HOW TO LEARN JAPANESE:
- Learn Hiragana + Katakana from a chart on Google Images and then do the sporcle quizzes until you get 100% a few times in a row each. You could use Kana.pro too if you don't like Sporcle's format. Don't waste time quizzing the combinations, as they are obvious, or the dakuten (゛) and handakuten (゜), just look over this and this.
- Hiragana
- Katakana
- This quiz is missing ヲ (wo), but that doesn't matter because now you know it. Also, you'll forget the katakana from time to time. Trust me, that's the least of your worries.
- Go to Elon.io
- Skip ALL lessons that have "hiragana," "katakana," or "kanji" in the title (both the regular and writing lessons). The reading lessons are good enough for kanji, and we already have learned the hiragana and katakana.
- SPEEDRUN this site. A few chapters a day. Clear the reviews every day until you finish. Once you finish, do the reviews for a short while after (1-2 weeks).
- MAKE SURE YOU DON'T GET DEPENDENT ON THE ROMAJI! Focus on the Japanese text as much as possible. Once you are done with this site, I don't want you using romaji ever again, alright?
- You can start immersing whenever you want, but I'd wait until after your last Elon.io lesson (don't wait until after stopping the reviews for good).
3-6 SHOULD BE DONE TOGETHER!
- Use Anki or Renshuu for Kanji
- I would use Anki, because the scheduler is more efficient, but Renshuu is more digestible to get started, and it has community mnemonics.
- If you want to use Renshuu, I would go through the built in N5-N3 schedules (remove 辟 from the N3 schedule btw, lol. Idk why that one's in there. It's not even jouyou!), and then make a custom one with all of these kanji.
- SPEEDRUN THE JOUYOU KANJI!!! ALL OF THEM!!! People will try to tell you to "learn kanji with vocab." Don't listen to them. If you give them the attention they deserve, you'll realize they are the second least of your concerns (until of course you get to the end-game and you still don't know how to read someone's name, lol.
- Don't wait to complete them all before moving on. 3-5 should be done at the same time.
- Use Anki for Grammar
- It's not that important to speedrun this. Grammar is best learned through immersion. I recommend speedrunning through N3, though. N2 and N1 grammar points are worth looking over so you get an idea of what a grammar point will look like. A lot of the time, you will come across a grammar point, be baffled, but not know to look it up since you think it's regular vocab.
- Use JPDB.io for Vocab
- You can use Anki too, but IMO, jpdb is better because of the stats you have access to.
- Don't let anyone tell you you can learn words before seeing them. You can do top 10k frequency deck/top 20k etc. It's not a waste of time. You'll see ALL of those words if you stick with JP. Yes, there are some misparses, so a few of the words that will appear in your frequency deck will be rare, but most of the time it will be extremely obvious.
- IMMERSE!
- Since this should be done alongside 3-5, that means right after you finish Elon.io. Yes, you are ready.
- I prefer books when starting out. 時をかける少女 is a good one. Just pure, dense Japanese. Lots of learning, very quickly.
