Learn Japanese. How to quickly learn Japanese from scratch. Mentor or language school. Advantages and disadvantages

みなさんこんにちは。(MINASAN KONNICHIWA)! Good afternoon everyone!

Two words about me, I wrote earlier that six months ago I began to study on my own Japanese using the Minna no Nihongo textbook and the NHK WORLD website, now I continue, or rather do not continue, and like-minded people and I learn Japanese from scratch in courses with a native speaker. I think a lot of people are asking:

The first two paragraphs, although similar in sound, have different meanings.

Each of us has a reason why we wanted to learn Japanese. I'm not mistaken that the vast majority of guys who started learning nihongo ( に ほんご) started with anime, a very good and pleasant reason to start on the difficult path of mastering the language. But just as it's easy to watch anime, it's just as easy to drop out of school. That is, this is a good reason, but only the most patient and persistent anime lovers will be able to learn a language just to watch their favorite anime or read manga in the original.

The love of anime for many develops into an interest in Japan and the desire to travel to the Land of the Rising Sun, and even better, or work there. This desire gives rise to great motivation to learn the language. Therefore, if there is such a desire or such an opportunity, then Japanese will be easy to learn.

Not everyone can learn a language on their own. For beginners, it is difficult to decide on textbooks, at first everything seems complicated and incomprehensible. And it is very important to get the right information at the beginning of classes, to learn about a coherent system that will help you remember what you have learned easier and more logically, so that the desire to learn nihongo does not remain only a desire. Pay attention to the teacher Anna Reva, watch her free introductory lesson and one-minute videos, I think you will like how interesting and colorful Anna talks about Japanese.

To summarize: in order to start learning a language, you need to find an interest related to Japan: anime, manga, a desire to study in Japan or work. Finding a favorite among Japanese actors is possible politicians so interesting to you that you want to read information about them or listen (watch) in Japanese. It is also possible to get carried away with traditional ones, such as calligraphy, ekibana, bonsai, origami. All of these interests can be a step towards learning Japanese. In general, you can learn a language just like that and without a goal, but it sounds implausible.

How to start learning a language

It is most correct to immediately learn the Japanese alphabet, or rather the syllabic alphabet and. It is recommended to learn Japanese not with words, but with phrases. Japanese has a lot of typical phrases that are used in polite speech. That is, if you learn the form of acquaintance, greeting, first acquaintance with colleagues, then with 100% probability this is exactly what the Japanese themselves say. At first I did not believe that the language should be taught in phrases, so imagine if you could learn the Russian language only in phrases, what would happen? Because our language is multifaceted and unpredictable. Japanese spoken is also a very lively and interesting language, but the polite style is strictly regulated.

But still, in order to learn phrases, it is better to know a small vocabulary of the most common words. It is also easier to learn a language with phrases because in Japanese the sequence of words in a sentence (noun, verb, defined word, etc.) is fundamentally different from the Russian language. Having learned individual words, it will be very difficult to compose them into a sentence.

To learn the language you need to purchase:

  • a block of opaque paper 9 x 9, these will be training cards. On the one hand, it will be necessary to write down the symbols of the alphabet, words in hiragana (katakana), phrases, and on the other hand, the Russian translation. With such cards, you can learn a language anywhere, in your spare time. And checking your knowledge with cards is easier and more convenient than in a textbook.
  • a simple marking pencil B - soft or HB - hard-soft (you cannot use a pen, an automatic pencil too) and an eraser
  • checkered notebook
  • textbook, according to which you will learn the language, I wrote about it

How difficult is it to learn Japanese

We must think soberly - learning Japanese is difficult, but possible. Basically, everyone merges when it comes to kanji, even sensei's caring hand does not help. But in any language there is a system, not chaotic memorization, and you need to gather all your will into a fist and continue learning.

P.s. Having studied the first 50 kanji (hieroglyphs), I didn’t see this system, it’s just difficult to memorize, since you have to constantly repeat the material covered. And the point is not even in memorizing the kanji, but in how it is pronounced in a particular word, that is, in fact, you need to memorize all the words. Asking what is the secret of remembering knowledgeable people, I was told - you just need to memorize the first 300, and then the system will be clear. Well ... let's cram.

And what about those who have already learned Japanese?

The pronunciation of words in Japanese is easy, since the set of sounds in Russian and Japanese is the same with some subtleties. At first, training takes place entirely with the help of hiragana (katakana), and since in Japanese words are both pronounced and written, there should be no problems in writing and memorizing words (phrases).

Grammar in Japanese is not very complicated, but it also has its own characteristics, there are certain exceptions to the rules, but not in droves. As in any language, success will only be in the case of working on the language and preferably daily. You can learn a language on your own, but how well you learn it is a moot point. Still, there should be teacher control.

Frame from the movie: Japanese, which the Japanese do not know

How much do you need to learn a language

Everyone has their own pace of language learning. Offline courses involve three years of study (half a year for each course). It is not a fast or slow pace of learning. During this time, you can learn all the skills: speaking, listening, reading, writing. Training for a period of three years does not mean that knowledge is 100% obtained. It is more correct to say that during this time the student will acquire basic skills and in the future will be able to independently continue his improvement of the language. Learning a language in a year or two, outside of Japan, is unlikely.

What are the main words to learn

In order to learn a language more effectively, it is first necessary to learn it.

Many people would like to learn Japanese from scratch on their own, but don't know where to start. Therefore, I give my own instructions based on my experience. will be given first short instruction, giving only the names of the items and a minimum of information, and then a complete instruction.

Table of contents:
  1. Brief instruction
  2. Full instructions

How to learn Japanese - quick guide

  1. Learn hiragana.
  2. Learn katakana.
  3. Turn on the Japanese layout.
  4. Watch anime, Japanese movies or dramas for at least 20-60 hours (with Russian subtitles).
  5. this link. This is a very simple and clear textbook, the best guide for beginners who are not familiar with Japanese at all. This point is the most important. PS. For a very small number of users, the site does not open. The site is actually working fine. If you encounter this problem, try connecting through a VPN / proxy / tunnel or from another Internet. If you are not well versed, then just install any browser extension for VPN.
  6. Install the Rikaichan add-on - this is a very good dictionary that allows you to point to right word, and the addition itself will find the end of this word and give its translation in the dictionary and say in what form this word is.
  7. Start using dictionaries.
  8. Learn kanji. The 100 most popular kanji allow you to read 36% of the kanji in the text, 200 - 50%, 400 - 66%, 600 - 75%, 800 - 81%, 1000 - 85%, 1500 - 92%, 2000 - 95%, 2530 - 98.0 %, 3000 - 99.0%. You don't need to know 100%. The site is best for learning kanji.
  9. Watch another 50-150 hours of anime / movies / dramas with Russian subtitles (you can do it in parallel with points 5-8).
  10. This item is described in the full instructions below. The item is very broad.

Complete Instructions for Learning Japanese

Introduction - Japanese Writing

If someone thinks that only hieroglyphs are used in Japanese, they are wrong, hieroglyphs make up only about 23% of the characters in the text (although in phonetic ratio, hieroglyphs make up more, since one hieroglyph on average means more than one syllable) . In addition to hieroglyphs, Japanese writing uses two syllabaries at once - hiragana (46 characters) and katakana (46 characters), for a total of 92 characters. The syllabic alphabet is something like the Russian alphabet. All 3 types of writing are used simultaneously, for example, part of a word can be written in hieroglyphs, and part of a word can be written in kana. Examples of hiragana signs:   あ - a,   い - i,   う - y,   え - e,   お - o,   か - ka,   き - ki, etc.
Examples of katakana characters:   ア - a,   イ - and,   ウ - y,   エ - e,   オ - o,   カ - ka,   キ - ki, etc.
Examples of kanji (Japanese characters borrowed from China): 食、誰、大、好、何, etc. In total, 2136 characters are used + about 500 more that are not included in the list of standard characters.

When is kana used and when are hieroglyphs

Hiragana:
  1. All particles.
  2. All changing parts of words (and sometimes not changing).
  3. Some words.
Katakana:
  1. All foreign words.
Kanji (hieroglyphs):
  1. All basic words.

This is a sufficient explanation of what is used where, but you can read more about kanji and kana signs (in the section "What are kanji and what are they used for?").

1. Learn Hiragana

The best hiragana tablet is in the akanji app at. You can also read about hiragana on Wikipedia. Hiragana consists of only 46 unique characters and learns in about 6 hours. Hiragana is a syllabic alphabet, something like the Russian alphabet. Please note that when writing kana characters, the order of strokes is very important. You need to find a site that lists the stroke order. You should also be able to write in hiragana by hand on paper (if it's crooked, it's okay). Personally, I taught like this: first I wrote in a notebook and pronounced the first sign あ (a). When I remembered it, I added one more character to it, and copied 2 characters into the notebook at once (from memory). Then immediately 3 signs, and so on until the very end. When you learn hiragana, remember to pay attention to the following things:
  1. If you add a small ゃ (ya), ゅ (yu) or ょ (yo) to syllables ending in "i", you can make a syllable ending in i / yu / yo. For example, きゃ is "kya", but きや is kiya, because in the second case や is big. Your tablet should contain columns with syllables ending in i / u / ё.
  2. If you add two sticks, you can voice a consonant, for example, か is ka, が is ga. Your plate should contain lines starting with "g", "s", "d", "b" and "p".
  3. う (y) after "o" denotes a long vowel. For example, the word ありがとう (arigatou) reads "arigato:", where the colon indicates the length of the vowel. When writing in Latin, English speakers often indicate longitude with a stick above the letter (macron), for example, instead of arigatou they write arigatō, but if you do not write English text You don't need to write like that. When writing in Russian letters, longitude after a / y / e / o / i / u / yo is not shown and they write, for example, simply "arigato". But after "and" they show, for example, "kawaii", "shiitake" (shiitake).
  4. aa, ii, uu, ee are also long vowels, for example かわいい (kawaii) reads "ka-wa-i:".
  5. You can see how to pronounce sounds in this video.
    1. The syllables し (shi), しゃ (sha), しゅ (shu), しょ (sho) use the soft sh sound. There is no such sound in Russian. That is, it is correct to say not "sha", but "shya".
    2. The syllables じ (ji), じゃ (ja), じゅ (ju) じょ (jo) use the soft j sound. There is no such sound in Russian. That is, it is correct to say not "zha", but "zhya". Examples: じゃない - jyanai, 大丈夫 - daijo:bu.
    3. In the syllables ち (chi), ちゃ (cha), ちゅ (chu), ちょ (cho), the "ch" sound is softer than in Russian. That is, it is correct to say not "cha", but "cha". You don't have to try it yet, but in the future, to make the sound "ch" softer, pay attention to how it happens with other sounds in Russian (for example, ta-tya, na-nya, ka-kya).
    4. The sound わ (wa) is not labial-tooth, but labial-labial. To pronounce it, try to pronounce it as close as possible to the usual Russian "va", but passing air through the gap between the two lips, and not between the lip and the teeth.
    5. ざ、ず、ぜ、ぞ - at the beginning of words it looks more like "dz", in the middle it looks like "z".
    6. じ、じゃ、じゅ、じょ - at the beginning of words it is more like "j", in the middle it is more like "zh".
    7. Other sounds different from the Russian language are "u" and "e", but for them I have no description. I think while you can not bother with it, in the future understanding will come by itself.
  6. Small っ (tsu) is sokuon, which means doubling the leading consonant, for example, ずっと is jutto. In pronunciation, if broken down into syllables, っ would refer to the syllable ahead: zu-tto. There is even a word in Japanese that begins with sokuon - って (tte).
  7. ん before "p", "b" and "m" is pronounced like "m".
  8. You may also find general rules stroke order in the General Guide, but there are many exceptions to the rules.

2. Learn Katakana

The best katakana tablet is also in the akanji application and is available at . Katakana consists of only 46 unique characters and takes approximately 6 hours to learn. Katakana is a syllabic alphabet, something like the Russian alphabet. Everything is exactly the same as in hiragana. When learning katakana, pay attention to the following things:
  1. In katakana, a long vowel is shown with a ー, such as デート. Doubling a consonant is also done with a small tsu, but in katakana: ッ.
  2. Exists informal katakana table compiled by myself. It is not worth learning katakana from it, this table can only help you understand how some combinations in katakana are composed.

3. Turn on the Japanese keyboard

On a computer You can do this in the control panel. Once enabled, you can simply write English letters- they themselves will transform into hiragana. After pressing the spacebar, hiragana will be converted to kanji. Useful information:

  1. In Windows, the Japanese layout has a built-in English layout. To switch between Latin and Kana, press Alt+~ (Alt+Ё).
  2. Ctrl+Caps Lock - Hiragana.
  3. Alt + Caps Lock - katakana.
  4. F7 - convert the entered word to katakana.
  5. "x" or "l" before the required character will make that character small.
  6. Other combinations are possible.
  7. In the settings, you can also make hiragana without Latin characters printed right away, but for this you need to have a Japanese keyboard on which hiragana characters are drawn, and since you do not have it, this method will not work for you. However, firstly, this method is not colossally faster, because many characters still require more than one press, and secondly, most Japanese themselves type using the Latin alphabet (including because it does not require learning separate layout). Nevertheless, on phones it is quite possible to enable typing with kana signs right away, because there is a touch keyboard.

When you have 3 layouts on your computer, switching is difficult. The method of switching layouts described can be saved. If you know others, write to me (contacts below).

On the phone

For typing in Japanese on a phone, I recommend the Gboard keyboard (by Google) or the Google Japanese layout. Gboard is preferable because it includes other languages, and for Japanese it seems to be as good as the Japanese "Google Japanese layout" now.

3.1. Also set the Japanese font

For hieroglyphs, there are 2 fonts - Japanese and Chinese. The desired font is selected depending on the language. Chinese characters look a little different, and some look a lot different. Unfortunately, some sites or programs do not indicate the language, so you must select your preferred language. You can also choose your preferred font for Japanese, as fonts can vary in beauty (especially on Windows).

  • Android: By default, if the program does not specify the language of the text, all characters are displayed as Chinese, not Japanese. To set this up on Android 7+, go to settings, find "Language" and add Japanese as a second language. After that, the system will understand that when the language is not specified, you prefer to see the Japanese script, not Chinese. In Android 6 and below, there is no such feature, but the Kanji Fix app can save it. Unfortunately, the application requires root access, so for most people this method will not work. If you don't want to root your phone, the only solution is to update your Android, ask app developers to choose your preferred font, or buy a new phone. If you have a MIUI shell, then the style change function only works starting with MIUI 10, so even if you have Android 7+, you still need to upgrade to MIUI 10.
  • Browsers on Windows: Here, the characters usually display normally by default - like Japanese, not Chinese. Nevertheless, in some browsers on Windows, for some reason, the old ugly MS Gothic font (which also does not support anti-aliasing) is installed, when a new very high-quality Meiryo font has appeared on this system for a relatively long time. You can set it up like this:
    • Mozilla Firefox: As of Firefox 57 (11/14/2017) Meiryo is already the default. But if you want, you can check here: Menu → Settings → General → Language and appearance→ Fonts and Colors → Advanced → Select Fonts for "Japanese" → Select "Meiryo". I'm not sure if this happens, but if for some reason you are using Chinese characters, and not Japanese, try: 1) make sure that you have the Meiryo font, 2) go to Menu → Settings → General → Language and appearance → Language → Select the language you prefer for displaying web pages → Select → Add Japanese to the end of the list.
    • Google Chrome: For 2019, unfortunately, it displays in the old font and does not support customization (which is very strange, because the correct display of text is the main task of the browser). However, I found an add-on that allows you to customize the font, as Firefox does: Advanced Font Settings .

4. Watch anime, Japanese movies or dramas for at least 20-60 hours (with Russian subtitles)

This will allow you to understand the sounds used in the kana you have learned. It will also allow you to study grammar much faster during further study of grammar, as well as understand the intonation with which you will need to read examples. If you have already watched so many anime before, you can skip this paragraph.

5. Read the whole grammar book from this link

Read the entire grammar book at this link. This is a very simple and clear textbook, the best guide for beginners who are not familiar with Japanese at all. This point is the most important.

PS. For a very small number of users, the site does not open. The site is actually working fine. If you encounter this problem, try connecting through a VPN / proxy / tunnel or from another Internet. If you are not well versed, then just install any browser extension for VPN.

6. Install the Rikaichan add-on

Install the Rikaichan add-on for Firefox or for Chrome and Opera.

Rikaichan is a very good dictionary: on any site you can hover over the desired word, and the add-on itself will find the end of this word and give its dictionary translation. Also, the addition will say in what form this word is.

After installation, you should also do the following:

  1. Click on the add-on icon, select Options and select Color Scheme - White VL as the default theme is very bad, but this one is good.
  2. Next, you need to install 3 dictionaries. By default, there are no dictionaries in the add-on. To install, go to the dictionaries page (the link to it can be found on the add-on page). Here you will see a list of dictionaries. We will need the following ones:
    • Dict_Japanese-Russian - Japanese-Russian Dictionary
    • Dict_Japanese-Russian (Warodai) - Another Japanese-Russian Dictionary
    • Dict_Japanese-English - Japanese-English Dictionary
    To download a dictionary, right-click on it and select "Download". Now you need to download them in addition. To do this, click on the add-on icon, select Options, find the "Dictionaries" section and download all three dictionaries. Move the default "Kanji" dictionary to the bottom.

When you look at the meaning of a word, you can switch between dictionaries with the Shift key.

Rikaichan can also be used without hovering: click on the add-on icon and select Search. In this case, Rikaichan will work like a regular smart dictionary that understands the forms of words. Unfortunately, Search usually does not work correctly for them, in which case you can use it to simulate a Rikaichan bar.

There is also a better version of Rikaichan, but it only works with older Firefox. This version is more convenient + "Search" works correctly there (which is convenient) + "Search" itself is more convenient there, because it is created in the browser, not inside the tabs. If you want to install it, you need to first install Firefox 56 (can be found), disable auto-update in Firefox, go to the add-on's official page and install it from the link " The last version of Rikaichan can be downloaded here". On the same page, install 3 dictionaries in the same way. The dictionary "Russian (Warodai)" is hidden there for some reason now, but it can be downloaded.

7. Start using dictionaries

Quite often there is a very big need to translate a word into Russian. The following dictionaries may help you:
  1. First, the Rikaichan add-on, which has three dictionaries built in at once:
    • Japanese-English EDICT. It is an open base on which many apps and websites are built.
    • Japanese-Russian JMdict (as well as other languages). Also an EDICT project, but for languages ​​other than English - Russian, German, French, Hungarian, Vietnamese, Thai, etc. Dictionary and languages ​​are available both in Rikaichan and other applications and sites.
    • Japanese-Russian Warodai. There is an online version (+ you can download the entire dictionary), and many applications and sites include this dictionary.
  2. Yarxi is a powerful Japanese-Russian dictionary, installed on almost all platforms, but with a complicated interface. There is also an online version. Uses its base.
  3. The list is not over... Contact me (contacts below) to add dictionaries to the list.

8. Learning Kanji

After you read the entire tutorial, if you wish, you can start learning kanji. The site is best for studying. I also wrote an extensive article that covers everything and answers all the questions you may have, I highly recommend reading it.

  • If there is no desire to learn at all, I advise you to learn 1st year kyoiku kanji (80 pcs) + 170 most popular kanji (250 kanji in total). This will allow you to read 54% of all kanji in the text! (do not read 46%).
  • If there is a desire, but not very big, then the 1st year and 420 most popular (500 in total) - this will allow you to read 71% of the kanji in the text (do not read 29%).
  • If there is a strong desire, then 1 part and 920 most popular (1000 in total) - this will allow you to read 85% of the kanji in the text (not read 15%). 1500 will read 92%, 2000 - 95%, 2530 - 98.0%, 3000 - 99.0%. You don't need to know 100%.
You can also:
  • Find more detailed statistics on hieroglyphs.
  • Read the old article from .

9. Watch another 50-150 hours of anime/movies/doramas with Russian subtitles

This point can be performed in parallel with points 5-8. For example, you are doing step 5 and have learned a new grammatical structure. You know her, but you have no intuition for her, she seems alien and unfamiliar to you. In fact, there is nothing to worry about: when you start looking in Japanese, you will immediately begin to recognize this construction in speech, and very soon you will not even be able to understand how you did not notice it before. And over time, you yourself will be able to use this design unconsciously. Watching Japanese with subtitles will also help you understand what intonation and how to pronounce phrases, as well as allow you to understand someone else's speech. It is impossible to learn a language without ever hearing it. If you have already watched so many anime before, then 10-30 hours will be enough.

10. Last item (large)

At this stage, you understand Japanese sounds, intonation, grammar, speech, part of the characters. You can also speak for yourself, but with difficulty. Nonetheless:

  • You can't watch without subtitles yet because of a small vocabulary, and possibly insufficient listening comprehension or grammar learned but not yet deposited.
  • You can't read Japanese because of the small vocabulary and because you only know a part of the characters.
  • You have difficulty speaking (harder than listening) due to your small vocabulary and lack of speaking experience.
  • There are also other less serious problems.

In this section, we will describe the things you need to further improve your knowledge of Japanese. This is a very extensive section, but since all these things now no longer need to be done in a certain order, but at the same time, we moved them into one tenth paragraph. So:

  1. Expand your vocabulary:
    • Use to improve your vocabulary. This is a mobile application with decks. You have to find a ready-made Japanese deck with 13,000 words and study these words while traveling, waiting in line, and so on. More details on the link.
    • Usually when you watch something in Japanese, you use a dictionary. But after entering the word, do not immediately delete the word, but leave it entered in kana or hieroglyphs. At the end, when you finish viewing (so as not to interfere with viewing), take all these words and write them down in a regular text file in the format "<слово> <чтение> <значения>" (each word on a new line). You will have to learn these words. The bottom line is that when you heard this word in real life, it will be much easier for you to remember it. Firstly, you already have an example of its use, respectively , you better understand the meaning of this word (because just a translation from a dictionary is not enough. Secondly, you will already have an image associated with this word. Thirdly, when you remember this word, you will remember the situation, where you heard this word, thanks to remembering the word it can be 2 times easier, and the word will be remembered for longer.Fourthly, you will know how to pronounce this word.The text dictionary does not provide such information. real life it will additionally help in memorization, because it will pop up in the head. The advantage of this method is that such a study of words will be many times better than with AnkiDroid. You will also learn those words that come across to you more often. Also, such a study can be performed without knowing all the hieroglyphs. But the big minus is that you can’t just sit down and teach. Instead of studying, most of the time will be spent on viewing, i.e. the method does not allow you to replenish vocabulary in an accelerated mode. Of course, not all words you hear will be popular. But to check the popularity, the site will later compile a list of the most popular words based on a large number good sources by smart algorithm. We will provide a link to this list in this manual as soon as this list becomes available. For example, you can skip words that are more than 10-15 thousand, or put them at the end so as not to spend too much time on them, but first learn more popular words. If you heard the same word in different days, you can also put a number in front of it, indicating the number of times you have heard the word. After the list appears, we also recommend that you start writing its number before the word. This will give an incentive to learn words. For example, when you see that a word is among the first 5000, you know for sure that you are learning one of the most popular words in Japanese, and not that you have come across a word that occurs very rarely. Learning becomes more interesting.
    • When a list of popular words appears here, try to write out and learn the most popular words in the same way, for example, from the first 1000. You will already know most of them, but still you won’t be some, but the most popular words are the most important.
    • Find other sources to build vocabulary, preferably with audio playback. From myself, I can advise memrise.com, it has audio, but there are very few words (about 700). In it, you need to study the decks "Japanese_1", "Japanese_2", "Japanese_3" and "New Approach (vocabulary)". If you know other sources of words, write to me (contacts below).
  2. Learn all the necessary characters. For good knowledge Japanese you should know 2500-3000 characters (of which 2136 are joyo kanji, and the rest are the most popular jimmeiyo kanji and hyogaiji). You can find instructions for studying, and an application for studying. Knowledge of hieroglyphs will also help you in replenishing your vocabulary, because firstly, in AnkiDroid you will not be able to learn words whose hieroglyphs you do not know, and secondly, when studying hieroglyphs, you learn some words, especially those that are both kun readings of the hieroglyph.
  3. Keep watching in Japanese:
    • First, with Russian subtitles. You won't be able to start watching immediately without subtitles, because you need to build up your vocabulary and become more familiar with the language. Viewing with subtitles is needed to consolidate the learned words and other things. Also, if suddenly you still have insufficient understanding of speech by ear or grammar, viewing with subtitles will solve this problem. Watching with subtitles helps in vocabulary building, but at a slower pace.
    • With Japanese subtitles (when available) or without subtitles (when not available). Such viewing helps to listen specifically to Japanese speech and speeds up vocabulary replenishment and learning Japanese compared to viewing with Russian subtitles. As a minus, you will need to go into the dictionary while watching.
    • My personal advice: try watching モニタリング (full title ニンゲン観察バラエティ モニタリング). It's kind of like a Japanese prank (but not really, long to explain, so see for yourself to understand), only in Japanese style. There are no Russian subtitles for it, but there are Japanese ones, and very good ones, and they are part of the program. To watch, I think you need to know at least 5000 Japanese words. Watching it is much easier than, for example, anime, because a lot of things are either clear in meaning or it's not scary to miss. Now it comes out every week (read more on the Japanese Wikipedia). You can find the transfer:
      • On Youtube on request (Monitoring / モニタリング) + date in 20190509 format.
      • On the Chinese video hosting bilibili on demand (Monitoring / 人类观察 / 人间观察) + date in the format (190509 / 20190509 / 2019.05.09 / 2019年5月9日 without zeros). There are most releases (they are 5-10 times more often, on YouTube). To view in HD you need to register. You can do this not by phone, but by e-mail using this link (if it suddenly changed, you need to hover over the account icon at the top, click on the registration link, and then on the registration page there will be a link to switch phone / e-mail). Unfortunately, the site is in Chinese, so either use the full page translation function using Google Chrome browser or Google translator, or right-click on the input field, select "Inspect element" / "View element code" and copy the text into the electronic translator, which contained next to "placeholder" in the element inspector that opens.
      • On the Chinese video hosting youku for the same requests. There are probably far fewer releases.
  4. Practice the sounds that are problematic to pronounce (at least when you already know well how the sound should actually sound).
  5. You can look for other grammar books. However, personally, the textbook indicated in the article was enough for me - I don’t come across unfamiliar grammar in speech. PS. Don't learn from "Minna no Nihongo" - this tutorial is meant to be taught with a teacher, not on your own.
  6. When you feel confident in Japanese:
    1. Read lyrics, comments, manga, comics, light novels, captions, etc. (optional). You need to read in Japanese, preferably without furigana, because you must learn to read well with hieroglyphs and kana.
    2. If you want to be able to speak freely and express your thoughts, you will have to speak. Without it, this skill will suffer.
    3. It also takes practice to learn how to use the correct intonation when speaking.
    4. You can try to start communicating with the Japanese. Ask them to correct your mistakes.
It should also be noted: the most important and difficult of the things listed here is vocabulary, because when you already know all the rules of grammar and know how to use them, you know the intonations of the language, you perceive speech well by ear (if you have watched something in Japanese for enough time ), the only thing that will further restrain you in knowing the language is vocabulary. If you don't know the word, then you don't understand what you were told. And it’s even harder to speak yourself, because you may not know the words that you need, which will be confusing when composing a phrase, even if you had a very good speaking skill.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to collect all the things that are needed to know the Japanese language:

  • Understand sounds. Achieved by watching anime already to the 4th point.
  • Know hiragana and katakana and be able to read it fluently. Achieved with:
    • Direct study (1st and 2nd points).
    • When studying grammar, because you will read sample sentences (5th paragraph).
    • When learning kanji, because learning hieroglyphs, you will also actively encounter kana (8th and 10th points).
    • Reading manga/comics/light novel/comments/lyrics etc‌ ‌etc. (10th point).
    • Viewing with Japanese subtitles (10th item).
  • Know grammar. The most important. Achieved by direct study at the 5th point.
  • Understand speech by ear. Achieved by viewing in Japanese (4, 9, 10 points).
  • Have a vocabulary. Achieved with:
    • Browsing and reading in Japanese.
    • Direct study in the 10th paragraph.
  • Know hieroglyphs and be able to read fluently. Achieved with:
    • Direct study (8th and 10th points).
    • Reading manga/comics/light novel/comments/lyrics etc.‌ ‌etc. (10th point).
    • Viewing with Japanese subtitles (10th item).
  • Pronunciation:
    • The ability to speak and express one's thoughts. Achieved by practice (10th point).
    • Ability to pronounce sounds correctly. It is achieved by itself + by training the pronunciation of problematic sounds (10th point).
    • Ability to use correct intonation when speaking. Achieved by practice (10th point).

The most difficult of these is vocabulary, and it is he who will restrain you at the very end from a very good knowledge of the language (however, I think this is the case in all languages). At the same time, the Japanese language, unfortunately, has a rich vocabulary =)

Dialects

The Japanese language consists of more than one dialect. The most popular is the standard Tokyo dialect. Next in popularity is the Kansai dialect, which is actually a group of dialects that includes the dialects of the Kansai region, such as the O:saki dialect, the Kyo:to dialect, and other dialects that differ from each other. After Kansai, there are many different other dialects. This raises the questions: How much does the variety of dialects interfere with the understanding of Japanese? What dialects should be learned?

In reality, everything is quite simple. You need to learn exactly the Tokyo dialect. On it you can find mutual language with any resident of Japan. All products are also produced in the Tokyo dialect. Including because it is the most popular dialect in Japan, because this dialect is understood by everyone, and also because it is the "official" dialect. Tokyo dialect - dialect of the Internet, television, works.

However, other dialects will also occasionally come across to you, usually Kansai, which is not something to be afraid of. They meet:

  • On broadcasts, people from Kansai are often asked to speak their own dialect.
  • In the works - sometimes the characters are specially given the Kansai dialect.
  • When shooting ordinary people.

There is no need to be afraid of this, because:

  • Still, usually on the Internet, television, and especially works, the Tokyo dialect is mainly used.
  • Dialects in Japanese are not like Chinese. In most dialects, the differences compared to Tokyo are not huge.
  • Over time, you will begin to roughly understand the Kansai dialect even without special study. You can also study and special. The bottom line is that the better you know Japanese, the more often you have met the Kansai dialect, and the better you know it.

Dialects other than Kansai are even less needed. If the Japanese himself does not understand a dialect well, then you don’t need it all the more. It will not be used where all Japanese should understand. And if it's something simple, and the Japanese still understand, then you can understand, depending on your knowledge of the Japanese language. It's like a "vocabulary".

As a result, fortunately, dialects are not a problem that you will encounter. Without any study of dialects, you will much more often encounter ignorance of words, the need to spend some time studying hieroglyphs, or something else. And if all this is not a problem for you, then the dialects are even more so - either without studying, or with it. You don't even have to think about dialects until you realize that you already know Japanese quite well.

But if you have a desire to go to Japan, then the situation will change a little. If you go to a place where a non-Tokyo dialect prevails in the first place (which is far from necessary), then most will speak it with each other, since here it is no longer necessary for any Japanese to understand. That is, the situation when you are inside Japan is different from when you are outside. But even in this case, you can easily speak Tokyo or learn the dialect of the region you are going to.

How long does it take to learn Japanese

Feedback

If something is unclear during the execution of the instruction, or if you want to add something to the instruction, you can write to me

Konnichiwa (こんにちは)! Japanese is a wonderful language that is definitely worth learning, whether for business, reading your favorite manga, or chatting with friends in Japan. At the same time, the Japanese language may seem complicated - after all, it has nothing in common with the languages ​​of the Western world. The alphabet and rules of Japanese are complex, but the grammar, pronunciation and basic phrases are quite simple. Start learning Japanese with useful phrases and move on to more complex - Japanese sounds and alphabets.

Steps

Learning the basics

    Learn Japanese alphabets. The Japanese language uses four main writing systems, each of which is represented by its own graphemes. Already now it may seem that there is a lot to learn there, but it is worth remembering that in any word of the Japanese language, regardless of the alphabet, sounds from a fairly small group are used, where there are only 46 basic sounds. However, learning the alphabets and their uses is an important step in learning the Japanese language. Here's a quick overview:

    • Hiragana is a Japanese syllabary used for writing. Unlike the Latin alphabet, each hiragana character stands for one syllable (that is, it has a vowel and a consonant).
    • Katakana is another syllabary often used to write foreign or onomatopoeic words. Katakana and hiragana together make it possible to convey a large number of sounds in Japanese.
    • Kanji are hieroglyphs that came from China and were adopted by the Japanese language. While hiragana and katakana are so-called "phonetic scripts" denoting sounds, kanji is an ideographic script, that is, its characters have their own meaning. Thousands of kanji characters are known, about two thousand of them are in wide use. The 46 basic sounds used to pronounce katakana and hiragana are also used for kanji.
    • The Latin alphabet is used in Japanese to write acronyms, company names, and other words if aesthetic reasons dictate. The Latin alphabet is also called "romaji" (Roman letters) in Japan. Essentially, Japanese can only use romaji. Of course, this is not done in Japan itself, but those who are just starting to learn Japanese often resort to such a trick to get used to "pronouncing" Japanese characters. Of course, in Japanese there are many such characters that are difficult to write in Latin and difficult to pronounce, as well as many homonyms (much more than in English), which also adds to the confusion. As a consequence, Japanese learners are advised to switch to kanji alphabets as soon as possible and not use the Latin alphabet.

  1. Practice your Japanese pronunciation. The 46 basic sounds of Japanese are one of the 5 vowel sounds, or a combination of a vowel and a consonant, with the exception of a single sound consisting of only a consonant. Vowel sounds are not subject to inflection (unlike English, where the "a" in the words "apple" and "ace" is read differently). You can start working on pronunciation by learning how to read katakana and hiragana characters. On this site you can see examples of the pronunciation of sounds.

    • Focus on the intonation with which you pronounce different sounds. In Japanese, the meanings of words change depending on how they are pronounced. A word with a long vowel and the same word with a short vowel can be two different words.

  2. Learn variations on basic sounds. Sometimes small icons are attached to Japanese characters, symbolizing that the sound should be read differently. Sometimes this leads to the fact that the meaning of words changes. Well, as in English: sometimes "s" sounds like "z".

    • Voiced consonants are pronounced with a hard attack in the intervocalic position.
    • Long vowels pronounced with a vowel drawl differ from short vowels, indicating a difference in words.

  3. Familiarize yourself with Japanese grammar. Knowing the basic grammar rules will help you quickly understand Japanese and make up your own sentences. Japanese is simple and flexible, so putting together sentences from its words is not so difficult.

    Learn Japanese with a tutor

    Dive into Japanese

    1. Join the Speak Japanese Club. Or to any other similar group, it doesn’t matter, it’s not so difficult to find such groups, and participation in them will help you get used to speech, isolate words from the streams of someone else’s speech. Even if you don't understand what was said at first, try to repeat what was said and try to break it down into words. All this will improve your understanding of the language.

    2. Make friends from Japan with whom you can regularly practice the language. Many Japanese want to learn English (and some will not refuse Russian), so there is always a chance to establish mutually beneficial cooperation! To learn a language, it is very useful to find yourself friends who are native speakers.

      • Practice the language with your friends, but not in the form of a lesson. If you are lucky and you can communicate in person, then show your new friends the city, sights. And remember that you need to relax regularly, otherwise, all these hieroglyphs can make your head spin! Combine business with pleasure when you learn a language in this way.
      • On those days when you don't need to go anywhere, call your Japanese friends and talk for half an hour - and only in Japanese. The more language practice, the higher the skills.

    3. Immerse yourself in the world of Japanese media products. Newspapers, novels, movies, shows - read and listen to Japanese speech daily. On the Internet, you can find a lot of Japanese films of all genres with original soundtracks. Find a movie in your favorite genre to make learning more fun! Japanese newspapers will give you an active grammar and relevant words and constructions. As you get comfortable with them, move on to novels, so you become familiar with the more artistic style of Japanese. And don't stop at just one! Watch movies, read manga, listen to music and watch anime!

      • Actually, the manga is a good reading material. However, not everything is so simple. Serious work is, without a doubt, a good didactic material(plus also with pictures), but manga for children is not quite the same, a lot of slang and unnecessary sound effects. Choose manga wisely.

    4. Study in Japan. Perhaps this is the best way to learn a language. It will be a delightful, unpredictable experience of immersion in another cultural and language environment, even if only for a short time. Even if you have studied a language exceptionally diligently, a trip to a country where everyone speaks it will surely open up a lot of new things for you.

      • Are you studying at the university? Find out if your educational institution exchange programs or something similar. Such trips are one of the best ways to learn a language, not to mention the fact that they are often paid for by the university itself!
      • Do not give up if you arrived in Japan and ... do not understand anything by ear, but read through time. To become fluent in another language requires long, very long years of diligent and painstaking work. And the subtleties and nuances of Japanese are very difficult to learn at all, but all this only makes the Japanese language more beautiful and interesting.
    • Words from manga and anime are often not suitable for use in everyday situations. It is better to learn the use of language from real people, not from pop culture trends.
    • Learn to respect the context. If the person next to you greets someone or responds in a certain way, follow suit the next time you are in a similar situation. It is best to observe peers of the same gender. You understand that speech behavior that is appropriate for an older man may be strange for a young woman.
    • Consider learning to write and learn kanji (rather than hiragana or katakana) last. So when you get to kanji, you can only use the Japanese meanings of the words, and you don't have to translate them back and forth. However, others believe that it is better to learn writing and learn words at the same time. It all depends on your learning style.
    • Try not to switch between languages. According to research, when we study new language, completely new neural connections are formed in our brain. It is worth returning to Russian again, and fluency can decrease by 16%.
    • Don't rely on gadgets. Electronic dictionaries are not our method. It's expensive, and most of the features, if you don't already know how to read at the proper level, will not be useful to you. Ideally, before such a purchase, you should confidently know about 300-500 kanji characters.
    • If you travel to Japan and try to start speaking outside of a formal or business setting, be prepared to face harsh reality. And the reality is that not everyone wants to listen to a foreigner who speaks badly and answer something to him there. But don't let that stop you! There will always be those who will listen to you, no matter how badly you speak.
    • Watch anime without Russian subtitles, especially those that you have already seen in your native language. This will give you an idea of ​​what the characters are talking about.
    • Try to always pronounce vowels and consonants correctly, even when it seems to you that it will look stupid.
    • When speaking Japanese, try not to speak too fast or too slow. Practice with native speakers whenever possible.
    • Any language, if not practiced, is forgotten with frightening ease. So keep practicing Japanese. For example, if you study a language for several months and then take a break for a year, you will FORGET all the learned kanji characters and most of the grammar along with them. Japanese is a difficult language, and even the Japanese themselves, living abroad for some time, begin to forget kanji. In other words, it is better to learn little by little, but regularly, than to arrange a marathon every couple of months.

The Japanese language is one of the oldest and most complex in the world. Its composition and structure are fundamentally different from European languages ​​and from Russian. Due to the peculiarities of writing, of course, it will not be possible to learn it in a month - most likely, it will take at least a year and a half. There are several recommendations that will make the learning process more effective and efficient.

Features of the Japanese language

Hieroglyphic languages ​​are complex in that spoken language and writing must be studied separately. And in the Japanese language, there are as many as three writing systems. Two of them - hiragana and katakana - are syllabaries. With the help of hiragana, grammatical relations between words are conveyed, and katakana is needed to write foreign and borrowed words. To denote the basis of the word, kanji are used - hieroglyphs that have passed into Japanese from Chinese. If you forgot which character the desired word stands for, you can also use hiragana.

Word order in Japanese sentences is not particularly difficult. You just need to remember that the predicate is always placed at the end of the sentence, and the definition - before the defined. The subject is sometimes omitted if it is clear from the context who or what is being referred to.

When learning Japanese, you do not have to memorize all kinds of word forms - they do not change by person, gender or number. The plural form is indicated by a particle attached to the word at the end. Also, there is no future tense form in Japanese.

And one more feature - three degrees of politeness in a conversation:

  • Usual friendly communication, on "you".
  • Speech for formal occasions, on "you".
  • Respectful speech.

In terms of phonetics, the sounds of Japanese speech are similar to Russian with some nuances. From all of the above, it becomes clear that the most difficult thing in learning Japanese is writing.

Study Methods

You can learn Japanese in different ways: on your own, in group classes, or one-on-one with a teacher. The choice is a personal matter for everyone, because the most important thing in learning a language is motivation. If it is, any of these methods will bear fruit.

Group lessons

In any major city, you can find a linguistic center or school that offers Japanese language learning from scratch in a group. Teachers in such centers are usually not only fluent in the language, but also have effective techniques for memorizing words. Good specialists are able to make the learning process bright and interesting. But it should be remembered that if you want to learn a language quickly, in addition to attending classes, be sure to cram hieroglyphs at home and prescribe them, do exercises and pronounce phrases and words.

The disadvantage of such classes is that the level of language proficiency of students in a group is always different, as well as the speed of mastering. And even if you are more capable than the rest, you will have to adapt to them.

Individual training

Unlike group lessons, individual lessons allow you to practice at the pace you want. The teacher will adjust only for you. The frequency of classes can also be adjusted depending on your needs. This option would be ideal if it were not for the high cost of individual lessons.

Self-study

This method is good because you do not have to pay anyone, and the class schedule will depend only on your own desire. But keep in mind that when learning a language on your own, it is very easy to relax, and the process of mastering can stretch over time.

It is very important to find good tutorial. The textbooks “Reading, writing and speaking Japanese” by E.V. Strugova and N.S. Sheftelevich and "Japanese for Beginners" L.T. Nechaeva. They have a drawback - vocabulary that does not meet the needs modern life. Therefore, expressions and phrases can be taken from other textbooks, for example, from the Japanese editions of Genky or Try, where there are very lively dialogues.

First of all, you need to learn the syllabary alphabet, which includes 146 syllables, then move on to the study of hieroglyphs and grammar. To communicate fluently in Japanese, you need to know about 2000 hieroglyphic characters. It is very difficult to remember such a number, so many teachers teach to use figurative thinking for this.

Learning a language is a long process, and it is important to make sure that it does not become boring and tedious, and at the same time remains effective. The following recommendations will help with this:

  1. You need to practice every day! Languages ​​with hieroglyphic writing are forgotten very quickly, so you should not take breaks.
  2. Lessons can be varied. For example, in the morning we write hieroglyphs in a notebook, in the afternoon we watch a movie in Japanese with subtitles or listen to Japanese music, in the evening we try to read the news on Japanese sites. For learning a language, all means are good.
  3. For smartphone owners, a great variety of applications have been created that allow you to effortlessly learn the language. They include hieroglyphics, and listening, and pronunciation control, and dialogues. This method is good for those who do not have time to study the language, since it only takes 5 minutes a day. The main thing is regularity.
  4. To memorize hieroglyphs, there are applications that allow you to download decks of flash cards. For example, looking at cards every day in the Ankidroid application, we mark the degree of memorability for each character, and the program itself regulates how often they are displayed on the screen.
  5. You need to learn words not separately, but as part of expressions or sentences. If you make several phrases with each word, it will be remembered more easily.
  6. It's just great if there is an opportunity to communicate with a native speaker, if not in person, then at least via Skype. This will allow you to develop spontaneity and consolidate the knowledge gained. The best option is to live in the country of the language being studied.

Learning Japanese is difficult, but not impossible. Two main components are necessary for successful classes - powerful motivation and iron discipline. There are many ways to learn a language, and the best result can be achieved by combining them all.

Of course, learning Japanese from scratch does not happen at the snap of your fingers, and it takes a lot of time to devote to it - just like any other foreign language. But although it cannot be learned only after watching the anime, it is easier to learn than it seems at first glance. Why this is so, and not otherwise, and how to learn Japanese step by step - we tell for beginners.

What makes Japanese easy to learn

Time to dispel a few myths about the Japanese language and prove that learning it can be quite easy in many ways. For example:

Learning kanji just got a whole lot easier

What scares Japanese beginners the most is the kanji, or Chinese characters used in Japanese writing. However, now they can be learned much faster thanks to the development of technology and the emergence of smartphones and special applications. One has only to learn romaji - the order of romanization of Japanese syllables - and you can look up kanji on the Internet, an online dictionary and type them on your computer using tooltips.

Japanese writing is not only hieroglyphs

Except Chinese characters, each of which can represent single word, in Japanese there are two more writing systems, that is, two alphabets - hiragana and katakana. They are symbols with which individual syllables and words are written. At the same time, mostly words of non-Japanese origin are written in katakana, and Japanese words for which there are no kanji are written in hiragana. They are much easier to remember, and subsequently distinguish in the text, read and write.

Lots of borrowings from English

Good news for those who study English language: words borrowed from it make up a fairly large group of Japanese vocabulary. For example, wife ("wife") in Japanese was transformed into waifu, news ("news") - into nyuusu, etc. Of course, in Japanese these words are pronounced a little differently than in English, but their phonetic pattern is very similar. You should learn the rules Japanese pronunciation foreign words, and you will notice English borrowings without much difficulty.

Easy pronunciation

And since we are talking about pronunciation, it is quite simple in Japanese. In fact, it contains only 5 vowels and 14 consonants. Many sounds even almost coincide with the sounds in more familiar English, for example, konnichiwa can be transposed to English transcription how . Japanese pronunciation is easier to learn because there are no diphthongs - a merged combination of two vowel sounds (like [əʊ] in the English word tone or like in the German word Reich), or a confluence of consonants (like in the word "hello" or the word angsts) . Also, unlike many other East Asian languages ​​such as Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese, Japanese is non-tonal.

Noun gender? Did not hear!

French, Italian and other Romance languages ​​are complicated by the presence of two or even three genders of nouns - masculine, feminine and neuter. But when you try to learn Japanese, you don't have to torture yourself by cramming noun forms.

Syllables are only pronounced one way

Again, let's compare Japanese with English, where the same combination of sounds may differ in pronunciation in different cases, for example: apple, vary, able, where the sound [a] in different syllables is pronounced as [æ], , . Learning Japanese in this regard is much easier, since all of its 45 basic syllables are read in only one way and nothing else.

How to Learn Japanese Fast - Tips for Beginners

If you still do not know how to learn Japanese, or rather, where to start learning it, then pay attention to the following instructions. In it, we briefly described the main steps that will help beginner students who want to learn the language on their own, structure the information received and organize the learning process.

  • You need to start with writing, namely the syllabary alphabets that we mentioned above - hiragana and katakana. This is how they look:

The most effective way to learn these alphabets is by constant repetition, as we did in school with the multiplication table. Learn spelling, pronunciation, and romaji for each alphabet at the same time.

  • Choose a Japanese textbook to follow next. It is the textbook that will help you not only randomly learn words and phrases, but gain an adequate understanding of the structure of the language, learn the most common vocabulary, master grammar and other rules.

Try to find a complete Japanese textbook: along with workbook, tasks, test answers and audio files to help you practice pronunciation and listening comprehension. Minna no Nihongo is one of the best textbooks to help learn Japanese for beginners.

  • The next step is to learn kanji. Just memorizing the hieroglyphs will not work, so you have to find good literature, which will help you understand the principle of their formation and suggest colorful examples - without context, there is nowhere. Start by studying graphemes - these are the constituent parts of hieroglyphs, the “bricks” that make up each of them. Learn them - and memorizing kanji will be much easier.

We advise you to take “1000 hieroglyphs in aphorisms, proverbs and sayings”, “Japanese-Russian educational dictionary of hieroglyphs”, “The path of a tailless bird” by A.I. Talyshkhanova, “Japanese for the soul. Kandzya essays" by A.M. Vurdov. For those who know English, the book by James Heisig "Remembering the Kanji" (James W. Heisig "Remembering the Kanji") in 3 volumes is also suitable.

  • Continuing to study kanji with new vocabulary and strengthen grammar, start watching anime, films with subtitles - watch first with Russian, and then with Japanese. Read in Japanese: You can start with children's manga, which uses simple phrases and pictures, and then move on to more complex ones. When knowledge begins to allow, go to Japanese newspapers and books. Learn more about manga with which you can learn Japanese in the video:

  • And, of course, try to find yourself a Japanese interlocutor. If there are none in your city and you cannot go to Japan, use social networks to study foreign languages, mobile applications, Skype, etc. - there are a lot of possibilities.

We hope this guide has answered the question of where to start learning Japanese and made it easier for you to understand it. We wish you success in your studies!


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