Japanese is a beautiful language with a consistent grammar and an intimidating writing system. As with learning any language, we have to train our memory for both reception (reading and listening) as well as production (writing and speaking), to be effective at communication.
For general advice on how to learn Japanese, I recommend watching this video by Tae Kim. This post is basically about what tools and resources I recommend using (or not) and why.
Apart from Hiragana and Katakana, the syllabic writing system, there are three aspects of the language that you need to constantly improve upon:
- Grammar: Rules for understanding and constructing sentences.
- Vocabulary: If grammar is your gun, this is your ammunition.
- Kanji: Chinese ideograms used in writing. Japanese do not separate words using spaces. It is Kanji that give indications of word-separations, and actually makes reading easier.
Now, let's take a look at what existing tools have to offer.
TODO
I use LingoDeer (see below) for consistently improving my vocabulary and grammar.
As for the kanji introduced in LingoDeer, I use AnkiWeb to help me memorize them using flashcards, after having broken them up into their component parts using Kanshudo.
I have tried the following interactive learning tools:
Duolingo (on Web/Android/iOS)
Designed to teach a language for practical use, from scratch to good proficiency.
Personally, I found it greatly insufficient after a certain point. It is good to dip your toes in Japanese, especially to learn Hiragana, and some Katakana. But that's about it. Once it started with more complex vocabulary, the logic of sentence construction got very confusing to me, as it provides little to no explanation. I started relying on the comments section of each exercise for explanation, but even that can only go so far.
Conclusion: Perhaps use it to learn Hiragana, then move on to better tools.
LingoDeer (on Android/iOS)
Designed specifically to teach Asian languages for practical use, from scratch to good proficiency.
Personally, I think this is the best interactive app around that properly covers the language overall. It doesn't focus much on teaching Kana though. Even with zero Kana knowledge, you can still progress with lessons just fine, since it displays the pronunciation of everything in romaji (i.e. using english alphabets). But I suggest you to quickly master Hiragana, and turn off romaji (which can be switched in the middle of a lesson). This is a solid choice to improve your vocabulary and grammar. It also has a flashcards-based review system within the app, which although good enough, is not as sophisticated as Anki or Memrise.
Conclusion: Definitely try it! (Related discussion)
文プロ (Bunpro) (on Web)
Designed to primarily help you internalize Japanese grammar. Paid membership, with 30-day free (creditcard-less) trial.
Personally, I found it super interesting during the trial-period. What stands out most is the fact that they provide external reading material links to whichever concepts they teach. This has been greatly helpful.
Conclusion: TODO
Wanikani (on Web)
Designed to help you memorize a lot of Kanji, and some vocabulary involving those Kanji.
Personally, I found it very frustrating. They redefine "radicals" (the term itself, the set of "radicals," as well as their names) to match their choice of mnemonics. Many a time, the "radical" name isn't even remotely related to its standard name, and this will get problematic when you use another resource. The frustrating part is that they force you to memorize those radicals and their names in order to progress. (You can add a synonym to a radical in order to avoid learning its WaniKani name, but doing that means their mnemonics for related kanjis stops to make sense.)
Conclusion: Avoid. (Related discussions: 1 2)
Memrise (on Web/Android/iOS)
Designed to be a fully-integrated online platform for learning through flashcards, specialized on teaching languages.
Personally, I find it promising, but not self-sufficient. Memrise is actually a general platform where anyone can create a custom flash-card course and share it with others. Memrise does have default courses for a few languages including Japanese, and I've tried their Japanese part 1 course, and I think it would be a great choice for learning Kana and a few simple words/phrases. But I'd avoid lessons that simply bombard you with lots of vocabulary, since words without context is kinda pointless.
As I said, it is a platform and there are many Japanese courses in it, however I didn't find any of them interesting enough. You can also make your custom flashcard deck using this, but it was too simplistic and lacking many features that Anki has.
Conclusion: Maybe give it a try.
Anki(Web) (on Windows/Mac/Linux/Android/iOS)
Designed to be a highly customizable offline platform for learning through flashcards, with optional online syncing.
Personally, I recommend using this, but setting it up properly is an involved process (especially on mobile). But the good news is, it is completely free (as in freedom!), and the decks that you use (perhaps downloaded from here) are fully customizable. The native apps are primarily run offline. However, if you create an AnkiWeb account, you can save your decks and progress online (including your own custom decks). They also provide a web-interface for learning from your saved decks, but don't provide a way to import a deck into your account directly using their web-interface (as of June 2018).
Anki employs a technique called Spaced Repetition System in order to maximize memory retention. So in order to get most from it, you need to use it once (for about 20 minutes) every day or two. As of now, I am using this to learn Kanji mostly. I created a deck with Kanji and a few vocabulary introduced in LingoDeer lessons, in addition to another relatively small Kanji deck that can be downloaded from here. I'll discuss more about Kanji-learning in a sec.
Conclusion: It is a powerful tool, but you might need to invest some time initially to get comfortable. I'd recommend you to try the following steps, and then decide whether this is the right tool for you:
- Download and install Anki in your preferred device (preferrably on Windows/Mac/Linux).
- Download and try out a publicly available deck.
- Edit one of the cards to your liking.
- Register an account in AnkiWeb and sync your progress online.
- Continue learning the deck online through AnkiWeb, and sync that progress back to the native app.
A good knowledge of Hiragana (and a bit of Katakana) is sort of a prerequisite for learning Japanese. If you're just starting out, I'd recommend spending a few days to learn this to prepare for a far smoother dive into Japanese. Katakana can be gradually learnt as you improve your vocabulary.
The best way to memorise a bunch of symbols is to use mnemonics for efficient encoding and easier storage, and (spaced) reviewing for long-term recall.
A good set of mnemonics for Hiragana can be found here: https://youtu.be/6p9Il_j0zjc. You can find numerous mobile and web apps that teach you Kana among other things.
TODO
Let me start with a bit of warning:
Many Japanese learners (including me) seems to be allured by the enigma of Kanji, that they focus too much of their time on learning just Kanji without improving upon the other aspects. This will slow you down overall as far as practical communication proficiency is concerned. So just focus on Grammar and Vocabulary, and learn the Kanji that you encounter along the way. I'll discuss how to do that in a second.
With that said, TODO
kanshudo tries to be a lot of things kanshudo's kanji background: https://www.kanshudo.com/kanji_intro kanshudo's kanji components and radicals explanation: https://www.kanshudo.com/components the best kanji lookup: https://www.kanshudo.com/kanji/%E4%BD%99 core 2k s1 cards: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/114060567 try out: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/japaneseinput/eula.html?platform=win&hl=ja for mac: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/japaneseinput/eula.html?platform=mac&hl=ja