As the title says, I really love the Japanese language and it is really exciting for me to learn new words or manage to read a full sentence, but I really have a hard time sitting down to study mostly because I don’t know how to do it effectively and not waste 4 hours trying to “study” (I end up distracting because I don’t have a structured method that I can rely on).
In my major almost everything is projects so I haven’t study for a long time (even less things that require memorization)
So what are your tips for studying vocabulary, kanji and grammar?
7 comments
How to learn Japanese
Step 1. Learn Hiragana and Katakana
Step 2. Learn Words
Step 3. Learn Grammar
Step 4. Try and use level appropriate media
Step 5. Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4.
As long as you’re making progress in steps 2, 3 and 4, you’ll be fine.
For vocab you can use an app like Anki, download premade decks or make them yourself, same with kanji, if learning how to write it etc is your thing there are plenty of books/apps for that, hesig remember the kanji is one of the books. Grammar, plenty of videos on youtube, websites, books etc.
It’s really easy to fall into the trap of trying to find the perfect study method. I’ve also thought about it, but gave up trying to figure anything out. I personally suggest just consuming media. Podcasts, YouTube, anime, books, children’s stories, manga, etc.
You’ll learn things along the way, and you’ll be able to spot things you don’t fully understand and look further into it.
This is how it’s been recently for me. I don’t put all that much effort into it these days so I’m not learning quick by any means, but it’s progress.
tldr: find media you like and go for it.
In terms of pure time to knowledge ratio – a vocab list SRS is the best at both the beginner and advanced level.
Doing an RTK (book 1) SRS is the most effective way to begin, but has a high drop off and you will not learn ‘Japanese’ for about 3 months if you do about 30-40 cards a day. If you do it properly you will spend about 150-200 hours to commit them to memory. Comparatively many learners will be getting close to N5 by the time you actually ‘start’ learning the vocab – but RTKers will learn vocab much faster and it will stick much easier.
Right now I average 4 hours a day studying in SRS – but I learn about 150 words a day for the last month. I use the pomodoro technique to aid in retention, but I hit a bad batch of tough vocab for me and my retention rate fell to about 85% in the last day or two. Though I’ve had personal issues affecting my learning time and mental state. I also do read as well so I probably put 300 hours into learning Japanese in January.
Previously, I cycled through various methods including extensive reading and intensive reading. SRS has given me by far the greatest retention because I while I would remember certain look ups from manga and books, they would be forgotten if not reused often. I also missed a lot of nuance and misread words, so I would ‘fill in the gaps’ slowly. While I got to the point to be able to read manga pretty well (with look ups) it irritated me and I switched to a pure SRS vocab grind which blew away all my issues in about a month of solid intense study. Even light novels are pure fun now – I do not struggle with anything I encounter if I can SRS the vocab first, but outside that I still have 90%+ comprehension.
After you learn hiragana and katakana, Japanese becomes very un-streamlined. You’d think that wouldn’t be the case in 2023, but there’s just too many apps and books and tools out there, and most are very mediocre. In my experience, a good structured routine involves:
– A LIMITED number of resources that you’re studying from. Aim narrow rather than wide.
– One of the resources is very detailed and instructive in grammar & building sentences.
– At least one of the resources has some kind of listening/audio practice.
– Some kind of vocab retention routine that you can do quickly every day, such as SRS flash cards. Vocab will pile up quickly. These can also be used for kanji.
– An accountability buddy or teaching structure, to ensure that you don’t get lazy, and commit to your plan once you start it.
Usually, the Genki textbook does a decent enough job at #2 and #3 (compared to every other option out there), and I like Anki for #4, although it will require building your own deck(s) which can take time. The “2k/6k core decks” are just massive overkill.
The easiest way to get structure is to get a textbook.
[https://archive.org/details/Genki/Genki%20-%20Elementary%20Japanese%20I/](https://archive.org/details/Genki/Genki%20-%20Elementary%20Japanese%20I/)
That link has both volumes of Genki and their corresponding workbooks.
Genki is good because it has a good flow (in my opinion), and exercises that are not just Pavlovian fill-in-the-blank questions. It asks you questions in Japanese and makes you answer in Japanese, so you actually use the language, which helps with retention.
If you use these PDFS (and you should if you are not going to buy a book), do note that the textbook has reading sections for each chapter, but they are in the back of the book for some godforsaken reason, so you have to flip to the back after each chapter.
Good luck.
If you are just starting, I recommend just spending a couple weeks web searching stuff like “how to learn a language” generally and more specific stuff like “how to learn Japanese kanji” and “how to learn to read in a foreign language.” I know you’re asking here now, but if you haven’t studied a language before then there’s some general ideas and general study methods you might want to become aware of. Stuff like you will eventually need to study and practice listening, reading, writing, and speaking. And you need to come up with study activities to work on all of those skills and practice them. Well made textbooks can be good in the sense they are made with the study material needed to keep improving and with study activities to practice. When you learn on your own you have to make those study plans yourself (or once you move on from textbooks you have to make the study plans yourself).
The way that works best for you might not be what works best for someone else and that’s okay. After you have an idea of what to study first then next etc, try out some study methods you see suggested and see what works for you. Examples of study methods and materials: a textbook (genki is one), anki (tango n5 deck is a popular beginner deck/also making your own cards), comprehensible input for your level of understanding (Comprehensible Input Japanese youtube is one option), common word lists (I like the online free ones with audio), reference books (like Kanji reference books/mnemonics containing ones or other), grammar guides (I like free online grammar guide summaries, there’s also grammar reference books). There’s graded readers (search for your level or learn some words first), there’s sites with reading listening lessons (like wasabi-jpn.com I love their lesson format), audio lessons (japaneseaudiolessons.com has free ones).
Personally what I thought worked well for me was: some free hiragana/katakana app with mnemonic stories to remember their shape and pronunciation for a couple weeks, then some anki/memrise deck with a few thousand common words (i like nukemarine Lets Learn Japanese memrise courses) while also reading through some grammar guide (I liked Sabuki and Tae Kims). For Kanji I liked the Tuttle book Read Japanese Today, the mnemonic stories on kanji.koohi.com. And honestly I liked just learning Kanji as part of the words I learned, I got frustrated studying Kanji in isolation. (I also took a detour and studied Chinese 2 years and learned 2000 characters from that which sure made Kanji less daunting lol… Chinese I also used a Tuttle book and mnemonics and learned characters as I learned the words they made). Then graded readers (Satori Reader app I like) and reading/playing stuff in Japanese while looking up words in a translation app like yomiwa. I’m still in progress and not that far in yet so take all of what works for me with huge heapings of salt lol. I like to focus on prepping for reading by learning some common words and reading an overall grammar summary so I’m vaguely aware of what I might run into, then going and reading or playing games with Japanese subs and learning more words and more concrete grammar as I’m immersing in the material. That’s just my learning preference.
I have a friend who studied in a speaking focused class for a year with Genki textbook but mainly heavy conversational exercises, learned maybe 1000 words, then afterward she learned by watching Japanese shows in Japanese looking up words and playing games, and reading novels and translating them (which sounds very intense to me). It was definitely jumping into the deep end in difficulty but she was interested in the content and motivated and it worked for her.
Take. A. Class.
I’m not a native English speaker, and my experience in learning a foreign language taught me that it takes a lifetime to learn a language. Heck, I started learning English when I was 10, and my English is still far from perfect. So, there’s no need to rush, sometimes you get stuck, and if you do, take a break and try again later.
I began to learn Japanese by self-study method. It worked for a time, until I found out that Japanese love to transform their verbs. I also thought that by having no mentor, my skill gets nowhere, let’s say I was just lost. So, I decided to take a class this month and the difference huge!
By having a mentor, my study has become more structured. My class is online, via zoom so it really suits my lifestyle as I also work full time and have kids. Maybe consider taking a class that suits your lifestyle?
Other than that, there is no shortcut in learning a language. There is no perfect method either. What makes it efficient is how often you study, and how often you expose yourself with said language.
One method usually works until certain level. After that, you’ll get stuck, and you’ll have to find a new one that suits your current level.
Good luck to you!