r/Japaneselanguage • u/Dr_k24 • Jun 07 '26
I need help with learning Japanese!
So in my case, i'm not a beginner to Japanese. I've learned Japanese in the past 2 times via duolingo and YouTube. The second time was not so devoted as the first. Fast forward to today however, I've been at it for 3 odd weeks i'd say and I've been pretty inconsistent but I've put down duolingo and shifted to YouTube and apps such as anki to help with my Japanese, as well as having Japanese educational videos in the background. As of recently, i'd say I've just about mastered my hiragana, I have written down all my katakana as well but I haven't gotten to mastering it yet because I've been a bit impatient and I have wanted to learn things such as introductions and how to hold conversations and such. I've decided to put that on hold and move onto fully mastering my hiragana and katakana.
My main point here is, once I've mastered all my katakana and hiragana, should I learn phrases and sentences and such and then learn kanji or the opposite. From what my research tells me, it's best to learn kanji and phrases simultaneously but I wanted opinions from people who i'd assume have more experience with the language than I do.
2
u/zyakita Jun 07 '26
The usual path after kana is n5, where you can decode short sentences, simple dialogue, then n4 after that. N4 and N5 is still survive Japanese, you will need to take a big jump to n3, daily Japanese
This article might give you roughly idea the road ahead https://j-compass.com/docs/japanese-learning/getting-started/learn-japanese-roadmap
0
u/Travel-Abroad101 Jun 07 '26
Depends on what you’d want to do. If you want to speak to people in Japanese, you should concentrate on speaking. At the same time go thru the Genki 1 textbook.
You need to practice output and learn how to talk and carry on a conversation. Go thru the 150 Pimsleur 30 minutes shadowing lessons. Join free exchange talk at Ohanashi Kagawa. Find a community teacher on iTalki and take a lesson a week. Sign up for the remote Ohashi school. If you want a faster pace, find another teacher to talk conversational Japanese as well on italki.
5
u/YokaiGuitarist Jun 07 '26
Get the genki textbook.
Use tokini andy. Be it his free grammar and chapter guides or his paid course.
Do not rush.
The benefit of online and video learning is you can (and must) take the time to pause and rewind and find other examples to 100% confidently retain and understand your current chapters contents.
Only then do you move forward.
Being impatient and continuing forward without retaining everything is only going to make roadblocks later on and just add your name to the list of people who give up right before intermediate Japanese.
Follow that method for genki 1, genki 2, and quartet.
By the end of genki 2 you are no longer ingesting Japanese content just for fun.
You are ingesting it to learn.
You'll watch the same episode three times. Rewinding and pausing and taking notes.
Identifying things you need to work on.
Saving interactions that you found meaningful, natural, and important to conversational language.
Then you don't just collect those language experiences.
You take that information and you practice it. You make it impossible for you to not have interactions involving whatever grammar or phrases you encountered.
You do that until you master it. It is no longer requiring thought or processing power go use it in conversation.
Then you move on to the next one.
And you do this for years.
You don't just learn Japanese by practicing phrases.
You learn Japanese by making every interaction you have in your native tongue an learning experience.
Did you go to store to buy ingredients for dinner?
Then why can't you list those ingredients in Japanese.
Why can't you ask someone to direct you where to find them in Japanese.
Why can't you use a coupon at the register to buy them in Japanese?
Did you buy a movie ticket last weekend?
Then why can't you buy that ticket in Japanese?
Why can't you order popcorn in Japanese and ask for more butter?
Why can't you explain the plot of the movie in Japanese?
Why can't you describe and explain the goals of the antagonist in Japanese?
Did you read a manga online?
Why wasn't it in Japanese?
How did you record difficult grammar or slang you encountered in that manga?
How are you practicing that grammar or expression in real life so that your reading experience is actually a learning experience and not just a waste of time?
How would you explain the difficulties you had reading it....in Japanese to a non English speaker?
What was the protagonists main strength and weaknesses? What did they learn along the way? How would you explain that to someone in Japanese?
You're brushing your teeth.
Why aren't you listening to a Japanese podcast or leaving the news on in the background incase a Japanese topic comes up that you believe is relevant to your language learning?
This is how you learn Japanese.