By “Japanese” Japanese, I mean that one should be able to read, write, listen, and talk in Japanese. By reading further you can save your precious time in searching for right tools for learning the language. The tools and tips mentioned here are not meant for persons who want to learn the language in a very short time (like those who are learning it for a short tour to Japan). Depending on how hard you work, you can understand almost 90% of Japanese.
Because of enormous dissimilarity between grammars, learning Japanese is very difficult in the beginning for students whose primary language is English. If you have knowledge of any East Asian language (in my case it is Hindi), then it will be really easier to grasp the fundamentals, as the grammatical structure is more or less same. But don’t worry, as soon as you cross the basic level you will get a knack of it and the journey will be easier thereafter.
Learning the language can be divided into two parts: learning to read and write, and learning the grammar.
Learning to read and write Japanese:
To learn real Japanese you should be able to read it. Otherwise you will not be able to practice it. Best approach will be to learn the writing system before you begin learning Grammar. Here, we face a problem because Japanese is written in three different scripts: Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. The first two Hiragana and Katakana consist of 70 or so characters each and can be learned easily. Kanji is difficult to learn as there are around 2000 characters that you should know to read 99% of Japanese.
Hiragana and Katakana
Before starting to learn anything else you should learn these two scripts, as learning Kanji depends a lot on your knowledge of Hiragana and Katakana. Hiragana and Katakana have 72 basic characters (one for each sound). This is not a big deal (You learned 52 new characters when you were only five year old). These characters can be combined together to make new sounds, but such combinations are very few.
Learn Japanese Free and Free Japanese Lessons are a good websites to learn Hiragana and Katakana. They have complete charts for the scripts.
Kanji
Now that you have learned the two basic scripts, it is time to start learning Kanji. There are many ways of learning Kanji. You can either learn complete Kanji before starting to learn Japanese Grammar or you can start learning grammar now and learn any new Kanji you encounter. I have tried the latter way, and lost my interest in the midway. Learning Kanji and grammar simultaneously slowed me down a lot and I was not able to focus on the grammar. Now, I have decided to complete the Kanji first and then start the grammar. Different people have different opinions on which strategy to use.
There are 1945 Kanji characters you should learn to read and write Japanese newspaper, magazine, comics etc. To read literary work (like novels and literature books) you need to know more. For the time being only bother to learn the 1945 characters. Each Kanji character represents an idea (like there is character for moon, one for sun, another for human etc.). These ideas can be combined to represent new idea (eg. when you combine the character for past and the character for day, the combined word means yesterday). It is really fun to learn Kanji. The Kanji SITE presents the idea of Kanji in very interesting manner. Please read it before starting to learn Kanji.
Yamasa Online Kanji Dictionary is a great resource to search the pronunciation and meaning of kanji characters. It has got plenty of options for searching: you can search for a Kanji when you know its English meaning, or vice versa and many more.
Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji is a three volume book, which covers everything you will need to learn all of the Kanji. The first volume deals with the meaning of Kanji and covers 2000 Kanji characters including the necessary 1945 characters. The second volume deals with pronunciation of Kanji characters. Read Volume 1 before starting volume 2.
Writing Japanese
The best way to learn to write the three scripts is by using paper and pencil. This method must be followed for better retention of knowledge as there is a lot much to learn in Kanji. Occasional, practice of typing Japanese on PC will also help.
To write Japanese on your Windows-PC you should enable the “East Asian Language Support” in Language and Regional Options in Control Panel(Note that this setting requires you to have WinXP CD). After enabling this option you can turn on the Language Toolbar. One of the most useful feature of Language Toolbar is Windows IME Pad which is hand-writing recognition tool. On IME Pad, you can draw your own Kanji and it shows the closest match for the character you draw. This is really helpful when you want to search for a Kanji in an image or a poster.
This link deals with installing Japanese Writing Support for Linux. If you want to use Japanese on Mac, visit this link.
Now comes the Grammar
The best online resource I discovered for learning Japanese Grammar is Tae Kim’s Guide to Japanese Grammar. It will teach you Japanese in a logical way so that the new knowledge can be related to what you have already learnt. It has short exercises after each lesson, which will make sure that you do not forget anything. Tae Kim’s Guide extensively uses Kanji (the way Japanese should be learned). Every lesson is full of at least 15 new characters. So, if you have preferred to learn Kanji and grammar simultaneously, then be prepared to invest time and have patience while you read. Learning Kanji takes about three times more time than learning grammar in Tae Kim’s Guide.
Some Important Notes
- There is a lot of material to learn in Japanese. If you try to rush through it, you will fail in retention.
- Do a lot of practice on Kanji. Use paper and pencil.
- Pick up some Japanese material to read online. Japanese raw Manga are free for online viewing.
- Watch Japanese movies or anime, to get used to the tone of Japanese.
This was all about learning Japanese. I hope I didn’t miss out anything.
