Ever since I’ve started studying japanese, I’ve seen hundreds of websites on studying japanese, but I’ve yet to see one outline the whole process.

This post outlines what workflow you should use and couple resources to show you the way. I suggest reading through it first before attempting anything.

Kana: The Beginning

The hardest part of just about everything is the beginning, and once you get it out of the way, you slip into a sort of a routine.

Japanese, is in a nutshell: hiragana for reading, katakana for loan words, kanji for Chinese-derived characters. So you’ll essentially learn the reading, loan-word-reading, and chinese-derived characters. All three are used in everyday sentences.

Despite some controversies, I would consider Tae Kim’s Guide as a good starting point when learning Japanese, since it’s easy, free and complete.

There’s also Marshall’s Site, which is also free and complete, and it has improved a lot since I used it

First you’ll learn some Hiragana, Katakana, and pronunciations, which will be helpful in the long run. I’ll outline some important things you’d have to consider while you learn:

  • Writing the actual characters is important, since it can help with memory
  • Pronouncing the sounds will help with speaking actual words
  • Go slowly, don’t rush it, since you’ll be doing it for months and years anyway

This website helps with memorizing a lot.

Here are some more things to consider:

  • With hiragana and katakana, study one at a time or you’ll be mistaking one for the other
  • Do realkana in multiple fonts, since some characters are written differently in different fonts. Including, but not limited to: き, さ, り which have an extra line
  • With ソ(so) and ン (n), one ’looks’ left, the other ’looks’ up
  • Withツ(tsu) and シ (shi) that’s also the case
  • Note that there are some obsolete characters that are used in some niche fields which you may or may not get to see: ゑ ゐ But try to stick to those in the guide

Kanji: Advancement

Once you’re a little more familiar with the language, I’d suggest that you start to memorize some kanji. In a nutshell, kanji serve a few purposes:

  1. ‘Shorten’ hiragana into one character: one word needs a few hiragana to express, so kanji sort of sums it up into one character
  2. Splitting words: Japanese does not have spaces, so they find words by looking at kanji. Most of the time kanji sits at the front of the word with trailing hiragana behind
  3. Putting more meaning into a word: sometimes the same word can have different connotations, which kanji you choose can affect its meaning I suggest you use these services to help you memorize them.

Anki

I’d suggest you use anki, it’s a free service for memorizing cards, in this case its Japanese word cards. Some things are a little confusing, so I’ll highlight a few key points.

  1. There’s a webapp (ankiweb.net), an app(on the app store), and a program (on your computer).
  2. The webapp and program are free, but the app is paid
  3. You can use ONLY the program, but it does not connect anywhere else. You have to install a plugin on your own server and sync with it. Beware: you’re on your own
  4. You can use BOTH the program and webapp, but you’ll have to sign up. Words of caution: if you stop studying for a LONG time, data on the server will be deleted, it’s a free service.
  5. Why would you need both?
    1. The webapp, you can study anywhere if you have internet, but you can’t add new cards.
    2. The program, you can only study in front of your computer, but all the functionality is there

The deck I most recommend is Core 2.3k Verson 3 since it’s complete and has all sounds and example sentences.

Here also a guide on how to get a bit more out of anki. I argu

JPDB

Another service would be jpdb. The great thing about it that anki does not have is it’s a database of actual usage of the kanji in actual media. It’s also a whole lot easier to use: just sign up, pick an anime or novel you like and start memorizing!

Differences

A few things to consider when chosing either one (or both):

  • JPDB does not have an import-export format like anki has, so it’s harder to add your own deck or decks from anki
  • Which is also why anki does not have ‘media decks’ from JPDB
  • Anki has a larger userbase, which means more decks, more plugins, more advice from other people
  • You can use both, but it won’t sync your words with eachother, meaning you’ll have to learn some words twice
  • On JPDB, words you know will be ‘known’ on other decks, but on anki, decks are independent
  • Anki is more customizable, more features like audio and images
  • JPDB you can study the kanji separate from the words which some people like, I find annoying
  • You need a laptop/computer for anki, but with jpdb, only a phone will suffice
  • Anki is not limited to Japanese, it’s an ‘anything’ deck

Dictionary

One thing that always comes in handy is [Jisho.org]https://jisho.org/, a online dictionary with kanji drawing capability, AND example sentences.

But I find Shirabe Jisho MUCH better at recognizing hand-drawn kanji. It also has more capability than jisho.org. I’ve yet to figure out how they recognize my handwriting that much better than any other service.

Notes

Here are a few things you should note:

  • Some kanji have multiple readings, some readings can use multiple kanji so be ware, one does not simply map to the other
  • Knowing the stroke order is important. Some handwriting programs will only recognize hand-drawn kanji in stroke order. It’s not that hard, if you continually practice writing kanji, you’ll get it in short order
  • I find memorizing each kanji and their various pronunciations time-consuming and impractical. You’re better off learning the actual words and knowing what each kanji means by the words themselves.
  • Memorizing may sound like a chore, but knowing a few more words can change the world for you. It did for me.

Mining: Making your own path

If you’ve finished learning the decks or want more, learning from the actual media will be very helpful. So, by this time, you should start reading and listening.

The easiest thing you can do is start with what media you are already consuming. I find reading twitter, something I already do, very useful. I follow japanese artists and read their tweets when it goes through my feed. I translate in my head, and I then click on the translate button and compare. Do this enough times and you’ll learn japanese while scrolling twitter.

Another thing people do is a technique called “mining.” It’s when you watch or read japanese media and add new words you don’t know to your deck to study later

Yomichan

There’s a browser extension called Yomichan which is a dictionary in itself and integrates nicely with anki. It’s a bit finicky to install, so there’s a guide here. You essentially:

  1. Install the extension
  2. Download dictionaries
  3. Install dictionaries
  4. (Optional) Mining with yomichan into anki

Here’s a video tutorial

Mining games technique

Mining using games consists of 4 parts

  1. The game itself (program)
  2. A text hooking program (program)
  3. A browser extension (extension)
  4. A text hooking page (website) The idea is: the ’text hooking program’ reads a sentence from the ‘game’ and copies it into your ‘clipboard’, the browser extension puts the contents of your clipboard (the sentence) onto the ’text hooking page.’

After it does this, you can now view the sentences from the game in the browser and copy it somewhere else or use Yomichan to add the sentence to anki.

Here’s how you can do it

Note that clipboard-inserter does not work in firefox, I recommend you use Lap Clipboard Inserter

Mining anime technique

Mining anime consists of 6 parts

  1. The anime (media)
  2. (Optional) a subtitle file (media)
  3. A video player (program)
  4. A video player extension (program)
  5. A browser extension (extension)
  6. A text hooking page (website) The idea is that you view the ‘anime’ with japanese ‘subitles’ in a ‘video player’ that has an ’extension’ that copies each sentence into your ‘clipboard’, where your browser ’extension’ copies your sentence into the ’text hooking page’. You can then view each sentence individually on the browser or use Yomichan to add it to your anki deck.

Here’s a video explaining how

Notes

Here are some things you should note

  • There’s something called an “n+1 sentence” which essentially means you know every word except one. It’s the best kind of sentence you can use to memorize because you know all the other words, and with a bit of nudging you’ll learn that one too. Helps you learn faster
  • Something someone said that has impacted me a lot is: memorizing only helps you remember, reading stuffs it into your head

Some essentials

  • I find children’s books useful when starting out, like tadoku
  • If you like visual novels, check out vndb.org where you can get information about various visual novels.
  • The only webnovel I can read 100% right now is Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear. I recommend every one read it before any other novel overwhelms you.
  • For more traditional japanese literature, Aozora Bunko is a free archive of old books in digital form. It’s also a file format for japanese books in a .txt file. Note that you can’t read Aozorabunko Book Files on notepad, opening it in a browser always works though.
  • For news, NHK news easy makes it easier to read. It gets kinda boring when everything’s about Japan though
  • There’s also an app for that, namely Easy Japanese News, which is quite difficult. It also has other features like JLPT quizzes and videos.
  • Itazuraneko’s library has the most books out of any site I found. Ideally, you should have a book in mind before doing any searching
  • Yotsubato is a recommended read for beginners, but I find it uses too much slang. (There’s a website to read both Japanese and English translated versions somewhere)
  • Akane Sensei’s youtube channel is easy to listen to
  • Nihongo con teppei is a podcast I recommend for everyone. Easy japanese everyday. You can easily binge for hours. (It’s also available on various platforms)

My current setup

I use anki everyday to memorize words, and read a few articles on Easy Japanese News once in a while. I scroll through twitter reading japanese people’s complaints and am currently reading Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear. That’s about all one can handle with a busy lifestyle.

Future

For the near future, you can travel to Japan and use the language with the locals. I’ll say that listening is the hard part.

For the far future, I say aim for passing the JLPT Exam, and/or going to study in Japan. It’s where you can use Japanese the most.

Additional Resources

A note to this guide

Learning things this way won’t be as efficient or as effective as any teachers or paid materials, but I’ve done it and it kinda works. It also does not fit well with any other learning courses, since you’re just learning things here and there all over the place. But for me, it sits at a comfortable place where I can just go by my own place learning interesting things.