How to Learn Japanese in Five Easy Steps

It is definitely possible to learn Japanese on your own, and if you put your heart to it, you can do a lot better than people attending a classroom type language course. In this article I will give you some ideas so that you can start to learn Japanese right away.

1.       Have a proper mindset 

Language learning is a gradual process that takes time.  You won’t be able to speak nor read books in two month time, but you will have nailed down the basics. You will be able to write and read hiragana, have a small vocabulary and know some kanji. Good mastery of katakana won’t come until later, though. Unlike hiragana, katakana is rarely used and therefore the student is prone to forget it and relearn it over and over. It is possible to be able communicate quite freely and read Japanese with the extensive help of a dictionary after a year or so.

Having that it mind, you have to concentrate on the work you every day without thinking about the results. Just focus on enjoying the language and having fun with it, and one day you will find yourself fluent.

2.       Learn hiragana and katakana first

You can learn hiragana on this website http://japanese.about.com/library/blhira.htm and katakana on this one http://japanese.about.com/od/howtowritekatakana/How_to_Write_Katakana.htm. It is important that you learn the written forms of both of those syllabaries, not the printed ones. さ and き are written and printed differently. I learned the printed versions and had to eradicate the bad habit later. The websites I have provided links to teach correct forms.

How to learn it? There are two approaches. You can rote memorize the kana (this is the word we use to mean both syllabaries) in romaji (latin alphabet) in order first.

When you already know it, rote memorize all the hiragana characters to be able to write down the whole chart in order (あ、い、う、え、を).  Repeat the same with katakana (the characters of katakana sound exactly the same and are in exactly the same order). So first you are able to recite the kana from your memory, and then you are able to write it down from memory.