Konichiwa! If you’re looking to pick up Japanese, check out the resources I’ve found pretty useful in my journey to familiarize myself with the language.
Japanese Language 101
First off, let’s dive into how Japanese works from a bird’s eye view. Japanese uses three alphabets: Katakana, Hiragana, and Kanji.
Katakana are solely used for loan words like ice kurimu (ice cream), ha pi (happy), takshi (taxi), etc.
Hiragana are used with Kanji or on their own.
Kanji are Chinese characters also used in Japanese with different pronunciations and sometimes definitions.
How to learn Kanji:
Kanji may be the hardest to learn as there are many characters and most are not very intuitive originally. Wani Kani is super helpful. It almost turns learning into a game and can get addictive! Wani Kani teaches you kanji and the roots of the kanji. Using some sort of scientific method, Wani Kani serves up the items you need to revise after a day or so to give you enough time to forget and then really test if you have learned something.
Wani Kani is free until level 3 and is then very reasonably priced if you want to continue.
Wani Kani has its own way to get you to remember radicals and vocabulary.
The creators of Wani Kani also run Tofugu which is a fantastic website and podcast!
How to learn Katakana:
For some reason, Katakana is still difficult for me to learn and read. When I read words in katakana it takes me a good 15 seconds to figure out what they are supposed to mean. It is important to learn because although Japanese people know English they apparently use their own pronunciations more frequently than the English speaking versions.
How to learn Hiragana:
I found Hiragana pretty simple to memorize using apps. So many apps!
My Top 7 Japanese Language Learning Apps
(that was awkward and I may need to relearn English)
Duolingo– fun gamified language learning. While it is imperfect, it’s still a handy way to learn. (If you don’t want to learn Japanese, Duolingo offers many language options too!)
Tae Kim’s Japanese– this is basically a Japanese learning bible book/website that is also in app form.
Benkyo N5 through N1– the official Japanese language tests go from N5, the easiest, to N1 the hardest. Each app has the words you’d need to know for that level. These were the apps I used the most as I could customize in so many ways and study only what I was struggling with.
Can you guess what benkyo means?
Eggbun– talk to a bot that is meant to teach you how to speak Japanese. It’s pretty cute. (Available for Japanese, Korean, and Chinese)
HelloTalk– talk to real people who know the language you want to learn and who are looking to learn the language you already know. It’s pretty cool. You can type or record audio or video.
Tinycards– Duolingo’s flash card app. You can make your own flashcards or use sets you find in the app. Check out the ones I follow.
KanjiQ– great for practicing strokes. Kanji is tough and you can’t just draw it any way you want. There’s an order.
Bonus Tip: When I studied Ancient Greek in college, I bought a small chalkboard because I hated wasting paper when I was trying to memorize vocabulary or practice my declensions. I use this chalkboard now to learn Katakana and Hiragana and sometimes, Kanji.
Extra Bonus Tip: Japanese Langauge Podcasts! Stay tuned for my list.
Extra Extra: Watch Terrace House :) Here‘s a quick list of the words I learned from the show and how I got to learn them!
What are your favorite language learning apps?
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