Example of a workflow, for beginners.

This post is for new, solitary learners who are looking for concrete advice on where to focus their learning.

I’ve been learning Japanese for about a year now, for probably between 1-2 hours a day, on average. I am in no way religious about it, but after a year I feel I have found the things that work for me. I realise that everyone learns differently, and that many people will probably disagree with some of the things, but if just one person can gain something from it, I’m happy. I wanted to make this post because I wish that I would have seen this post when I was beginning.

Hopefully this will save someone the time of perusing 100’s of different apps and resources, which I wish i could’ve saved.

First of all, I’m assuming you are reading this post because you have already decided to learn Japanese and therefore already know Hiragana and Katakana.

There are 3 things you need to focus on in the beginning of your journey:

1: Grammar

2: Vocab

3: Kanji

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1: I find that Genki is the most accessible textbook, even though they are made for classrooms. One resource in particular is extremely valuable: [Genki Study](https://sethclydesdale.github.io/genki-study-resources/). This might be, in my opinion, the single best free resource for practicing grammar out there. It has all the practice elements from both the textbook and the workbook combined, and it saves you the trouble of having to use an answer key. This is an amazing resource even if you’re not using Genki. Genki will also help you practice talking, in the beginning.

2: In connection to using Genki, I use [this](https://app.memrise.com/course/29267/genki-i/) Memrise deck to practice the vocab presented in Genki. Learning the vocab ahead of the chapter you are coming to in Genki makes it immensely easier to focus on the grammar points.

3: For kanji, Wanikani. I know it’s a subscription service, but honestly it’s worth every penny. Do it every day, no exceptions. There should be some discount codes somewhere out there – I got 12 months with 50% off. The mnemonics are very helpful in the beginning, but honestly, once you progress far enough, learning kanji becomes so much easier. I don’t look at the mnemonics at all anymore, I just learn a kanji by failing it 3-4 times.

Now, for listening, reading and talking, you are on your own. But these things are quite inaccessible in the beginning anyway. Nihongoconteppei is a good listening podcast, Crystal Hunters manga seems like a good resource for beginner reading. Beyond that, I’m sure you will find stuff that suits your learning style. Duolingo is actually also quite nice as a ways of practicing shadowing, sentences and sentence structures, but it is terrible at teaching you concepts, kanji and vocab. Use it when you’re bored on the bus.

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I hope that this helps someone!