If you are just starting out, or have been studying Japanese (日本語) for a few years, you must have tried different ways and methods to learn it. Therefore, today we will bring a small list, gathering some points, tips and phrases, to help you learn.
There are a total of 50 tips, some very obvious, others more distinct and optional, but they are things that must be seen and passed on. We've also added some tools, websites, and books that can help you study Japanese.
Índice de Conteúdo
The Best Methods
Online Courses – Those who do not have the skills to study alone, can turn to an online course. There are dozens of online Japanese courses, among the best we have the Japanese Online Program, Nihongo Premium or Kakumei Club.
RTK method – A fun and interesting way to memorize and learn the ideograms of the Japanese language. It is a method that allows you to assimilate the drawing with the word, even if it doesn't originally make sense.
Initial Tips
Start with Hiragana or the 2 (Katakana and Hiragana). – Many prefer to start with katakana, as it seems easier, but start with hiragana, it is more useful. If you can, learn both at the same time, so you already understand the difference between each one, and it's easier to remember.
buy time. – The first thing you need to keep in mind is to spend as much time studying as possible, make your schedule, get organized, buy as much time as possible, and you can start.
Go back to being a child. – You will learn a language from scratch, don't try to be an adult, trying to learn things you don't know, get ready to read handouts and books for children in Japanese.
Avoid Romaji. - Even if it is sometimes necessary, avoid using the Rōmaji in your study, seek to quickly learn hiragana and katakana and stop there. Learn Kanji with the help of furigana.
Tips for learning writing
Write. – Kind of obvious as a first tip, but write, write like never before. It doesn't matter if your handwriting is ugly, focus on stroke orders and write, hiragana, kanji, text and all. It can be exhausting, but go back to kindergarten and spend months writing the alphabet.
Translate texts. – You can translate texts from Portuguese to Japanese and vice versa, this will definitely help a lot.
Teach. - One of the best things to learn Japanese is to teach it, even if you don't have much knowledge, teach friends, write texts, teach on social networks, by helping people you will be helping yourself.
The article is still halfway through, but we recommend also reading:
Tips for learning by reading
Read a lot. – It's pretty obvious, but reading is the key to everything, even if you don't understand, read it! Read a lot, mainly due to the fact that Japanese reads very fast, so you should practice your reading.
Read Manga. – Unlike books, Manga are quite illustrated, and with few texts, in addition to presenting a less formal language. With the images it is easy to understand the text read, and discover new words, if you don't know them.
Learn slang and abbreviations. – If you want to master 100% of the language, try to study also slang and abbreviations of words, always look for ways to abbreviate a word, Japanese do that a lot.
Tips for learning by listening
Listen to everything in Japanese. – If you are on the computer or somewhere, enjoy and put any audio, and listen! Do this a lot, with time you will memorize words, and you will look for their meaning and even understand what is being said.
Listen to what you understand. -Likewise, listen to vocabulary audios, which then translate the word, so you can increase your knowledge. There are some articles on the site like this.
Listen to Japanese songs. - If you are willing to learn the language, you should constantly listen and listen to Japanese songs, they are easy to get stuck in your head. Search, translate, enjoy the music as much as possible.
Tips for learning by watching
Watch anime or drama. – One of the best ways to learn is to live with the culture and language, and a good way to do that is by watching. You will learn slang, dialects, different ways of speaking and abbreviating words, the tone and the way Japanese people converse.
Follow Nico Nico Douga. – Nico Nico is the famous youtuber from Japan. Create your accounts, and follow several videos, live like a Japanese, this site has a great system of comments in real time, and several ways to socialize with the videos and other users.
Watch video lessons. – There is no shortage of video lessons on the internet, you can find them in droves. Also follow youtube channels, download several interesting videos, and always keep your curiosity active.
Tips for learning Speaking
Repeat object name. -Every object you find, try to remember its name in Japanese, or search, say its name in Japanese aloud, instead of saying it in English.
Don't be afraid to speak up. – Even if you're in public, or with people who don't know it, don't be afraid to speak what you know in Japanese. Don't be afraid to make mistakes, it's normal.
Sing Karaoke. – Many like it, some don't, some find it difficult, it doesn't matter, sing karaoke. Most karaoke in Japanese has furigana, so it makes it a lot easier, and when you sing, you use another part of your brain, making it easier to read faster.
Practice numerical counting. – When you record the numbers, everything is easy. Even so, some find it difficult to understand or speak large numbers, training the numbers, and the thousands of ways that there are to count things, you will acquire enormous speed in understanding them and speaking them more accurately.
Look for someone to talk to. – Get a Japanese friend, or someone who speaks the language, and chat! Don't use Portuguese, if you don't know any in the city, don't limit yourself, use skype, search for chat rooms, join Facebook groups, etc.
Tips for learning Absorbing
Use images. – Pictures are easy to engrave in your mind, use programs, picture dictionaries and try to link Japanese words to pictures yourself.
Don't be shy and study in public. – Go to a square, take friends, or at the mall, some cafe, show people that you are studying a different language. Not to appear, but to show and arouse interest in some people, do this and you can quickly increase your circle of studies, in addition to being in an interesting environment, where you can raise ideas about words and phrases to study.
Tips for learning with tools
Have apps on your cell phone. – The cell phone or tablet can be a good source of study, it is possible to install thousands of applications, dictionaries, programs that train writing, pronunciation, games and tests.
Use SRS. - They are memorization programs, use them to learn, one of the best known is the ANKI. There are several mobile apps with the same purpose.
Play Visual Novels. – These simulators are very useful, to learn to dialogue with Japanese, if you are at a basic level, prepare to spend hours looking for some kanji and their meanings.
Play Japanese MMO's. – If you are a young man who spends hours a day playing some MMO but wants to learn Japanese, switch to a Japanese server. It doesn't matter if you get hit from menus, texts from NPCs, playing on a Japanese server, you learn, this is similar to some young people who say: I learn more English by playing than at school.
Wanderbar SNAS – For those who are fascinated by games, this computer program is one of the best resources for studying Japanese! It is an emulator of super nintendo or the famous nintendinho and with it you can play some games simultaneously in English and Japanese, and compare the languages.
Tips for learning with computer
Batch your computer's content. – On the internet you can find Terabytes of Japanese language study content. There are thousands of videos, pdf handouts, programs, texts and much more. Create a folder and fill it with content, organize it as you like, but have this folder on your PC.
Change language of games and programs. - Going to settings, and region, in the administrative tab it is possible to change the format of non-unicode programs, allowing you to type with Japanese characters in some games and programs, in addition to changing the language of some.
Install Japanese keyboard. – If you are willing to learn the language, both on your computer and on your cell phone, have a Japanese keyboard, it can be easily installed, you type Rōmaji and hiragana letters will appear that can be converted by simply pressing the “space” key.
Join Japanese social networks. -One of the most famous is MIXI, it requires you to be invited or have a Japanese mobile number, but there you will come across thousands of Japanese, socializing with them, it is easier to learn the language, you can use other social networks like Facebook, change their language to Japanese, and have a better experience.
Tips for learning from websites
Use Sites. – Need I say that there are thousands of websites and blogs that teach Japanese, in several languages and with different content? Ours is one of them. Just follow these sites and you will learn a lot.
Through facebook. – Enjoying pages and joining groups, you follow various content, tips, which will help your learning. Facebook is a powerful content source, where many hang out every day, so you should keep up with content related to Japan and your language. Enjoy and like our page if you haven't already.
I cannot translate this text. – It provides several news in Japanese in a very simplified way, the words that are on the site are JLPT N5-N4 level, and the words that are not at these levels, when hovering over them they explain with N5-N4 words what she means. At the end of each article on the site, he asks if this news was easy to understand and if you were able to understand everything.
One of the really cool things about this site is that it has a button that marks people's names in green, names of cities, provinces and place names in orange and lastly marks the names of companies and organization names in blue. Reading a news item accompanied by a dictionary a day is a great way to improve your Japanese!
Wa Tanoshii – A web magazine to introduce everyday things in Japan to people interested in the country and its language. The more articles you read, the more information you will collect and help improve your Japanese.
You will find that using relatively simple Japanese words, you can express many things. The articles are written in plain Japanese and are suitable for beginners to intermediate Japanese learners!
Tips for Learning with Friends
Form Study Groups. – Ways to socialize and study online have already been mentioned, but try to form groups of people in your city who are interested in studying the language. With multiple people it is much easier to learn.
Blend in with them. – Join Japanese sites, groups, forums. Even if you don't know much, you'll learn a lot, get to know them, make friends and break your head trying to understand what is written on these sites.
Cell phone messages. – Many messaging apps like whatsapp, line, viber and skype will help you form groups, talk to each other, exchange ideas, files and tips with other students or with Japanese people.
Use Shiritori. – Shiritori is a Japanese word game where you speak a word that starts with the last letter of the previous word. There are apps for mobile, PC and even books.
Make an Exchange. - If you are rich, and have conditions to go to Japan, there is no better way than to study in a Japanese school, and live in an environment full of Japanese people.
Precautions when learning Japanese
Beware of translators. - You translators can be very helpful, but they don't help most of the time. Japanese words translated literally into Portuguese may have absolutely nothing to do with real meaning. So be careful when using these translators, use several, and look up dictionaries.
Forget Portuguese. – Forget that you know Portuguese, and start focusing only on the Japanese language. Do as if you only know Japanese, applying some of the tips already mentioned, such as changing the PC's language, speaking Japanese words in public and many other things.
Learn the difference between dialects. -Take some time and study just that, know how many dialects there are, learn basic words of each dialect, so you don't get lost anywhere. my favorite is the kansai-ben.
Learn English. - Who knows the English language, it is easier, because most of the words in Japanese are derived from English and other languages.
Translate Kanji by the radical. – When you come across a kanji that has many strokes in a magazine, use some programs and search for the kanji by radical (indivisible parts of the kanji). So you will learn a lot about the traits, come across similar kanji and evolve a lot.
Don't forget about formality. – There is a huge difference in Japanese conversations, there are several levels of formality and informality, you should study and keep in mind the types of conversation. When learning a word, try to find it at other levels of speech.
Other Tips for Learning Japanese
Have study materials. – Don’t just get attached to online. Have books, dictionaries, quality materials to learn the language. The computer can be a great source for study, but it can get in the way at times.
Never give up. – Even if you find it difficult to learn, don't be discouraged when you see thousands of kanji with thousands of meanings and different pronunciation ways. Not to mention the thousands of identical words. DO NOT GIVE UP! Stay focused, avoid thinking about the difficulty, and study. The previous tips will help you not to give up.
Don't let things get in your way. – People, Facebook, Games, Series, Anime, work and others. All this can get in the way of learning the language. Don't let these things get in the way, plan everything in advance, schedules to focus on studies, don't let anyone make your head or discourage you, or allow addiction to other things to take your free time.
See your progress. – Take tests, answer quizzes, see what level your JLPT is at. Review everything you've learned and keep your mind active.
Create your environment. – To improve your studies, if you have the means, transform your house into a Japanese environment. Make everything easy, buy clothes, accessories, anything that has Japanese letters or ideograms, create a perfect environment that helps your studies.
Stay firm and use our website. - It will be a long journey to master 100% of this language. Keep going and learning, without giving up! Just as a child can take up to 6 years to learn Portuguese, imagine a completely different language. Those who are in Brazil will face many difficulties, and sometimes even mockery from some. But learning this language brings a lot of satisfaction and benefits. That's why we're going to keep creating articles so you can study and learn. So always stay firm and follow our website.
