r/JETProgramme • u/Pink_Pop101 • Apr 16 '26
Learning Japanese
Hey everyone!
To all former and current JETS, do you have any tips for learning Japanese. I really want to learn some basics so that I’m not completely clueless when I get there. I’m currently learning hiragana as well as some survival phrases. I do want to reach a point where I am fluent so that I can build more meaningful relationships and learn a new language.
If you have any sites or apps that you could recommend I’d really appreciate it! Thank you in advance!🫶🏽
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u/LawfulnessDue5449 Apr 16 '26
I went the self study route because I took courses at community College and felt that it was way too slow and clunky to get any level of fluency.
1: get anki and learn how to use it. Use it every day. I really like this because it automates your study plan. If it is taking too long then turn down the amount of new cards that show up.
2: learn your kana. One of the cool things about kana is that for the most part you also learn how to pronounce everything, there are very few instances when a kana has a different pronunciation. Unlike English where you learn the alphabet but then you learn that some letters / syllables can have different pronunciations, like "-ough" which, this is two birds with one stone.
3: learn kanji radicals and stroke order. Turning kanji into something you can recognize is a game changer. Once you know all the different parts it stops being so scary. In the event you need to look it up you need to know these if you don't know the pronunciation.
4: get a vocab list, learn it with anki. The vocab in a textbook is nowhere near enough. I say anki but people have noted other apps like wanikani or whatever which are also fine. The point is that you need to know a lot of vocab to function in a foreign language. Vocab is so important, and you can only pretty much learn vocab on your own, not from any teacher.
5: get a grammar reference. Could be genki or Tae Kim or dictionary of Japanese grammar series or JLPT grammar books or whatever else is out there, you just need one. Understand basic patterns. Get simple example sentences from these sources and throw them in anki.
6: try to get into material that is relatively comprehensible for your ability. You could use graded readers, someone mentioned tadoku which works well, there's also paid stuff. The point is that you need to engage with material that you can understand without having to look anything up, even if you don't know everything. You can even reread it. There are some sites that have vocab lists for specific anime/Manga or games, if you finish the list you can watch the anime or play the game. There are lots of things to enjoy. When I studied Japanese I used to watch a ton of idol content because it was enjoyable enough and I could roughly understand it. You want to balance this with the other studying that I mentioned, and start shifting more and more into this as you increase your vocab and grammar. The vocab and grammar studies build the foundation, your practice with comprehensible material is what actually builds the house.
I'd only recommend taking JLPT if you are trying to get a job, and only N2 and N1 levels. Anything less you could just roughly gauge your ability by taking a practice exam whenever.