Tips on learning how the basics of Japanese

[Guest Avi]

Edit: sorry for the engrish title lmao

 

Hey all! Im planning a trick to Tokyo with my best friend late next year and we are planning to make it a (bi)yearly thing, so naturally we want to be able to communicate with the people around us.

 

We are currently practicing by bouncing very, very basic sentences and common words back and forth, just to have a foundation. We also downloaded some handy apps to help us improve individually and ofcourse we are practically suffocating ourselves with nifty youtube videos to broaden our horizon.

 

My question to you is:

Do you have any experience learning japanese? If so, did you use also use apps or maybe textbooks? Hell perhaps even classes! (Or a combination ofcourse)

 

Anyway, we would love to improve as quickly as possible so any input is really appreciated

 

Double edit: i realize it takes a long, long time to actually grasp the Japanese language, as it's just so insanely unique and obviously has its own alphabet. We dont expect to be fluent in a year, let alone 2. We just want to be presentable and comfortable when we arrive and even make smalltalk with some locals if we get the chance.

Edited December 20, 2019 by Avi

[Pumpkabae]

I have 2 apps one is called infinite japanese and ones called write it! Japanese. They're both available to other languages as well it's really good for bare bones basics.

[PrincessPeachii]

Watch anime with the captions on in your language(this helps me understand dialect,sentence structure, and learn new vocabulary), purchase some grade school level Japanese books, and there’s tons of free apps! Good luck! I’ve had 3 1/2 years of Japanese and been to Japan twice and I still suck lol . If you know basics and have a translator app on your phone you will be fine there! People really appreciate when a foreigner tries to speak their language! Some people told me I was cute and helped me find things around Japan on my trips just because I looked desperate for help and tried my best to communicate with them.

[Prin. Chris]

I learned Japanese the expensive way, as my foreign language in college. Here are a couple of tricks I picked up doing that. Get the sentence structure down first. Having the Subject-Object-Verb structure in your head is critical. Once you have the structure and enough vocab, you need to start thinking in Japanese rather than translating every sentence back to English in your head. You have to do the transition for written translations, but when you are speaking, doing that is a waste of time and effort. It throws you off. That's also why reading subtitles is the long way around if your goal is to actually learn the language. You need to learn to construct your thoughts object first, then what happened to it. 

 

After that, you need to learn the shortcuts to the language. There are a lot of places in the Japanese language where you can drop parts of the sentence based on context, or use compound words that make things simpler. 

 

Daigaku de nihongo o manabimashita.

Speaking of college, Japanese I learned.

 

Nihongo ga wakarimasu.

Japanese I understand.

 

Nihongo ga wakarimasu ka?

Do you understand Japanese? 

(Notice there is no "you" in that sentence. The sentance is actually constructed as 'speaking of Japanese, understand'. The context clue of a question "ka", is what clues you in whether I am speaking of me or of you. 

 

Technically, the books would teach you what is below, but no one speaks this way. The subject is not needed.

 

Watashi wa nihongo ga wakarimasu.

Speaking of me, Japanese I understand.

 

Anata wa nihongo ga wakarimasu ka?

Speaking of you, Japanese understand?

 

And speaking a Wakari, that is one of the two words you have to know along with Sumimasen. Wakarimasu is 'understand' and wakarimasen is ' don't understand'. And of course Sumimasen is excuse me, sorry, and and something you should tack on to the beginning of pretty much any conversation with someone you don't know. 

Edited April 3, 2020 by Prin. Chris