Hi there,
I would love to start learning Japanese and I have already read a lot of stuff in the web. I am facing the issue that there seems to be a huge amount of resources to use.
So my question is basically: Is there a decent resource setup recommendation that you guys can give someone like me?
Id be willed to buy f.e. a lifetime-abo for bunpro or buy books.
Resources I found that get recommended often:
* Tae-Kim Sensei App (grammar only?)
* Bunpro (grammar only?)
* Genki 1 (Genki 2 later on obv) + Workbook
* Wanikani (pretty expensive)
* Anki (I read its pretty time-consuming setting up these flashcards etc)
* Benkyo app (vocabulary only?)
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Currently I startet learning the Hiragana with the “Kana” app for iOS.
I feel overwhelmed with the amount of possible tools and I would love to focus on a (small) amount of them and ignore the others. My ultimate goal is to read JP and watch & understand animes (at some point) and obviously be able to talk.
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Thank you very much!
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3 comments
I was in your shoes 1 year ago, i spent 2 weeks (a few hours a day) browsing reddit and youtube for the “best method” so that i could learn japanese as efficiently as possible. In the end i read a comment that really struck me.
“There is no perfect way of learning, just doing something is better than nothing”.
That really made me realize that i had been wasting weeks trying to find the “best way” instead of actually studying. So i signed up for Wanikani and tried their first free levels to get a study routine going. And that is what i have been doing for a year now. Wanikani.
I highly recommend it but use it as a suppliment and not as i have been doing, as my main tool.
Wanikani has a lifetime deal for 199$ right now. For kanji and vocab i highly recommend it but you can get the same result from Anki.
I have tried Bunpro but never delved deep into it but i have heard good things about it.
Anki doesnt take that long to set up and with the different tools you can make your own cards from novels/anime which is just insanely good. Its my next tool to use when i start reading more.
Using a pre-made deck makes setup super easy.
If you want to do Genki, check out Toki no Andy (i think its spelled like that). He is basically the genki guy so use his YT for it (even if you do not own Genki). Im currently using Game Gengo to learn N5 Grammar.
Now go and do SOMETHING rather than be me and try and find the best method. Anki/Wanikani is pretty hard at the start IMO but it gets easier the more you work on it.
I can only speak from my own experiences and im sure others can chime in with better workflows than what i do xD
Good luck 🙂
The “best way” is what works for you. There’s no one size fits all.
Try multiple methods, see which one is keeping you motivated. If you need to start over from scratch with a new method, then do it.
I started with manga and “essential Japanese grammar” by E. F. Bleiler
I suggest it, because 1) it’s cheap. 2) it’s small but goes over most of the most important parts. 3) uses romaji so you can see some of the grammar points easier. Ku-> ki. is easier to understand for a beginner in verb conjugation than, く き 4)it’s used by alot of military people to learn japanese quickly.
Once you’ve finished that book (took me a week) then you can pick up a hiragana chart and a dictionary and start reading manga targeted towards children that have furigana on the top.
It gets you started quickly and cheaply.
I think of language like a tree. Grammar is the tree, then you add vocab on top.