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todomitoukei · 4 years ago

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Are you asian? Since you know Japanese? And are learning it or you know it? And can I know how can I learn it?

Nope, I’m not Asian. I’ve been learning Japanese on again off again for a while with no real results cause I honestly didn’t know what I was doing and I just wasn’t studying regularly and consistently enough, but 2020 gave me a lot of free time so I basically haven’t been doing anything else since...

As for how you can learn it: there are a lot of different approaches and it really depends on what works for you/what’s accessible to you, which is something you have to figure out yourself by trial and error. A lot of people need a classroom setting and I know that people learn Japanese really fast if they go to a Japanese language school in Japan, which I’ve considered doing too but you know... not really an option right now.

Self-studying is totally doable too, though, you just need a good system and a bit of self-discipline. There are a lot of great textbooks, apps, etc. out there and a lot of YouTube videos that can recommend ways to learn the language, but at the end of the day, you really have to try it out yourself to see whether you like it or not.

There are a lot of aspects and ways to learn the language so I’m gonna put the details and lots of resources (with links!) under the cut:

The most important tip that I can give for self-studying is that having a study schedule is essential. Before I had a study schedule, it was really difficult to stay on track and make progress, whereas a schedule helps you know what to do and how much studying you’ve been doing. The more you study, the better, of course, but 5 minutes a day is better than not studying at all! And your schedule doesn’t need to be perfect - if you feel like it doesn’t work or are otherwise unhappy with it, change it up!

The best thing to do before you start is to just go on YouTube and spend a day or so watching as many videos about how to self-study Japanese as possible to get as many different ideas for yourself. For example, I really like this video, and there are many more like this if you just search something like “How to self study Japanese” - google also really helps and can give you sites like this one or this one that give you a good guideline for how to study on your own.

Also having a variety is really important. Learning a language consists of so many aspects (reading, writing, listening, speaking) that all need to be trained, so incorporating all of them into your schedule is important (don’t worry though, you don’t need to do all of that on day one already, just gradually include these things over time).

Generally, the first thing you want to do for learning Japanese is to learn the writing systems! There are three writing systems: Hiragana (anything can be written in Hiragana, but it’s overall used for native Japanese words/grammar), Katakana (used for loan words (foreign words) or for emphasis), and Kanji (Chinese characters). Kanji take the longest and you can learn those on the side as you learn the rest of the language, but you should learn Hiragana and Katakana first (this only takes a couple of days and you get used to them more and more over time). There are many websites and also apps that can teach you Hiragana and Katakana for free! I know everyone gets a bit scared by Kanji at first, but trust me - they make things so much easier!

If you want a textbook, many people recommend either the Genki or Minna no nihongo textbooks, but I personally used the Japanese from Zero series because it has the textbook, workbook, and answer key all in one. I also heard that Genki is more commonly used in classroom settings and is better when taught by a teacher, and the Minna no nihongo books are in Japanese (you can buy a separate translated version I think, but who wants that?) so the Japanese from Zero series felt the easiest to use. The series has its pros and cons, but it overall worked for me. However, I’ve stopped using textbooks altogether because I’ve found that I’m just as able to just use the internet (and save money that way!). Japanese can be divided into 5 proficiency levels (JLPT N5 to N1, with N5 being the most basic and N1 being the most advanced) and many self-studiers use those levels as a guide to what to study. This website has a good overview and I use it as the main resource to know which grammar points to study next.

For vocab I use AnkiDroid, which is a flashcard app that uses the SRS (Space Repetition System) - which gradually spaces out how often you study a word. You can download flashcard decks on here directly to the app so you don’t need to make your own cards or think about which words to study.

For Kanji I use the app KanjiStudy and I really love it. The full version only costs around 8 € and it comes with a lot of great features and really lets you customize the app. You can create your own sets, practice writing, do multiple choice quizzes, and do flashcard studying. It also has a built-in dictionary and example sentences, so it’s super helpful! The writing aspect is the important part here because writing the Kanji over and over again helps reinforce them and without the app, I would’ve used so much paper by now (I bought a smartphone pen to make it easier to write them on my phone)!

I also have the app Jsho and use the website jisho.org as a dictionary. Google translate, while not reliable, is really helpful because you can use the camera feature to either upload images or scan something with your camera and let google translate it for you! I use that for when I play games on my phone in Japanese and can’t read the Kanji/don’t know the words!

Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese is an app with really great grammar explanations!

Apps like HiNative or HelloTalk are super important, too, because they let you talk to native speakers! HiNative is mainly for asking language-related questions and have native speakers answer you, whereas HelloTalk is basically like a social media app but with the intent to learn a language. You just say what your native language is and which language you’re learning and then you can chat with people who are natives in the language you’re learning who want to learn your native language. You can also make posts there and have native people correct you, etc.

Installing a Japanese keyboard on your phone and computer is also really important, so here’s a guide on how to install that.

For reading, I recommend you start with bilingual books as they are aimed at beginners and come with vocab and grammar explanations. I really like the Japanese Reader Collection by Clay & Yumi Boutwell. Also, Satori Reader (available as a website and app) offers lots of stories that also all come with an audio version! The stories all let you click the words and explain you the vocab and grammar, as well as let you add vocab to your studylist (which is basically like flashcards).

Listening to Japanese music or podcasts is also really great to get used to the spoken language and are more fun ways to train your listening skills. On the less fun, but still important side, I also use this website for listening exercises.

You probably have already heard of Duolingo. While I wouldn’t recommend using websites/apps like Duolingo as your main source to learn the language, it’s a good tool to use on the site to review what you’ve already learned and reinforce your knowledge.

Here are some of my favorite YouTube Channels by native speakers who teach Japanese (either in English or Japanese, but with subtitles): Japanese Ammo with Misa (definitely my favorite, she makes A LOT of really long, detailed videos and has a huge variety), Japanese Language School - Coto Academy, Japanese with Yuka 101 (makes really long lessons in Japanese without subtitles - really helpful for immersion), Masa Sensei, Miku Real Japanese, Onomappu. Those channels really help not just to learn grammar, but also to listen to native speakers talk. Most of them have videos about grammar, cultural points, etc. and also have listening exercises - all for free!

Another thing that helps immersion wise is to have a TikTok specifically for Japanese. I basically just made an account and looked up some Japanese videos and then liked any Japanese video I could find to make my For You page full of Japanese videos! Since lots of people put subtitles on their TikToks, it’s a bit easier to follow and the short videos make it easy to just watch them several times and try to pick up more and more each time.

Okay, so this might have been really overwhelming, but basically, there are many ways to learn Japanese and surround yourself with the language in a fun and helpful way! You don’t need to use all these options, or don’t need to use them all at once, but this is just to give you some ideas on what I use.

The best way is to find a starting point. Textbooks are really helpful in that aspect because they just give you a layout and you don’t need to coordinate all of that yourself, but there are also a lot of free/cheap ways by just using the internet.

Try and spend a day watching YouTube videos and reading posts online about how to get started and just choose whichever method you like best. You can always switch if it ends up not working for you.

The main rule is really to just create a routine and stick with it, and then adjust it along the way. The more time you dedicate to learning, the better and faster you can improve. Don’t beat yourself up if you ever have a day where you can’t study a lot, but try to at least dedicate five minutes every day. If you can, studying for one hour or more every day is going to be the best way to make progress!

To give you a general idea, here is my current schedule:

*not included are things like listening practices, reading, immersion. I try to do those daily, but they aren’t officially part of my schedule.

Basically, I learn new stuff Mondays - Fridays and use the weekends to review what I’ve learned.

This was very long and might have been really overwhelming (sorry), but I just wanted to include what has helped me. If you have any other questions let me know and I’ll try to help out. Other than that, just start and enjoy the ride!

頑張って！

#i don't know how to keep things short sorry :(#ask #japanese #Anonymous

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