And now for mountain metaphors!!!

Learning a language can seem like climbing the highest mountain. You can stand at the bottom looking up in excitement, or roam around in frustration while looking for the easiest way to the top. You can throw yourself in and hope for the best, but quickly realize what a daunting task this high mountain has become, and that you probably should have trained your body beforehand.For me, learning Japanese has been like climbing fuji-san. At first, I thought anyone could do it on their own if they had enough time and willpower. Then I realized that there is more than one route you can take, and that it's a more enjoyable trek if you don't do it alone. I also came to terms with the fact that climbing fuji-san would be less challenging if I started with smaller mountains first, and perhaps even with hills and hikes through flat woods.So really, climbing fuji-san has become a lot like my journey in learning a new language. I now know that you can't just buy the best language audio-cd you've heard of, subscribe to all the podcasts you can find, and read all the language books for busy people. You need to surround yourself with native speakers and fellow learners to make the journey more rewarding. You musn't buy into the latest 'Learn English in 10 days or less!!" gimmick, because with languages, it's about setting realistic goals and starting from the ground up. And finally, you must remember that much like climbing a mountain, the view gets better and better the closer you get to the top. Before you know it, you begin to accomplish tasks in your new language that you never thought possible. When this happens, you realize you could never abandon this mountain without setting your flag at the peak.