I started wanting to learn at about 14, I bought a genki book and tried to learn from that, but it wasn’t much help and being the low attention child I was I forgot about it. I’m 16, I’m using Duolingo it learn hiragana and katakana and I’m just lost now because I’m nearing halfway done with learning hiragana and I just don’t know how to use it, and Duolingo doesn’t have great grammar or phrases. So any free suggestion, or not free. And any tips on how to study or use the genki books
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Genki is a college textbook, originally designed to be used in a classroom with a teacher, and using them for self study is not for everyone. I think that the Japanese From Zero books are better suited especially for younger learners. Take a look at the Youtube video series that goes along with the books and see if this is more for you: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsrakMT1h2g&list=PLOcym2c7xnBy_L5_iQzgSrzMIXH7DUwB0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsrakMT1h2g&list=PLOcym2c7xnBy_L5_iQzgSrzMIXH7DUwB0)
Instead of the books you can also check out the Japanese From Zero online course, which I thought was even better than the books.
Hey there, I started out at 16 and in one year, I’m close to n3. My solution to you is easy, first pay full, I mean put your life and passion in learning the kana, the starting is always hard, I also faced it when I started about a year ago. Also, don’t start with Genki right away, complete your Kana first then jump into Kanji, for this I prefer Anki, and for deck just use Wanikani Ultimate 3, that is the best you can get for free, I give it to you. After doing learning atlest to n5, start Genki, also, Genki is a college level textbook, so it’s just better to skim through the grammar sections and go and watch Tokini Andy Genki videos that will help you learn more clearly.
Japanese learning isn’t easy, poor attention and lose passion can never lead you to learning Japanese. There are three rules I will give you, just follow these and you will be able to learn Japanese with you mind ablaze –
1. There is no *break* in learning Japanese, consistency is the key.
2. Pay full attention during studying.
3. Learn everyday, I mean everyday, I did this mistake, causing me to waste around 2 months, that felt like shit when I pick it up again.
That’s it. Hope that helps you.
https://www.erin.jpf.go.jp/en/ you might like, it’s free and has a lot of videos so you can see/hear things being used.
For studying, try to get some time aside every day if you can. If you can do a small amount every day and keep that going, you’ll see progress.
If it doesn’t feel like you’re progressing, go back and review the early chapters of whatever you’re studying from. You might be surprised how easy it is!
For grammar I can recommend Bussu.
Is explains grammar much better then doulingo.
If you don’t know how to use hiragana you probably just don’t know enough words and grammar. Just because you know the sounds of the langue doesn’t mean you know the meaning of combination of thoes sounds aka words.
Another thing is that you will probably partially forget kana when you focus on diffrent areas of language. I study for half a year and I can forget some less common kana sounds.