Introduction

• Useful Tips for Getting Started
• A Note on Textbook Learning
• Learning a Language Effectively
• Written Romaji
• Learning Kanji

Please, take note that this course won't suit everyone's taste or methods of learning. You'll certainly find many people who will argue that "textbook" learning is very boring, inefficient and teaches biased, outdated or uncommon uses of Japanese.

It's important to make sure you have many other resources to use. Do not rely on this website alone. If you feel confident enough, you can skip some of these lessons and go straight to the grammar focused lessons instead.

Useful Tips for Getting Started

Here are some useful tips for getting started:

1. It is recommend to study all the Hiragana and Katakana first before jumping to Kanji. Using these first two scripts are used for writing words and particles in Japanese and will greatly help with pronunciation without the issues Romaji presents.

2. Try writing characters by hand as this helps them stick in memory so much more easier and improve your recognition skills. There are websites where you can even print special grid paper commonly used in Japanese schools to practice writing on.

3. Don't rely on this website alone, there are plenty of resources such as textbooks, online courses, apps, YouTube videos. While not all of these methods may be reliable, you'll eventually find some that work best for you.

4. Try reading simple Japanese text, such as children's books, beginner-level manga and audio books, video games and so on. Many videos may have subtitles that can all be used to analyse and enable you to see how real sentences work.

5. Immerse yourself in Japanese content: Reading Japanese newspapers, books, watching movies and TV shows, playing video games and so on to help you see the Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji characters in context and increase your exposure to them.

6. Adding on the previous point of Japanese content, even if you can't see the text or understand what's being said, it will still make it much more easier to naturally pick up the pronunciations of words since you will have heard them enough to do so.

7. When learning the Kanji meanings and pronunciations, try to associate the characters with meanings and sounds that they represent. The best way to memorise something is to make connections and form short stories to help them stick longer in memory.

Learning Kanji is a gradual process and requires consistent practice. Stay patient and persistent and you'll be able to master the characters in no time.

Common Learning Mistakes

We all make mistakes, sometimes it is because we do not like certain topics, find a particular method boring or too hard otherwise it maybe the reading of unreliable sources or misinformation such as the toxic negativity about textbooks. Here are some things to be aware of:

1. Relying too much on romanized scripts:
   relying solely on romaji (Japanese written in the Roman alphabet) can be a major obstacle to learning kanji and hiragana/katakana scripts. It’s important to familiarize yourself with the writing system from the very beginning of your studies.

2. Ignoring grammatical structures/context:
   Japanese grammar can be complex so it's important to study with context and learn to use grammar in context. Trying to memorize grammar rules without any practical usage can lead to confusing or incorrect usage of grammar structures.

3. Focusing solely on speaking:
   While speaking "casual" Japanese is important, it's also important to learn reading and writing. Neglecting written Japanese can limit your ability to fully comprehend the language and effectively communicate.

4. Not learning common phrases:
   Memorizing vocabulary lists can be helpful but it’s also important to be able to make practical and meaningful phrases. Make sure to study phrases that are useful in everyday conversation.

5. Not practicing regularly:
   Consistent practice is key to learning Japanese. Make sure to regularly study and practice speaking, reading, writing and listening skills to develop a well-rounded understanding of the language.

Do not be afraid to make mistakes. Mistakes are natural during the learning process so embrace them and learn from them. Native speakers will appreciate your efforts to learn their language and are often willing to help you improve.

A Note on Textbook Learning

Please be aware that speaking/listening is different to reading/writing. If you are learning from textbooks, then make sure you are using the latest publications. Obviously, reading something published from the 1980's is going to include a lot of outdated material unlike ones recently published within the past few years.

Do note however, learning from apps or textbooks will present Japanese in an unnatural and artificial way and you'll find there's so much you still don't understand. This gives way to the negativity of many people who are like: "DO NOT learn from textbooks, textbook are all USELESS and teach you nothing about the real language. It's all UNNATURAL and you'll NEVER learn Japanese."

Of course, if all you care about is speaking to others "casually" (but end up being too informal and possibly coming across rude or sounding broken) or watching Anime very much sooner, with set phrases and the lack of understanding to actually, grammatically construct real sentences or understand the real meaning behind what is spoken but instead, culturally Americanised, then textbooks won't help you.

If you are going to invest time in many of the popular textbooks like "Genki", "Minna no Nihongo" and so, please note that all these types of books do is prepare you for exams, not the ability to affectively and correctly communicate in Japanese as naturally and fluently as possible.

Do not think that this only applies to apps or textbooks alone. Even real teachers, advice from Japanese natives or those who claim to teach "casual" non-textbook Japanese may present themselves in the same, artificial or unhelpful way.

If you are like me and wish to read and write in a language properly, then this method will you help much more effectively. You'll still be able to speak the language as you go but don't expect it to happen after a few weeks or months.

Learning a Language Effectively

Spoken and written language is different. Unlike textbook style learning, casual Japanese often uses colloquial expressions, slang, informal grammar and commonly ignores rules that are not seen in most textbooks (Just like spoken English).

However, textbooks are not all bad and utterly pointless or useless; they provide a solid foundation for learning Japanese which can then be built upon through practice and exposure to natural Japanese used everyday. Following artificial examples or information given too strictly or religiously will have a very negative impact and you won't actually learn anything.

Let's take an example to show what we mean by casual and textbook Japanese:

1. あんたは日本語を話しますか
   (anata wa nihongo o hanashimasu ka)
   "Do you speak Japanese"

2. 日本語話せますか
   (nihongo hanasemasu ka)
   "Can you speak Japanese"

3. 日本語しゃべれますか
   (nihongo shaberemasu ka)
   "Can you speak Japanese"

In sentence (1) while grammatically correct, the Japanese here is unnatural and artificial. Sentence (2) is more natural and casual in Japanese where (3) uses a more casual word shaberemasu rather than hanasemasu which may appear more formal.

Why then even teach the first example, if it's unnatural, uncommon or even artificial?

Well, maybe it's because we are learning about basic verb use and the を particle, how it's used and the を particle's relevance to the verb 話す along with understanding the use of the は particle and it's different nuances compared to the が particle.

While there are many sentences that may seem suitable candidates, unfortunately, they also include grammatical points the learner has not yet covered, along with colloquial language, slang, cultural references, illiterate grammar, heavily contextual sentences, dialect and non-formal sentences and so on that the learner simply does not know or understand.

The main point here is to use grammar and words that you, the learner, can understand and use confidently in Japanese without English and without having to constantly look up other parts to get a proper understanding of context. Without real context, learning grammar and words of only specific parts of sentence, especially with guided English, does not help in any way at all.

The fact is, it is very hard if not almost impossible to teach practical grammar with natural and realistic examples. There is no point skipping around all the other topics because that will just cause confusion, discouragement and stress.

It is far more easier for learners with less linguistic skills of the language being taught (someone who knows nothing about the language and is completely new to it) with these unnatural and artificial examples. This is why most methods are taught this way. It is then up to the learner to use what they have learnt as a foundation and building blocks to learn the more natural and casual ways.

The aim here is to show how the different parts of the sentence work; this is easier to learn at the very early stages than sentence (2) and (3) which may be best learnt later when the potential form and Transitive/Intransitive verbs are understood and the ability to think in Japanese rather than viewing everything from a westernised viewpoint and using English grammar rules and phrasing.

If you skip around topics to learn the more casual and natural ways, you'll just end up confused, overloaded with too much conflicting information or the feeling like you are not really progressing and everything you learn goes against what you've just learnt previously; yes, that is discouraging.

This is why it's important to make sure you have many other resources to use. Listen to native speakers and immerse yourself in Japanese content to learn more natural ways of speaking Japanese.

Even if you don't know any Japanese people to talk to, there are plenty of video games, TV shows, YouTube videos, blogs and so on to learn from. If you love playing video games, try playing games that have voice acting and Japanese subtitles; find a method that works for you and you will enjoy doing.

You'll still be able to speak the language as you go but don't expect it to happen after a few weeks or months. Learning a language can actually take many years if not even longer than that.

If you are one of those who hates textbooks for whatever biased reason, then please know that the only one and true way of learning Japanese (or any language in fact) is to learn without using any English (or whatever language(s) you speak) at all and forget about all the rules that you ever learnt about any language, altogether.

That's to say: learn Japanese, using only Japanese and nothing else. After all, that's how you learnt English, right? As a child, you knew nothing about language, then eventually, you understood it.

The only reason it's hard to learn a new language is simply that you have spent most of your life, especially if you are now an adult, learning your own language, one that does not work the same as other languages and your inability to understand any other without falling back to your primary language for support.

I remember when I learnt French using only the French language (other languages were banned in class); all I can say from my own experience is that even though you will certainly develop a way of learning the language in the most natural way and be able to fluently communicate naturally, it's actually very difficult to do and very stressful compared to just learning the textbook way.

Just remember to use textbooks as building blocks set on a foundation to gain an understanding of the language and develop your linguistic skills which you can use to understand natural and casual language. Don't follow textbook examples or information from other people too strictly or religiously.

Written Romaji

Romaji is a modern writing system that uses Roman characters instead or Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji and is generally used for absolute beginners of the Japanese language. You should switch over to Hiragana and Katakana as soon as possible as Romaji is not very accurate and I'll show you why as well as my own way of using Romaji.

Many English-Japanese textbooks and other popular services will use a Romaji based from the modified Hepburn writing system which uses characters such as ā, ī, ū, ē, ō etc. but these will become very confusing when it comes to which word it's referring to, pronunciation and writing in Japanese.

For example:

Which do we use? Which one is correct? Lets look at a few more words this time and see what the differences are:

Throughout this course, I will not be using ā, ī, ū, ē, ō or any other punctuation marks to simplify words as this makes things a lot more confusing and complicated. Instead, I'll use the same artificial phonetic that the kana uses. If there is a ー (pause) then a hyphen (-) or em dash (—) will be used instead to indicate ー being used. To distinguish the N group, I'll used n' so when n' is used, it literally means "without a vowel".

For example:

You may come across words or phrases where ん is followed by a vowel but the kana is not the combined versions な　に　ぬ　ね　の but instead んあ　んい　んう　んえ　んお is used and I'll be sure to point those out with n' to indicate this.

Learning Kanji

Kanji is the third writing system in Japanese that is based on Chinese characters. To be able to read most Japanese, you are going to need to learn these Chinese characters. Not all words or sentences will use just Kanji but a mixture of Hiragana and Katakana too.

Before we start covering some Kanji, we will include the Kanji alongside the romaji and kana so that you may memorise and possibly use them much sooner. Some example may include the use of Kanji too so please pay attention when they are used.

Because there are so many Kanji to cover in this course alone, we would expect that you do your own research whenever you come across them. You may use online dictionaries such as japandict.com or jisho.org to see the stroke order which is very important as well as the other meanings and readings the same Kanji has.

We won't go into any politics or debates as to why Japan adopted such a complex and complicated writing system into it's language but it actually has many benefits depending how they are used and so much meaning can be conveyed by writing very little. Also, using only Hiragana will not work as a single word can have many different meanings and sometimes even a different pronunciation.