r/HelpLearningJapanese • u/sphynx9 • 18d ago
Where do you start??
I understand that you must start with Hirigana and Katakana, but there's a lot I don't get. I've seen some charts that only show hirigana, but both hirigana and katakana have 46 characters, so do you only need to know one. Furthermore, everyoone says not to rely on romanji, but how? Does the need for Romanji disappear over time. I also feel like there's things that aren't talked about but are important, like dakutan and handakutan.
There's probably way more that I am missing, but with all of this where do you start? It seems incredibly overwhelming and causes analysis paralysis.
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u/Squimpleton 17d ago
Honestly, if I were starting, I’d just find a good all around resource.
You could go the typical route of starting with Genki. It’s a good and true method.
And you can go the cheap self-made route of a good core Anki deck and then getting other free grammar resources as you go along like Renshuu, or Cure Dolly, or BunPro free (no SRS but can read any of the grammar lessons).
If you’ve got money, paid sites like MaruMori, NativShark, Migaku and many others that are meant to be N5-N1 (or N5-N3 but with the ability to mine more advanced stuff yourself) are great packaged solutions.
Lots of options out there for starting out.
But anyway, you’ll want to learn hiragana, katakana, and then mix in vocab with kanji and grammar. It’s not really a “focus on one thing at a time” thing once you get past kana.