My learning Japanese journey was really sparked by this video, my very first skit about people who think they know japanese but can’t read – it is FULL of Japanese mistakes lol:
[https://youtu.be/\_3Poc9lGM1c](https://youtu.be/_3Poc9lGM1c)
To not be a hypocrite I basically learned hiragana in a week and then expanded my vocabulary by translating music like these:
[https://www.culturetoronto.com/spotlight/matsuri-by-fujii-kaze-with-hiragana-and-romaji-lyrics](https://www.culturetoronto.com/spotlight/matsuri-by-fujii-kaze-with-hiragana-and-romaji-lyrics)
What’s different about the romaji section here is that you can click or hover on the words and see the translation given by my friend on HelloTalk. HelloTalk is essential in finding people for free that know Japanese and will speak with you because they want to learn English.
Anyways, I’ve come a long way. I made a little dictionary that now has 350 words!
But I kinda talk in song lyrics now…
I wonder if anyone else out there learns through music or translating things they like.. do you?
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But people can know a language without being able to read. (Please just ignore my pedantic nitpickery).
I also got started through song lyrics. I personally only gave a translation for words I didn’t know, though. I wrote down the lyrics by hand as they were, complete with kanji and 義訓, then I made a glossary at the end of each song out of the words I didn’t know. The fact that I had a tendency to listen to slower songs [like these](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBfUpSa74L5Br6iu2U_hG47bpjCWWcCXW) that covered similar themes meant that I got to become familiar with a lot of words almost entirely through context with no scheduled reviews. It also made it so that I got used to actually interpreting the information as it came rather than translating everything in my head.
I’m the opposite. I can read pretty well with only occasional use of a dictionary, but my listening comprehension is not that great.
In my opinion, learning through studying and translating lyrics has its unique strengths and weaknesses, but the weaknesses far outclass the strengths if you’re just starting out.
Aré you learning kanji or 100% romaji?