trying to learn to draw lightning bolts..? this seems like it should be easy

i've also been really torn between learning spanish and learning japanese! i've taken a lot of years of spanish classes over the years, but they never really stuck, because i didn't use the spanish outside of class, because i think spanish doesn't really interest me? i really like the thought of speaking another language, and spanish would be a very practical choice considering i'm in america, but i already speak english, and spanish (any european language?) isn't that different?? it's like "oh, i already speak a language like this" and i get bored. i want a language that forces me to think differently, and japanese is good for that. but i don't know anyone who speaks japanese, and i'm not likely to meet people who speak japanese in central iowa. i already know lots of spanish speakers, and there's lots of opportunity to meet more.

some friends have suggested i learn both, but that feels like a tall order. i gave it a try and immediately started mixing up my vocabulary. (i will probably forever say でも instead of pero..) but i had an idea that i'm gonna start next week.

there's a japanese resource called Remembering the Kanji, which i had previously decided not to use. as i understand it, "RTK" doesn't actually teach japanese vocabulary, it gives you a mental framework for how to recognize+write kanji characters. some people say it's a waste of time, because when you're done you have to go back and learn actual japanese vocabulary, which can be made from several characters, how to pronounce the words, etc. i've been learning kanji by learning vocabulary, which is kinda slow for me but i've got a process. but if my spanish and japanese vocabularies are interfering, preventing me from learning both at the same time, familiarizing myself with kanji without actually learning vocabulary could be a good way to multitask. it should be easier to learn japanese vocab later, if i'm already familiar with the building blocks.

so alright. i think getting good at spanish will be similarly hard to getting good at japanese, but getting started with spanish is definitely easier for me an english speaker, and i'm more interested in getting functional in spanish than getting fluent, so for the next two months i'll go hard on spanish, just to see how far i can get during winter break, refine my language-learning workflow, and in the meantime i can do RTK without interfering with my spanish learning, and i'll be ready to start japanese again once i'm satisfied with my spanish.

this seems ambitious but i don't know enough about language learning to understand how ambitious it is, so i'm just gonna go for it.