Hey people! I'm new to learning Japanese and I just wanted to ask, how should I approach learning… - Feed Post by davidcg
Hey people! I'm new to learning Japanese and I just wanted to ask, how should I approach learning this new language? From what I've heard I should first learn hiragana then katakana and then proceed to vocabulary. But when should I get involved with kanji and grammar? (If the order of learning Japanese I mentioned before is incorrect you are of course welcome to correct it :) ) Thank you very much!
posted by davidcg
Comments 6
Oh and, do you have any suggestions on how to memorize the hiragana? There are like 100+ of them and it seems to me like it's impossible.
Wait until you hear how many kanji there are, hahah.
Hiragana and katakana are failrly easy to learn, my advice is to start with repetition, write them a bunch of times until you get an idea of it, then start writing things using them, like your name or random phrases, just write in english, but using hiragana and katakana, like when you were a kid and made up your own alphabet.
Other than that, once you start learning more vocabs and grammar, reading actual text is the best way to go, search for simple stories for kids, which have simple vocabulary and no kanji.
Hope this helps, and don't worry, it's not as hard as it might seem at the start.
Yep. Learn those firat because you are going to spend your lofe learning kanji. Lol- Thank you so much! It really helped me! :)
For repetition of Hiragana and Katakana I used this site. I was able to get them down in a week each. Afterwards I would start to learn vocabulary with their Kanji counterparts as there are a lot and it can get overwhelming if you try to study them all at once or by individual Kanji. Kanji have many different parts that will help you figure out the meaning and even help you to remember the kanji over all. Heisig is the most well known for his stories and method of "Remembering the Kanji."(Also his book title) While this is all good you still need to study grammar like a boss. If you are low on cash I recommend tae kim's guide (http://www.guidetojapanese.org/grammar_guide.pdf) as a starting point. A lot of the material is fairly easy to remember and you may feel that you will never be in a situation like the example sentences but they all allow for you to think more like Japanese do. Otherwise I would just say spend the money and pick up the Genki series or Minna no Nihongo. If you want to practice more grammar I would recommend heading over to renshuu.org. They also allow you to create your own lists of vocabulary and I feel have a better forum for studying Japanese. I do like this site as there are readings and experience comparisons to other users that really gives me a kick in the pants to study.
So to recap my long ass speech...
1) Study hiragana
2) Study Katakana
3) Study Grammar
4) Learn about Kanji (radicals, different pronunciations) and study vocabulary using them
5) Practice Practice Practice
6)Win at life!- Thank you! And don't worry, even though it was long it explained everything I needed to know exactly. So, in a way, it had the best length possible. Thank you!
