掲示板 Forums - Learning Japanese for newbies

Hi, so as you can see because of my level I'm quite new to Japanese. The main reason I'm learning Japanese is to communicate with a family member who grew up in Japan, they do speak English but I would like to talk to them in their language. Have any of you got any tips for a beginner or some advice in general?

Don't study too much.

App like Renshuu used a system called SRS which can be very powerful to learn but... is also one of the main reason why people gave up.
Often, it makes you feel that you can learn more everyday and because learning a language take a really long time, people often get impatient. So they keep studying new words, kanji or sentences everyday. There are two problem with that:

• First, it lead to "Review overload", each new words will have be to review at some point and if everyday you learn too much, you will be unable to keep up with the pace. And when you start to not review what you have to review in time, then the whole process becomes useless. The goal of SRS system is to make you review just before you forgot the words, kanji, etc. If you don't do that, it becomes useless.
• Second, past a certain threshold, your abilities to memorize things decrease sharply. So studying more =/= learning faster. It's even the opposite. The fastest way to learn is to find a middle ground where it's not too much or too little. Later though, you will have an highter threshold, especially if you studied your kanji properly. Once you're studied a kanji enough, it can make hundreds of words easier to learn. They are hard but they feel like a cheat at intermediate level honnestly. So don't worry about being slow.

So yeah, don't study too much. Feel free to have 1 or 2 day per weeks where you don't learn new words, kanji, etc. First, it will prevent you a bit from getting a review overload and it's also important to let your brain rest as well as organizing the information you learned. People often overlook that but that part is what allow you to learn faster in the long term.

Besides that, I often recommend to divide your routine into two part:

• One where you focus on the thing you have to learn
• One where you focus on the thing you want to learn

Take your time with the former, don't rush it and feel free to go a bit wilder with the latter. You either do that everyday or alternate after clearing a schedule. It will help a bit with maintening your motivation.

Other than that, well, you can learn however and whatever you want. You should even do that and spend some time to find your personal best way to learn (especially with renshuu which give the ability to learn in a lot of different ways). Once you find it, it changes a lot of things =p

Anyway, good luck and have fun! (That's probably the most important part!)

頑張ってね～ :3

Wow :0 that was my same exact inspiration when I first started, here's what helped me get to where I am at today:

-start off learning hirigana and then katakana before learning the actual words

-be patient with Japanese as every language takes quite a bit to speak fluently (im still learning and I just mastered hirigana and I know small talk)

-when you have a question ask your family member to help you (mine really helped me along the way.)

-some apps I recommend is Sakura speak (I've been trying to learn hirigana for a year and this app taught me in a week :,>) a Japanese dictionary and doulingo (it's not completely accurate but it will help you along the way)

-listen to people speak in Japanese such as watching shows in Japanese

-and just remember that Japanese is hard and you can take a break if you need to but keep on going, but don't overwork yourself.

I'ld say: start with basic expressions that are useful in everyday life.

To show your interest, you could ask your family member to teach you those basic expressions and maybe some fun and easy kanji (not necessarily to serve a purpose but because it is a great conversation starter. There are some super simple ones like 一 (one), 二(two), 三(three), 川 (river)).

I come from the same background as you do. I have a japanese sister-in-law, two nephews and a niece. They understand my native tongue (german) about as much as I speak Japanese. We mainly communicate in english since it seems to me that they feel a bit embarrased when I speak to them in my broken Japanese, but they do appreciate the effort and drawing kanji is always a fun activity around the kitchen table :)

Use all those powerful adjustment tools that Renshuu offers and adjust your schedule to your liking. it is really worth looking into.

Try to keep a notebook! Writing down the characters and their sounds helped me a ton when I started out, maybe it'll do the same for you!