Hey guys, so I'm getting questions like daily now on how to learn Japanese, so that's what
I'm going to talk about today. All of the resources I'm going to go over will be linked
down in the description.
To learn Japanese you'll need to focus on three different areas: listening, reading,
and speaking. I don't include writing in there because that's more of a means to improve
on the other areas, and honestly you're probably not going to have to physically draw out kanji
as often as you will have to text or type them, so as long as you know how to read and
spell kanji, that should get you pretty far.
The easiest of all is of course listening. And the easiest way to improve your listening
is to immerse yourself in the language. Most people pretty much max out their listening
within one to two months in Japan, and that's all it takes. If you're not in Japan you can
listen to Japanese news programs or watch dramas, or something like that. But to get
the full effects you'll probably have to wait until you can actually get to Japan and be
surrounded by the language.
Whether reading or speaking is easier honestly depends on the person. If you're the type
of person who doesn't really study very much, but you just throw yourself out into a crowd
of Japanese people and you pick up the language by listening to them and repeating it back
to them, you'll probably be better at speaking. But most people tend to study a lot more,
and especially if you're not in Japan, reading will probably be easier for you.
You'll need to focus on three areas with reading: kanji, vocabulary, and grammar. Now, I don't
really include hiragana or katakana in there because you should be able to learn those
completely within a few days. And I do recommend learning all three of those at the same time.
So for example, the textbook Genki has a little bit of all three in each chapter. They also
have a listening section at the beginning, so I recommend repeating back what they say
to you so you can get used to speaking the language. In Jun's "Advice for Japanese Learners"
video he talked about how language is a tool. It's not something you can just study and
learn. You have to use it to truly become proficient at it.
Of course, immersing yourself in Japan or practicing with people who are fluent is the
best way to get better at speaking the language, but if you can't do that, there are some resources
I can show you online so you can connect with native speakers and practice that way. Typically
how this works is it's a language exchange. So that person will be learning your language,
and you'll be learning their language, so you'll both practice help each other speak
each other's languages. There is a forum for people who want to make contacts and do language
exchanges on the website japan-guide.com. There are tons of people from all over the
world there, including many from Japan who want to learn English. So you can meet people
there and either connect with them on skype or meet them in real life if you happen to
live nearby.
You can also use the website Lang-8.com. It's a blogging website, so what you do is you
write a blog in the language that you're trying to learn, and then people who speak that language
will correct your grammar and vocabulary and things like that. And in return you help the
community by correcting other people who are learning your language. Jun used to do it
a lot and he made friends that he connected with on skype so they were able to practice
each other's languages, too. I do highly recommend using this website to help you get used to
correct grammar and things like that.
If you're too afraid of making mistakes to open up and practice speaking with people,
get drunk. Or a little tipsy. I'm dead serious. That is a legitimate tactic that people use.
Okay, on to free resources.
Starting out with grammar, you can use Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese on the website
guidetojapanese.org/learn. This website will walk you through what I would consider the
general equivalent of about what you would learn grammar-wise your first two years in
university. If you have questions about specific grammar points, they also have a forum you
can use. Or you can find forums for people learning Japanese all over the internet. One
I've seen that has a pretty quick response time with good answers is reddit.com/r/learnjapanese.
There are a lot of people there who are nearly fluent or fluent in Japanese who can give
you advice on practical usage, and make things easily understood from the perspective of
an English speaker learning Japanese.
Moving on to kanji and vocabulary, there is a flashcard program called Anki that you download
onto your computer. From the program, you can then download decks of flashcards, including
many for Japanese. The great thing about this is you can specify how easy each card was
for you, and then depending on what you click, that calculates how long it will be until
they show that card to you again.
If you need more help for learning kanji, there's a website called memrise.com. Users
comment on kanji and associate them with images so they're easier to remember. So for the
word akarui, someone submitted that they're able to remember the kanji by combing the
kanji sun and moon next to each other, which makes the word bright.
If you learn better through rewards, there's a website called Japaneseclass.jp. They give
you lessons and when you successfully complete tests you get points and can level up. You
also get ranked among your peers. It even has the most basic of lessons including hiragana
and katakana. And it has a reading section.
Once you get a little more advanced you can also practice listening comprehension and
reading on Japanese news websites. They have a news site for kids, so you can work your
way up.
For dictionaries, if you're on the internet, I recommend staying away from things like
Google translate unless you're just doing single verbs or nouns or things like that.
If you're trying to translate a full sentence I guarantee you you will completely lose the
meaning. If you're using Chrome there is an extension called "Rikaikun" (or if you're
using Firefox, it's called rikaichan). What this extension does is it allows you to see
the definition of Japanese words and some grammar points just by hovering your mouse
over Japanese text. It's really convenient, but can be habit forming so don't let it get
in the way of actually learning the words.
Moving on to resources that cost money:
If you learn better with actual textbooks, I recommend starting out with Genki I and
II. For grammar points I HIGHLY recommend a series of three books by Seiichi Makino
and Michio Tsutsui. The first is called "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese grammar." The
intermediate book is also really good, but unless you're really really getting advanced
you don't need to buy the advanced one. It's actually a dictionary so it's not going to
give you lessons, but it does tell you how to use the grammar points, whether it's used
in written or spoken Japanese, examples, and small differences with related grammar points.
For kanji books, my favorite is the series of books called 留学生のための漢字の教科書,
which is "Kanji Textbook for Foreign Exchange Students." They're in Japanese, but with all
three books they do walk you through about 2,000 kanji which is pretty close to everything
you will need to know in Japan. The way I used this book was working through each page,
practicing writing down the kanji and example vocabulary on a separate sheet of paper, and
then doing the practice tests at the end of the lesson. The next day I'd review it and
take the test again, and then start the next lesson.
I have all of these books but I can't show you because they're still in Korea with everything
else I own. Sorry.
As for dictionaries, typically what a lot of students end up doing is buying an electronic
dictionary, or a denshi-jisho. Cons are that they're really expensive and they can be a
hassle to carry around, and some of them might not have colloquialisms or certain slang words
in them. However, the convenient thing about them is on some of them you can search by
writing out the kanji, which is really nice. Another thing I know people use a lot is an
application on your smartphone. However, I'm still using a flip-phone! So I don't know
what that is. If you guys can tell me what applications you use for Japanese dictionaries,
let me know and I'll put that down in the description.
As for how long it takes to learn, that is completely up to how quickly you pick up on
things, how much effort you put into it, and whether or not you can immerse yourself in
the language. I have seen people in Japan go from knowing almost no Japanese to conversationally
fluent within a single year. However, they were taking Japanese classes and they always
spoke Japanese with their friends. If you want to learn Japanese, don't go to Japan
and speak English!
If you don't put much effort into learning the language and you don't study on your own
time you could float along for the rest of your life and not really learn that much.
But it's not a race so don't stress yourself out if you feel like other people are learning
faster than you. You're only competing against yourself. There may be times when you feel
like Japanese is too difficult for you, or you just can't understand something. It can
be frustrating, and I've been to that point before where I couldn't understand a word
the instructor was saying. I've felt stupid, I've felt like it was pointless, and I've
been brought to tears before in frustration. But you just keep pushing forward. There will
come a time when that thing that you couldn't understand will become second nature to you.
You just don't give up. A lot of times it's really difficult for us to see how far we've
come on our own. Even if you feel like you're not making much progress, you probably are.
So even when it seems really hopeless just keep pushing forward because you will get
past it. So I hope this video introduced you guys to some resources that you'll find helpful.
When I do get my books back I'll show you them but for now I'm sorry—you'll just have
to find pictures on the internet. Anyway, thanks for watching. Bye!