PERFECT. Exactly what it felt like trying to learn Japanese in my 30s going to class only 1-2x/week and having no native speakers to converse with daily. Bein

PERFECT. Exactly what it felt like trying to learn Japanese in my 30s going to class only 1-2x/week and having no native speakers to converse with daily. Being sort-of proficient or knowing XX% of kanji/vocab/etc sounds a lot more impressive than it is in practice! At first I made a lot of progress. Eventually I got into the middle where every lesson taught me both some new small thing and opened an entire dimensions of other things I didn’t know. I eventually settled on being a functionally illiterate holiday traveler with the vocabulary of a kindergartener. I’m never going to work there, so this is as far as I’m going to go.. I have a few Japanese friends on social media.. When I travel to Japan, and especially in a situation where not in a hurry, I can entertain a taxi driver or make small talk with some older folk in a quieter town I am passing through. In a cafe / pub in a city I can make a quick order in Japanese and if questioned for more detail I have to switch to English pretty quickly. It’s a very humbling experience and everyone should try it. It gives you even greater respect for immigrants who come here and learn English... frequently speaking it better than native born!