Here I just want to give you some tips for learning Japanese. I
personally love Japan and one of my life goals is to speak Japanese
fluently so I'm still trying hard to get better everyday.
So let's start π
Hiragana and Katakana
Hiragana and katakana are
alphabets and essential for learning Japanese. I
still remember how my first Japanese teacher told us that she would
already know who wouldn't pass the exam because there were some
students who still couldn't read or write hiragana and
katakana.
What you have to keep in mind that the Japanese alphabet doesn't
really have letters but more syllables. So in the end you will learn
with
hiragana and katakana how the words are spelled.
Japanese language uses kanji which are Chinese characters. If
you already saw Japanese books (especially for children) or have been
to Karaoke then you might notice some hiragana above the
kanji which are called in this case furigana and gives you
the information how to spell this word.
I would recommend to print the two alphabets and hang them somewhere
where you look at daily, e.g. in the bathroom so you can look at it
whenever you're brushing your teeth π
Grammar
There's no way to avoid this one. You have to learn Japanese grammar
from textbooks otherwise it's just not possible. I
used different textbooks in the past but what I can recommend is
Genki because I also saw them in Japanese book stores and I
guess that can't be wrong, right?
I'm not really a fan of Amazon but if you want to have a look at the
textbooks, here's the
link.
Kanji
You don't have to rush into learning kanji. Make sure that
you know hiragana and katakana first. As already
mentioned, you will see a lot of
Chinese characters in manga, Japanese newspapers,
billboards, etc. I think I read somewhere that you have to know 2000
kanji to read something fluently. Well, I can read about 300 and write
maybe 10 π€£
If you're ready to learn kanji then the textbooks will help
you a lot since you will learn common kanji first, e.g. the
words for eat ι£γΉγ and drink ι£²γ or numbers (δΈ, δΊ, δΈ etc.). Just
learn kanji like you learned other new vocabulary in other
languages.
Useful apps and platforms
Since we're in a digital age there are a lot of useful
smartphone apps or
digital platforms where you can learn Japanese. I'm
currently using the app Drops and the language partner
platform italki.
Drops is actually perfect for learning new words but it won't
help you with grammar exercises. With italki you can find a
language teacher and talk to him/her via Skype. I also used
hellotalk in the past and found a language partner while I
was in Japan π
Japanese tv series
Please don't think that you can learn the language by binge-watching
anime in Japanese. The problem is that some anime are
playing in a different time period and so the words and phrases they
are using in them aren't really common nowadays anymore. It might just
makes you happy to catch some words up and understand them but the
chance isn't really high that you will get the whole conversation.
Okay, this was quite negative but it doesn't mean that you shouldn't
watch series in Japanese anymore. It may be helpful to watch more
realistic anime which take place in our time or to watch series like
Terrace House (watch it on
Netflix). While listening to the people who are at e.g.
Terrace House you can already get a feeling how the Japanese
language works and if you already know some grammar structures then it
can be also really fun to recognize the patterns.