Where to start studying Japanese? How? In what order?

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This is a quite delicate question, everyone studies in a different way, and achieves different performance and results. In this article, we will make a small analysis of what can be studied and how. Remembering that these are tips and opinions of mine.

To start, abandon romaji, learn hiragana and katakana at once. If you don’t want to give up romaji and don’t want to learn hiragana, you shouldn’t even start studying Japanese, you will waste your time. With a little effort, in 1 week you can already be capable of learning hiragana and thousands of doors will open, and you will already be able to read most texts in Japanese, and any text that has furigana.

Now let’s start examining a bit of everything that should be studied in Japanese, and a good suggestion and way to do this. There is no order of what to study first, it all depends on your needs and priorities, we will talk about that too.

Vocabulary

This is the main part of learning Japanese, you should focus on learning words. To do this, you should focus on reading, listening as much as possible, and learning and memorizing correctly. Don’t try to force new words into your vocabulary, try to learn them naturally, just study content.

Increasing your vocabulary is a great way to start learning Japanese, if you focus on this, you will automatically learn other things like kanji, grammar, etc. But remember, don’t force it! Focus on the ability to recall and not memorize.

How can I increase my vocabulary naturally? By listening to music, using Anki, reading and browsing Japanese websites, studying Japanese material, using apps and dictionaries. There are thousands of ways to increase your vocabulary, but don’t rush.

Start by learning the verbs which are the most important, by learning them, you can be able to understand and create sentences without difficulties. But don’t forget to learn adjectives, nouns, and others simultaneously. Learning verbs is just a suggestion of priority that you should have.

Be careful, words in Japanese have different meanings and uses. Only time and immersion in the language will solve this great difficulty.

Grammar

The great enemy of learning Japanese, sometimes worse than kanji itself. Japanese grammar is very easy, but it is completely different from our Portuguese, and has thousands of things we don’t know. Verbs are conjugated differently, the order of words in a sentence, the use of particles, and much more.

For this reason, avoid using automatic translation tools, as they will always make mistakes with grammar or the correct use of words. The first step to take is to learn the particles in detail, and the conjugation of verbs. Then, focus on absorbing content, reading texts, listening to sentences. The more sentences you hear, the more sentences you will be able to create without making grammatical errors.

If you have difficulty with any part of Japanese grammar, such as particles or verbs, focus on it. You have to concentrate on your weak points. Weak points will only get weaker and will always hold you back. Don’t forget to delve deeply into the details and differences that the language will present throughout the journey.

Kanji

The Japanese ideograms take an eternity to learn. Many are terrified of them, but don’t be afraid. Kanji are necessary in Japanese reading and writing.

If you want to learn Japanese quickly, and don’t want to become a shodo artist, then put learning to write on the back burner. Learning to write kanji one by one will only delay your learning by years, and will not help you memorize them. After I stopped trying to learn kanji one by one, without realizing it, I had already learned thousands just by reading and studying.

Take a text with furigana and start reading. When learning words, don’t forget to learn them with kanji, especially verbs. Verbs use a large number of kanji and are easier to memorize.

Learning whole words is more beneficial than learning the reading of each kanji, because what good is it to learn the reading if when reading the word, you read it wrong? Therefore, the correct way to learn kanji is not to worry so much about them, but about reading and absorbing content.

One thing you should indeed learn and study in detail are the radicals. By learning the radicals, it becomes easier to memorize kanji, and even write them.

Conclusion

When studying Japanese, keep in mind that you will make mistakes, you will fail, you will get frustrated, you will get discouraged, you will forget… Remember that all of this is part of the learning process.

There is no correct order to learn Japanese, there is a correct way. There is an order where you prioritize your learning, I do it as follows:

1. Read
2. Listen
3. Absorb
4. Understand
5. Write

My study priority:

1. Vocabulary
2. Verbs
3. Sentences
4. Grammar
5. Kanji
6. Writing

In my opinion, this is the most effective way to learn Japanese. If you follow this priority, you will automatically learn everything else. And you? How do you learn Japanese? What is the order and priority of your study method?