Hi! I am trying to learn Japanese and would love some advice from anyone who has learned it! 😁
I am going to japan for spring break. ( probably early April or late March ) and would love to learn Japanese for it, or some Japanese. I already know very minimal amounts, so basically nothing, and was wondering if this is possible? It is roughly 8 months until then, so could I at least get some understanding? Also I will be doing this on duolingo unless someone gives me a better option. Thanks!
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Do you plan to continue learning Japanese after the trip or is it mainly for the trip? If it is mainly for the trip, I would use a free lesson set like Tae Kim. Although I did not like his teaching method personally, his pronunciation stuff was invaluable at the very start. Regardless if you continue, I say start there.
If you wish to continue and you have already started doing pronunciation (and maybe handwriting practice) then get a textbook. The current gold standard is still Genki as far as I know. But the group that made one of the best intermediate books, Tobira, just put out a beginner book. You might need to get a supplemental workbook however. I can’t imagine it’ll be bad. The important thing is to take a book and stick with it. It is common for beginners to switch between a bunch hoping for the perfect book, but you will never find it. So just try to be aware of what is not focused on in whatever book you choose!
If you start now, I think you can make enough progress to be helpful like understanding signs and some basic sentences. You might also want to make sure to mix some sort of phrase book that is good for tourists in Japan. Just so you have particular phrases that you might not run across in normal study, at least at the beginner level.
I have been at Japanese for a long while now, and I’d say it is the effort if you wish to continue. I recently started my first translation works for my own benefit, and I never would have expected to get to where I am at the start.