Notes

A practical guide to self-studying Japanese
New Japanese learners often wonder: is it really possible to self-study Japanese? Don't worry, you're not alone. The idea that anyone can learn one of the hardest languages in the world without any teachers was insane to me.

My tough goal (in some way) was achieved after I graduated college. A year after I fully self-studied Japanese for 1 year, I passed the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level N2, only to discover it wasn't THAT impressive as I originally thought. My next post will be about how I learned Japanese all by myself and passed the JLPT N2 with a score of 97/180 (the passing score is 90).


There are about 2000 Kanji characters to learn, but remembering the hiragana and katakana charts is probably the easiest part. After learning Kanji for a while, I decided to temporarily skip it for a month, doing so gave me a headache. Why don't Japanese people use only hiragana for their writing system, just as Koreans use hangul? We'd all be saving a lot of time and effort that way. Kanji was extremely hated when I was young, but later I completely fell in love with it.

Remembering the Kanji by Heisig might be familiar to you. For all Japanese learners who want to learn Kanji quickly and easily, this book is a must-have. Using your imagination, it teaches you how not to forget the characters. The book is certainly the best among hundreds of books dedicated to learning Chinese characters, but it's not guaranteed to work for everyone or to make you an expert.

There are some downsides to this book, including that you cannot get the on and kun reading for the characters. It seems the author wants to emphasize the most effective way to remember the characters because he knows that we can learn to read them elsewhere easily. It shouldn't be too difficult to Google on and kun readings for each character if you're a serious learner.

By writing as many sentences and short essays as you can, you will become familiar with writing the Kanji. Repeat the same word in different sentences until you are finally able to remember it. If you are writing a paper, you should also type it and ask someone else to proofread it.

Audio, video, and pdf formats are available for thousands of lessons. A better Japanese learning site won't probably be found online. Blog For Pet Lover can be divided into four main categories: Absolute beginner, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. Seasons within each category contain 20+ lessons each. To learn offline, you can download the pdf and mp3 files from the website.
My Website: https://dapetblog.com/