liiiiitle bit of visual kei [Gackt, I LOVE you]).  As a result, I’ve been garnering quite a bit of exposure to the language in its most native element.  The more I’m exposed the more I find myself recognizing words, phrases, even whole sentences, immediately after reading translations/subtitles.  Does this ever happen to you?…

I’m not talking about just an “oh, I knew that” reaction.  I’m saying even before you completely finish reading the subtitle, something drops into the pit of your stomach, filling your whole body and you are aware with every fiber of your being that you absolutely, undoubtedly, knew what was being said before you read the translation!

I guess, technically, what I’m experiencing is knowledge without practice or practical application.  Stay with me here.  Remember back in grade school science (way, way long ago for me) we learned about innate responses?  Innate responses are reactions to stimuli that emanate from the spinal cord, completely bypassing the brain.  Like pulling your hand away from fire.  I think with enough use, language becomes quite close to an innate response.  Instead of constantly thinking, mulling over and analyzing what we want to say, we just do it because we’re so used to it.  It just comes naturally.

Of course, I say all that to say this … knowledge without use is useless and it’s important to find opportunities to practice and use the language as often as possible.  I know it may be difficult for some of us and opportunities may exist few and far in between.  But…if you really want your language learning to take off and soar, ya just gotta do it!