Introduction

The Japanese language is an East Asian language spoken by about 128 million people, primarily in Japan, where it is the national language. It is a member of the Japonic (or Japanese-Ryukyuan) language family, and its relation to other languages, such as Korean, is debated. Japonic languages have been grouped with other language families such as Ainu, Austroasiatic, and the now-discredited Altaic, but none of these proposals has gained widespread acceptance.

Japanese is an agglutinative, mora-timed language with simple phonotactics, a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch accent. Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure is topic–comment. Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or make questions.

There are so many ways to learn Japanese but in this blog we will discuss some good ways to learn Japanese.

1)Take a Class or course

If you don’t know any Japanese, a structured class is the best way to start. Find teachers in your area, or sign up for Japanese classes at a local community college or university. If taking a class isn’t an option, you can buy a language learning program. Rosetta Stone is the most popular option. Pimsleur, an audio language program, is also great to learn the basics.

2) Watch anime, movies, and TV in Japanese

You’re allowed English subtitles, but if you find yourself reading instead of listening, switch them off. It’s better to absorb the sounds of the language even if you don’t understand. At some point, turning on subtitles in Japanese will help you pick up new characters and see how things you’re hearing are written. Watch with a pen and paper in hand. Japan’s public broadcaster, NHK, has a collection of videos they’ve put together for school children, in addition to their normal programming.

3) Make Japanese friends

At some point you need to speak Japanese to someone other than your cat. The sooner the better actually. That’s not too hard, even if you’re stuck at home. Download a language exchange app or use online forums to find Japanese people who want to improve their English. If you want a more formal arrangement, hire a Japanese teacher online.

4) Get a Workbook

Kanji workbooks can help you learn to write Kanji characters and understand their meaning. Get a workbook and dedicate a short amount of time to practice each day, even if it’s only 20 minutes.

5) Use Flashcards

Using flashcards is one of the most famous ways to learn new words. This is a very easy and quick way to make a list of huge vocabulary to study a number of words via flashcards. In today’s modern world, it will be very easy and convenient to use different applications of smartphones to arrange flashcards. You can aim for one new word everyday but can also go for more, but it is not that profitable to you that you aim for more than one word of Japanese vocabulary.

6) Use Japanese Subtitles

As you get better at Japanese, try switching the English subtitles to Japanese while you watch TV. My spoken Japanese is very good, but I can’t read well. When I watch TV with Japanese subtitles, I can mentally connect the spoken words with the Japanese characters. If this is challenging at first, try switching between English and Japanese subtitles.