Knowing where to start learning Japanese is rough for someone new to the language, below is hopefully a good starting location for the journey of learning Japanese.
Steps to Start Learning Japanese
- Define Your Goals
- Learn About Learning AJATT is a Good Place to Start
- Start Listening to Japanese
- Learn Katakana and Hiragana
- Try to Forget Romaji
- Start Learning Kanji
- Seek Out Friends Learning Japanese
- Get a Good Book
- Vocab Is A Key
- Be Aware
Note: During this whole process you should be trying to read and learn vocab
Define your Goals
One of the most important things for people to realize is why they are doing something. So the first step is to figure out why you are learning Japanese so you can stay motivated to continue. Write down your goal on a post-it, and post it somewhere you will see it everyday. Every time you get another reason add it to another post-it note next to the last one. That should help to keep you focused.
Learn About Learning – AJATT is a good place to start
Everyone always talks about learning something new, but often people don’t realize knowing “how to learn” is almost as important as learning. So I recommend visiting the AJATT (All Japanese All The Time) site and reading his site to learn more about learning. You can maybe also pick up a few pointers on where to start learning Japanese
Start Listening to Japanese
If you aren’t watching Anime, Japanese Dramas or listening to Japanese Music it is recommended to start, now. Start surrounding yourself with Japanese video, audio, and as much culture as you can. The more you hear Japanese the more learning new Japanese will be easier for you. For example during a local Language club meeting people will use phrases I hear all the time or say things with specific tones and I’ll recognize them because I hear them a lot in Anime or J-Dramas, so it makes figuring out the language easier. I recommend first just start listing to Japanese Music by finding some Japanese radio stations.
Learn Katakana and Hiragana
One of the most important steps to learning Japanese is learning the writing systems. There are 3 to learn (hiragana, katakana, and kanji) the first 2 are the easiest, and can get you started quite well. It is very important to learn Hiragana and Katakana over romaji since it is native to Japan and you wont go to Japan or to Japanese sites and see romaji. I also made a post about how to Learn Katakana and Hiragana in 2 weeks, please feel free to check it out and give it a shot.
Try to FORGET Romaji
Romaji is the devil, Waterboy reference there. One of the biggest problems is too many people rely on romaji. It hinders not only their reading of Japanese, but also their speaking. I expand a lot more on this in a post on Why Your Language Book is Holding you Back. Suffice it to say remove romaji from your daily use as quick as possible.
Start Learning Kanji
I used to fight Kanji a lot, still do at times. I always felt like some drunk Chinese dude sat down one day and said “Hey, I am going to make a screwed up writing system just to mess with foreigners”, still do feel that way at times. Some of the kanji just makes you go “What?”. However, as I learn more and more Kanji I understand the importance of kanji, and that kanji makes japanese easy, believe it or not.
I recommend to at least start learning Kanji from the Hesig book “Remembering the Kanji“. It is an easy book to follow and gets you started down the path of learning some of the most important Kanji to learn. The book teaches 2047 in total.
Seek Out Friends Learning Japanese
This I think is one of the most important aspects of learning Japanese. If you can’t share it with anyone then what is the point in learning it. So either start looking for friends who are Japanese or others learning Japanese, or both. For in person local friends checkout Meetup.com. It is how I found our local city based Language group, maybe even start one if there isn’t one. Also here are some online ways to connect with others too.
Get a Good Book
One of the things I disagree with the AJATT method on is how to learn grammar. While it is entirely possible to learn proper grammar from finding patterns, have done it a bit. I personally feel it takes a bit too long, plus I like to be a bit nerdy and learn grammar. So I recommend finding a good solid text book to follow. Remember the link above,Why Your Language Book is Holding you Back, when selecting your book. There are 2 textbooks I recommend you choose between Elementary Japanese and/or Genki. I plan to do a review on both of them in the future as to why I recommend them specifically.
Vocabulary Is A Key
I analogize this to golf. One thing you hear all the time in golf is “Work on the short game”. My problem for the longest is if I can’t get off the tee-box close enough to the green to use my short game, the short game doesn’t matter. You can learn grammar, writing system, culture, everything, but if you don’t have a vocabulary then it is all useless. The biggest hindrance for a lot of people is knowing enough words to understand what is going on around you. So learn vocab and keep at it.
Be Aware
Finally, be aware of your learning and your progress. How you study, habits, and your personal life change over time. As you learn newer and better ways to do things you will tweak things in your life. The key thing is to be aware of these changes and the changes around you and to adjust your learning accordingly. Also be sure to pay attention to your goals of why you are learning Japanese. Many times our goals and reasons for learning new things change. It isn’t bad to change, but it is important to realize the importance of ever changing goals. So just be aware, and go with the flow. most of all have fun.
Conclusion
A lot of the time when people want to learn something new they aren’t sure where to start. Hopefully these 10 steps provide you the starting point to at least get far enough to know where the next step is in learning Japanese is. Just remember this is a place to start and isn’t a definitive guide.
If you have any recommendations or questions please leave a comment. Especially if you disagree let me know why and where.
maja (1)
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I learned Japanese in three months. No kidding.
My Professor was a graduate from the Self Defence Force Academy for his undergrad and he was very strick. He instructed the new Associate that just joined his lab to be my Nihongo Instructor, and used the only Japanese textbook that I ever knew: Nohongo No Kiso. It took us 2 months to finish the whole book. After that he came up with a simple instruction. No one in my lab was allowed to speak English with me. That was it!
I learned fast because I went to Chinese Elementary and Middle School so even I couldn’t pronounce the Kanji, I could guess the meaning. In contrast, I could read in kana but didn’t understand the meaning. That’s how I pick up my forth language, the Japanese some 32 years ago while attending the grad school in Hokkaido University. It has been a long time and I have forgetten most of my Japanese vocabularies. Glad to see someone is teaching how to learn Japanese.
ps: you may remove this part. I think the word “knew” in the first line was a typo, please approve this one instead of the first one because there were some typos in the first one..
I started off with a one-year course at a Swedish university. I’m not a big fan of school, but it got me going. My listening comprehension is really good thanks to all the music I’ve listened to and all the movies I’ve seen over the past 10 years.
I have my own set of goals and I’m currently focusing on vocabulary to reach them. We managed to fish the first two Genki books, so thanks to that and the amount of J-dramas and movies I watch, I find it somewhat easy to form sentences, I’m just missing the vocabulary. I did well during my time in Japan though, communicating with the natives wasn’t too hard.
When it comes to Kanji, I only study the readings of them at the moment (at the same time I’m studying vocab), writings and meanings can wait. But that’s because of the goals _I_ have, so yeah, goals are really important if you want to focus on the things that are important to you.
頑張ってください!
I also did 1 year at uni but unlike mr. Yonasu, Im a big fan of school because it forces me to perform. I can be very lazy. But one of the things I want to add is ‘NOT to stop learning’. If you stop for a long while, you’re just giving it all back. Fortunatly I was taught to use kana and kanji right from the start. I dont even think romaji was ever an option. And yes ofcourse the goals, gotta set em.
I like school too, now that I am not forced to go. I just wish that I didn’t have to worry about grades, lol. You are lucky about the kana. For me I spent quite a while trying to learn Japanese before taking classes and romaji was an option, unfortunately.
Great writeup, Buddy! I got to your new site from the new AHJ podcast – I always like reading more advanced 日本語 students’ experiences and methods.
I’ve been studying between 3 and 4 months now, using pretty much every method listed here. I’ve decided to structure myself toward taking the JLPT exams, simply because I have no space in my life (or my tiny, shared apartment) to otherwise create a study routine.
I have to give extra props to listening to Japanese songs for help with learning, mainly because you hear the same phrases repeatedly. I love my dorama, but couldn’t watch whole episodes multiple times over
I’m a major Showa era convert.
Lang-8 is a terrific way to learn natural Japanese and ask some niggling questions of a native speaker. My only proviso to others is that it might be a bit too much for someone with less than 1 year’s study under their belt. Writing messages solely in Japanese to my new friends on there is incredibly time consuming and I often apologise to them for taking so long in responding. But the pressure is very motivating!
I can’t watch the same show over multiple times either. However, I have ripped out audio from some shows and will listen to them as if they are radio shows on my zune. What is cool about that is i can listen to it over and over and over again with little to no problems.
http://japangaku.com/extract-audio-from-a-video-to-increase-listening-content
JLPT is a great goal especially if you don’t live in Japan. I have a couple of posts on it, and am a strong advocate for taking as a small measure of skill. here is a link to some of my opinions on it.
http://japangaku.com/category/japanese-language/jlpt
A good study routine is good, but random study is better than no study so keep studying.
gannbatte
Thank you so much for the resources.
Immersion is the key to learning the language quick. There are a bunch of really cool websites where you can be linked to others around the world trying to learn other languages, it’s almost like a study buddy/pen pal.
I may have to start learning very soon