How I Learn Japanese at Home (And For Free)!
How I Teach Myself Japanese for Free (and Actually Stick With It)
As a relatively new Japanese learner myself, I see a lot of people online asking how to even get started. I have created a daily routine that only takes about an hour to an hour and a half to complete. Once finished, I always walk away having learned a new word or phrase. Here are all of the tools, apps, and habits I use to improve my Japanese every day!
There are five very important aspects of learning to focus on when learning Japanese: reading, writing, listening, grammar, and speaking. In this article, I will let you in on the resources that work for me.
Reading & Writing: Start With the Basics
Let’s start with reading and writing. Obviously, Japanese uses a different alphabet, three different alphabets, to be exact. The first to learn are Hiragana and Katakana. These are two sets of 46 characters each that make different sounds. One is used for words that come from the Japanese language, and the other is used for words outside of the Japanese language, respectively. Learn these before anything. I would recommend learning them in sets. My personal favourite resource for learning these characters is called Dr. Moku’s Pneumonics (https://www.drmoku.com). There is also an app on the App Store.
Moving On to Kanji (Yes, It’s Scary... but Worth It)
When you have mastered Hiragana and Katakana, you can move on to learning Kanji. Kanji is daunting, as there are about 2,000 to learn to be able to understand a basic book in Japanese, but I find it the most rewarding when I am able to recognize Kanji in written text. It helps me understand about 20% of what I am reading, as I myself have mastered about 300 Kanji. My personal favourite resource for learning Kanji is an app on the App Store called Learn Japanese! Kanji (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/learn-japanese-kanji/id1078107994). The app will have you write Kanji and will quiz you constantly on old Kanji that you have learned weeks or months prior. You can use your finger to write, but I like to use my Apple Pencil and practice on my iPad.
Practicing Reading With Real Japanese Content
When you feel confident, you can begin to practice reading. You can use many resources for this, like anime subtitles or Japanese websites, but my personal favourite is an app called Todaii (https://japanese.todaiinews.com/?hl=en-US). It allows you to read relevant news articles in Japanese based on your ability, from N5 to N1 Japanese articles. I find it helpful to try and read aloud as I go through the articles. I just recently read an article that I could almost fully understand about a restaurant that uses bowls with cute messages at the bottom to promote their clients to finish their dish. Only those who had finished their full bowl of ramen would be able to read the message at the bottom of their bowl, just as I was only able to read that article due to my consistent practice in Japanese.
I usually practice Kanji for about 20 minutes a day, aiming to learn five a day, and then I read for about 5–10 minutes.
Listening Practice (My Weakest Skill)
Listening and comprehending what I am listening to in Japanese is my personal struggle. I get so excited when I understand something that I celebrate too much in my head, and I miss the next sentence. The Japanese listening practice that I usually go with is watching Peppa Pig in Japanese on YouTube. There are great resources like this video that explains new words to the viewer in the “margins” of the video. Try this one first!㉔ Peppa Pig Japanese Dub With Japanese and English Subtitles | Learn Japanese Language (Bicycles)
I usually listen for less time than I should, probably about 20 minutes. But if I have spare time, sometimes I will go on a walk and listen to slow Japanese podcasts on Spotify! There’s a bunch on there—you can just look up “Japanese slow podcasts.”
Grammar: Confusing, but Necessary
Next, I try to take some time to learn grammar. Grammar is just as hard, if not harder, than learning Kanji in my opinion, as it is so different from English. It is usually the complete opposite. You also have to take time to learn Japanese particles, which we don’t really have in English, so it is a pretty different ball game. I like to use an app called Bunpo (https://bunpo.app/?lang=ja). It is comprehensive and will bring you through all of the Japanese grammar rules you could ever need to know! I try to use Bunpo for 20 minutes a day.
Speaking With Real People
Now you will probably want to test out your new skills. To really cement those new words and grammar formulas into your brain, you might want to try to speak to a native. There are so many Japanese people who really want to learn English. My favourite app to connect with those people is called HelloTalk (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hellotalk-language-learning/id557130558). HelloTalk is an app that helps to connect Japanese and English-speaking people so that you can exchange skills. You can help them make corrections, and they will do the same. You can also write and post pictures, and people will comment and correct any mistakes you may have made. You can also practice reading non-textbook Japanese, as Japanese people will post and you will see it on your timeline.
Extra (Optional) Ways to Improve Faster
And now you’re done! Although, I would like to share some honourable mentions. These are extra things you can do to improve your Japanese. These are things that can be done for a few hours or five minutes, depending on your flexibility.
Video games: I love this game that I found on Steam recently. It is called Wagotabi, and it is so much fun! It is kind of like Pokémon, but instead of collecting Pokémon, you collect Japanese, and instead of gym leaders or trainer battles, you face off against Japanese masters and townsfolk who wish to “battle.” You also have a rival who will challenge you on your Japanese. Seriously, look it up. It is so fun and really helpful.
I also like to change the games that I am playing to Japanese. I usually change games that I have played before so I am not totally lost, but I think that simple games like Animal Crossing are great games to try out in Japanese.
Everyday habits: Simple things like writing your grocery list in Japanese, talking to your pets in Japanese, and watching TV in Japanese when you can will help you get a good idea of how the language sounds and how you can integrate it into future conversations.
That is it! Those are my most helpful (mostly) free things that you can do at home to study Japanese alone. I hope you find this useful. If you spend an hour every day doing at least some of these things, I am sure that you will succeed. I am going to end this one off in Japanese :)
読んでくれてありがとうございます。毎日日本語を練習ください。練習の日本語は難しいですよ。でも頑張ってください。( ´ ▽ ` )
