On Language Learning: Part 4 — Conditions that language masters have in common

What 7 points did language learners who have successfully reached some level of fluency in Japanese have in common? David Barker, in 2014, said this:

1. All of them had found formal learning to be tremendously important.
2. All of them were extremely goal oriented.
3. All of them were very heavily influenced by their environment (i.e. necessity for work).
4. All of them had roles models either competitive or inspiring (likely both).
5. All of them clearly stated that there was no way around traditional memorization; you must memorize many things.
6. All of them had one clear specialization such as excelling in speaking or writing.
7. All of them had overcome numerous negative experiences on their language learning quests.

Basically, without most or all of the above, you’re gonna have an extra hard time.