The reason there's basic words and grammar structures you still can't understand
is that, they're actually not basic at all.
You see, in every language, there's a subset of words and grammatical structures
that are extremely hard to grasp
despite being some of the most common elements of the language.
Assuming these elements should be easy just because they're frequently used
is an extremely common mistake
that ends up causing language learners a lot of frustration.
Now, make sure to watch to the very end of this video,
because I actually have a completely free gift for anyone learning Japanese.
It will help you fix your understanding of Japanese grammar,
which actually contradicts the content of this video.
So make sure to watch the entire video to get the proper context...
Do not skip to the end...
or you might actually end up worse off than you started.
So, I call these extremely common yet difficult to grasp words and structures
"persistent puzzles".
They're "persistent" in the sense that, right from day 1, you come across them all the time.
If you're doing a lot of immersion,
you probably come across most persistent puzzles multiple times every day.
Yet, despite coming across these particular words and structures so frequently,
you just can't seem to really figure them out,
and in this sense, they're also "persistently unsolvable".
You might "kind of" get what one of these words mean in some sentences,
but then in other sentences you're completely lost.
And even if you read multiple articles explaining the given word or structure,
you only end up feeling more confused.
Now, to clarify, not all frequently used words and structures are persistent puzzles.
In fact, many common words and structures are relatively easy to grasp.
In cases like this, although the word or structure itself may be persistent,
the puzzle presented by the word or structure is not.
By persistent puzzle, I'm specifically referring to words and structures
that are both extremely common and nearly impossible to grasp
until reaching a relatively high level in the language.
Now before I go on, I want to give a few examples to help make things more concrete.
So, in Japanese,
some the most common persistent puzzles are は vs が, こと, いう, わけ, and 気.
Now these are also some of the most common elements of the Japanese language in general.
In fact, they're taught in one form or another in most Japanese 101 classes.
Yet, each of these elements are notorious for regularly giving Japanese learners trouble.
For example,
despite the particles は and が being taught on probably the very first day of most Japanese 101 classes,
most intermediate to advanced Japanese learners probably still don't feel like
they 100% understand exactly what the difference between the two really is.
Now, unfortunately I can't provide examples of persistent puzzles for every target language,
so if you're studying a language other than Japanese,
please leave a comment with the persistent puzzles that you've struggle with the most.
So, like I just eluded to,
the thing about persistent puzzles is that, despite them coming up all the time,
it's not actually possible to fully "solve" them until you reach a high level in the language.
This aspect of persistent puzzles makes them very counterintuitive.
Because they show up so often, on the surface, persistent puzzles seem "basic".
I mean, after all, many of them are taught in college 101-classes on the language.
The problem is that this illusion of basic-ness leads many intermediate language learners to falsely assume
that these persistent puzzles are something they should have mastered a long time ago.
They end up beating themselves up for not being able to understanding them
despite having been learning the language for X amount of months or years.
And this leads to them feeling like they're dumb or bad at language learning,
and constantly feeling frustrated because of it.
Now, I'm going to explain exactly how to deal with persistent puzzles,
but before that, it's important to understand
why the phenomenon of persistent puzzles occurs in the first place.
The majority of persistent puzzles occur
due to a target language word or structure having a meaning
that can't be directly translated into English.
This might sound a little abstract,
but essentially, what really language is is a way of dividing the world up into concepts
and making statements about how those different concepts relate to one another.
The specific way in which the world is divided up into concepts is fundamentally different for each language,
and because of this, it's inevitable that there are some concepts that are simply not possible to translate from one language to another.
To make this more concrete, take the word かける in Japanese.
From the perspective of a Japanese person,
かける is a simple word that represents a single core concept.
Although かける has many specific usages,
each of those individual usages can be understood as fundamentally meaning the same thing.
Now, in English, we simply don't have a word that means かける.
In fact, we could even say that the English language doesn't contain the concept that かける represents.
Now, if you look up "かける" on the Japanese dictionary website jisho.org,
25 different English meanings are listed,
including "to put on" in the sense of "to put on glasses",
"to spend" in the sense of "to spend time or money on",
and "to deliberate" in the sense of discussing something in a meeting.
On the surface, it would appear that かける simply has 25 different meanings.
And, depending on the situation, かける can indeed mean each of those 25 different things.
But, once you fully grasp the underlying concept behind かける,
you realize that, at its essence, the word really only has one single core meaning.
In reality, all of those English translations are simply that same core meaning viewed from different angles.
Because English doesn't contain the specific concept that かける represents,
there is no way to use English to directly communicate the true essence of what かける really means.
The best English language can do is take each individual situation that かける tends to be used in
and list out what English expression would be used in a similar sort of situation.
A good analogy for understanding this idea is the parable of the blind men and an elephant.
According to Wikipedia, the parable broadly goes like this:
A group of blind men heard that a strange animal called an elephant, had been brought to the town,
but none of them were aware of its shape and form.
Out of curiosity, they said: "We must inspect and know it by touch, of which we are capable".
So, they sought it out, and when they found it they groped about it.
The first person, whose hand landed on the trunk, said, "This being is like a thick snake".
For another one whose hand reached its ear, it seemed like a kind of fan.
As for another person, whose hand was upon its leg, said, the elephant is a pillar like a tree-trunk.
The blind man who placed his hand upon its side said the elephant, "is a wall".
Another who felt its tail, described it as a rope.
The last felt its tusk, stating the elephant is that which is hard, smooth and like a spear.
In the context of language learning,
we start off "blind" in the sense that we begin from a position of ignorance with regards to our target language.
All we have to rely on is our sense of "touch", which, in this case, corresponds to our native language.
Because our target language is fundamentally different from our native language,
trying to interpret our target language through our native language leads to partial, seemingly contradictory understandings.
Basically, trying to understand what かける means through the English language would be like
trying to understand what an elephant is through touch alone.
In this way, the core reason that persistent puzzles occur
is that when target language words or structures are sufficiently foreign from anything we know from our native language,
they become impossible to fully grasp through translation.
So, if this is the case, then how can persistent puzzles actually be solved?
Using the language of the elephant parable, how can we learn to see?
Well, through learning to understand everything else besides the persistent puzzles,
and then using inference to fill in the remaining gaps.
I think a good analogy for understanding this is, funnily enough, jigsaw puzzles.
You see, when you start off solving a jigsaw puzzle,
initially you don't have a very good idea of where most of the pieces are going to go.
For some pieces, the color or design might make it immediately obvious, while for others, you'll have no clue.
As you assemble more and more of the puzzle,
pieces that you were previously confused about start to become more clear.
Now, imagine a puzzle piece so vague and indiscriminate
that, right up until the very end of solving the puzzle, you have no idea where it's going to go.
This is essentially what persistent puzzles are.
In this situation, the only way to figure out where that problem pieces go is to first solve the rest of the puzzle.
Only once all the other pieces are in place will things finally become clear.
In this way,
when a given word or structure simply has no equivalent in your native language,
the only to figure out what it means is to infer from context.
Strictly speaking, this isn't only true for persistent puzzles.
When talking about languages that are vastly different from one another like English and Japanese,
the number of words that have true one-to-one counterparts in each language is is fairly small.
Even for basic words such as "table" or "blue",
the underlying concept will have slightly different nuances and connotations in each language.
In these cases, it's only possible to grasp the true nuance of the target language counterpart through contextual inference.
What's unique in the case of persistent puzzles
is that they occur when conceptual gap between your target language and native language is so large
that it becomes difficult to intuit the meaning of the word or structure in question.
In this way,
persistent puzzles are the equivalent to maximumly indiscriminate puzzle pieces,
which don't become clear until everything else in the puzzle is already in place.
This is the reason persistent puzzles are not possible to fully grasp
until reaching an intermediate to advanced level.
The only way to infer what they really mean is to see them in countless contexts
in which you already perfectly understand everything else
except for the problematic word or component.
And, naturally,
the only way this is possible is to already understand the majority of the language.
So, now that we understand how persistent puzzles work on a theoretical level,
how do we practically apply these ideas to become better language learners?
Well, if you're taking an immersion-based approach to learning a language,
you don't really have to do anything.
As long as you keep immersing,
every persistent puzzle will eventually become clear on its own.
Although the name "persistent puzzle" may suggest that you have to do something to "solve" them,
in reality, they solve themselves through immersion.
Once all the surrounding pieces are in place,
the solution will become self evident.
And once a persistent puzzle finally clicks,
it won't be long before you'll become able to use it yourself in output.
On the other hand, until you reach the point where a persistent puzzle solves itself naturally,
it simply won't be possible for you to fully grasp what it means.
Unfortunately, there are no magic cheat codes that lets you bypass this reality.
In fact, trying too hard to grasp the meaning of a persistent puzzle before your brain is ready to solve it can actually be counterproductive.
As I explained earlier, persistent puzzles simply can't be grasped through your native language,
so reading lots of English explanations can lead to developing a warped,
English-based understanding of what the word or structure means,
which can actually get in the way of properly acquiring it.
Basically, you can end up like a blind person
who thinks elephants are shaped like thick snakes.
Instead, it's better to simply read a single bare bones English explanation of what the word or structure means,
and after that, not make too much of an effort to understand it.
Just notice it each time it comes up in your immersion
and allow your understanding to be vague and blurry.
Remind yourself that even though the word or structure may be extremely common,
it doesn't mean it's basic, and the fact that you can't fully understand it yet does not mean that you're dumb.
It's completely normal, and in fact, inevitable.
As you continue to immerse and grow your understanding of your target language,
the meaning of each persistent puzzle will gradually get clearer and clearer,
until you eventually have a Eureka moment where it suddenly makes perfect sense.
You finally see where that indiscriminate puzzle piece goes.
Once this happens, you'll wonder how something so obvious could have eluded you until now.
Of course, persistent puzzles aren't actually obvious.
But, like many things in life, once you finally understand them,
they feel obvious in hindsight.
So, to summarize, when it comes to persistent puzzles,
all you have to do is be aware that they exist,
tolerate ambiguity,
and understand that it's not your fault that you can't understand them yet.
As long as you do that,
everything else will take care of itself.
Now one more thing I want to point out is that persistent puzzles are a perfect example
of why speaking a language from day 1 is not such a great idea.
Because persistent puzzles show up so commonly,
it's practically impossible to avoid using them when trying to speak a language.
And because persistent puzzles can't be fully grasped before developing a high level of comprehension,
trying to use these words and structures yourself right from the start
will inevitably lead to making countless mistakes and building bad habits.
And by this point in the video,
hopefully it's pretty clear that persistent puzzles just aren't simple enough
for simply getting corrected by a native speaker to be enough to save you.
And the last thing I'll note is what level you actually have to be at before a given persistent puzzle will click
completely depends on the individual learner as well as what the specific puzzle is.
There are some puzzles that most people will acquire at around an intermediate level,
whereas for other puzzles, most people will have to be at an advanced level to acquire them.
Additionally, which persistent puzzles people struggle with will be different from person to person.
On a similar note, the total number of persistent puzzles there are will be greatly depend on what your target language is.
If you're an English speaker learning a radically different language like Japanese, it's going to be quite a few.
For closer languages like Spanish, probably not so much.
Ok, now it’s time for the free gift I promised you.
If you skipped here, be prepared to end up worse off than you started.
So, the key to handling persistent puzzles is being able to tolerate ambiguity...
which is probably the hardest part of learning through immersion.
So, in order to make this easier,
I decided to make a cheat sheet for the top 5 persistent puzzles
that Japanese learners struggle with the most.
Like I explained earlier,
persistent puzzles often seem to have a multiplicity of different meanings on the surface,
when in reality, they really only mean a single core concept that simply doesn't exist in English.
Now, the only way to 100% grasp that core meaning is to actually reach a high level in the language.
However, what I’ve done for you, is I’ve distilled the core concept of each persistent puzzle into a simple 3 sentence guideline,
and if you just keep this guideline in mind while immersing,
you'll be able understand around 65% of the true meaning in the majority of cases.
So in order to get the cheat sheet simply click the link in the description now,
and enter your email so I'll know where to send your cheat sheet on the top 5 persistent puzzles in Japanese.