Good day, I want to ask which is preferable for someone starting out. I’ve always been slacking with learning Japanese and going in and out. I’ve mastered the hiragana and katana however. I decided to become serious this year and I want to know which path to take. I’ve already gone through the subreddit guidelines and path but I wanted to get recommendations from people actively learning. Do I learn and focus on kanji first or do I go straight into books like Tae Kim’s grammar guide and podcast that teach speech? Or do I switch every month from learning kanji to learning grammar and speech?
My plan for the year is to be at least decent enough to hold a small introductory conversation and not be absolutely lost when I see a long text only able to decipher the katakana or hiragana.
4 comments
Going *kanji isolation* or otherwise is what is called a 水掛論 so it’s more like what you like/prefer/continue without burning out.
Also the guide of the sub are written by people who learned/is learning Japanese, so there’s not much additional value by making a new thread. I’d argue it would even harm you, as posts like this attracts advice from *beginners*.
(When I say beginners, I mean someone who may or may not have a clear picture of what they’re doing, and definitely don’t have the level of hindsight the authors of the sub’s guides and wiki have.)
Kanji/vocab takes up about 95% of the time I spend studying. This is because grammar is applicable in many cases unlike kanji/vocab and there are a far fewer grammar points that kanji/vocab. Once you get past the beginner stage, this is probably what your study will look like. However in the beginning I think grammar is far more important. Without stuff like word order, parts of speech, particles, basic verb, adjective and copula inflections, nothing will make sense. Hence I recommend focusing on grammar first, then transitioning to kanji/vocab once you get comfortable with the basic grammar (though you don’t have to exclude either).
Learn words and grammar concurrently
Get a beginner textbook and google or youtube parts you don’t understand. Start watching some simple kids show to get used to the sound of the language. Work through the exercises and listening files that come with your textbook. Work your way through about 2 books over the next year or two then do the JLPT N4 and assess if you’ve got the basics and re-plan from there.