So I made a post about ChatGPT today and I felt like making another reddit post. There have probably been like 500 guides similar to this already, so here we go.
Now, this guide is just purely for learning to understand Japanese in a minimal way.
1. Learn Kana
Learn Hiragana and Katakana. Yes, you need both. Use this and memorise all of them. Do like 5 a day and no matter how long it takes, finish it.
Here's the link to teach you kana:
https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-hiragana/
and here's a link to ingrain kana into your head through memorization:
2. Binge grammar and spam an Anki deck.
Just read through a grammar guide. You don't need to do any grammar quizzes or workbook stuff. Just read either Tae Kim or Sakubi:
https://guidetojapanese.org/learn/
or
As for Anki, learn how to use it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcY2Svs3h8M
Use this deck with it to learn the most common words in the language:
https://github.com/donkuri/Kaishi
Do anywhere from 5-20 cards a day.
YES. YOU CAN LEARN KANJI THROUGH LEARNING WORDS IN ANKI AND READING. WATCH THIS
(this will only teach you to read kanji, not write it):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exkXaVYvb68
2B. Learn Pitch Accent (optional but important for listening and speaking)
Follow this guide for pitch accent:
2C. Immersing while still going through your grammar guide and premade anki deck (You can either immerse while you build a foundation or start immersing after you build a foundation)
As I've described, you can either immerse while learning the basics or you can wait till you've finished with the basics to dive into native content. I recommend using learner content if you intend to immerse while still learning the basics.
Channels:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMNVKIaw8hV8ln3dDE5z-hA
https://www.youtube.com/@the_bitesize_japanese_podcast
https://www.youtube.com/@Onomappu
Graded readers:
What your daily routine should look like:
– 1 or 2 lessons from grammar guide
– Anki with Kaishi 1.5k: 5-20 cards
– (Optional) Kotu.io for pitch accent stuff
– (Optional when building your foundation but mandatory for after you build your foundation): Immerse for 1-2 hours a day.
3. INPUT.
Basically, as the title says, start interacting with native content like watching anime with Japanese subtitles, read visual novels, light novels, whatever. This is where the main bulk of the learning occurs. You can do input whilst building a foundation (kaishi and your grammar guide), but it's kinda optional during that stage. Now that you've built your foundation, it's mandatory.
Where can I find resources?:
https://learnjapanese.moe/resources/
How many words should I look up?:
As many as you like.
Should I use ChatGPT, Google Translate or English subs?:
You can if you want to, but it'd be preferable if you didn't. I have a post here as to why you shouldn't.
3B. Sentence Mining.
Sentence Mining is when you take words from your immersion content and put it into Anki. It's optional but highly recommended. You can read more about it here:
https://tatsumoto-ren.github.io/blog/sentence-mining.html
What your daily routine should look like:
Anki: 5-20 words (these are words from your sentence mining deck)
Input: 1-2 hours of interacting with native Japanese content.
Resources:
https://learnjapanese.moe/resources/ (basically the hub for grabbing all of the resources you need. You'll find your sites for anime, light novels, manga, etc. from here)
https://xelieu.github.io/jp-lazy-guide/setupAnimeOnPC/ (for setting the resources up).
Anyways, enjoy.
(I might make a more in-depth website on this, even if there exists like 5 of them already. Good JS practice).
by Inside_Jackfruit3761