I've noticed that a lot of people on this forum have the time and desire to learn Japanese, but are often under the misconception that it's impossibly hard for westerners, you need to be a genius to make any headway or that you need a teacher and classes to even hope for any progress. Good news: if you already like anime, manga, or games, you have a massive head start, and with consistent daily effort, in around 2-3 years you can be watching anime and reading manga without a dictionary. This is an immersion-based method that does not require you to spend any money (as long as you pirate), so you can forget the conventional methods of classrooms and textbooks. This guide is focused on input (reading and listening); output (speaking/writing) is a separate skill you can pick up later, and I doubt most people reading this will need it soon anyways.
Requirements: time, willpower and a PC
Note: This is a fairly condensed roadmap. In order to actually learn more about this method in depth, read The Moe Way and Donkuri's guide. Those authors explain everything far better than I can, and any extra information you need can be found in those guides which is why I heavily recommend giving them a thorough read.
The scripts
Japanese uses three: Hiragana (46 characters), Katakana (the same 46 sounds, different forms), and Kanji (characters borrowed from Chinese). Each kanji has two reading types: Onyomi (Chinese-derived) and Kunyomi (Japanese). You don't need to worry about them too much for now, just know they exist. You do not need to know 50k kanji. Most natives recognize ~3.5k–4k; ~2.5k–3k is enough for basic fluency.
1. Kana (~1 week): Learn Hiragana and Katakana first. Watch this video and write along. Then drill at this site: check all hiragana, rep until you get 100 in a row, then repeat for katakana. You won't know them perfectly yet; that's fine, acquisition comes with exposure.
2. Grammar: Japanese grammar can be very hard and difficult to get used to. Unlike English (Subject-Verb-Object), Japanese is SOV (Subject-Object-Verb). We overcome this deficit by seeing grammar hundreds and thousands of times within context, and gradually picking it up the way a native speaker would. This is why we won't spend too much time on grammar before we start immersing. Pick one primer and skim it. The real grammar learning comes from seeing it in context while immersing, not from mugging up a textbook.
While you practice grammar, you can learn vocabulary at the same time!
3. Vocabulary: Download Anki and the Kaishi 1.5k deck, set up using this guide. Anki uses spaced repetition to show you cards right before you'd forget them, which makes it very powerful and useful for priming yourself to acquire vocabulary. Start with 5-10 new cards a day; bump it up later if you want. Only use Again (1) and Good (3); avoid Hard and Easy, and don't do custom study if you want to increase your workload; just rep new cards. Your goal per card is to recall the reading and roughly what it means. Look at the kanji really hard, observe the different strokes and try to recall as best as you can. Try not to develop the habit of relying on the example sentence to pass a card.
There are two things people often get wrong when it comes to vocab and kanji: you don't need to write kanji to learn them, and you don't learn kanji in isolation; you learn words. See this video to see what I mean.
You can move onto immersion once you feel ready. A decent point is around 500 words into the deck, but feel free to take shorter or longer.
4. Immersion: In this case, immersion broadly means consuming native content with assistance (a dictionary) — anime, manga, light novels, visual novels, games, podcasts, movies, tv shows etc.. Starting out you'll understand very little. This is normal and it's what everyone goes through. The single biggest thing that stalls learners is the inability to tolerate ambiguity — accepting you won't get everything, focusing on what you can, and looking up new words. See this video.
There are two domains of input you need to work on with immersion:
As you get better, you can do both at a more equal ratio; but lean toward what you actually enjoy because that's what keeps you going.
In order to look up new words while immersing, the browser extension Yomitan lets you hover over a word in your browser to define it instantly. Setup here.
To start: watch simple slice-of-life anime with Japanese subtitles from Jimaku — Shirokuma Cafe, Yuru Camp, Aria the Animation. For reading, read easy romance/SoL manga. Manga often has furigana (kana readings above kanji), which helps early — but furigana is a crutch, so aim to move off it as your vocabulary grows. You can find a ton of recommendations for beginner immersion sources in the resources at the bottom.
A note on graded readers (Tadoku, Satori Reader): these are simplified, non-native texts. They feel easier and can create a false sense of progress, and your first real native material will hit just as hard regardless. My advice is to read real Japanese from the start.
If you really feel stuck during immersion in the beginning, there could be a few reasons. Maybe you're immersing in content too hard for you: stop and try something easier. Maybe you're tired of all the lookups and barely understanding anything: try going back to grammar again. You can reread what you've already tried or try a different source. Above all, you need to remember to trust the process and keep going while trying to understand all that you can. Immersion is so effective because you consume native content from the beginning, and if it was easy, everybody would be doing it!
See this links for info on different immersion sources: Anime · Manga · Light Novels · Visual Novels · Podcasts · Audiobooks
5. Mining: Once you finish Kaishi 1.5k, you can pick new vocab up by mining from your immersion. Mining is the process of adding words you encounter while immersing into your own Anki deck. It's effective because you're only learning words relevant to you, and with anime/VNs you can attach images and audio for context. But remember: repping a card a few times isn't what makes a word stick, seeing it repeatedly across different contexts while immersing is. Anki just assists. Setup here and here. You can use Autocards to mine from anime, Mokuro or Manatan to read and mine from manga, and this guide to mine from visual novels.
6. That's it! From here it's a loop: immerse in native content, gradually raise the difficulty, and rep the words you mine. Keep going even when it's hard, and before long the stuff that felt impossible six months ago will just feel "hard." The first 3-4 months is the hardest but believe me when I say that it gets better as you go.
Useful resources:
Requirements: time, willpower and a PC
Note: This is a fairly condensed roadmap. In order to actually learn more about this method in depth, read The Moe Way and Donkuri's guide. Those authors explain everything far better than I can, and any extra information you need can be found in those guides which is why I heavily recommend giving them a thorough read.
The scripts
Japanese uses three: Hiragana (46 characters), Katakana (the same 46 sounds, different forms), and Kanji (characters borrowed from Chinese). Each kanji has two reading types: Onyomi (Chinese-derived) and Kunyomi (Japanese). You don't need to worry about them too much for now, just know they exist. You do not need to know 50k kanji. Most natives recognize ~3.5k–4k; ~2.5k–3k is enough for basic fluency.
1. Kana (~1 week): Learn Hiragana and Katakana first. Watch this video and write along. Then drill at this site: check all hiragana, rep until you get 100 in a row, then repeat for katakana. You won't know them perfectly yet; that's fine, acquisition comes with exposure.
2. Grammar: Japanese grammar can be very hard and difficult to get used to. Unlike English (Subject-Verb-Object), Japanese is SOV (Subject-Object-Verb). We overcome this deficit by seeing grammar hundreds and thousands of times within context, and gradually picking it up the way a native speaker would. This is why we won't spend too much time on grammar before we start immersing. Pick one primer and skim it. The real grammar learning comes from seeing it in context while immersing, not from mugging up a textbook.
- Text: Yokubi (short, written for immersion learners, my pick), Tae Kim (classic, short and to the point), IMABI (very in-depth, could be too much for beginners), Genki (popular textbook series)
- Video: Cure Dolly, Tokini Andy (covers Genki), Game Gengo (grammar via video games)
While you practice grammar, you can learn vocabulary at the same time!
3. Vocabulary: Download Anki and the Kaishi 1.5k deck, set up using this guide. Anki uses spaced repetition to show you cards right before you'd forget them, which makes it very powerful and useful for priming yourself to acquire vocabulary. Start with 5-10 new cards a day; bump it up later if you want. Only use Again (1) and Good (3); avoid Hard and Easy, and don't do custom study if you want to increase your workload; just rep new cards. Your goal per card is to recall the reading and roughly what it means. Look at the kanji really hard, observe the different strokes and try to recall as best as you can. Try not to develop the habit of relying on the example sentence to pass a card.
There are two things people often get wrong when it comes to vocab and kanji: you don't need to write kanji to learn them, and you don't learn kanji in isolation; you learn words. See this video to see what I mean.
You can move onto immersion once you feel ready. A decent point is around 500 words into the deck, but feel free to take shorter or longer.
4. Immersion: In this case, immersion broadly means consuming native content with assistance (a dictionary) — anime, manga, light novels, visual novels, games, podcasts, movies, tv shows etc.. Starting out you'll understand very little. This is normal and it's what everyone goes through. The single biggest thing that stalls learners is the inability to tolerate ambiguity — accepting you won't get everything, focusing on what you can, and looking up new words. See this video.
There are two domains of input you need to work on with immersion:
- Listening (anime, podcasts, J-dramas): trains your ear and accent, easier early on, but slower progression and painful lookups.
- Reading (manga, light novels, novels, visual novels): brutal at first, but progression is rapid and closely tracks hours put in, and lookups are extremely easy.
As you get better, you can do both at a more equal ratio; but lean toward what you actually enjoy because that's what keeps you going.
In order to look up new words while immersing, the browser extension Yomitan lets you hover over a word in your browser to define it instantly. Setup here.
To start: watch simple slice-of-life anime with Japanese subtitles from Jimaku — Shirokuma Cafe, Yuru Camp, Aria the Animation. For reading, read easy romance/SoL manga. Manga often has furigana (kana readings above kanji), which helps early — but furigana is a crutch, so aim to move off it as your vocabulary grows. You can find a ton of recommendations for beginner immersion sources in the resources at the bottom.
A note on graded readers (Tadoku, Satori Reader): these are simplified, non-native texts. They feel easier and can create a false sense of progress, and your first real native material will hit just as hard regardless. My advice is to read real Japanese from the start.
If you really feel stuck during immersion in the beginning, there could be a few reasons. Maybe you're immersing in content too hard for you: stop and try something easier. Maybe you're tired of all the lookups and barely understanding anything: try going back to grammar again. You can reread what you've already tried or try a different source. Above all, you need to remember to trust the process and keep going while trying to understand all that you can. Immersion is so effective because you consume native content from the beginning, and if it was easy, everybody would be doing it!
See this links for info on different immersion sources: Anime · Manga · Light Novels · Visual Novels · Podcasts · Audiobooks
5. Mining: Once you finish Kaishi 1.5k, you can pick new vocab up by mining from your immersion. Mining is the process of adding words you encounter while immersing into your own Anki deck. It's effective because you're only learning words relevant to you, and with anime/VNs you can attach images and audio for context. But remember: repping a card a few times isn't what makes a word stick, seeing it repeatedly across different contexts while immersing is. Anki just assists. Setup here and here. You can use Autocards to mine from anime, Mokuro or Manatan to read and mine from manga, and this guide to mine from visual novels.
6. That's it! From here it's a loop: immerse in native content, gradually raise the difficulty, and rep the words you mine. Keep going even when it's hard, and before long the stuff that felt impossible six months ago will just feel "hard." The first 3-4 months is the hardest but believe me when I say that it gets better as you go.
Useful resources:
- Master Resource Repo: Kuri's Japanese Resources
- Guides: The Moe Way, Donkuri's guide, VNCR (for visual novels mainly)
- What to immerse in: Kuri's Media Recommendations, Jiten, VN Difficulty List, Starter Japanese Media, Learn Natively, TMW Beginner Novels
- Kanji study (optional, only if Kaishi is genuinely brutal): Remembering the Kanji (+ Anki deck, Kanji Koohii), Kodansha KLC, WaniKani
