How to learn Japanese FAST? Tips from a native speaker 🇯🇵📚✨🌎✈️

Hi guys, it's me, Judy. Today we're going to be talking about how to learn Japanese. Since I'm a native speaker in Japanese, I'm going to be sharing you guys my perspectives as a native speaker, and I'm going to be talking about the mistakes that most of the foreigners make.

So, before talking about tips, let's talk about why to learn Japanese. Firstly, I think this is the most common one: it's to enjoy animes without subtitles. When it comes to anime, and when I look to do like English, Turkish, German, or subtitles, most of them cannot really represent the anime itself. It's kind of like it changes the meaning of the anime, and I think watching anime without subtitles is the best thing that you can ever do in your life.

Also, when it comes to animes, characters have certain ways to talk, and it really builds up their character. How they talk, how they kind of say things really shows their personality. When it comes to anime, it is really important. For example, in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, which is my all-time favorite anime, if you haven't watched that, just watch it! The way Jojo characters talk is really different from the day-to-day life and from the other animes as well.

For example, in Jojo, every character says "janaika." In Japanese, we normally say, for example, "kind of like that," but in Jojo, the characters are so different from the anime; they use it on purpose. If you're a native speaker or if you are fluent in Japanese, you will understand Jojo hundred percent. If you are reading subtitles and if you are a foreigner who doesn't understand Japanese or Japanese culture, you will understand maybe 50% of it. Still, there are a lot of people enjoying Jojo and other animes by reading subtitles. If you're enjoying anime with subtitles, maybe like let's say five out of ten; you will enjoy without subtitles ten out of ten. It's so different!

It is so different to watch anime with subtitles versus actually understanding Japanese. So if you love anime, I would highly recommend to learn Japanese because it will change the whole experience. I'm being productive only to watch anime without the guilt.

The second reason is to visit or travel to Japan. If you're planning to visit or travel to Japan after this whole situation ends, I would recommend you to learn a little bit of Japanese here and there, like some emergency things. Japanese people will appreciate your effort to speak Japanese, and they will help you, I think, ten times better when you talk in Japanese. When you ask something in English, they will probably be scared, and there will probably maybe not help—not because they're ignorant, but because they're shy. They're pretty shy when it comes to English.

So yeah, before visiting Japan, I would recommend you to learn a little bit of Japanese because I'm sure that will help you. The third reason is for work or academic purposes. If you're going to be learning for work or for academic purposes, you really have to make sure that you know keigo, which is the kind of language you show respect when you're talking in Japanese. It is very hard, and when you are learning Japanese for work or academic purposes, I think it would be really, really hard for you.

But keep going, you have that! Okay, so when it comes to learning Japanese, it is really important to know hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Where to start? I would highly, highly recommend you to start from your pronunciation and learn hiragana and katakana at the same time, because they will show you how to pronounce things. Actually, don't ever study Japanese in romaji, which is like the Latin alphabets, because it will change your pronunciation. I think pronunciation is the most, most, most important thing when it comes to learning a language.

Don't rush to learn kanji first because even for Japanese, it takes years and years to learn kanji. Pronunciation, katakana, and hiragana; these are the really, really important things when you want to improve your Japanese pronunciation.

So, when it comes to pronunciation, as everybody knows, watching animes, YouTube videos, listening to Japanese songs, and maybe watching Ghibli movies are pretty good ways to learn Japanese and make your pronunciation better. Because in animes and in Ghibli movies, you can hear the voice actors talking pretty clearly; their pronunciation is ten out of ten, so you can really learn from them.

But the problem with learning Japanese with animes and movies is that most of the words that they use are not the words that we use daily as Japanese people. For example, not a lot of people say "nantoka" or something. They are like the words that were used in Japanese in the past. So actually, it depends really on what type of anime you watch, but most of the time, the words and the way that talk in anime are meant for making things fun. Most of the Japanese, of course, don't talk that way.

For vocabularies and pronunciation, watching movies and animes is very, very important, in my opinion, but in order to learn Japanese properly, it is really important to interact with native speakers. But how to interact with Japanese native speakers, right? It is really hard these days to travel to Japan because of the whole situation, and also, it is really expensive to travel to Japan because Japan is a pretty expensive country, in my opinion, especially if you're coming from a country like Turkey.

So what you can do instead, you can find native speakers online! Because the thing that I like about my generation is that the internet is everywhere, and everybody can use the internet. So how to interact with native speakers? The best and most affordable way to do it is by using a language app.

So today's sponsor is HelloTalk! I'm thanking them for sponsoring my video. What is HelloTalk? So HelloTalk is a free app where they have more than 150 languages. You can find Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, German, English, Arabic, and I don't know whatever language you want to learn; you can find that in HelloTalk.

What you can do with HelloTalk is that you can interact with the native speakers. You can chat with them, have phone calls, and send voice messages. In the chat system, there is an AI that checks your pronunciation and also your grammar. So when you're talking with a native speaker, AI will automatically show the right way to say the sentence. We can have a chat, we can have a conversation, and then we can have phone calls, etc.

Also, in HelloTalk, they have a timeline where you can post things and people will comment on you. For example, if you want to check your pronunciation, you can just, like, say the word, use the voice record option in HelloTalk, and you can post it in your timeline and maybe ask them, "Is my pronunciation right?" Somebody will comment, and somebody will help you. You can also get private lessons from native speaker teachers. I'm thanking HelloTalk for sponsoring this video! Go and check it out; it's a free app. I think it's awesome! I think it's amazing!

I realized that I haven't talked Japanese in this video, so let me talk a little bit in Japanese in this video so that I can prove that I'm a native speaker.

So, how to learn hiragana and katakana? I think you can learn them in just one day. It doesn't take that much time. The only thing that you have to do is really to practice—write, write, and write! They're not that hard!

What is the difference between hiragana and katakana? So, hiragana is like the basic thing, the basic alphabet that you use. We don't only use hiragana; we combine them with kanji and with katakana. Hiragana and katakana are actually the same thing. Katakana is an alphabet that is used for foreign words. For example, coffee in Japanese means "kohi."

Let me write both of them in hiragana and also in katakana. So, as you can see, I've written it with hiragana and also with katakana. The upper one is hiragana, and the lower one is katakana. Don't rush with the kanji; we will get there, but don't rush with learning kanji—learn hiragana and katakana and make your pronunciation better.

So, let's talk about kanji. I got a lot of questions saying that, "Do I really need to learn kanji?" My answer is that it really depends on your purpose of learning Japanese. If you want to learn it for fun, if you want to learn it for understanding animes or movies, you don't necessarily need to learn kanji. But if you want to read something in Japanese, or if you want to use that Japanese in Japan, then you really have to learn kanji.

But you don't have to rush first because, firstly, improve your pronunciation and hiragana and katakana and communicate with native speakers. Make Japanese a habit in your daily life. Daily practice is really important. First do that, and after that worry about learning kanji.

So if you want to do it for a fun purpose, I don't think that you need to learn kanji. However, if you want to read something, or if you want to use Japanese for academic or work purposes, then you really have to learn kanji. But the thing about the kanji is that even for Japanese, it takes years and years to learn kanji.

So I searched it real quick, and in order to read newspapers, you have to know 1800 kanji. It doesn't mean that you will be able to read every single news that you'll see, but you'll understand most of the newspapers. So you need thousands and hundreds of kanji to learn that. When it comes to kanji, it is really important to do practices, and there are a lot of kanji that have the same pronunciation but different meanings.

How to understand that is by using kanji in daily life, which you can do with HelloTalk. When you're chatting with a native speaker, you will automatically pick kanji, and it will improve your ability to select the right kanji. But when it comes to kanji, it is important to write, write, write, and write! Use them daily! Like, even me, I'm not really good at kanji; I can read kanji, but I cannot really write kanji because I don't use them daily. In my daily life, I don't use kanji; I just type, so I don't really write kanji. I'm not really good about writing kanji, but you know, when I'm typing, of course, I can choose the right kanji. So I just cannot remember the kanji itself.

Do I have any difficulties in Japan when I'm in Japan? Absolutely not! It won't really help you; your phone will help you when you are trying to write something in Japanese. Because I type in Japanese, I look up the kanji, and I write the same thing.

When it comes to kanji, if you're doing it for work or academic purposes, I would highly recommend you to learn kanji, practice them, and use them daily. There are no shortcuts to learn kanji. But as I said, if you are learning it for understanding animes or movies, you don't really need to learn them.

I can make a whole video about learning kanji better and how to read in Japanese and how to watch animes effectively, or how to watch movies and listen to songs effectively. I can do a video about that if you guys want. Let me know in the comments down below, but these are the basic things you have to really know.

So let's summarize this video. First point: screw romaji, the Latin alphabet, and learn hiragana and katakana instead of them. Secondly, focus on your pronunciation, and while you're focusing on your pronunciation, learn hiragana and katakana at the same time. Never use romaji; learn like Japanese.

Third, when you are practicing your pronunciation and your vocabulary, don't forget to watch anime, movies, and listen to songs; also, like J-dramas, I think they're pretty good. They're pretty sweet, so watching J-dramas is also a good way.

The fourth point is interacting with native speakers. You can use HelloTalk to do that—chat with them, make phone calls, post something on the timeline, and use a translator. Focus on your grammar, focus on your kanji, and all that stuff.

The fifth step is learning kanji. It's important to do some practices; write them, write them, write them! Use them daily; type in Japanese, read in Japanese, write in Japanese. Just make Japanese a part of your life, and that's the summary of the video.

As I said, if you want a video about how to read in Japanese or how to watch animes effectively, I can make another video. Let me know in the comments down below; I'll probably make a video about that. I hope you find this video helpful, and let me see you in my next video. Bye for now! Bye!