Hi r/japanese community! I recently started learning Japanese on Duolingo several months ago, and wanted to address some common pitfalls people make whilst on their journey, and how to solve them.
* **Relying on Romaji -** Romaji is the Latin spellings of the characters, eg. hai – はい. I started learning on Duolingo and noticed it always gives Romaji, alongside the characters. My suggestion is to disable Romaji, and work on being able to read the characters. When it also comes to writing Japanese it will also be much harder if you cannot visualize the characters from an earlier stage. Learning the characters in Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji, rather than solely phonetics is much, MUCH better for learning.
* **Forgetting Particles -** This is more of an unspoken rule when it comes to learning Japanese. When my journey began, I used to constantly forget to put ha (は) after the name, if making a statement about a person, eg. はなさんは. Learning the correct sentence structure earlier in your journey will make it much simpler to continue, problem free. Some crucial particles are は (wa), が (ga), を (o), and に (ni).
* **Difference between formal and informal speech -** When speaking to someone you haven’t met before, you should typically be speaking more formally, than if it was your friend. For example, including さん (san) after addressing someone; the choice between formal and informal speech affects verb conjugations, pronouns, and more.
* **Not Enough Speaking Practice -** Language apps can be great for learning vocabulary and grammar, but they often don’t provide enough practice for speaking and listening skills. Try to practice conversation by speaking to partners, tutors, or speaking out loud to yourself.
Happy learning, everyone!
by Naainz
