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Learn Japanese
This article is about how to learn Japanese. So, how does one go about learning a language as difficult as Japanese? After all, it has three alphabets, and kanji is a nightmare! It’s going to be impossible to learn Japanese, right?
No.
It won’t be.
English speakers are learning Japanese all the time, all over the world. And no, they aren’t geniuses, and they’re not just college students. People just like you and me are learning Japanese every day. So how do they do it?
First, they concentrate more on speaking at first, than on all the alphabets. A good rule of thumb for beginners of Japanese should be 75% of your time spent on speaking and listening, and only 25% of your time spent on the various writing systems. If you study for 30 minutes each day, five days per week, then that means you should break it up like this:
Day 1: All 30 minutes spent listening and speaking
Day 2: First 15 minutes spent on review of previous day, next 15 minutes spent on reading and writing
…and so on.
The question usually comes up: But which writing system should I learn first? Ultimately it doesn’t matter. They’re all helpful, all ultimately necessary. So, maybe start with katakana (the system used for writing out foreign words). It’s usually considered to be the easiest of the Japanese alphabets. Or, perhaps use your “reading and writing” time for writing and learning one new kanji character each session. In time, you will grow a very large vocabulary.
And truth be told, you’ll probably find yourself gradually commit more and more time to your new hobby of learning Japanese! It’s a very common phenomenon. People start by studying a few days per week, a few minutes here and there. But as they get more involved and fall more in love with the language, it becomes more of a passion for people. I’ve seen it happen again and again. (And it sure happened to me!!)
The point is, learning Japanese is very possible. You need the right course, the right attitude, and a proper amount of time and energy to commit to it. Then you will indeed learn Japanese!
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