Hello, so I have very very minimal knowledge of Japanese. I’ve tried self-studying many times before and I’ve only been able to learn hiragana and katakana (which I’ve forgotten now). In spring I am starting Japanese I at my college, and I’m just wondering if I should start studying anything about the language in the mean time to make my life easier starting out? I was thinking of just learning hiragana and katakana and some basic grammar rules but I don’t know if this is even necessary. Thanks for any advice!
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Yes, you should start (right now)!
If you’re stuck you can try the [subreddit’s Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/wiki/index/)
Up to you, if I’m honest.
If actual competency is a goal of yours, a college course will be nowhere near enough to begin with, so self-study and further study will be an absolute necessity.
If you only have a passing interest and just want to keep up with the other course-goers, getting hiragana and some basic grammar rules down won’t be *entirely* necessary, but it will give you a bit of an advantage that will make life easier in the long run.
I would suggest you to start studying at least hiragana and katakana now, so you have some time to get used to the classes, without being overwhelmed by the amount you have to study.
The way of studying might be very different from what you are used to, so it gives you some time to adjust.
At my University class we had one week to learn hiragana and one week to learn katakana, so your advantage will be caught up faster than you might like.
Hey! From the experiences I’ve been told, college courses for JP are kinda deathly slow (obviously your mileage may vary, going off two friends experiences!)
If you learn kana and even a few grammar rules before class begins, you’re gonna be ahead of the curve!
If you have until spring, you could honestly do the first Genki textbook in that time with maybe an hour a day imo, but I’m not sure how long it takes the avg person.
Edit: if you still have a vague grasp, use a site like realkana to drill them back in! Completely anecdotal but I memorized kana more than 2x faster than a bud and basically only used that site and tofugu’s mnemonics when I started
All the best, I hope you enjoy the journey!
Self studying is hard! I don’t know many people that have been able to keep it up for long, so you’re doing right by signing up for a class.
Something no one else has mentioned: just talk to your university. Seriously, you can reach out to one of the instructors that teaches the intro course, or you can email the head of the department. Instructors are happy to answer questions like that.
If you’re going to study in the meantime, and you have the money, you should join a program. For instance, there are YouTubers and Twitch streamers offering group lessons. Or there are online tutors. Just having a deadline each week will make a huge difference. If you start studying now, you could probably honestly skip the 101 class by the time spring rolls around. You might start a bit behind in 102, but as others have mentioned, the classes move slow, and you can catch up pretty quick.
Try the free app here: r/yoitv which airs Japanese TV shows in real time.
Definitely learn hiragana and katakana, ideally writing them as well as recognising – it will make your life so much easier if you never need to use romaji to make notes. If you know which textbook you’ll be using then start learning the vocabulary for it as soon as you’ve learnt hiragana. You can find readymade sets of flashcards for most of the popular textbooks online or you can buy the book and make your own cards. I wouldn’t worry about trying to study grammar in advance – that’s what they’ll be teaching you in the class – but if you’ve pre-learnt all the relevant vocabulary it will be so much easier to focus on the grammar. Take it from someone who basically had to re-do their whole first year of japanese classes because they couldn’t keep up!
Because Japanese is so different from English, I would look at pre-preparing for as much of the class as possible. Ideally, you could approach the semester as an opportunity to review what you studied in the summer / fill in some gaps.
You could ask for the textbook name/version and curriculum. Or just use the resources/techniques on the wiki/forums here.
Have a daily review plan and be disciplined. Good luck.
Learning Hira and kata and some basic grammar will take you a long way, I highly recommend it
you should self-study beforehand as much as possible for all of your classes. teachers mention this, but students somehow never really take it seriously. “hah hah yeah sure i’ll read the textbook before the class. *bong-rip*”
you either master the material in advance, which makes all of the homework/testing aspects of the class easier, leaving you with time for your other classes, or you’re at least prepared to ask better questions during the lectures.