Okay, so I got this comment from a viewer a little while back. Great vid as always. Thanks, Myron.
I really appreciate that. There's more. Can we get a realistic day in the life of studying Japanese, Tokuyu?
Like, I am so lost on where to even begin. I feel you, Myron. You finish watching all four seasons of Haikyuu!
and you think, I wanna be a Japanese high school volleyball player! But then you realize you don't even speak Japanese. And you think, where do I even start? I mean, I- did just do a whole video series on how to become fluent in Japanese, but I get that when you're completely new, everything feels a bit overwhelming. But I don't think a day in the life of me studying Japanese will help either, since I'm already at that Japanese high school volleyball player level.
First, you're gonna need to master the basics. So for all you babies out there feeling overwhelmed, don't worry. I'm gonna outline actionable steps you can take right now as an absolute beginner to be well on your way to fluency.
So here is how to start learning Japanese from zero. From Iren. Because he asked nicely.
The very first step, learn hiragana and katakana. Honestly, this shouldn't be a surprise. Learning the alphabet should be the first step in learning any language. There are 46 letters in each of these alphabets, and you want to be able to recognize every single one of them, and know the proper stroke order for writing them.
I recommend watching these two videos by JapanesePod101. They cover all the letters and give you memory techniques to help you remember them. Next, to make sure you got them down, I recommend downloading an app to help test you.
For iOS, try Kana, Hiragana, and Katakana. You can practice both reading and writing the letters, and you can adjust the difficulty of the quizzes by selecting multiple choice or filling in the answer. For Android, download Kanji Study. On the sidebar, they have a section for Kana, and again, you can test both your reading and writing.
And for those of you thinking, UGH, but memorizing characters is so boring though. Like I hate to be the one to break this to you, but this language probably isn't for you then. You haven't even gotten to kanji yet. Hiragana and katakana is the easy part. But if you can hunker down and memorize these letters, you'll already be ahead of most people who try to learn this language.
A scary amount of people just give up at learning hiragana and katakana. While you learn the alphabets, you'll also wanna learn proper Japanese pronunciation. You can watch my video on speaking or this video by JapanesePod101 for tips.
Once you've mastered the alphabets and basic Japanese pronunciation, it's time to tackle N5. Japanese proficiency is broken down into three parts. five different levels, with N5 being the most basic. To master N5, you're gonna need to study 700 vocab, 100 kanji, and learn basic grammar. I'm gonna be honest, it's a bit of a grind.
Since you don't have any content knowledge, you can't learn Japanese through watching shows, reading books, or having conversations yet. You just need to focus on building up your bank of knowledge. For vocab, I recommend downloading the flashcard app. Anki. Its spaced repetition learning system is extremely powerful and much more effective than simply studying vocab sheets.
I also found an amazing vocab deck from Nihongo Shark to go with it. It contains all the N5 vocab with pronunciation and example sentences. But the setup sounds so hard! No! It'll just take three minutes, Myron.
Just go to the Nihongo Shark website and click on JLPT N5 Vocabulary Deck to download it. And be sure to take the file out of the zipped folder. Then go to the Anki website and download Anki. Still with me?
Finally, open Anki, go to import deck, and find your vocab file. You can also click the gear icon, then options, to adjust how many new cards you want to study a day. It should automatically be set to 20, but I'd recommend setting it to 5 or 10. With all the review cards stacking up over time, 20 can feel a bit overwhelming.
And kablamo, you're done. With Anki set up, you're well on your way to conquering N5 vocab. Now, Let's talk kanji.
If you're an Android user, you can use the same kanji study app that I recommended for the alphabets. And the N5 kanji are free to study. For iPhone, you can use the Study Japanese kanji app. But, now stay with me, it does cost $2.79. I know, I know, it's a lot of money, but...
for learning a language, it may be a worthwhile investment. I recommend learning about two new kanji a day. This is a great pace for just starting out and gives you plenty of time to learn each character.
Try to associate each kanji with one keyword that represents its meaning. For example, this kanji is used in the keyword hanasu, which means to speak. Other words that use this kanji will typically have a related meaning, like conversation or telephone. I honestly wouldn't worry about remembering how to write the character. Reading is much more important.
But I did find that writing out the characters helped me remember them. Now you're good to go to learn 100 of those Japanese hieroglyphics. And finally, basic Japanese grammar.
This advice is super easy. I recommend following Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese Grammar. My man Mr. Kim does an amazing job at explaining how Japanese grammar works and introducing new grammar in a logical order.
And there are plenty of example sentences as well. And if you ever find that one grammar point still doesn't quite make sense, you can always look it up on Google or YouTube for further explanations. But Tae Kim's guide at least gives you a mapped out order to learn Japanese grammar, so you don't feel as lost. And there you go! That's it.
I honestly think that if you can study a modest 20 to 30 minutes each day You can master n5 in three to four months now I know some of you are gonna be disappointed at this timeline like I want to be fluent in three to four months But Japanese is an extremely complex language. So establishing a solid base in three to four months is really impressive Especially if you're only putting in 20 to 30 minutes each day, it'll be a grind at first But once you master the basics, then you can start introducing more and more fun into your studying in the form of beginner level podcasts, basic conversations, etc. Put in the work now and you can forever benefit from your gains.
I also got a hot update for y'all. I finally booked my flight to Japan. It's for March 19th so it is scary close. These next couple weeks are going to be so hectic with packing and moving in. I'm full of nerves and excitement but I can't wait to share the experience with you guys.
I swear if the borders shut down again or if I catch COVID, I'm gonna cry. So please, Pray for me that I get in for realsies this time. One like equals one pray. That's it for now.
I'll see you guys in the next one. Maybe in Japan. Toku you out.