I have always struggled with other languages. I do not even try anymore. I use Google Translate on my phone on the rare occasions I need to talk to someone in another language. Our cleaning ladies at work only speak Spanish, and I will occasionally use it to converse with them briefly. Mainly to offer them the candy/treats I bring or to ask for something we are low on, as they are the keepers\/stockers of paper towels, trash bags, etc. Also, some of my drivers that come through my office speak mainly other languages, and the translate app is useful for that, especially when they are new and need to be given specific instructions.

Good luck with your lessons.

I’m excited for you and a little envious, too. My dad served in the occupation after the war and picked up few polite phrases that he taught us, and he brought home a book on ”teach yourself Japanese”. I studied that book over one summer, but of course I had no where to practice. Then, when my son was in 2nd grade, his classmate’s mom, from Japan, asked me to help her translate a book for ”guest reader” day. It was fun, and so interesting! It just occured to me that his girlfriend now has a Japanese grandmother, but the DGF does not know any Japanese as far as I know. But, DH and I watch the 30-minute NHK news in the evening and I especially listen to the pronunciations of person and place names.

Good luck with your lessons!

Just...ganbatte! I have no ethnic connection, but studied Japanese and spent a year there in college. It is not the easiest language for a native English speaker to learn; no common Latin or German roots, but you are motivated. Enjoy you lessons!

You can also put duolingo on your phone for extra lessons. i learned a lot of spanish that way I'm surprised how much I learned I can easily read things or understand what people are saying while shopping in stores. Duolingo is free

There are many podcasts and library resources for language study. Trying to learn on dry land, meaning, without ready opportunities to immerse yourself and the means of being able to duck in and duck out to gain confidence and practice, will make the task all the more difficult. Try supplementing your tutor's lessons by finding audio tracks to listen to.

I seem to have been born with a language learning aptitude and have developed capability in several. But all are Western European ones, which I think are easier when the starting point is a different European language (English). I've tried to keep in practice and for me it's the proverbial "riding a bike" so long as I "exercise" fairly regularly. The internet makes doing that easy.

I have a former colleague who has been studying Chinese for decades and he now lives there. By his own admission, he's quite capable and comfortable in Chinese for most all situations and purposes but he thinks he lacks the ease of use of someone for whom Chinese is their mother tongue.

Another former colleague who went to Japan on a church mission (sect known for doing that) went through their well regarded language crash course for Japanese before going over there and he says he learned little more than basic conversations of daily life and capability in topics relevant to his work with the locals. He's of retirement age now so his experience there was many decades ago. He says he's forgotten the little he learned due to lack of continuing practice.

It's unfortunately that you were not able to learn Japanese from your mother, but it's common in this country for languages to get quickly lost when they are spoken by only one parent. My mother did not learn German from her mother, even though that was my grandmother's native language. It is definitely easier to learn a new language when one is a child.

I watched a few episodes of a Japanese language course on NHK but did not pick anything up from it - it was much too slow.

I've had formal classes in six foreign languages (including Latin), and I've tried to learn a bit of Portuguese from online classes, but that has not worked for me. I need to be in a class with a good teacher and other students, but having a good teacher is what is most important. My Italian teacher was one of the best, and so I learned very quickly from her. From day one, she spoke almost no English in class, and yet I understood almost everything she said.

My niece went to Korea to teach English, and she speaks no Korean (that I know of), and so she must have conducted her classes similarly to my Italian teacher.

My late BIL's first wife was Japanese, and they had three sons, but none of them ever seemed to learn any Japanese, and they speak English with a very strong Texas accent, although my BIL was from North Carolina and had a southern accent, which is still somewhat similar to the Texas accent.

Anyway, good luck learning Japanese, and try not to be shy, and especially do not be afraid to make mistakes. I assume you will just be learning conversation and not written Japanese. I took Spanish and French conversation classes like that at City College in San Francisco as an adult because I did not need university credit, and I found those classes more helpful than the ones in which I had to learn written languages.

I, too, am "learning" Italian on Duolingo in advance of an upcoming trip. The lesson that just ended was about a haunted hotel! I know how to say "scared, frightened and let's go to another hotel immediately". How that will help me to navigate is uncertain! And, realistically, unless the person is speaking very very slowly, I will not be all that fluent. But it is fun. I am of Italian heritage, and our parents never let any of my generation learn Italian so that they could talk about things in front of us without our understanding,

I'm refreshing my Spanish on Duolingo. I practice every day. Maybe if you also use Duolingo...you'd get a 2nd lesson....more practice. It's FREE!

I really wish my dad hadn't told my mom not to teach us Japanese when we were kids. He regretted it later but he thought it would confuse us.

That’s a shame. I grew up speaking German, today conversationally I can understand it reasonably well, speaking is hesitant but It becomes a lot more comfortable in short time when emersed. My aunt turns 100 in October, if she makes it she’ll likely throw herself a big party which I wouldn’t miss. Last time I was in Germany was for her 90th. One thing I noticed my past few times there is that when there, I’m quickly thinking and dreaming in German. I’d imagine that’s a bit harder for someone to get to when learning later in life.

I took French for six years in school and have little to show for it. I have fleeting thoughts to learn another language, Spanish seems useful. I like Elmer’s idea of listening to podcasts, though I might start with young children’s programming.

Good luck!

Songs, and especially children’s songs, are a helpful way to learn language, and to acquire fluidity (if not fluency). But they have to be easy to understand in the first place, not a lot of orchestration, slang, too fast, etc.

The good news about learning a little Spanish or Italian, or French, is that you can borrow from those to get by a little in the other Romance language countries.

I took 3 years of Spanish in high school and being painfully shy, I didn't do too good. I still don't know why I took 3 years of it. I do still know words and some phrases but can't speak to someone using it.

My second attempt at a foreign language was in Germany. I only took one semester because whenever I went out in the community the Germans I ran into would just start speaking English to me, so I gave up. There were also TDYs we had multiple times a year so that deterred me from signing up for classes. I remember some German. Not much, though.

My kids are better at learning languages than I am. They both took French in high school. Then my son learned Japanese from watching Japanese tv shows and movies. Both took Japanese in college. My son also knows Russian. He listens to a lot of non English singers/bands too.

I'll try Duolingo. Thanks for the recommendation! My teacher is teaching me to write also. I can write my name. She also sent me an app to practice my writing. I wasn't planning on doing the writing part, but I'm just going with it. Good for the old brain cells, right? My son gave me his old textbook but I can't find it. Not sure if I gave it back or not.

@bpath...Duolingo teaches ANY language....ANY. Cherokee or Maa...or....

Knowing Italian, Spanish, and French did not get me very far in Brazil, but I went there with someone who was fluent in Portuguese (or else I would not have gone). It is true that I could read occasional words here and there, but conversation was impossible, and they do not like to speak or hear Spanish in Brazil. Portuguese pronunciation is irregular, unlike Spanish or Italian.

Italian and Spanish are very similar, and I've heard that French is similar to Italian, but Portuguese is something else altogether. When trying to find a restroom, I first tried the word baño, which got no response, but then I tried sanitario, which fortunately is the same in Spanish and Portuguese, but this is an isolated example of success. Brazilians are more likely to speak English than Spanish.

One difficulty with Japanese is that it is its own language family (Japonic), making it a language isolate, and so knowing another language will not help much with Japanese.

Lars, there is such a thing as knowing or being experienced with the task of learning a language. Which is why learning a second foreign language (after learning the first) is often easier, even if it's a language from a different family.

The starting point for language study is knowing and understanding grammar of one's own mother tongue. In most other countries, the study of the local language, done as a subject in itself, is started at a young age. The language learning problem many Americans have is that we do not learn our language properly so that when it comes to learning features of a second language (using European languages as an example I'm familiar with), there's a problem. If the topic for the new language is learning forms or patterns for the subjunctive tense, or the pluperfect tense, or conjugating verbs, or the sense and patterns of case declensions (which I know you know from learning German and Russian), American students are stumped because many don't know those elements in English. You can't begin to earn something in a second language when you don't know it in your own.