Start learning hiragana, YouTube have some pretty good video
I started by reading Tae Kim’s grammar guide. It’s a bit dated but it’s free and gets the job done. There’s a lot of bad advice online. A lot of people will tell you that you need to read a bunch of grammar books before you can start trying to understand Japanese media. In my opinion they are all wrong. If you want to get started just go start listening to Japanese media, (maybe start with something you’re familiar with, if that’s an option). Don’t worry if you don’t understand 99.9 percent of what you are listening to – that phase is inevitable and you need to go through it if you eventually want to start understanding. Just focus on appreciating every little bit of detail your brain picks up.
Check out Livakivi’s YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/c/Livakivi That dude has some interesting opinions on learning Japanese. And I’m actually using his Japanese learning model.
I recommend you check the Starter’s Guide that’s linked in this subreddit’s About section – it has all the resources you need to get started.
I’ve also only recently started learning Japanese and I structure my learning this way, tackling each of these little by little but side by side, almost simultaneously (instead of waiting to finish one to go to the next – that gets boring quickly imo!):
– Learning how to read and write hiragana and katakana – Practising Kanji with Anki decks which also increases my range of vocabulary – Learning grammar with Tae Kim’s guide – Reading or watching media in Japanese: there’s a great playlist on YouTube by GaijinQuest called Reading a manga where he reads through a manga with explanations. This is a good start to learn how real life Japanese people tend to talk, good to break out of the ‘textbook learning’ process.
Referring to the last point, I’m also watching Love is Blind Japan on Netflix but a better reality TV show you can start with is Terrace House – the more I listen to Japanese people talking in real life settings, the more I’m able to capture words and phrases I’ve been learning. I also printed out a story in Japanese and I would sometimes sit down and try to read a paragraph.
5 comments
Start learning hiragana, YouTube have some pretty good video
I started by reading Tae Kim’s grammar guide. It’s a bit dated but it’s free and gets the job done. There’s a lot of bad advice online. A lot of people will tell you that you need to read a bunch of grammar books before you can start trying to understand Japanese media. In my opinion they are all wrong. If you want to get started just go start listening to Japanese media, (maybe start with something you’re familiar with, if that’s an option). Don’t worry if you don’t understand 99.9 percent of what you are listening to – that phase is inevitable and you need to go through it if you eventually want to start understanding. Just focus on appreciating every little bit of detail your brain picks up.
Check out Livakivi’s YouTube channel:
https://youtube.com/c/Livakivi
That dude has some interesting opinions on learning Japanese. And I’m actually using his Japanese learning model.
I recommend you check the Starter’s Guide that’s linked in this subreddit’s About section – it has all the resources you need to get started.
I’ve also only recently started learning Japanese and I structure my learning this way, tackling each of these little by little but side by side, almost simultaneously (instead of waiting to finish one to go to the next – that gets boring quickly imo!):
– Learning how to read and write hiragana and katakana
– Practising Kanji with Anki decks which also increases my range of vocabulary
– Learning grammar with Tae Kim’s guide
– Reading or watching media in Japanese: there’s a great playlist on YouTube by GaijinQuest called Reading a manga where he reads through a manga with explanations. This is a good start to learn how real life Japanese people tend to talk, good to break out of the ‘textbook learning’ process.
Referring to the last point, I’m also watching Love is Blind Japan on Netflix but a better reality TV show you can start with is Terrace House – the more I listen to Japanese people talking in real life settings, the more I’m able to capture words and phrases I’ve been learning. I also printed out a story in Japanese and I would sometimes sit down and try to read a paragraph.
Jisho.org is your go-to dictionary!
(Here’s a list of free apps that helped me.)
To learn the phonetic alphabets: Kana Mind
To learn kanji: Kanji Study
To start with some of the basics: Memrise