おっす！ 元気ですか？ Yeah, I’m learning Japanese. It’s a real shame that it took me until now to get to it since I, you know…lived in Okinawa for 2 years in the late 2000s. But back then I was in my early 20s, focused on exploring and having fun after long days on the flight line. So here I am, diving off the deep end and getting absolutely lost in the process. It’s just so good.
So today I want to talk about my experience so far properly learning Japanese a little over one month in, and why I’m so enthusiastic about it. Before that, though, let’s talk about the elephant in the room.
Why Learn a Language Like Japanese?
That’s a very important question to consider before jumping into the very long-term process of learning another language. I’ve talked everyone’s ears off about how important the “why” of a goal is, and this is no different. If you don’t have a strong reason to keep learning every day you’ll probably lose interest at some point. You’ll wake up and find that, oh wow…you stopped learning that other language like 6 months ago.
Some people might be learning to help with professional development. Living in the midwest, I fully understand the value of speaking Spanish! While it isn’t something I’m interested in learning, the professional windows that open up for people that speak fluent Spanish on top of English are pretty huge.
Other people might be trying to learn ahead of a trip they have planned down the road. Headed to Germany? It’s probably wise to at least brush up on common phrases, sentence structure, and grammar. Russia? Better get used to their alphabet and grammatical differences. China? Um…good luck.
Other people might be learning just due to a passion for the history, culture, language, or media from the country. As for me, well…
My “Why” For Learning Japanese
The Influence of Dragonball
My “why” has a couple of layers. First off, I’ve been fascinated by Japanese culture since I was in 6th grade and found Dragonball Z on Toonami. I watched the show every day after school, so pumped to see what happened as the plot developed. Unfortunately, the Ocean dub of the show (the only dub that is actually good) always came to its unfortunate end right before that arc’s final battle really started.
I eventually found subbed Japanese VHS footage of the show on Limewire and Kazaa (remember those?), but they were always random out-of-order snippets. The one thing I did take away was that Japanese sounded WAY different compared to English…and I loved it. Since then I’ve refused to watch another anime with English voice-overs if it’s an option. It’s always been, and always will be, the authentic Japanese audio for me. But the Japanese language is much different from English, more than you might expect.
The Simple Complexities of Japanese
It’s pretty common knowledge that English is known as one of the hardest languages to learn for non-English speakers. It’s extremely specific and has so many words that have multiple spellings, meanings, or uses (their, they’re, there, anyone?). This contrasts with Japan’s simpler approach, trusting the reader/speaker/listener to pick up on contextual cues to infer what’s being communicated instead of spelling everything out. They also have a different sentence structure.
Word Order: Japanese vs. English
Japanese and English have different word orders in their sentences. English, of course, is a language that follows the SVO structure. This means that we have the Subject first, then the Verb, and the Object last. Here’s an example.
Japanese, on the other hand, follows the SOV structure. This means that the Subject comes first like in English, however the Object comes second and the Verb comes last. Here’s an example to illustrate.
- English: I can speak Japanese.
- I (Subject) can speak (Verb) Japanese (Object).
This same sentence in Japanese reads like this:
- Japanese: 私は 日本語が 話せます。
- Watashi wa (Subject) Nihongo ga (Object) Hanase masu (Verb)
- In English: I Japanese speak can.
Things get really complex as you get to longer, more typical sentences. And that’s on top of learning not one, not two, but three scripts that are nothing like English letters or words.
Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji
The Japanese have their own “alphabet” that is broken out into two separate forms, Hiragana (ひらがな) and Katakana (カタカナ). They have the same sounds as one another but are used for different purposes. Hiragana is more curvy and is used for Japanese words, while Katakana is more angular and is used for words or names that don’t originate in Japan.
For example, you would write “Hello” in Japanese as こんにちわ (Ko n ni chi wa) using hiragana. The name for “Dragonball”, on the other hand, is written as ドラゴンボール (Do ra go n bo ru) using katakana.
Learning these fully on their own took me about two weeks of regular memorization and review, and you can’t really learn vocabulary until you have these locked in.
After the kana you have Kanji, which are symbols that mean something specific, either on their own or in combination. Let’s go over a few very early examples.
- Tree = 木 (ki)
- Woods = 森 (mori)
- Fire = 火 (hi, pronounced “he”)
- Mountain = 山 (ya ma)
- Volcano = 火山 (ka zan)
In the first of the Japanese Language Proficiency Tests (there are 5 levels, JLPT 5 is the lowest level), there are 100 of these you need to know. The typical Japanese person uses more than 2000 on average, but there are over over 50,000 in the language.
You’ll also notice that Volcano is just the combination of 火 (“hi”) and 山 (“ya ma”). Volcano would just be spoken as “hi ya ma” then, right? …
Wrong. I haven’t gotten to why these differ yet, but one of the more difficult part of learning Japanese as an English speaker is knowing when to use what pronunciation for things. It will be a long (but fun!) road to go down.
What Options Are There?
Duolingo (my go-to for now)
Duolingo is my jam right now. It’s on any platform, from Android and iOS to web browsers. It’s got a robust free version with a very worthwhile paid version as well, and it hosts beginner to intermediate content for 43 languages currently. I’m subscribed to the family plan, which lets me give the premium access to 5 friends of family members. It feels good to share the love! The best part about Duolingo, though, is the way it gamifies the process of learning a language.
Sitting down and reading a book on grammatical structure, syntax, context, etc. is…yawn. I can’t get into it. But if learning gives me the dopamine rush my ADHD brain needs with exciting sounds, visuals, and rewards that also let me rank on a leaderboard? Yeah, I’m all in. Duolingo has these in spades.
The other part that’s just so good is the “burst” nature of the course modules. When I say “burst”, I mean that you can quickly go through a module when you have a burst of free time.
- Have 5 minutes between classes or meetings? Stop looking at social and go through a course on the language you’re learning.
- Going to the bathroom to escape work or your kids for a few minutes of quiet? Learn a bit more vocabulary!
If it sounds wildly boring to you, don’t worry – it’s fantastic, rewarding, and you’ll actually be learning something useful with your phone free time.
WaniKani (learning Kanji)
WaniKani.com is another excellent resource for learning Japanese, but this one focuses specifically on Kanji. There are a LOT of these, but most would agree that you really only need to have 1,000 memorized to be able to understand about 95% of what you read. It’s a daunting task for sure, but that’s where WaniKani comes into play.
This site has helpful methods to assist with memorization while also keeping you from zooming through (binging) the content. Restricting your learning to specific intervals lets you step back, process what you just learned, and return to actually reinforce the knowledge. I think of it like a Netflix show that’s released entirely at once vs. a Disney+ show that releases an episode every week. Spacing out episode releases lets people digest the story and talk about it. WaniKani follows the same process to help you commit the teachings to memory, but thankfully it’s in 2-hour increments instead of a full week!
Youtube (TokiniAndy’s Genki courses)
ToriAndy has great summaries of the Genki workbook that really nicely outlines the basics of Japanese, from sentence structure to grammar and some vocabulary.
Satori Reader (reading/comprehension app)
This is an app that has a LOT of utility in getting a learner used to reading Japanese. You can listen to the articles sentence by sentence, click on the words for definitions, and more.
Video Games
Ah, here we go – this is the FUN part of learning Japanese. If you have a Japanese game console (or are willing to install custom firmware, known as CFW, on a 3DS), you can learn a lot by actively researching Japanese as you play these games. You can also change your language on a Nintendo Switch to 日本語 and play certain Nintendo games in their native language without buying a Japanese version! I’m currently playing through ドブつの森 あつまれ (Animal Crossing: New Horizons) and am learning a LOT of vocabulary, slice-of-life sayings, and grammar.
What’s The Goal?
My goal is to stick with this long-term. I aim to keep learning by doing what I enjoy: finishing the 90 units available in Duolingo (I’m only on Unit 10 after over 30 days of practicing 2+ hours per day), playing games in Japanese, watching anime, and reading manga to strengthen my comprehension.
On the speaking side, I’ll be starting weekly calls with my friend Jarrad who’s learning the language as well. We’ll be learning partners, speaking in Japanese every week, with the aim to get to conversational proficiency in 3 years or so for a bro trip to Japan. I spent two years there and it was the place where, geographically, I felt like I belong the most. This time, though, I’ll do it right by investing the time to learn the language properly. I can’t wait.
To sign off, here’s photo with some of my closest friends shortly before I had to say goodbye to Okinawa! Some of the best memories of my life.
たのしい！
