Languages are complex blends of vocabulary, grammar, and cultural nuances unique unto themselves. When deciding how to learn Japanese, it’s easy to get bogged down in the vastness of the topic. That’s why we’ve put together this guide to start you on the basics with a clear path to suit your goals and learning style.
Japanese is widely regarded as a hard language to learn, but there are tips and tricks to help you digest the aspects that significantly differ from English. You may be surprised to find that some Japanese grammar rules will make it easier to learn!
Table of Contents
1. Define your goals and realistic ways to achieve them
Before you get started, ask yourself why you want to learn Japanese. Depending on your answer, your priorities will change. Are you learning Japanese in the short term for a trip abroad? Do you want to achieve native-level fluency? The important topics and how long it will take to learn Japanese are different for each.
Here are a few suggestions on how to learn Japanese:
- Every learner: The trick is not to go so fast that you burn out before reaching your goal. Build your confidence steadily by introducing new topics as you review old ones to keep what you’ve learned fresh in your mind.
- Travel and vacation: Learn an abundance of Japanese words and travel phrases, including how to make reservations in Japanese, how to ask for help with directions, and other necessities when visiting another country.
- Business: Based on your industry and the extent of your foreign language interactions, your goals and needs will differ. You and your team may find Rosetta Stone for Enterprise useful for its structured CEFR-aligned progression, language immersion, and reporting tools.
Once you have your goal, think about how you’ll fit studying into your schedule. Most people benefit from dedicating time every day—even as little as 10 minutes—to language learning. Your goals and timeline will be unique to you, and you’ll be doing yourself a favor by looking ahead and planning your future with Japanese. Consistency is key!
2. Build a basic understanding of Japanese writing systems
The three writing systems in Japanese are hiragana (平仮名), katakana (片仮名), and kanji (漢字). The first two are phonetic Japanese alphabets that each have 46 characters, while kanji has thousands. As the most common, versatile system, hiragana is the best place to start. The number of resources available will broaden considerably if you have the flexibility to read in Japanese and English.
There are also standards for romanization that allow Japanese words to be written with Roman letters, with the most common being the Hepburn romanization. All styles of romanization are called rōmaji (ローマ字), but this is a tool to help read the alphabets rather than a separate writing system. The sooner you can stop depending on Roman letters, the better!
3. Master new phonology with Japanese pronunciation
Although the Japanese writing systems are complex, Japanese pronunciation is comparatively simple. Unlike English, each vowel only has one pronunciation. The sound “a” is pronounced “ah” as in “father” no matter where it is. Most individual sounds are either a single vowel or a combined consonant and vowel, which will help you break down words into sounds when you’re pronouncing them.
Even if you’re studying alone, you can practice your pronunciation by talking to yourself in Japanese or reading out loud. Not only will you become familiar with the way your vocal cords create the sounds, but hearing yourself say the new vocabulary will help ingrain those words into your memory.
4. Learn to identify each Japanese part of speech
Most Japanese parts of speech will be familiar to an English speaker, but there are also a few that don’t have direct equivalents in English. Adjectival nouns and particles have special rules that take some getting used to, but they’re worth making the effort to learn early for their broad applications.
- Japanese particles help you identify the function of each word in a sentence, including other parts of speech.
- Nouns are essential, and Japanese words to describe people, places, and things are just as common as those in English.
- Pronouns in Japanese are somewhat unusual for their ambiguity. There are over a dozen words just for the pronoun “I”!
- There are three main categories of Japanese verbs based on the last character of the dictionary form of the verb. The only major difference is how they conjugate.
- To add qualities and flavor to nouns, you’ll need Japanese adjectives. They come in two varieties: i-adjectives and na-adjectives.
- In addition to adjectives and nouns, Japanese has adjectival nouns. Depending on where they’re placed in a sentence, they may function as either.
- Japanese adverbs are added to a sentence to describe quantity, time, and actions.
- To connect two clauses, you’ll need conjunctions. Some particles and conjugations for verbs and adjectives do the same thing.
- Last but certainly not least are the interjections full of emotion! Yabai! That’s crazy!
5. Familiarize yourself with Japanese particles
For everything from identifying the topic of a sentence to indicating location and movement, Japanese particles are short words that appear in nearly every sentence. They are essential components in Japanese, and learning the most common ones early will help you understand and build sentences.
- wa: Identifies the topic of a sentence. Once you know that, the rest of the sentence will follow naturally.
- no: Indicates possession. This is especially important for pronouns because there is no apostrophe “s” in Japanese.
- ka: Indicates a question. By adding this particle at the end of a sentence, the listener knows you’re looking for an answer.
6. Experiment with Japanese word order in sentences
There’s no need to shoot for perfection with Japanese word order because you have some flexibility. This is a breath of fresh air for beginners! The most important thing to remember is that the verb goes at the end of a sentence.
Learning your particles will also help with this. As long as the appropriate particle is attached to a word or fragment, you can move sections around like building blocks in a sentence.
7. Learn conjugations for Japanese verbs and adjectives
Both Japanese verbs and Japanese adjectives have conjugations. Like English, they can show tense and formality (or familiarity). There are also a few special rules that are specific to Japanese:
- There is no future tense—that’s one less tense for you to learn!
- The conjugation does not change based on pronouns. The same conjugation will be used for “me,” “you,” and “them.”
- The unique te-form conjugation combines with several particles to create new conjunctions, make requests and demands, and replace the word “and” in lists without nouns.
8. Make a statement with Japanese punctuation marks
Many Japanese punctuation marks were directly adopted from Western punctuation marks, like parentheses. However, because Japanese can be written horizontally or vertically, and because certain Western punctuation marks resemble existing Japanese diacritical marks, there are also those that are specific to Japanese.
The most important marks for beginners to identify are the period (。) and comma (、). Both of them work similarly to their counterparts in English, but the rules for comma usage are much looser. In fact, commas are entirely optional.
9. Find the fun in language learning with pop culture
Learning a new language is exciting! Still, sometimes there are challenges that slow you down. A little fun can sustain your motivation. Keep your energy up by putting down the grammar lessons for a moment and find entertainment in Japanese.
Read Japanese books and stories
Do you like to read? Try reading in Japanese! There are bilingual books that have side-by-side English and Japanese translations for you to compare, and some Japanese news websites have easy articles designed for children and language learners. The Rosetta Stone app features stories written by native speakers that you can read, listen to, and even record yourself reading aloud to check your pronunciation.
Watch Japanese shows and movies
Japanese cartoons are increasingly popular to the point that major streaming services have anime options. You can start small just by changing the audio to Japanese with English subtitles, and when you’re more comfortable, dispense with the subtitles altogether.
Play Japanese video games
Japan has one of the largest video game markets in the world, resulting in a wide variety of games you can play in Japanese. This also includes apps on your phone. Video games are a great way to practice katakana and introduce yourself to Japanese loanwords like apuri (アプリ, app), kyara (キャラ, character), and menyū (メニュー, menu).
Start strong with Rosetta Stone
Only you can determine the best learning style for your Japanese language journey. One of these tips for how to learn Japanese may work for you, or maybe even all of them! No matter what your plan is, your success is directly correlated to your dedication.
Whether you prefer self-studying or working with others, Rosetta Stone has everything you need to learn Japanese. Our bite-sized lessons can be done online or offline, Japanese audio from native speakers will give you an immersive experience, and expert language tutors are available at your fingertips.
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