Ok so this will be my third time back to Japan. I’ve lived there for over 5 years already and I’ll be staying this time for another 3. I’ve always intended on learning the language every time I’ve lived there, but ended up just drinking a lot of chu hi and working. This time, I want to learn for real this time. I’m quite a bit older, drink a lot less, and I’m considering taking a job there after this tour. Does anyone have any good recommendations on what to do or what apps will help me learn Japanese? Anything would be greatly appreciated! I’ll be in Yokosuka area if that helps. Thank you!
3 comments
imo, get whatever book or app you can find to get you started. doesn’t really matter as long as you can get really basic stuff down. the only real thing that matters with learning Japanese or any language for that matter, is to actually go out and start using it while making a shit ton of mistakes in the beginning. immersion is the best technique.
you need to get out of your comfort zone so instead of going places where you can speak or order in English all the time, make it a habit to start going to hangout or eat somewhere where English isn’t going to help you much at all.
your Japanese will steadily improve and you’ll also probably make more friends and contacts that’ll help you learn more and faster because they’ll be happy to see a foreigner actually trying to learn and use their language.
“For real” you pay money and go to a school, taking lessons as often as possible.
Give [Duolingo a try](https://www.duolingo.com/). It’s a free, ad supported online language school that is fairly decent. I’m mostly self-taught in Japanese so I use it to review the basics and work on my vocabulary. They have apps in addition to their website.