This is a question heard from countless Japanese beginners. After learning the kana, Japanese opens out into a dizzying web of different paths – and everyone seems to have a different answer on which path is the easiest.
This leads to months or even years (!) wasted on trial-and-error, as the student tries all manner of apps, books, and websites – with only tiny incremental improvements, and plenty of frustration. I was in this phase myself for several years, so I know how it feels.
Recently I helped a few students reach N5-level from scratch in a few months, so I thought I’d make a post & explain what worked for them; hopefully it can be useful.
In a nutshell: After learning the hiragana and katakana, **focus on understanding Japanese grammar.**
**Become able to construct your own sentences** – don’t just copy-paste words into sentence structures that you memorized from Duolingo. Understand why the particles do what they do; understand why the word order is the way it is.
Don’t worry about kanji yet – that will come later.
If I could summarize basic Japanese grammar in **one picture**, it would be here: [https://d81pp4ybbpmjf.cloudfront.net/80-20-Japanese\_Sentence-Structure-Cheat-Sheet\_A4-romaji.pdf](https://d81pp4ybbpmjf.cloudfront.net/80-20-Japanese_Sentence-Structure-Cheat-Sheet_A4-romaji.pdf). Between the topic (marked with the particle は, “wa”) and the predicate (either a verb or a variant of です), Japanese word order is somewhat flexible. This is because particles (shown in the white circles) indicate the grammatical “function” of each word.
So even if the word order in the “Other information” bubble is slightly different from what is considered “natural”, you’ll still get your point across in a conversation.
Also notice that the predicate comes last. In Japanese, the word order for “He eats ramen” becomes “He ramen eats” (かれはラーメンをたべます。) This takes practice, but it’s hardly unique to Japanese; many languages use a different order than the “subject-verb-object” of English.
My recommended resources for learning the grammar include Tae Kim’s grammar guide, the book “Japanese Step-by-Step” by Gene Nishi, and ToKini Andy’s Genki 1 lessons on Youtube. You can also find a list of JLPT N5 grammar online, and research each item one-by-one.
The information is out there; but more important than the content itself is **making it engaging for yourself and staying motivated**. Information about grammar in any language is obviously going to be dense and, let’s be honest, kinda boring.
So it’s up to you to develop a structure for yourself, and get the information to stick in your head. You also need some way to practice building sentences yourself and knowing if they’re right or wrong.
This could mean building an engaging deck of flash cards; finding a conversation partner who gives good feedback; putting sticky-notes around your room; or finding storybooks and audio material appropriate for your level. The best solutions will vary from person to person.
A good tutor who is used to different learning styles will provide a TON of value here.
There are also some resources I **don’t** recommend:
**Remembering the Kanji.** Some beginners get it in their head that after the kana, the next step is to learn as many kanji as possible, one-by-one, in isolation. Without even knowing how to use any of the words they represent in a sentence. On the surface, it seems like an absurd academic exercise with no practical value, but I’ve seen many students get stuck in this trap. Learn the grammar and some vocabulary first; **then** you can start gradually fitting kanji into words you already know.
**Organic Japanese with Cure Dolly.** This is actually a great Youtube channel; just not for early beginners (unless they’re extremely analytical-minded). The way it plays with the particles and grammar, and breaks them down in extreme detail, is really interesting when you’re an intermediate learner. But as a beginner, in my experience, it leads to a lot of confusion and bad practices.
**Duolingo.** I’m a big fan of Duolingo for learning the kana, but its usefulness for grammar is surface-level at best. It does not go into detail explaining why sentences are constructed the way they are, or why certain particles are used where they are. It can be a good supplement, but it should not be your only resource.
“What do I do after the hiragana & katakana?” is something I’ve seen a lot recently, so I thought I’d throw in my two cents. Does anyone else with experience in this area have any other opinions?
20 comments
Kanji, grammar, vocab. At the same time.
Listen, I know it sounds hard, and you don’t know where to start, so imma give this to you
Grammar: tae Kim’s beginner guide all the way up to the の particle (ish), then after that you ride Japanese ammo with misa up to n3. After that you get n3-n1 grammar with 三本塾. Personally, I don’t think n1 grammar and most of n2 grammar needs to be studied, but n3 and below (and a lot of n2) is ESSENTIAL!!!! (Learn a little n1 grammar for the test tho if you’re taking it)
Combine vocabulary and kanji with Anki.
Yes, it’s sucks. Yes, you’ll want to stop. Yes, you might feel like killing yourself. Don’t do it. Just study Anki every day and get a long streak. Remember that consistency > everything!!
You got this, don’t stop!
[Jazzy](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/sedr0m/how_i_got_180180_on_n1_in_85_months/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) ‘s post has a lot of good info on his progress. If you get anything out of this is to read more. I copied the visual novel set up he recommends it has done wonders for my Japanese learning but more importantly, my motivation.
I studied RTK after Katakana, and it was without a doubt one of the best choices I made while studying Japanese. I am sure there are other great ways to learn Kanji, but the two-three month investment paid huge dividends for me, and I can safely say that it allowed me to pick up vocabulary FAR quicker than my peers around me. Instead of dreading Kanji, it became a strength. Even if I didn’t understand the words, being able to look at a full Japanese sentence and be familiar with all of the characters made a monumental difference. It was like putting on glasses after having foggy vision.
That being said, I realize that RTK (like Anki) takes a certain type of person to work, as it certainly is something you need to grind out. You need to be able to crank out flashcards consistently day after day so that you can get it done in 2-4 months, otherwise you will find yourself in a rut and never finishing.
Just commenting so that you don’t write it off if you do happen to meet one of those people!
Excellent post, though I do think that certain types of learners may provide an exception to the statement that Cure Dolly is better suited for intermediate learners than beginners.
In my experience, her approach of breaking down grammar points in detail made it much easier for me to grasp the fundamental purpose than simpler explanations that I was reading at the time. Specifically, I think it’s because she’s well-suited for analytical learners; basic explanations from other sources would lead me to constantly ask “but why?”, and that’d ultimately distract myself from the point at hand because I simply didn’t want to accept “that’s just the way things are in Japanese” for an answer. On the other hand, Cure Dolly’s content clicked with me quite early because her practice of deconstructing grammar points would answer those nagging “but why?” questions right as I got them.
Though for the average student, I understand what you’re saying. If one only wants simple and to-the-point explanations, then Cure Dolly’s unorthodox approach would probably just get in the way of memorizing the basic facts. It likely just comes down to a learners individual needs; if you’re someone like me who would constantly pester your teachers and parents with questions about why things are the way they are and then construct a deeper understanding from that, a channel like Cure Dolly is probably the best source you could have. But for the rest, those seeking more practical (and time-efficient) explanations would undoubtedly be better off with other sources.
Thanks for this post! I think it will help many people who are taking on a huge undertaking such as language learning… and it’s Japanese at that!
I am learning Japanese now but self-studied Korean to an intermediate level (can maintain friendships solely in Korean).
I was mostly motivated by vanity. I just wanted to sound cool and impress people lol. Lots of copying natives and just watching shows where characters said something witty and cool.
The mind is pretty ingenious about finding out the process when the goal is something you really want.
I’d like to add something about this that i think it’s important, read and listen aside from your study. Don’t wait until you finish the textbook or videocourse or whatever. Try to notice things you learned from the study and look up what you think you could understand. And try to increment the amount of time spent doing it (compared to studying) as you progress.
I know it’s hard, boring and feels like a waste of time, but it’s the best thing you can do. Much better than doing drills or trying to express ideas with very limited knowledge.
For some people who are on a tight budget it’s not as viable an option, but for me, doing regular lessons on italki with a good tutor(you will probably need to try a few different ones) really stepped up my output ability. It was just conversation practice as I felt comfortable with my progress in everything else.
The lowest you’d want to go is 2 30 minute lessons a week. At that frequency you can still progress, but you need to come ready to the lessons. More time is obviously better. IIRC the state department puts Japanese at around 2000 hours or 80 something weeks of class time to get good with Japanese. It’s nearly 2 years of nonstop study.
Those of you choosing to follow Matt’s advice about delaying output(for sometimes years), speaking really is one of those things that you have to put in the hours to improve. You have to fight for every word you need to recall, they aren’t going to just be there for you to use even if you can read and listen to hyper complex material and understand it perfectly. You are doing yourself a disservice not working on it now imho.
I stagnated in my attempts to learn Japanese for years, despite living and working in Japan. The only thing I tried that actually got me back onto a path of improvement was KanjiDamage.
I assume you feel the same way about WaniKani and other Kanji focused websites?
There is no right answer. Many paths lead to same place. You can ignore grammar for awhile, but then you’ll have to go back to it. You can learn kanji separately but then realize that your reading comprehension sucks and you have to read more. Keep progressing and you’ll be fine.
Now learn 5000 words
I agree with a lot here. **Learn the kana**, then **grammar** & **800-1000 words of vocab** (grammar & vocab can be done at the same time), then **reading**. Don’t be afraid of kanji, just learn them in your vocab – but **avoid RTK** (too time consuming for beginners with too little return).
I love the **80/20 diagrams.** They are very helpful.
**Cure Dolly**. I have to ***disagree*** here. I started with her video series and it was great. I do tend to be analytical, rather than just accepting of rules, so that may be why I enjoyed her approach so much.
I’m curious though – what was the confusion and bad practices of which you speak? I didn’t get confused nor adopt any bad practices (*as far as I am aware/ I hope*).
I’d like to add that starting the vocab grind early helps a ton, like core 2k or whatever basic deck you like while doing grammar. Reason for it : when you do grammar, it will be way easier to understand the grammar points when you don’t have to look-up 5 words in the example sentences, especially since theses examples will have fairly basic words.
Also helps you start learning kanjis through words (you don’t have to learn how to write them you can just learn how to recognize and read them)
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I disagree about kanji, take it slow but try to learn a few a week along with the grammar.
I do agree on avoiding RTK though, it’s a good book but you want something a bit more comprehensive at first, Basic Kanji Book would be a good start.
I would also like to plug memorizing at least 100 kanji before moving on to vocabulary, because the most common kanji are EVERYWHERE. What people miss is its not just about knowing what they mean – you need to do repetitive study so that your brain builds the ability to instantly, subconsciously see a kanji and understand it without having to translate “through” another language.
100% agree on Duolingo, you need to study grammar from other sources, I like that they use Kanji from the get go and the amount of repetition of the new vocabulary in every lesson, as well as present/past/positive/negative constructions, but without a grammar foundation you will not learn the language.
I wish you’d mentioned Cure Dolly passed away before I’d gone to check the channel out. Still useful material or not, now I’m bummed out and I didn’t even know them until now.
The beginner manga Crystal Hunters is proving to be an effective and motivating tool for beginners. The reading guides at the manga’s website are very easy to understand. There’s two versions. Japanese (N5 with furigana) and Natural Japanese (N4-N3 with no furigana). The review it got on Tofugu said it was perfect for people who have got Hiragana and Katakana under their belt. Anyway, worth a look. It thrilled a bunch of my friends with its art and story and stands as the first manga books beginners like us have ever finished. http://www.crystalhuntersmanga.com
I finished learning katakana and hiragana, I also am quite familiar with the grammar because I’ve been learning Korean on n off for a year n a half, the grammar is almost the same. So, should I learn Basic Kanji now?