Online JP beginner courses – recommendations?

6 comments

1. I would advise you not to spend money for a beginner course, perhaps others would disagree, but I do not think it is worth it as there are SO many free resources for beginners.

   An intermediate course might make sense in a year, but for now I would choose a youtuber you like (Tokini Andy does Genki 1 lessons, a lot of people here like Cure Dolly, I like Japanese from Zero) as they will cover all the basics and have videos on their channels for free. Most of them have playlists for their beginner courses.

2. There are some [free self-study courses](https://minato-jf.jp/) using the Marugoto series, which is meant to align Japanese learning outcomes with the European language learning scale/CEFR. They got from beginner A1 to intermediate B1 level.

3. ^I second this. There’s unlimited free resources especially for beginners since so many people start and then quit. There is free intermediate material, but that’s where it might make sense to get a tutor or pay for a course but even then I wouldn’t recommend it unless you know for sure that that’s your learning style and you like the teacher or course or whatever.

   I’d suggest checking out free resources, and they all have free beginner courses, and then if you find a teacher or course or presenter that you really like and like the explainations and all that then maybe consider getting a course.

   But If you are set on buying a beginner course, I’d still recommend taking a look around for those courses and check em out for a while. Get a feel for how they explain things, how the info is presented, how well you are actually learning and retaining the information, and doing that for maybe 5 to 10 different channels or courses or books or whatever so you really feel like you make a solid choice with it, whatever you end up doing.

   Check the sidebar or subreddit info to find the most commonly suggested beginner resources. Each have their strengths and weaknesses. Or just search beginner on this subreddit and read some people’s past suggestions.

   Lots of people go through the genki 1/2 textbooks.

   Some people use Tae Kim’s grammar guide.

   Almost everyone uses an SRS (spaced repition system,) either anki or wanikani. I primarily use wanikani and love it cause it fits my preferences better but I’m also using anki to create my own cards. There’s other lesser known ones too.

   A lot of people, myself included, like Cure Dolly’s channel on YouTube. Best grammar explanations I can find in my personal opinion, although some people can’t stand the voice but everything has full subtitles and transcripts for the videos too. I like the voice after getting used to it. If you imagine it as an older lady voice slightly roboticized then that’s her voice. And she was an older lady but unfortunately has passed but the channel is a gold mine imo.

   Also some people like the beginner stuff on Japanese pod 101 but I’ve heard the intermediate stuff isn’t as good or maybe costs money, I forget, but I think I’ve heard the beginning stuff is good and free.

   Japanese ammo with Misa is a channel people like as well.

   I shill a channel しのせんせい (shinosensei) for beginner listening and reading practice along with well known cultural stories. I just love it but I’ve spoken enough about it before.

   I also personally love the channel Game Gengo, he teaches Japanese through video games and has completely beginner friendly stuff. His videos are top notch quality and have given me so much value that I’ve been able to start playing video games in japanese myself.

   Those are just off the top of my head but there’s plenty more. Usually people recommend learning hiragana and katakana, going through the textbooks genki 1 and 2, maybe follow along with a channel that also goes through genki. Use an srs flashcard program to start learning vocab. That’s the fundamentals most people recommend starting with. I did it slightly differently but it’s whatever floats your boat.

   I know I suggested at looking around beginner content to see what floats your boat, but once you come up with a plan I suggest sticking with it. I think a lot of people get trapped in trying to find the most efficient way to learn or the very most perfectest learning resource out there for beginners and end up not progressing. Nothing is perfect, so find one you like and once you choose it, just stick with it. Lots of people bounce around and do a few lessons in genki, then a few videos from this channel, then a couple from that channel, etc until they’ve been studying for five years and still haven’t gotten past beginner materials because they never actually completed any. It’s not bad to review, but you gotta move on at some point.

   Anyway, there’s a massive wealth of info on reddit and all over the internet. I like looking for questions by Googling “this is my question reddit” and look at answers or opinions or explainations on reddit if I’m curious about something or need a really good explaination. Chances are it’s been asked and answered before. Good luck on your journey!

4. The only course that I paid for was Tokini Andy, mostly because its only like $10 or so. IMO it’s on the level of a full college course and is a thorough coverage of the Genki textbook series, so if you are interested in following a textbook it’s great value.

5. I’ve been working on a free beginner’s course for about two years. It’s an anki deck that loosely follows Tae Kim’s grammar guide, but explains everything with sample sentences from anime and dorama: [https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/911122782](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/911122782)

   Not sure if this is what you’re looking for: It’s not a series of videos where someone explains stuff, but a series of flashcards with minimalistic explanations. The cards build upon each other in an n+1 way, i.e. each card usually introduces a single new item (word or grammar). Currently, it covers most grammar and a little more than 800 words.

6. I agree with the other comments to try the options that others are recommending first (Tokini Andy, Japanese From Zero, etc). If those don’t work for you then I recommend a course with a real teacher or a private tutor.

   For the courses you mentioned, here are my thoughts:

   Both are only videos and not live teaching.

   Japanese with Hikari – Only goes to roughly N4 it seems. You can add comments/questions after you watch a video to clear up anything you don’t understand, which is helpful. I couldn’t find a clear video of what is being taught. They just quickly show some screens.

   Japanese with Aimee – This website seems questionable to me. They offer up to N2, but they don’t show what the video lessons are like(meanwhile they show a bunch of photos of Aimee). It feels like a lot of buzz words..even the whole “Japanese in 12” tagline.

   Both sound a little too good to be true and it seems like something is missing. If you do try either of them let us know.