by when visiting Japan. • To better understand Japanese culture. • To make new friends. • To watch anime without subtitles. • To live and work in Japan. • To work in translation. • To improve your brain and help prevent dementia in later life.
think • The writing systems make more sense when you understand the rules behind them. • Japanese has a very limited range of sounds and none are difficult for English speakers to pronounce. • Many of the grammar rules are actually simper than English. • You don’t need to become fluent to accomplish your goals.
• Each character represents a single sound. • Organised in blocks of five. • Learning hiragana should be one of the first things you do because it helps you to understand how words should be pronounced.
believes in you! • Download a hiragana chart and put it somewhere you will see it often. http://www.textfugu.com/resources/hiragana-chart/. • Study three to five new characters a day. • Drill the characters you have studied whenever you get the chance. • Consider using a flash card app such as Memrise. • Look up how to enable Japanese text input on your phone and computer.
• Mostly used to sound out foreign loan words. • Similar to upper and lower case in English. • Also used for emphasis and onomatopoeia. • Hiragana and Katakana together are referred to as kana. • Even if you know no other Japanese pronouncing English words as they would be read in katakana will make you easier to understand.
English. • Trying to literally translate sentences leads to awkward results. • Expose yourself to as much natural Japanese as possible to build your vocabulary and develop an ear for what it should sound like. • If possible talk to native speakers who will correct you when you make mistakes.
lessons and podcasts are your friend. • Beginner text books are a good source of basic Japanese and typically come with audio CDs. They’re usually quite wooden though. • Tae Kim’s Grammar Guide http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/ is an excellent overview of sentence structure. • Japanese Pod 101 has LOTS of content, though they can be very aggressive in pushing subscriptions.
Chinese. • Used to represent the meaning of words. • 2,136 "daily use" characters required for basic adult literacy! • Nouns are usually made up of one or two kanji. • Verbs and adjectives begin with kanji and end with a hiragana “tail” that changes based on the tense.
smaller components that make up a bigger picture. • Radicals have their own meanings, when combined they represent the meaning of a character, often in an abstract way. • Some kanji only contain a single radical and often share a meaning with that radical.
This is slow. • They learn characters with simpler meanings first, not characters that are simpler to write. • Many Japanese classes will teach kanji in this order. They don’t expect you to learn many. • There are better ways to learn kanji.
characters. • Learn characters roughly in order of written complexity. • Do practise hand writing but prioritise reading. • When you learn new words try to learn how they are written at the same time. • Focus on learning key words for a character over memorising all of its readings. • Used spaced repetition to recall characters just as you are about to forget them.
used to talk to friends and family. • Formal - used to talk to strangers and people of higher social status. • Keigo - honorific language used in customer service situations to raise the listener and lower the speaker.
• Used by convenience store employees thousands of times a day. • If you’re going to Japan it’s worth reading up on the key phrases you’ll hear at convenience stores.
grammar first. This is partly because they don’t want you to offend anybody but also because the conjugation rules for formal grammar are simpler. • If you are learning from anime you should aim to learn the standard form as soon as possible. • Tae Kim’s grammar guide covers informal grammar first.
help your Japanese. • Media with “real life” dialogue is going to be the most useful. • It’s also going to be easier to follow because there’s less specialised dialogue to look up. • That said, do try and learn from what you enjoy. I spent a year reading all of Fullmetal Alchemist in Japanese and definitely now know the words for “Philosopher’s Stone” and “Human Transmutation”! • Don’t be afraid to try things you don’t feel ready for. Even if you end up dropping them you could still come back to them later and see how much you’ve progressed.
anime and expect to pick up dialogue. • Rewatch short clips with subtitles and pick apart the dialogue until you fully understand it. • Once you understand a scene try “shadowing” it. Mimic the dialogue as you listen and try to match the tone of the voice actors.
or shows you’ve watched before try watching without subtitles. They can distract you from listening to the audio. • Even better try watching with Japanese subtitles. • Japanese subtitle files are available from the web kitsunekko.net. • Screenshots and lines of dialogue can be converted to Anki flashcards using Subs2SRS software.
early reading material because most kanji have readings. • Tankobon volumes can be imported using Yes Asia for less than their English translations would cost! • If there's an anime adaptation it can be useful to read a chapter and watch its anime episode shortly after. • You could also try reading Japanese translations of English books.
sitting without stopping to look up new words. • If possible read out loud. • Afterwards re-read the chapter more carefully and look anything you don’t understand. Keep a record of what you have looked up for later study.
other text heavy games are good for learning from. • Repeated exposure to menu text helps you to pick up certain words and characters. • Games with "puzzle" elements a good way to challenge your reading skills, for instance Phoenix Wright or Professor Layton.
can only be set when starting a new game. You can also change between kana and kanji at any time. • Final Fantasy XV. Change audio and text from the game settings. • Metal Gear Solid V. I think. • 3DS re-releases of the Phoenix Wright trilogy and Apollo Justice. Language toggle in the title screen. • Most Nintendo Switch games. The language changes based on system settings.
no Nihongo are some of the best known. • If you take a class they will probably follow one of these books. • They are okay when you know nothing but you should aim to move on to other materials. • Some text books are available in kana and romaji versions. You should go for the kana version.
Focuses on motivation and study techniques as well as content. • The first few chapters are available to read for free but afterwards there’s a subscription.
review flashcards including images and audio. • Download or share flashcard decks online. • You determine what questions you have answered correctly. • Desktop, iOS and Android versions available. iOS is paid.
your own flashcard decks or access those created by the community. • Uses RPG style levelling system. • Quizzes you using text input and multiple choice. • Apps available for iOS and Android.
the Kanji. • Contains radicals, kanji and vocabulary. • Tackles meanings and readings • Splits kanji into 50 levels (plus 10 bonus levels). • Uses spaced repetition to quiz you at timed intervals. • Free up to level 3, paid afterwards.
from beginner to advanced. • Covers kana, kanji, vocabulary and grammar. • Contains audio and text. • Purchase “decks” to keep. • Honestly I’ve only just heard of it so I haven’t had the chance to check it out but it sounds amazing!
for it in the best event poll. bit.ly/ kitaeventpoll. • Learn hiragana and katakana (if you haven’t already). • If you do know them find another goal for yourself. Make it specific and make it easy enough that you’re not going to give up. • If you have any questions you can get in touch with me via the Kitacon Social Facebook group or ask them on Twitter @jamesoneill83. • I will post a link to the slides on the Facebook group during the week.
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