![]() Genki is also an excellent and comprehensive introduction to the language and culture and you only need to worry about buying just the one book. I like Minna no Nihongo for its clear grammar explanations as well as its timeless and useful phrases, vocabulary and conversation examples, although you will need to get hold of two books: the main textbook and the English translation notes. There are many textbooks available for beginners, such as 'Minna no Nihongo' and 'Genki'. Additionally, there are usually accompanying notes that teach you about the culture, enriching your language learning experience and giving background to some of the more exotic words and phrases that may not have an easy equivalent in English. Textbooks also offer graded example conversations to contextualise the language, as well as practice activities for consolidation. As convenient and freely available as language learning apps are, I still believe there is no substitute for a good textbook for starting you off with the basics and gradually piling on the high-frequency vocabulary and useful grammar. Unlike the other steps in this article, this one does require you to fish out the credit card. You may need to invest some time and effort initially to make them, but some people swear that physically writing out the cards helps them to remember, and looking at bits of paper might make a nice change from a smartphone screen next time you’re waiting for the bus. If you’re willing to try an old school strategy, you might also want to prepare some hiragana flashcards to keep in your back pocket. Try taking a moment to close your eyes and mimic the sound that you are hearing as closely as possible instead. Incidentally, I think that sometimes when you're trying to pronounce something in your second language, reading can actually lead you astray. So how does one go about learning hiragana? One resource that I like is, which offers a hiragana chart that you can stick on your bedroom wall, some handy mnemonics to help you remember the characters, and clickable audio files so that you can hear how each one sounds. Learning hiragana is your ticket to getting your head around those phonemes and making sense of how words are constructed, and just think how cool it will be when you can read a script in a foreign language! It is possible to write Japanese using a romanised script (called ‘romaji’), but this is a sure-fire way to pronounce the words incorrectly! What is hiragana? Hiragana is a syllabary used in Japanese, and it’s the one that Japanese kids tackle first when learning to read. Learning Japanese on your own step 1: learning hiragana Here is your very own guide to starting to learn Japanese all on your own. So to help you on your way, we’ve prepared a few tasks that you can start working on right now to turn that 'wish' into a 'plan'. The path to becoming proficient in a language is filled with exciting discoveries, and no matter how far away that fluency dream may seem, the journey does begin with a single step. “I wish I could speak Japanese!” If you have ever taken an interest in Japan and its culture, you may have caught yourself saying this very sentence. How to Learn Japanese on Your Own (for Beginners) ![]()
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