And now, an opinion on how to learn

I am commonly seeing on Reddit r/LearnJapanese this question in various forms:

"Wouldn't it be easier to learn Japanese if I don't bother with X?"  X is:  reading; writing; learning kanji; doing something that isn't in my textbook.  (Come to think of it, I hear this at home too.  Just sayin'.)

They often get this correct response:  If you don't know how to read/use kanji/whatever, you're illiterate.  Or maybe support:  you don't need to write kanji.  Just type them in the keyboard like we imagine real Japanese native speakers do exclusively.

But here's a more compelling reason (compelling, at least, to those who say "I just want to converse/watch anime/whatever; I don't want to read or write):  learning the same thing different ways is easier than learning it only one way.

Suppose you were learning world history.  So you listen to a history professor give lectures.  No book; no note taking.  Would you learn it as well as if you read for yourself, took notes on what was important, summarized, talked to a classmate about the high points?

Suppose you had a list of vocabulary words.  You can go over the word list until you know them; or you can do that and write a story using them and try them in conversation and understand the roots (androgynous:  Greek andros, male, plus Greek gynos, female.  Got it).  Which way would have you remembering the most a month later?

More ways is better.  It's also a heck of a lot more fun.

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