SO you’ve finally said okay, I want to learn Japanese. If you’ve never learned a language before then it can seem daunting but it’s a very rewarding experience! I’m gonna lay out what helped me start and stuff that I think would’ve been helpful for me even early on! But I still recommend doing your own research and trying lots of different methods bc language learning especially by yourself is a very personal experience! This is also meant for absolute beginners just looking to get started so I will try to keep it simple.
First I just want to say I think your first goal should be “I want to be able to read and write kana fluently” because even just that will open so many doors and send you well on your way, but most importantly because: romaji will not be there for you. At all. And to be able to learn to read efficiently you need to read! Just like when you first learned the alphabet you must try to read everything, try to read tweets, posts, articles from NHK news easy, candy packaging, anything! You don’t have to understand what you’re reading at all, you just have to be able to read it right. And learn this with all the sources I will list in the post don’t try to learn it completely in isolation. Some tofugu kana resources to get you started/supplement other resources: Hiragana guide, Katakana guide, kana charts
Getting started immediately with apps
There’s lots of language apps to pick and try out but I think the 2 best options right away are Duolingo and Lingodeer. Duolingo has improved its japanese course so much since I first did it in 2017, finally more lessons so you can use it beyond the beginner stage, separate lessons for katakana finally, and it uses more kanji to really give you a headstart on that front! Its still kind of inefficient in isolation but its so good for getting you started. If you’re fine with spending some subscription money then Lingodeer, a recently paywalled app specially made for asian languages like Japanese, Chinese, and Korean is worth giving a try! Here’s a video review of it by Miku Real Japanese
Textbooks
The most famous textbook used in classrooms is Genki! A good book, its concise, streamlined, and efficient! but it’s not really designed for you to study by yourself. Its designed for the classroom and doesn’t really include a lot of content to help you become fluent in reading kana and some kanji. This can make starting feel more daunting and overwhelming for some so a lot self learners myself included recommend starting with Japanese from Zero! Specially designed for self learners and does a slow and thorough approach with an incorporated workbook section! There’s lots more options to explore tho and cough cough pdf versions to check out before you have to settle with a purchase
Youtube
There are so many good youtube channels both old and new to help you at every step! If you need to hear someone explain things for you bc you want to practice listening/pronunciation, you just like lectures, written explanations didn’t help then youtube is a great asset! Japanese Ammo has lessons starting with absolute beginners, if you want to try your hand at doing lessons with no english at all, then Sambonjuku’s basics can help. Japanesepod101′s youtube is also a great place for beginners! This is just a tiny sample of the many youtube channels dedicated to teaching you japanese so if none of these clicked with you then there’s many more channels to try! All linked channels also have videos on kana!
In summary simply getting started is the first step and when you conquer kana then that’s already big progress! These are the basic tools that helped me simply start so I hope at least one of them can be helpful, and if not then there must be some tool or resource out there that will work for you! And quick note: a book I’m reading right now that I also want to recommend as supplemental reading is Fluent Forever by Gabriel Wyner. Its really good advice on how to approach and start language learning and I agree with everything I’ve read so far, and its just a really encouraging book! I also recommend checking out Tofugu.com which has a lot of great reviews, articles, advice, and resource roundups for you to explore. also shoutout to my fav langblr on here @ohitoyoshi just because. and if anyone reading want to share what helped them get stared then feel free to add on!
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