First, I will say I do enjoy learning Japanese it’s really fun but the thing is it feels really overwhelming you see I am 16 and not exactly in a financial situation to even consider a tutor but I definitely want to have a chance at becoming a English teacher in Japan in my early 20s and if possible visit Japan at 18 or 19.
The language isn’t like Spanish or anything and it feels impossible to learn without immersion of some sort of a native speaker to practice with.
Not to mention you have thousands of Kanji and while I definitely don’t expect to learn it overnight looking at so many Kanji you have to memorize the stroke patterns and not to mention the grammar alone which while not super confusing it can be difficult to grasp sometimes.
It’s just I don’t know an efficient way to learn and memorize all these things and without immersion of some sort it seems impossible it’s not like I have the money to even go or even dream to go to a Japanese language school and I honestly feel like I am out of options because I want to at least get to a level where I can have conversations in the language or be able to read manga without having to look up every single word I see.
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Yes… but you’re likely going to sound unnatural, and suffer from speaking English in Japanese words.
You can definitely get there. It’s just going to take a lot of listening and reading practice. Put the time in. You will get there.
Also, you may have an easier time finding a tutor than you think. There are some online services that make getting a tutor for a once a week, or even once a month if you have to, relatively affordable. Also, you can find a japanese person learning english who would love to have a native english speaker help them out. there’s a language exchange subreddit for this. And a plethora of websites to help you find people for this.
Don’t worry, you don’t need any Japanese to be an English teacher in Japan.
There are ways to do immersion practice without a native speaker around, although yes, that does help. For me, “immersion” was the fun part of studying because I basically would just watch TV. While I will still tell people you can’t learn Japanese by watching anime, it certainly can help if you also put in the time studying. And if you don’t have any native speakers to practice with, TV is the next best thing. Not as good, but better than nothing.
When people in these parts say the word “immersion,” they don’t mean access to Japanese people to talk to all the time. Mostly, it means native materials to read, watch, and listen to — media. If someone at home is paying for the internet already and you’ve got free time, you have a shot at immersion-style learning. Specifically “media immersion”, but still.
As someone else say, if you are a native english speaker you don’t need Japanese to teach english in Japan. A good part of them barely know two words.
On the other hand, if you want to learn Japanese there are different ressources for free online.
I would always recommand a textbook and it’s answer key. But if you can’t for monetary reason, you should look up famous websites that teaches you for free and try to find among them a grammar method that suits you. Youtube probably also has some ressources you can add to that.
For Kanjis learning there are also free app you can download. For vocabulary, use Anki. On Iphone, you have to buy Anki but it’s free if you use other phone or the computer version of it
For immersion, as other have said, 99% of the time people mean watching programs, tv shows, movies or anime in Japanese ( put on your native language subtitles when you re still starting and then later on, japanese subtitles), or when you can read better you can try US/UK shows with Japanese subtitles 🙂
We mean also using the free « NHK web easy » to practice reading, and apps like JaReads which is a above in reading but still. Also manga in native language.
There are also some language exchange apps that are talked here.
Basically, there are tons of ressources for free and that’s usually what people talk about. The only issue is that you would need discipline especially with no teacher, to go through these.
So basically do this
-Textbook +workbook and their answer key especially for grammar
If you don’t have the money at all then websites and YT. It will be harder but I understand if you can’t afford these.
-Kanji writing and learning through free apps
-Vocabulary through Anki. Free again either on your phone or through the web version on your computer. People have made deck of JLPT vocabulary by level and share them. You can look them up online, again for free. You can also make your own 🙂
– Immersion : through online things like Netflix, Disney plus, or Youtube ( for free), or anime watching and manga reading practice, or NHK web easy / JaReads … basically what you have access to, for free.
At one point you will need to talk, and language exchange apps will be useful. Twitter also you may try your hand there, if you like manga or idols you may join Twitter J-community of these and try to write tweets etc Not saying people will answer but you can try
That’s the method 🙂
You’re looking up at a mountain and thinking “how am I going to reach that peak”, and it seems overwhelming. But in truth you shouldn’t spend your energy focusing on the whole mountain, or the peak, but rather what’s in front of you. Take the first steps, and then take some more steps, and so on… keep going. There will come a day where you glance back, and feel amazed at how far you’ve come. Yes, there’s a lot to learn, but people (such as the very people in this sub) _can_ and _do_ learn much of it very effectively.
You don’t have to do it perfectly. You don’t have to do it fast. Heck, you don’t even have to do it _efficiently_. All that matters is that you _do it_. Your journey will be unique to you. And one day you’ll be passing on advice and guidance to someone else starting out on the same journey.
We all looked up at that mountain at some point, and felt daunted by its size. But as many will attest, the climb is exhilarating, and worth every moment.