Jump to World: 1—2—3—4—5—6—7—8—9
Take your Japanese from zero to fluent to legendary, one step at a time. Quickly read over the guideposts and key terms and get ready to begin your language adventure.
*Guideposts*
1. Worlds should be done in order, but posts within worlds can/should be done simultaneously with each other.
2. Lengths of time are averages of how long completing the world may take you. Speed is your decision.
3. As you advance in worlds, what you learn and engage in will continue with you to later worlds.
*Key Terms*
1. Anki: A popular and powerful flashcard program which sets automatic timed intervals for studying.
2. Kana Conqueror: Guide to learning the first 2 Japanese writing systems.
3. Japanese-English Sentences (J-E sentences): Learning Japanese sentences by using English as assistance.
4. Jalup Beginner 1000: Japanese Level Up original J-E textbook.
5. Kanji Kingdom: Japanese Level Up orignal Kanji learning system to master all 2000+ kanji
6. Jalup Stories Beginner: Original fictional stories giving you practice with what you learned in Jalup Beginner.
7. Japanese-Japanese Sentences (J-J sentences): Learning Japanese sentences only through Japanese.
8. Jalup Intermediate/Advanced/Expert: Japanese Level Up original J-J textbook series.
9. Immersion: The environment you create (and surround yourself) of native Japanese material (books, videos, music, games, etc.) which simulates the idea of you living in Japan and living like a native Japanese person.
10. Passive Learning: Learning that takes place in the background without any focus required (ex. listening to a movie while cleaning the dishes, listening to music while running.)
11. Active Learning: Learning that takes place where you are directly focused on it (ex. sitting down and watching a movie, reading a novel.)
World 1: Starting Your Journey
(4-7 days)
Questions to ask:
● What is your motivation for learning Japanese? Start writing down your goals.
● Do you have the dream of living in Japan?
● Is Chinese more beneficial to learn than Japanese?
● How long will it take you to become fluent? How many hours a day? (You sure? Others say it takes less/more time!)
● Is it bad to learn Japanese solely for the anime and manga?
● Is learning Japanese difficult?
● What does a simple overview (or even simpler overview) of learning Japanese to fluency look like?
● What would you do if you woke up fluent in Japanese?
● How does learning Japanese affect who you are?
● What’s the best age to learn Japanese?
● When is the right time to start learning Japanese?
● Who created Japanese Level Up and is it worth following?
The Jalup Game Mentality:
● Turning your “study” into your “quest.”
● Japanese is your new game.
● Keep track of your progress by level
● Play with your Japanese study time.
● Setting your “random battle” rate
● Maintain the anime hero training mentality.
● Everyone is a Japanese hero in the making.
● Developing your own strategy guide
● Develop the rage to master Japanese.
● Jump increasingly difficult hurdles.
● Make your Japanese study more challenging, not less.
● Learn Japanese through a game or as a game?
Psychologically Preparing For The Challenge:
● Prepare for the 4 phases of language shock.
● Studying Japanese should not be painful.
● Using this site’s posts as inspiration, motivation, and guidance.
● Don’t play the comparison game.
● Don’t visualize Japanese as some insurmountable obstacle.
● Japanese is simple. We make it more difficult.
● Embrace the difficulty of Japanese – it’s part of the appeal.
● What victory percentage would you play for?
● Dealing with your own difficulty setting and speed setting.
Not a beginner? Making a 2nd attempt at learning Japanese?
● Test Your Japanese level here and/or here to see where you stand.
● Already intermediate level? You may want to go back and complete RTK.
● Do you feel you are an eternal start and stop learner?
● Quit Japanese for a period of time and trying to restart?
● Stories of second attempt Japanese learners to motivate you: 1, 2-3, 4-5, 6
World 2: Buying & Preparing Your First Equipment
(2-5 days)
Purchase from Jalup:
Textbooks you may want/need:
Download for free:
Decide if you want to:
● Take Japanese classes in addition to self-study (and some things to watch out for).
● Major in Japanese in college and do a Japanese-related independent study.
● Study abroad at a language school in Japan.
● Use online Japanese study forums (if you do, you might want to keep your study methods quiet)
● Practicing your handwriting skill.
● If you want to become only a casual learner of Japanese.
Tasks:
● Learn how to use Anki, what it does for you, why using pre-made decks are so powerful, and how Adam used it for massive success. Need more instruction? Check out the official manual and intro videos.
● Set up the Japanese language on your computer so you can input Japanese characters with your keyboard.
● Make sure you are setting enough time every day to actually engage in Japanese.
World 3: Beginning Your Training
(3-5 months)
Tasks:
● Learn how to read, write and pronounce the hiragana and katakana (first 2 Japanese alphabets) using Kana Conqueror (if you want some extra practice, try these songs or apps or games or creative order).
● Learn 500 kanji (the 3rd Japanese alphabet) by completing stages 1 and 2 of Kanji Kingdom, while at the same time learning 500 J-E sentences in stages 1 and 2 of Jalup Beginner.
Decide whether you will:
● Boost Anki’s power with media enhancements.
● Add additional kanji not found in the original sentences.
● Plan on being a power leveler or learning Japanese as fast as possible (read one person’s experience of getting to level 40 in 8 months).
● Use Remembering The Kanji (RTK) or Jalup Kanji Assist as an alternative or alongside with Kanji Kingdom, or make your own J-E sentences instead.
Create your strategy:
● Set yourself up with short, specific, and achievable goals. Can’t figure out good goals? See what everyone here is aiming for.
● Find someone better than you to become friends with.
● Try changing your color settings on Anki to prevent eye fatigue
● Make sure to create a great study start and finish to every day.
● Decide how many new Anki cards to add a day and don’t worry about your accuracy rate numbers.
● Develop the need to learn Japanese.
● Master your use of time, and use time to make more time.
● Transform your studying chores into studying habits.
● You will luck into amazing study methods.
Boosting your game:
● How to be mediocre – good – great.
● Pump yourself up with 10 Life-Changing Quotes In Japanese And English.
● How to make the Japanese language like you.
● How to create a Japanese Master.
● Working smarter still means working your ass off.
● Prepare to go through cycles of being cocky and humble.
Tool Concerns:
● Does RTK (or Kanji Kingdom) actually teach you Japanese? Need a more thorough guide?
● Why go from Japanese to English, and not English to Japanese?
● What if you hate doing RTK? Or you hate Anki? Any alternative?
● Is using romaji (English lettering of Japanese characters) okay?
● What do you do when you have trouble understanding your sentences?
Progress Concerns:
● Should you learn Japanese slowly or quickly?
● Is it okay to go at a super slow pace?
● Is it okay to be obsessed with learning Japanese?
● Is it better to study Japanese in the morning or at night?
● When do you stop translating into English in your head?
● Should you keep daily time records of your studying?
Avoiding Pitfalls:
● Enjoy being a beginner.
● Avoid being a perfectionist. Your way of studying Japanese will never be perfect.
● Do not get caught up in asking “why?”
● Make sure you are getting enough sleep.
● Be careful of trying too many new tools and methods
● Bad excuses why you think you can’t learn Japanese.
● Watch out for evil Japanese learners.
● Don’t study something because you feel you have to.
● Stay away from a negative learning environment.
Handling early frustration:
● Learning Japanese is like a game of Tetris.
● Trust me, Japanese is not impossible to learn.
● How your Japanese ability will actually progress.
● Was learning Japanese a New Year’s resolution? Did you fail it already? Should you even bother?
● Method not working? Try changing it a little.
● Anki may seem boring at times, but it’s like a time travelling machine.
● Failure is moving forward, so keep the momentum.
● Find out how you don’t like to study.
World 4: Entering The Immersion Realm
(4-7 days)
What immersion all about?
● How to utilize the full power of Passive Listening.
● Properly dividing your focus.
● Use the 5-minute rule when watching videos.
● The faster you can get to immersion the better.
● It only takes one key to unlock the gates of immersion.
● You don’t need to finish what you started.
Setting everything up:
● Use the Jalup media guide to find videos you like (J-drama, anime, movies, video games, etc.) appropriate to your level.
● Watch videos > download > convert to mp3 > upload the audio (cleaning up unnecessary parts) to create your portable immersion device.
● Add other audio like music and podcasts.
● Just leave your TV on, which is especially easy if you use Netflix Japan or Amazon Prime Japan (but beware the dangers).
● Make immersion follow you even when you think you’re too busy.
● Improve your listening ability just by using earphones or just sometimes closing your eyes.
Dealing with English subtitles:
● Try keeping your immersion pure, banishing any English.
● How to block English subtitles.
● If you insist on using English subtitles, use them most efficiently.
● Get used to anime once the English subtitles are gone.
● Why English subtitles are not accurate.
Doubts:
● Having doubts about the effectiveness of immersion?
● Feel like immersion isn’t working for you?
● How can immersion work when you only understand 1%?
● How can you enjoy Japanese TV that you don’t understand?
● Does Japanese TV suck?
● Is there any benefit to being a beginner just starting immersion?
Confusion:
● Is it bad to learn Japanese from anime? What are the powerful benefits?
● Is anime binging good or bad?
● Does listening to music count as studying?
● Why you can’t understand the news.
● Why you think you hate Japanese variety shows.
● Is it okay to hate most Japanese TV?
● Is it okay to use American Japanese dubs of America movies?
● How long should you listen to the same material?
● Why is the Japanese in anime is so difficult to understand?
● When things get difficult, try something completely different.
● With enough immersion, you will develop seemingly sudden Japanese abilities.
● Immersion isn’t easy – but that’s okay.
World 5: Continuing the Early Battles
(3-5 months)
Tasks:
● Complete stages 3 + 4 of both Kanji Kingdom and Jalup Beginner at the same time.
● Take the Power Level Tests to see how your progress is coming along.
Feeling bored?
● How to fight boredom.
● Found whatever textbook you chose just not interesting enough to you?
● Studying will make studying more enjoyable.
● Enjoy the small breakthrough moments.
● Balancing fun vs. study.
● Writing out kanji feel boring? Check out this motivational kanji writing video masterpiece.
● Be excited with what happens next.
Feeling demotivated?
● Go watch Lost In Translation (really, that’s it)
● Start visualizing your Japanese-speaking future self.
● Japanese is improving your life in ways you never imagined.
● Take and keep full control of your own journey.
● Reminding yourself how important learning Japanese is to you.
● Think differently: try the George Constanza or Mr. Miyagi approach to learning Japanese.
● Think you have it bad? Imagine studying Japanese if it was 1899. Or even 1999.
● Buy tickets to Japan! The sooner you can go for even a small trip, the better.
● Other people learning way faster than you? Use it to inspire, not to demotivate.
● Battle stories make your journey memorable.
● Evolving questions to banish self-doubt.
● Being fluent in Japanese is ridiculously fun.
● When your confidence starts to shift in a positive direction.
● Read inspiring stories of other learners that struggled their way to success: 1-3, 4-6, 7, 8, 9, Coco, Ninjam
World 6: Stepping Into Japanese-Only Dungeons
(2-4 months)
Purchase:
Task:
● Learn why you make the switch from Japanese-English (J-E) to Japanese-Japanese (J-J), how it’s one big puzzle and whether it really matters.
● Complete stages 5 to 8 of Kanji Kingdom and 1 to 4 of Jalup Intermediate at the same time.
Creating your own J-J sentences & additional explanations
● How to change your training from J-E to J-J in Anki.
● How the branching process works and techniques for easier branching.
● Despite your readiness, be prepared for a challenge.
● Embracing the J-J dictionary dive.
● Get used to using a J-J dictionary (I recommend any internet dictionary)
● Learn the most common definition words.
● In the beginning, try using pictures or a children’s dictionary
● Learn how to deal with words not found in the dictionary.
Experiencing burnout?
● You will be reaching the Mid-level blues. Accept and embrace it.
● What to do when you reach your Japanese breakdown point.
● Feel like giving up learning Japanese?
● When will you reach the point where everything feels great?
● Why is Japanese taking you so long to learn?
● Enjoy studying Japanese now, not later.
● If you start slowing down, doing something is better than doing nothing.
● Learn what number of reviews due in Anki makes you not want to do them.
● Stop doing what you hate.
● End your study sessions on a high point.
● Know when you are most likely to quit Japanese.
● Compare what you can do now that you couldn’t do then.
Dealing with lingering worries:
● Avoid long sentences that give you a headache.
● Your need for Anki will slowly fade away.
● Reasons that will prevent you from ever becoming fluent in Japanese.
● Use your Japanese study time efficiently.
● Signs you’re getting the Japanese immersion you need.
● Don’t beat yourself up about not being able to completely remove English.
● What happens if you unintentionally see English definitions when you are doing J-J?
● Thinking your ultimate progress is limited because you aren’t living in Japan?
● When will you reach the point where everything feels great?
● Don’t learn things “just in case.”
● Don’t become a “second guesser.”
● Don’t get stuck in your comfort zones.
World 7: The Reading Rampage
(2-4 months)
Task:
● Complete stages 1 to 4 of Jalup Advanced.
● Start reading native materials.
Best ways to read:
● The difference between extensive and intensive reading.
● Only read what is appropriate to your interests.
● Skip parts you don’t understand.
● Read in Japanese, not about Japanese.
● Step up your reading frequency (try the popular reading contest Tadoku for motivation).
● Block out the non-Japanese reading distractions.
● Use techniques to speed up your Japanese reading pace.
● Struggles with reading a Japanese book a day.
● Try to steer clear of massive blocks of Japanese text.
● Good sources to buy native Japanese reading material: 1) Kinokuniya, 2) YesAsia, 3) Amazon Japan, 4) Bookoff
Read manga:
● Why manga is the pinnacle of Japanese learning.
● How to transition into reading manga.
● Finding different places to get your manga fix.
● Read free manga on “Manga Got A Chance”
Read novels:
● Why You Should Be Reading Japanese Novels
● Consider giving yourself a reading handicap.
● Feeling guilty for not reading Japanese classics?
● Use Disney for a novel reading boost.
Read websites:
● Ameba and Japanese Blogging
● Follow some great Twitter feeds, (like Madlibs & Ghibli Bot) and join Google+ communities.
Read everything:
● Making use of Japan’s abundant “Free Papers.”
● Change your mobile phone to Japanese.
● Yes, video games count as reading.
● Use Retro Games and nostalgia to boost your Japanese.
● Learn Japanese Through Cooking Dashi.
● Turn your password-remembering-stress into Japanese reading practice.
World 8: Embarking Upon Speaking and Conversations
(2-3 months)
Task:
● Complete stages 1 to 4 of Jalup Expert
● Start engaging in conversations.
Talking online:
● Register a Mixi account (Japanese version of Facebook), make friends and talk with them on Skype.
● Can’t or don’t want to use Mixi? Try Facebook.
● Try Japanese Twitcasting (live streaming community sites).
● Use Japan’s massively popular mobile app “Line.”
● Use Google Maps To Bring Your Home Closer To Japan
● Use Twitter as an easy way to chat, make friends, and start a conversation.
● Get involved in Jalup’s monthly Creative Captions: 1 – 2 – 3
● Turn World of Warcraft into Japanese and join a Japanese guild.
● Have a surprisingly entertaining conversation with Siri.
● Try the Saito-san app to talk with random Japanese people with ease.
● When chatting, decide whether you want to use kana or romaji input on your mobile device.
Talking in person:
● Prove yourself quickly in any conversation and make sure to get in the first word.
● Some of the confusing things Japanese people will say to you.
● Understand the difference between not understanding vs not hearing and not understanding vs. not understanding Japanese.
● Get used to the background noise that clouds listening ability.
● How to react to repetitive compliments about your “great Japanese”
● Don’t shy away from talking with other foreigners in Japanese
● Why you should avoid tempting “language exchanges.”
● Should you enter a Japanese speech contest?
Technique:
● Practice expressing yourself through self-talking and shadowing/mimicking.
● Slow down; you are the one talking too fast.
● Develop your inner actor.
● Construct your new voice.
● Use the English found in Japanese.
● Fully enjoy the abbreviation madness.
● Get used to the formal language.
● Avoid bad habits that make your Japanese sound unnatural
● Correct your Japanese mistakes with variety shows
Confidence and struggles:
● Japanese speaking mastery is a never-ending battle.
● The 8 phases of transition from immersion to fluent speaking.
● Learning Japanese is harder than learning English
● Your skills will be unbalanced (with speaking weakest), and that’s okay.
● Don’t worry about your Japanese becoming too masculine/feminine.
● Prepare for the Japanese Random Level Down.
● Don’t let others’ speaking ability intimidate you.
● Polite vs. casual Japanese is hard for foreigners.
● Sticking with words you know vs. trying out new ones.
● When people tell you they wish they were “naturally” good with languages like you.
● Speaking good vs. natural Japanese
World 9: Travelling On Alone
Purchase:
Tasks:
● Complete stages 5 to 8 of Jalup Expert
● Continue working through J-J using The One Deck, or begin/continue creating your own sentences until you reach your desired level.
● Enjoy as much fun native media as you possibly can.
● Prepare yourself for overcoming the high level blues.
Decisions:
● Will you blog about your Japanese experience?
● Should you keep going with Anki for years to come? When should you stop adding new cards?
● If you are living in Japan, should you make it your permanent home?
Do you want to work in Japan or get a job using Japanese in your home country?
● Becoming a Japanese Translator series.
● Become an English teacher.
● Join the WWOOF farming program.
● Become a part-time worker (and enjoy the benefits of the job immersion environment that comes with it)
● Become a TV actor, or join a variety show as a cast member or guest.
● Is taking the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) necessary? What levels do the Jalup decks prepare you for?
● How may potential jobs test your Japanese?
● 7 ways to prepare for and pass a Japanese job interview.
● Take a boring job to boost your Japanese.
● 12 Unique And Fun Jobs Using Japanese
Things to remember:
● No matter how high you go, always remain humble.
● You can keep up and improve your Japanese, even when you are away on vacation.
● No matter how much you love Japanese culture, don’t throw away your own culture.
● You don’t have to learn everything.
● Why you never stop learning Japanese.
● There will always be tiny gaps in your Japanese knowledge.
● You will become your own most valuable teacher.
● Understand your weaknesses, and your strengths will shine.
● Let the reasons you study Japanese evolve and change.
Final Words:
Never give up. You can and absolutely will do this.
(Last Updated 5/30/2016)
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Woah
This is insane, really, GREAT JOB!
Gives me a real motivational boost!
Great job on reorganization! I was thinking having a ‘Starter Guide’ that contains a 50 point list was a bit stretching it…
The whole concept of ‘worlds’ that you stay in until for a certain period of time is a nice one. Helps to cement the concept that there isn’t a ‘right’ order for doing all this stuff.
Interesting call to place immersion after the 500 sentence mark.
Looking at this timeline… a comment on another post got me thinking… are you an auditory learner?
I started reading manga (and SRSing it alongside textbook sentences) when I had a little under 500 sentences and started listening to subtitle-less Japanese a little past 1000 sentences. And while it’s partly because I haven’t spent enough time doing it, I’m not gaining much from the listening (don’t worry, I’m not going to completely drop it.)
It occurred to me that the main differences between what you recommend and what I am finding works well for me could be explained by the fact that I am an extremely visual learner.
I found that first watching something with Japanese subtitles (not English subtitles of course) and then continuing to listen to it afterward has really helped me with my listening. Having an idea of what they were saying in the first place helps me recognize things I would likely otherwise miss. As for finding Japanese subtitles… it can be fairly difficult sometimes.
Good idea. I’ll try that.
The other thing I’m thinking of doing is that next manga series I read will be something that has been made into an animé, which I’ll watch after reading.
I wouldn’t call myself an auditory learner. However, I strongly believe in the power of listening (something I originally didn’t do much of in my first year of study). I’m writing a post soon that will touch on this topic about about listening immersion and when it finally starts to have its massive positive effects.
I’m looking forward to that post.
Aside from adding Anki sentences with Genki and other formal material, is there any “informal” book, page or something that has examples of perhaps the 100 most commonly used phrases in everyday/colloquial speech (with generally accepted slang words)? If I google stuff like 日本語のスラング it’s kinda hard to tell apart which sites are good and which aren’t.
I don’t know of any book that has this (though if anyone knows of any, please leave it in the comments). But I think you’ll be doing a disservice to yourself by continuing to try to learn special phrases from textbooks. This is where you want to expand to natural material.
Genki 1 + 2 contains most of the commonly used every day stuff already.
Isn’t getting phrases from textbooks etc what you’re supposed to do with Anki? I am using Genki I and II as my foundation for my Anki deck, but shouldn’t there be a value in practicing to speak as a person would actually speak if you want to reach for “native” level, and not just practice “formal” phrases? I’m not looking for “special” phrases, just normal phrases. Even if Genki is great, I assume if a native person would speak all those phrases in the book in a normal fashion, letters would be dropped here and there and perhaps some slang would be used?
I did get a suggestion just today actually. Some book named “Dirty Japanese”. No idea if it’s good or not. Did get some examples from it, like varieties of こんいちわ: こんちゃ for example. No idea if that particular “slang” expression is used more or less, but that was just an example. I just figured adding a few phrases like that would be as valid as adding phrases from Genki.
Yes, getting phrases (sentences) from Genki I and II and adding them to Anki is your foundation.
Yes, you are correct. Those 2 books by themselves will not teach you how to speak just like a Japanese person. Most people add in slurs and slang, combinations and things that don’t appear anywhere in those textbooks.
However, you pick up all this from using TV, manga, novels, etc. as your new source of sentences. You are taking these sentences, using a dictionary, and learning what everything means.
I believe that taking it naturally as it comes in real context is better than using a textbook that claims to do the same thing.
Thanks for the advice!
I’ve owned books that claim to have this but ultimately they were only used for laughs when I had Japanese friends over. Before I handed them over to book-off I flipped through them and you could see a few phrases that were both correct and still in use but there’s no way you could learn the proper usage and intonation just from reading the books. (None of these are serious textbooks either.)
If you find Genki too dry for your tastes check out the three volumes of Japanese in Mangaland. I ran into these books long after I had learned basic grammar so I can’t speak for their effectiveness, but they do have dozens of plain form examples right from the beginning which is really the basis for slang anyway.
Stay away from any books with Dirty, Making, Love, Real, or Outrageous + Japanese in the title. Even used they are a complete waste of money and will do more harm than good.
thanks for this walkthrough
It’s been a constantly evolving work. Glad to hear people are making good use of it!
Wow you really smashed it up here! Thanks for the reference and all the great work!
Word brotha!
Thanks! Now it’s your job to take this and kick some ass.
Hi Adshap!
I really enjoy reading your blog, and I’ve just started learning Japanese a few days ago. I’m done with hiragana and katakana, and at about 100 kanji.
What I don’t understand is, when do I start with the sentences? Here, it says that
“- Master the the first 950 of 1901 kanji (the third Japanese alphabet) using the RTK mod and Anki. (…)
– Self-enter and review 500 Japanese-English sentences that you take from your purchased beginner textbooks into Anki. ”
This implies that I start before the 950 kanji mark. Also on the “What level are you?” page it says that by level 5 I should have already ” Started J-E Anki: Kanji: ~200, Sentences: ~100″. So at 200 kanji I should already be at 100 sentences? Or should I push through all the kanji first? Please clear up my confusion.
I asked the same question when I got started. Adshap recommended doing both sentences and RTK at the same time. 2 months later down that path, I’m glad I listened to him.
While I have found it more difficult to remember words that use Kanji I haven’t RTK’ed yet, seeing Kanji I do know in context is awesome and helps me stay motivated to do more RTK. More motivation = more success :)
Good luck on your adventure!
Thanks, I’ll start the sentences then. As I saw, there aren’t that many kanji in the beginning chapters of Genki anyway.
I really like this idea! I have been trying to get into the groove of learning Japanese but I never really stuck with some of the methods of people because they made me feel lazy after a week. I love gaming and I definitely want to learn Japanese, so bring it on!
I do have materials to work with that I really want to incorporate since I want them to be useful. Haha although it might be a bad idea, I’m not sure, but I also want to keep an “adventure log” (almost like a save file I can refer to after each level or so. Like in the Final Fantasy games! 9 especially since you can have (i believe) 50+ saves in your memory card!). I want to use the adventure log as a reference just in case to see where I stand and what I already know (along with future modifications).
Thanks for this method! I never would have thought of it in a million years actually!
I think an “adventure log” sounds like a great idea. Any time you can use an idea from a game you love to help with your Japanese progress I say go for it. If it turns out well, come back and let us know about it.
So I started doing anki a couple months ago and now im at ~1900 in your rtk mod. I’ve noticed that if given an english keyword i would remember how to write the kanji but when i see a kanji somewhere i would recognize that i know it but i wouldnt be able to recall the english keyword. Is this bad?
This is completely normal and is the goal. You don’t want to be recalling English every time you see kanji. Things will work themselves out as you progress through J-E.
Hey I love you’re blog so far and I really love the tips and tricks in it. I absolutely love the idea of turning Japanese into a game. But is there anyway you can post some vocabulary lists online. I went on Anki but the lists I saw all had innuendoes that I don’t really want to copy down, yet I don’t want to get the wrong conotation. I’m looking to move to Japan when I get out of highschool and college but I’m having trouble figuring out how to actually start start. In what order should I learn the words?
It’s all in the walk through. There are paid and free alternatives available on this site. I highly recommend the paid ones, and the beginner is amazing. There are lots of options you can take though, whether you want to use premade vocab or make your own. By the way, sentences are by far the most popular way to learn new vocab on here.
I suggest you take the time to read through at least the first few worlds of the walk through and I think you’ll find nearly all your questions and more answered
Welcome! =)
In broad strokes, you want to focus mainly on grammar early. Understanding the structure of the language opens the door to everything else. Don’t worry about vocab “lists” for now.
As James said, the Jalup Beginner sentence deck is a great place to start your adventure (if you can read kana – if not, start by learning it). Adam has a great refund policy if it doesn’t suit your needs, so I’d highly encourage you to give it a try.
Once you finish the Beginner set, you’ll have a good basic vocabulary and strong command of core grammar. That’s when things really start to get exciting :)
Hope that helps. Feel free to ask if you have other questions. The community here is awesome and very supportive. Good luck on your journey!
I have a friend who is in Prison, and part of his rehabilitation is to follow his passion for learning Japanese. Your materials seem very useful to that end. Is there an address that I can give him so that he can inquire about materials, programs, etc?
Thanks for your help,
Wayne Allen
Everything is online, so he would need access to the internet.
I’m finding that I’m making good progress with Jalup deck, some yesjapan vids, and unsubbed anime.
I feel like I would be able to make even better progress if I could acquire more vocab atm. I notice if I calm the monkey chatter I’m able to hear almost every word in anime without having my brain naturally try and translate it to english. In other words, I find that in a lot of cases my inability to understand is coming simply from a lack of vocabulary in easier anime.
I’m wondering if anyone has found a romaji/hiragana list with the english meaning of the top 500-2000 most common spoken words either in casual conversation or anime?
I’m already using Anki for Adam’s rec of the top 100 anime words that he took from some guys yale.edu pdf, but that’s not enough.
I’ve been looking on and off for days but can never find anything with common words. I even found something titled “top 1000 spoken japanese words”, only to find words such as “international relations” and such within it.
Has anyone tracked something like this down?
I don’t have a specific list to recommend (as I find lists to be somewhat boring), but if you are going through the Jalup decks, especially past Beginner, you will get many of the most common words.
If anyone else has any suggestions though, please feel free to chime in.
In my opinion, the Jalup decks are pretty much what you are looking for, so if you feel you have extra time to study vocabulary, just do the decks faster. That way you will also learn the full words in context instead of hiragana or romaji versions only with no idea about the correct way to use them.
Also, if you feel you are able to hear the words, but just don’t know them, then something like jisho.org should be useful. Here you can look up words using hiragana or romaji, and it also supports conjugations.