How to Learn Japanese From Scratch

[nearmedbandit]

Being excited about learning Japanese REALLY super-charged my first 3 months of learning.
I got to a conversational level within 3-4 months, and I was able to stop focusing on Grammar and 'school style' learning.
Now I'm mostly just consuming material for fun, and I'm already pushing into the N3 level, with very minimal studying, after just a couple of years. (I know maybe 500 kanji now too)
I got here mostly by reading, speaking, texting my girlfriend daily, and absorbing content in my spare time through Anime and J-dramas. I also recommend you to get graded readers.

[petrelli]

It would be amazing if Yuta-sensei could recommend some YouTube channels in Japanese with varied subjects.

[mxrbvzv]

I think listening to your favorite japanese songs while reading the lyrics in japanese helps a lot to learn and remember hiragana, katakana

[GuagoFruit]

I honestly found learning song lyrics to be really helpful, both for vocabulary and pronunciation. You get a solid reference, and singing can be language agnostic, so you actually end up more familiar with Japanese sounds because you're less prone to projecting a foreign accent onto it.

[RetroRanter]

"Hen.." I see what you did there sir 🤣
One of the best outlets to learn certain types of Japanese words.

[DexLuther]

I live in Quebec, and I remember when I was little my step-brother did a special project that was offered by the school. It was called "The immersion project" and for 6 months every class was done completely in English because for a brief moment in time the French Government realized the importance English would have in students' lives and the opportunities it would afford them. During the 6 months of English schooling, they were encouraged to consume media in English as much as they could with French subtitles if available and/or needed.

I was already bilingual because of my mother, so for 6 months, I promised to speak nothing but English to him. Of course, we switched to French from time to time when he didn't know a word or didn't understand something.

I think immersion like this is the perfect way to learn a language, but learning English for a francophone or vice versa is easier since both languages share an alphabet. The actual alphabets have always been the major hurdle for me in learning Japanese. I've picked up some phrases that I can say and can recognize words pretty ok when in Romaji, but the kanji and hiragana are really tough.

[JimVirslox]

I am Chinese, I can only know kanji in Japanese.
But some worlds produciation in Chinese are similar to Japanese.
Such as Min nan Dialect(A dialect from Fujian), 先生(In Minnan Dialect pronunced Sensei too)

[mfaizsyahmi]

My effort in learning the language is to click on entries on a certain one-winged letter website that has the 🇯🇵 flag instead of the 🇬🇧 flag. I stumble a lot with the kanji but I won't let them hinder my progress in finishing the material.

[alexdaweeb]

now i have another excuse to rewatch the entirety of Takagi-san all over again.

[thecleeze]

I like that you explicitly state that learning a language is not a linear experience. In my experience, which I'm right in the middle of, it's a lot more like watching a polaroid picture develop. I would like to offer the advice to anyone learning Japanese: To solidify hiragana and katakana, I highly recommend writing them, and often, because each time your brain needs to recall a character it reinforces the neural/memory pathway. I agree with what you've said about kanji, and I'm not recommending this as a strategy for learning kanji (there are too many, and the lack of consistency with the readings makes it too much for this to be effective), but for hiragana and katakana, I think that for me it really helped. I'm posting this comment because for anyone reading, I think if you're trying to learn hiragana and katakana, it really really helped me to write them a lot. Also if you're coming here, definitely learn to write your own name in katakana before coming.

[DylanKnighting]

Being able to instinctively understand the subtitles at 11:36 even though it’s a simple sentence feels great

[ntatenarin]

With learning langugages, I love the Easy Language series on YouTube. There's Easy Japanese, Easy Spanish, etc. What's cool is that in each episode, they interview people on the street on a specific topic. Because of this, many words and phrases are repeated, which helps with memorization. Also, because these are random people from the cities and villages, the language is more authentic and the people speak at a regular pace (which is freakishly fast for a beginner, LOL). Also, many of these questions asked are questions people usually ask each other (What's your favorite... Where do you like to...), so you are more prepared in real life when people ask you these.

Best wishes in learning Japanese!

[bhfiqnc]

Doujins & Henti are actually a decent source of vocabulary and kanji, especially the ones that have furigana included.

[thaixp]

Yuta 1:48: go outside and speak to people like a normal person
Japanese: stares at their phones with earbuds on all the way from work to home.

[RoccosVideos]

Very cool. When I was a kid I got a book at the library to learn Japanese but unfortunately I never stuck with it.

[GippyHappy]

"or you can go outside and talk to people-"
yeah lemme just go out into the middle of Arizona and find me a Japanese person to talk
my neighbor is Chinese...so close.

[DreadCaptainSqueek]

The Hanekawa / Monogatari reference @ 3:17 make me chuckle. Good one Yuta-sensei!

[kemonogirlpfp]

Good news! Kyubey said he knows a way to get me to learn Japanese fast!

[Redwater_media]

Currently binging language learning videos, this is a huge help!

[microcolonel]

Thank you. This will be a great video to send to people.
I got all sorts of terrible advice about learning Japanese, but all of my progress has been made on authentic input in regular script.