Shockingly Bad Advice
Now and then I check the 'recently updated' page of Neocities and have a look for new websites. Today I found a website that has, frankly, the most damaging and incorrect advice for learning Japanese I've ever seen. I'm genuinely shocked there's a community of people that seemingly fund the website. Tatsumoto is a guide that emphasises immersion as the best way of learning, which, you know, is fine. After a person has a base level of understanding, immersion IS a fantastic way of learning. But the website is littered with so many opinions stated as fact and blatantly incorrect statements that I came away a bit bewildered.
To start with, the guide contradicts itself. Tatsumoto states, "They [traditional language learners] insist that adults have to learn languages the same way you learn math or science: with your rational, logical brain; by consciously memorizing rules and drilling exercises. This has proven to be untrue." On the same page, Tatsumoto recommends using Anki, a flash card system - you know, a drilling exercise. In fact, they recommend having a huge number of anki cards - "There is a popular goal in the community to create 10,000 flashcards within the first 18 months. While this number is not special, having a goal to work towards can be motivating. I managed to learn 10,000 sentence cards in 11 months." So are drilling exercises necessary or not? Possibly Tatsumoto means drilling exercises aren't the ONLY method of learning languages, but I can't imagine anybody insisting that with a straight face.
The guide also is flagrantly incorrect at times. On the grammar page, Tatsumoto says "In essence grammar is a set of specific words or phrases that don't bear any meanings themselves, but are used to connect and define relations between adjacent words." That is not even slightly what grammar is. To steal from the Oxford dictionary, grammar is "the whole system and structure of a language or of languages in general, usually taken as consisting of syntax and morphology (including inflections) and sometimes also phonology and semantics." Tatsumoto seems to be under the impression that grammar is the connecting words, verb suffixes and prefixes, and that's it. Tatsumoto also states that "It is entirely possible to skip formal grammar study and learn grammar points solely through immersion.". I find this hard to believe because 1. grammar is hideously complex, and 2. Tatsumoto earlier recommended Tae Kim's grammar guide. If that's not formal grammar study, I'm not sure what is.
Some of the sentences on the guide are so immensely stupid that I truly have no words. On the 'avoiding bad advice' page, Tatsumoto lists the following point as a reason why you shouldn't take a paid Japanese class: "Classes don't work. A simple comparison between the number of people taking Japanese classes and those who are proficient in the language reveals a startling gap." Are you fucking stupid? They're in a Japanese class BECAUSE they're not proficient in the language! That's what the class is for!!!!!!!! Jesus christ!!!!! Aside from this breathtakingly stupid statement, this whole point is immensely presumptuous. Tatsumoto also states that "your teacher doesn't know Japanese that well" and "[classes are] boring. They don't provide compelling content". Which are both just shit they pulled from their ass since this website could not possibly make such a sweeping statement about every Japanese class on earth. Jesus. Tatsumoto also claims, "Think about how babies learn their first language. Initially, they learn from the input they receive from their parents and other speakers, and after a couple of years, they accumulate enough input to begin speaking. The more language they absorb, the more neural pathways they create... This process mostly happens unconsciously, but providing the right input can expedite it." This is dumb for a couple of reasons, mainly because babies do in fact need instruction to learn their language. Do the writers of Tatsumoto not recall their parents correcting their grammar as children, slowly teaching them new words and concepts, or, I don't know, the entirety of preschool as a teaching environment? They seem to be under the impression that language learning is a passive experience, not aided by the village of support children [hopefully] have around them.
Fundamentally, Tatsumoto can't decide on what is immersion or not. Tatsumoto says "the problem with textbooks is that they never feed you input", but a quick glance inside the most famous textbook ever, Genki, shows that every chapter starts with a script written in Japanese which you are expected to read. Are sentences in Japanese not input? What is input? Apparently anime is input but textbooks are not, even though anime language is often far more stilted and irrelevant to daily life than textbook language. Tatsumoto states that "we think it is better to learn from native content from day one, starting with something easier at first, such as slice of life anime. This way, you can learn in the most natural manner." Have you ever watched an anime? I have. Anime are full of ways of speaking that wouldn't fly in real life, characters that speak in accents, and rare or made-up words. This is somehow more natural than studying from a textbook designed to provide a relevant and smooth learning experience.
I feel bad for people who believe this shit. It's a get-rich-quick scheme but for learning language, based around not wanting to spend money and not wanting to do anything that isn't fun. Which is fine! I don't like spending money or doing boring things either. But, at least on this Tatsumoto website, the advice is contradictory, illogical, and not based on well cited evidence. Advice like "it is recommended to avoid reading for the first year in order to allow listening abilities to mature" is bizarre considering it would be impossible to even look at a dictionary without passively reading. The recommended hours for studying are completely insane. Tatsumoto states "on a bad day when you only have 3 hours to study, spend 1 hour on each activity. On a good day when you have, say, 12 hours, allocate 1 hour to Anki, 5.5 hours for listening, and 5.5 hours for reading." TWELVE HOURS????????? I HAVE A JOB. THREE HOURS TO STUDY IS A GOOD DAY. This is insane. Like, this is insanity. Studying for three hours a day is pie-in-the-sky type shit for the majority of people who have jobs, outside commitments, and normal human attention spans. To me, Tatsumoto appears to be written by weeaboos with too much time on their hands, who distrust professionals and don't have disposable incomes. This guide is niche at best, and actively damaging at worst. It makes me sad that so much effort has been clearly put into it.