簡単に – The Easiest Way to Learn Japanese
The easiest way to learn Japanese is to enjoy what you are learning and to make it simple.
First, enjoying what you are learning is most important. So, whatever method you use should be interesting to you.
楽しく学ぼう – The Method you are most Interested in is The best way to Learn Japanese on your own
What I am going to talk about here though is how to make Japanese learning simpler. The basic formula for this is to start learning what is simple and then use that as a building block to learn what is more complex.
https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/
You do that by leaving out what you don’t need to know and focus on what you do. It is perfectly fine if you don’t completely understand everything. You will fill in the blanks later. So, below is four tips on how to make Japanese easy to learn:
■ One Translation for Every word.
■ Mix words you know with what you don’t know.
■ Be Ok with a Fuzzy Understanding.
■ Learn in the Right Order.
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One Translation for Every word
Most Japanese words are pretty easy to translate into English. But, it is uncommon for two words in two languages to mean exactly the same thing.
If you look in a Japanese to English dictionary most words will show several different English translations. Think of these as just suggestions. In order to really understand a word’s meaning, you would need to see in what context that word is used.
The word がんばる means, to do one’s best, wishing luck, work hard… and so on. So, がんばる can be used in the same context that to do one’s best, to work hard, etc. would be used.
頑張れ！What does Ganbatte mean?
This is informative but when you first see the word がんばる it is confusing to try to pin so many definitions to just one word.
So what you should do is pick one definition, to do one’s best. Then once you have a good grasp on that, learn what other meanings the word has. This is the process of building on what you know. I find it is easier to add more information to something I already know than to try to memorize a bunch of new information about something I don’t. So the steps again are:
1. Pick one translation for every Japanese word.
2. After you understand the word, learn more translations of the word in different contexts.
Mix words you know with what you don’t know
ねこ means cat in Japanese. Now that you know this word, pretend you are trying to memorize the word たべる which means to eat. Make a phrase with these two words. ねこがたべる, the cat eats.
By trying to link Japanese words you already know with new ones, I find it helps me to remember words easier.
This can work for studying grammar also. Now that you know that 猫が食べる（ねこがたべる）means the cat eats, you can use this phrase to learn more. 猫が食べたい is the phrase for the cat wants to eat. Now, you know that you can replace る with たい to mean, want to. You could have tried to remember this by using new words, 犬が走りたい（いぬがはしりたい、the dog wants to run). This is fine but is more work since you would need to remember new vocabulary at the same time. To recap:
■ Create phrases with words you know and those you don’t.
■ Learn grammar with phrases containing words you already know.
Be Ok with a Fuzzy Understanding
When learning Japanese be ok not understanding 100%. It is hard to comprehend everything you read on the first try. You can however learn more and more every time you read.
Take the word がんばる again. There is not an exact translation in English. It does not really mean to do one’s best. That is one way that it is translated into English. This translation is enough though to understand what the word means when you hear it enough.
Learning Japanese is a combination of actively trying to understand new information and passively acquiring new concepts. It feels like you are learning more when you take notes, do flashcards to memorize words, and write Kanji. You still however are learning when you watch Japanese shows, read books you only understand 10% of, or listen to people speaking in Japanese. You may not feel like it is not sticking and you may in fact not remember a lot. But, every time you simply expose yourself to Japanese it lowers the resistance to learning and makes it easier to remember.
Sometimes you can read a grammar rule or whatever over and over and forget about it. Eventually, though there will be a moment when you have all this passive Japanese knowledge that you will just hear something and the dots will connect.
Learn in the Right Order
When you start learning Japanese some aspects of the language will be easier to understand than others. It is easier to remember that カメラ (pronounced kamera) is the word for camera in Japanese that the difference between は and が.
To understand カメラ you pretty much only need to be able to read Katakana. To understand は and が you need to know first understand Japanese particles, then the difference between a subject and a topic, and finally under what situations these two particles may show up.
You will obviously not only learn on thing at a time. But, what you will want to do is set a temporary focus area where you actively try to learn something. Then everything else you do is secondary and not to worry that much about for the time being. The order I would focus on things would be as follows:
- Basic pronunciation and Hiragana/Katakana.
- Simple words and Kanji.
- Basic word order and basic phrases.
- Conjunctions and connecting sentences.
- Particles, complex clauses, and phrases.
Once I got an ok grasp on basic pronunciation and could read Hiragana and Katakana I would focus on learning simples words along with Kanji. Once I felt like I knew enough words to think of simple phrases I would try to do so. And so on.
UPDATE:
I wrote a whole article on learning Japanese in the right order.
So, now you know the easy way to learn Japanese. If you are interested in learning even more, I have reviewed what I consider the best resource for Japanese Grammar below:
Resources
