Understanding Japanese stories in Japanese is the primary allure for many of us who embark upon a dedicated years-long Japanese study. But like most motivators, this desire to “really” grasp the cultural nuances and the “true” meaning of a Japanese work can simultaneously hold you back. This demotivating pressure is what I call “comprehension FOMO”—the fear that you are not yet good enough to fully grasp (and therefore fully experience) a story in its original Japanese.
Comprehension FOMO attacks your goal of learning Japanese in an indirect, yet insidious way. First, it cuts you off from the reason you started learning in the first place. Remember that アニメ you want to watch but haven’t started yet because you do not want to be dependent on the English subs? Comprehension FOMO has you. Avoiding the mesmerizing (and shockingly still untranslated) works of 貴志 祐介 because you’re afraid you will not “get” 新世界より on your first pass? Your hesitancy to take the plunge is preventing you from ever getting there. Worse, by holding off on experiencing the most interesting stories, comprehension FOMO will make you forget why you’re even learning Japanese in the first place.
The second reason comprehension FOMO is an insidious foe is because it drives you away from reading Japanese “in the wild” and into structured, fake, language learning programs that dictate when you are “ready.” This kind of training wheels approach is ultimately counterproductive because it ultimately will kill your desire to learn completely. But the solution to comprehension FOMO is not to just plow into 漫画 or アニメ in their original Japanese without any preparation at all. Taking the opposite extreme and engaging in content when you are not ready can be overwhelming and demoralizing. The trick is to find the right balance of engaging with interesting Japanese in the wild while not burning yourself out because you are looking up every other word.
So what’s the solution to defeating comprehension FOMO? The trick is to make it work for you. Don’t fight the FOMO. Instead, let it guide you to the most interesting thing you want to read or watch. Then use your interest in the story to fuel your study: read the 漫画 to pick up new vocabulary while watching the アニメ in English sub. You’ll find that you’ll pick up new words you learned while reading, without giving up any enjoyment of the story. Sure you might not understand all or even the majority of the Japanese you hear in the アニメ, but by picking up new words you’ll be well on your way to get there.
Leave a Reply