Get Started - Beginner's Guide to Learning Japanese

Japanese, 日本語, にほんご, Nihongo

Japanese is one of the hardest language as it includes 3 writing scripts, Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji, there are about over 50,000 kanjis, and japanese have three main politeness levels in spoken Japanese the plain form (kudaketa), the simple polite form (teinei) and the advanced polite form (keigo).

At first it might not make any sense why there are 3 different writing scripts, politeness and bowing. But worry about it.

Japanese Writing System

Hiragana

It is the first script that a native learns and we will too. It is rounded and curvy characters like こんにちは (Konnichiwa - hello). We will advise to learn hiragana first and it is the most basic script with all pronunciations.

hiragana chart

Katakana

It is mostly used for foreign loanwords, names, and technical terms. It has angular and straighter characters like テレビ (terebi - TV). Once you are done with Hiragana you should start learning Katakana as Japanese as lot more English vocabulary thank you might think.

katakana chart

Kanji

Kanji characters are logograms, which representing words or ideas. Like:

kanji chart

As we mentioned before there are more than 50,000 kanjis but don’t worry you dont have to learn all of them. You will have to learn about 2000 kanji to become fluent in kanji. Once you have learned 400 - 500 kanjis the rest tend to follow smoothly.

Why 3 writing scripts?

Well know you know about all writings scripts you might still say why use 3 scripts. To put this in simple languages here is a sentence in all 3 scripts:

Hiragana: ねこにこねこにこ、ねこなこなくなる。

Romanized: Neko ni koneko ni ko, neko nakonakunaru.

Meaning: A kitten smiles at another kitten, and the kitten stops crying.

With kanjis: 猫に子猫に子、猫鳴く鳴くなる

So with Kanji it is easy to read and write.

How to Start

Now we know all Japanese writing system but the question arises where to start from?

So, if you want you can self study or enroll in a Japanese language school. Both has its own benefits. Learning in a language school will offer a structured curriculum and Japanese learning environment, which can greatly enhance learning experience. On the other hand, self-studying allows for flexibility in terms of pace and schedule, making it a viable option for those with time or location constraints.

Well if you are going to self study then you need some resources to get started. We know there are too much resources & guides on internet that makes it hard to decide what to choose. But worry not we have already select best resources for you:

First we need to start with Hiragana, here are some resource:
- Hiragana Chat with Audio
- Hiragana Workbooks
- Hiragana Vocabs
  
  Now that you know from where to learn hiragana while learning it make sure to start learning some basic vocabularies from here and some basic sentences from here.
After you have learned Hiragana and some vocab now it’s time to learn Katakana from here:
Now let’s start with some grammar for which you can choose a book. We suggest Minna no Nihongo 1 and Genki 1. Both are beginner friendly and very popular.
Now that you know you can make basic sentences you can with Kanji depending on your chosen book. You can use apps like Anki for practicing Kanjis.
At Last, now you need to just follow the book and start practicing speaking Japanese for which you can join a Discord Community or use apps like HelloTalk.

For people who knows basics

Now that you know how to study and have some knowedege you can choose what you want to learn next and required resources for that. But do you know the best place to search for the all resources at one place. If you don’t then here you can find all resource you need.