How I learned Japanese Grammar
I started learning Japanese around 20 years ago. A lot has changed now with the internet. There are many new resources that were never around back then. One thing that has not changed though is human brains and the Japanese language itself. If you want to learn Japanese it will still require putting in time and effort, though in some ways with the massive amount of free resources it is easier to find some method that matches your preferences.
Today I would like to explain specifically how I learned Japanese grammar. I am not going to say that my method was the best way for everyone. I hope that it will at least provide you with a guide if you are wondering about learning Japanese grammar yourself.
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How I learned Japanese Grammar
It was a hot day and I was jet-lagged. I had just got back from a two-week trip to Japan and the only thing I could think of was wanting to go back. My body was tired but my mind was active. I had just experienced a new world that I was unaware of before. I could not stop thinking about Japan and could feel depression seeping up into my body from the gravity pulling me down. As I left the airport staring out the window, my brain was still in Japan. I decided at that moment to get serious about learning Japanese.
https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/How I Started learning Japanese Grammar
Several months before, I had bought a Japanese to English dictionary. I had already begun learning words in Japanese but mainly for fun. I mainly did that because we were going to be hosting a Japanese student for two weeks at our house.
How I learned Japanese Words – Part 1
Afterward, I went to Japan to visit the same student who hosted me. After I went to Japan and actually experienced the country I decided that if I knew more about Japan I would have been able to better enjoy my time there. And the best way to learn about a country was to learn the language. That would require more than just having words, I needed grammar.
My First Japanese Textbook
I had a neighbor who worked for a Japanese company around the time I started learning Japanese. He had gone to Japan for work and had bought a Japanese textbook. He lent this textbook to me after he heard I was also going to Japan. But, I actually did not get around to reading it until I got back from Japan. This textbook would be the first time I really dug into Japanese.
I started learning Japanese grammar a week or so after I got back from Japan. I was still in the summer break and had months before I had to go back to school. I decided I would dedicate my time to learning Japanese. I pretended like I was in a classroom. I had a notebook, pencil and the textbook my neighbor lent me. I began by reading the textbook and took notes as I went along. The textbook taught Hiragana and Katakana, and they mostly the Japanese grammar basics along with a little vocabulary.
How I studied
For the few weeks to a month or two, (I don’t remember the exact time frame) I would read and take notes like this until I finished the book. I spent most of the day, every day for at least the first few weeks trying to learn all I could from the book. It was to the point where my parents actually started to get a bit worried. But, like most things, I relaxed a little bit after this time and started to spread out my studies more.
What I got out of the Textbook
After finishing the textbook I did not have any other books. Also thought that I had probably learned everything there was to learn about Japanese grammar. So, essentially I thought I did not need to learn anymore. I did learn a large chunk of what I needed to know about the Japanese grammar structure just from the basics. But, it was definitely not everything and I certainly did not remember everything I read. I was able to make some basic Japanese sentences though. I was also able to begin thinking a little bit in Japanese.
Thinking in Japanese, a Critical Skill to Fluency in Japanese
I was not perfect though. I remember trying to say 赤くない (not red) and instead of saying 赤いじゃない. This was incorrect of course. But, it was ok since I still had my textbook which I could reference when I wanted to. Having this intense period of study laid out the framework of the Japanese language for me. This allowed me to understand how Japanese worked and made it easier moving forward to acquire more knowledge and skills in the Japanese language easier.
Difference between Japanese Skills and Knowledge
Learning Japanese Grammar Unintentionally
After I read my textbook I actually did not deliberately study Japanese grammar for several years. I would mostly just read things. I had an open mind so whenever I read something that had some grammatical aspect that seemed peculiar to me I would try to understand what it meant. I did not have much of a choice either at that point since I did not have any other textbooks. I was lucky though to host another exchange student and for a year. I would try to sometimes say stuff in Japanese and he would some of the time tell me when I said something that made no sense or was incorrect.
For the most part, though, I learned Japanese grammar through exposure. After reading enough I would start to pick up some of the patterns in whatever I was reading.
Going to Japan
I continued reading things and learning experiences. This continued up to the time I went to Japan. When I was in Japan for the year I did continue to read a lot but I had more speaking opportunities. I would try to speak and people would sometimes correct my mistakes, or they would sometimes tell me how to say something. For example, the first week I had someone explain to me the difference between おいしい and おいしそう.
美味しそう！ Should I say Oishii or Oishisou?
For the most part, however, people won’t and are unable to spend all of their time correcting your errors if you make mistakes. That would have been too exhausting. So, mostly I would try to listen and speak like the people I talked with. I would try to copy expressions of how people said things and at the same time learned grammar through it.
Studying Japanese Grammar Deliberately Again
After getting back from Japan I did not deliberately study Japanese grammar for many years. I just continued reading and watching things that I was interested in. But, after a few years, I realized that I still had some gaps in my knowledge I needed to fill. So, I found a website all in Japanese which explained Japanese grammar in detail. I read this much the same way I did for my first textbook and took some notes here and there. I also searched other websites.
Putting it all together
From my experience with learning Japanese Grammar, you can pick up most of the grammar you need from listening and reading. However, that takes a long time and you need some knowledge of grammar to be able to make sense of what you are reading. If you study nothing about sentence structure, verb forms and so on then it would be almost impossible just to read with a knowledge of only vocabulary. In order to get started with reading or listening to real content, you need to learn some basic Japanese grammar. What that will help you do is be able to recognize the framework of the Japanese language and more easily recognize how the grammar works in the language. That will allow you to remember things you notice in the language better than if you had no grammar knowledge.
However, if you spend too much time focusing on only grammar in the beginning it will be harder to remember what you learn. The reason is that you don’t yet have enough exposure to the Japanese language to see how those grammar rules actually work in real life. There are several things about Japanese grammar that are hard to explain without examples. Without reading or listening to a lot of Japanese, the rules of how grammar works will seem too abstract to be able to remember.
So, if you want to learn Japanese grammar my suggestion would be to start out by getting an overview of the language and grammar. Then spend a lot of time reading and taking notes of things you would like to know more about or remember. Then, after you get to the point where you know enough vocabulary to read without too much trouble go ahead and take some time to dive deep into how all of the specifics of grammar in Japanese works.
