I know learning Kanji is probably better in the long run, but I want to learn enough vocab and grammar to have basic conversations first. Whenever I look to find good Japanese resources, I always find the recommendations to learn it along with kanji. I’ve attempted to learn it that way many times, but end up losing my motivation about like 200 flashcards or something in. Does anyone have some good resources to get a decent start without kanji?
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Have you tried Wanikani or some other system with a story telling system? I was pretty lost until I found those, as far as learning kanji goes. That being said, its your journey, but I do not know how you can learn Japanese without Kanji unless you are never going look at text and just talking to people. Learning Kanji is the self flogging initiation ritual of learning Japanese. That being said, I really liked the Pimsleur audio lessons when I started but last time I checked they still left you very very very deep in the woods. All the pieces matter. I started just wanting to read Japanese, and it really hurt my learning experience during my most ambitious years. As long as you are happy though, is all that matters.
rather than not learning kanji, i would suggest changing your approach. if flashcards aren’t your jam, do something else. the vast majority of the kanji i know i learned naturally by seeing words in natural writing and looking them up, rather than explicitly studying them. and while wanikani is flash card-like, it’s much more fun than a lot of other strategies. Don’t give up on it!
yep, like learning any other language without bothering to learn how to read and write
Worry about learning the fundamentals of grammar first. Kanji is something you will mostly tackle on a need-to-know basis when you begin engaging with native material and looking up lots of words. Japanese tends to use the same few Kanji very often, so you don’t have to learn quite as many as might think, and this makes them pretty manageable to remember. Rare or overly cumbersome kanji tend to be omitted in favor of kana.
Honestly you might as well learn the Kanji now unless you plan to never read because you are just going to have to learn everything again. The best thing about learning kanji is once you know them learning new words is much easier as you will already know how to read the word so looking up and remembering get easier.