How to learn Japanese in the easiest ways - Japanese learning tips from a native polyglot 🇯🇵

How can I learn Japanese? Where should I start? Should I learn Hiragana, Katakana, kanji first? How to pronounce Japanese words? Why is Japanese so complicated? I don't know anything about kanji. Those are the most common things that I hear about learning Japanese as a native speaker.

So in today's video, I will explain to you guys how to learn Japanese in the easiest way. You might be thinking, "Why would I listen to a native speaker's advice?" Like, she grew up in Japan, right? The thing is, yes, I am half Japanese; however, I didn't grow up in Japan. So I wasn't really surrounded by people who were talking Japanese always.

As a kid who grew up outside of Japan, I needed to make sure that I put the work in so that I can learn Japanese and so that I will be able to speak Japanese. So I know the path that everyone is going right now and the struggles and maybe the problems that you're facing.

So today, we're going to cover all of the parts when it comes to learning Japanese to help you out. When it comes to learning a language, always the first thing that you need to do is define your goal. Because depending on your goal, the path that you're going to follow is going to be really different.

If you're learning Japanese only to communicate with Japanese speakers or maybe with family members, there is no necessity for you to learn kanji. You know, learn thousands of kanji maybe, because in a conversation, you don't write kanji to the other person, right?

So the parts that you're going to be focusing on will be speaking and listening skills because you just want to communicate. Or, if you're learning Japanese only to understand anime, which is, you know, the best thing in the world, your skills— you don't necessarily have to focus on speaking skills. Your skills need to be solidly focused on listening because you're watching anime and you just want to understand what they're saying.

And if, with time, your goal changes, you can change your approach too. Or let's say if you're learning Japanese for business purposes, you know, listening, speaking, and also maybe writing skills might be important for you.

So before starting anything, you need to have a clear understanding of why you are doing that thing. Because also, language learning is a very long journey. And when you lose your motivation, which is very likely to happen— and it's going to happen— you're going to have days where you have no motivation, but you need to do the thing in order to improve, right?

So in those days, you need to remember your goal. So goal setting is the most important thing when starting a language journey. So please pause this video and identify your goal when it comes to learning Japanese.

Okay, so after defining your goal, we need to focus on each area depending on your goal. Let's say if you're learning Japanese for watching anime, you're going to focus on listening. So for listening skills, the thing that you need to do is do an enormous amount of input.

Think about babies when they're growing up. Do you think babies open like a grammar book and study vocabularies and do Anki flashcards to learn a language? No! They're surrounded by people who speak that language, and they keep talking to that baby. So as a baby, you do an enormous amount of input in order to learn a language.

So as adults, we're going to also do the same thing. If you want to learn Japanese, you're going to do an enormous amount of input in a day. At the beginning, you might be thinking, "If I don't know any vocabularies, what is the meaning of doing an enormous amount of input?" Of course, we're going to study vocabularies; that is another part.

However, if you have ever lived in a foreign country for over a couple of months, when the words are repeated, and even though you don't know the meaning of it—and if you have heard them repeatedly used in a sentence—you know because people talk with mimics and gestures, you kind of start to understand what that word means, even though you didn't Google it.

So yes, we're going to study vocabularies; that's another part. But every day, we need to make sure that we do an enormous amount of input—like watching YouTube videos, watching anime, or maybe listening to Japanese songs, Japanese drama, Japanese news, whatever content you want to consume. Make sure that every day you consume Japanese content.

When it comes to learning about vocabulary, few things, science-based study methods that you need to use are spaced repetition and active recall. If you're into productivity, I'm sure that you know about this, but let me remind you about that. Active recall is when you're trying to remember something. So when you're actively recalling something from your brain, you tend to learn better.

So let's say there is an image of a—let's say, book—and you're trying to remember 'book' in Japanese, which is "honk." So when you have a flashcard showing you a book and when you're actively trying to recall that information, basically ties Japanese 'book,' 'honk,' an image of the book in your brain. This is active recall.

And one of the best ways that you can do is using the Moik moi app. It is an amazing Japanese learning app. We have collaborated multiple times in the past, and you guys tend to really enjoy it. In the Moik moi app, you can basically study with flashcards, which they have made.

And the great thing about Moik moi is that they have categorized the vocabularies. So if you want to learn about a specific topic, you can go to Moik moi and select a specific category and learn about those vocabularies. Language learning is all about efficiency. If you want to learn vocabularies about a certain topic, you don't necessarily need to learn all of the vocabulary in Japanese; you just need to learn the vocabularies that you particularly need. Moik moi is really helpful with this.

And another thing is spaced repetition. So what is spaced repetition? If you know how our memories work, basically you need to repeat the information in order to signal to your brain that this is very important information. For example, you don't forget your name, right? Because it is repeatedly reminded over the course of your life multiple times.

So that information is very important; your brain already understood that. And when it comes to learning vocabulary, you need to make sure that your brain knows that you shouldn't forget this. So what we're going to do is study vocabulary.

So the flashcards for a course of time with breaks in between—kind of like calculating this, trying to understand when to study—what is a very long process, but Moik moi does it for you. There is a golden time feature in Moik moi that reminds you to study the words based on your learning history.

Moik moi will calculate the golden time to revise this word, so the perfect timing to revise that word in order to put it in your long-term memory. With time, it will put it into your long-term memory. When it comes to listening and speaking skills, input, and also learning vocabularies is very important.

If you want to master your speaking, the important thing is going to be doing practice, practice, practice, and practice. And when you combine Moik moi with an enormous amount of input, I am sure that you will learn so many new vocabularies in the fastest way possible.

You can also note the vocabularies that you have learned from anime, maybe create a notebook of it, or maybe a Notion page. When it comes to speaking skills, the only thing you need to do is practice this and practice.

I was learning English by myself. I was trying to explain the thing that I watched; it can be a YouTube video, and try to summarize it in my own words and speak it loud. I was also trying to talk with an imaginary friend, but was it the most effective way? Probably not. The most effective way will be going to that country and talking to native speakers and having a conversation. But unfortunately, it is such a privilege to go to that country and talk to native speakers.

Basically, in my head, I was practicing my English with my imaginary friend and I was explaining to him or her—I don't know—my day about the things that I’ve watched or any vocabulary I’ve learned. I was trying to build a sentence to my imaginary friend.

Is it the most effective way? No, the most effective way is of course going to native speakers and talking to them. You needed to go to that country in order to talk to native speakers. But thanks to the internet, you can use various services to talk with native speaker teachers. There are so many affordable services that you can search on Google for speaking.

Unfortunately, there is no shortcut—just doing practice, practice. Let's talk about learning kanji, which is the most asked part when it comes to learning Japanese. If you don't know anything of Japanese, there are three types of alphabets that we use: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.

Hiragana and Katakana are cute; you know, there are only 50 or something like that you can learn them in about a week or so. When it comes to kanji, there are thousands of them. If you are only learning to watch anime, you don't need to learn kanji, to be honest. The younger generation is not the best when it comes to kanji because everything is going digital.

So you just can't type the kanji and look at it. For business purposes, of course, it is good to know a bit of kanji. Physical flashcards that my mom was making were really working for us—for my brother and for me. It's taking quite a lot of time, and it is not the most effective way to learn a language.

You know, thanks to our generation, there are digital flashcards, especially flashcards that are already made for you. You can use Moik moi's kanji learning feature for learning kanji. Moik moi's flashcards not only have the information, but it also has audio and also examples using that kanji.

Making a flashcard takes quite a lot of time. If you have ever made your own flashcard, you can click to the audio, listen to it, learn the pronunciation, look at the image. If you're a visual learner, since you don't need to make your own flashcards, it saves quite a lot of time.

And when it comes to kanji, use flashcards and write them out to your notebook. Do practice multiple times, and it will help you with time. By using Moik moi, it is a very great way to learn vocabularies and kanji.

So when it comes to writing, you can create a notebook. You can buy a notebook where you write the new kanji that you learn from Moik moi, and you can also use the examples and write your own examples using that kanji. You will kind of create a notebook filled with different kanji using them, combining them, and actively trying to output the things that you have learned.

So let's talk about some of the common mistakes that you're about learning Japanese. Some people look for a study plan on YouTube. This is about anything in life. When trying to learn something, trying to copy someone’s schedule will not work for you because you guys have a very different type of schedule, you have a very different type of lifestyle, and you also have a very different learning style.

Also, some people might be able to study 3 hours of Japanese every day, but you might only have 10 minutes a day. Try to find 10 to 15 minutes a day where you can practice the language. Waiting for a bus? Open Moik moi, learn some flashcards—kind of like squeeze learning in every course of your life. 5 minutes here and there—just do the best that you can do.

And the most important thing is continuing, showing up, and being consistent. Moik moi is completely free to download, so you'll find a link down in the description below. And thank you, Moik moi, for sponsoring this video.