Hey! I’m just starting to learn Japanese. In the past couple of weeks, I memorized all the Hiragana and Katakana, but now I’m not sure what to do. I can’t really afford a bunch of textbooks, or any kind of subscriptions. I’ve been re-watching anime to try to get some form of immersion. Now that I’ve reached this point, I’m not sure where to go.
To clarify, I still have no ability to speak or understand Japanese. Do I start learning sentence structure? Or should I start with learning words? What resources do you recommend respectively?
It’s just a big hurdle starting out, so I’d appreciate any help! Thank you!
Preemptive Edit: Yes, I read the wiki, I still felt like I needed more guidance. Sorry if this is an annoying question.
7 comments
I started off learning kanji and vocabulary words before really going into grammar and it worked quite well for me. Hard to learn grammar if you can’t read even basic words.
Look up kanji vocab decks that you can use with anki. They’re free. I’m afraid I can’t recommend an my though because I just use wanikani, which is a paid subscription.
You don’t need a bunch of books and subscriptions. One will do. Because Genki is so popular you can find used copies for a fraction of the original price. If you need free resources, try the app Renshuu. It has vocab, kanji, and grammar for free using SRS and includes some fantastic mnemonics made by users. Also look up Tae Kim’s grammar book, it’s free on his website.
Start with Tokini Andy Genki 1 on youtube or Japanese from Zero on youtube + an anki deck for vocab imo.
You can start with Tae Kim guide on the most basic grammar
i think there is a pdf on genki vol 1 online somewhere
Start by looking up Genki 1 full free textbook. I found it quick. I’ve been learning for 6 weeks and the textbook has been super helpful. Also the core 2k 6k anki and the Genki 1 anki I’ve been doing.
I tried nearly everything when I first started learning. But I will tell you what I’m doing now that seems to be the most effective. There are words, grammar and kanji when learning Japanese. I’m just focusing on words and grammar because I think they’re more important and you can still recognize the group of kanji that represents a word and know the reading, without knowing what the individual kanji mean by themselves.
**vocabulary:** Find a Spaced repitition system and deck with common words to do flashcards with. I used a website called Kanshudo that has a list of most useful words. Most people use anki but i’m not sure of the deck(s). Once you reach around 1000 words you want to start **immersing** in the language. watching japanese shows or reading and using software like Migaku or Yomichan to get words and make a flashcard out of it. This will rienforce the words you learn from flashcards and steadily increase your comprehension.
**Grammar:** If you don’t have money there’s Tae Kim’s guide although I personally don’t use it. I use Bunpro as it’s explanations are good, with examples and it even has a grammar spaced repitition system where you have to type in the grammar. It’s $5 a month though.
optional: Get a teacher if you struggle to learn the grammar on your own or if you want to practice using grammar or speaking. Some people don’t recommend you speak until later stages but I found practicing saying the basic conjugations and sentence patterns with a teacher helped cement the basics. Though it wasn’t enough value for what it cost.