Beginning Japanese

A curated list of Japanese language learning resources.

📚 TLDR

1. Grammar: Organic Japanese with Cure Dolly (📺 Videos). 80/20 Japanese by Richard Webb 💰 📖
2. 📇 Space Repetition Flashcards like Anki, Migaku 💰 📖
3. Memorize/Practice Reading Kana. Memorize/Practice Reading Kana. Japanese Verb Conjugator
4. Immersion The Moe Way: Why many people "fail" to learn Japanese, Migaku 💰 📖
5. Selected Useful Resources

📚 Table of Contents

1. Grammar
2. Vocabulary
3. Hiragana / Katakana
4. Kanji
5. Immersion
6. Miscellaneous

✨ Grammar

📚 Main Resources

1. Migaku 💰 📖
2. Selected Useful Resources
3. 📺 Organic Japanese With Cure Dolly - Youtube Playlist (Watch until at least lesson 39), Transcribed Online Book
4. 80/20 Japanese by Richard Webb 💰 - Two versions of the book, one Romaji Edition, one Kana + Kanji Edition

📚 Primary Supplementary Resources

1. 📺 Game Gengo a YouTube channel dedicated to helping you learn and improve your Japanese/translation ability in the most enjoyable way possible, through Video Games!
2. 📺 Japanese Grammar concepts the textbooks don't teach you - Jouzu Juls, Japanese Conjugation Quiz

📚 Secondary Supplementary Resources

1. Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese
2. An introduction to Japanese Syntax, Grammar & Language by Michiel "Pomax" Kamermans
3. Marshall's Site Learn Japanese Step by Step
4. IMABI 今日 Guided Japanese Mastery
5. 昨日 Sakubi: Yesterday's Grammar Guide
6. Visualizing Japanese Grammar by Shoko Hamano
7. Boirodaisuki: The grammar guide that nobody wanted and nobody asked for

✨ Vocabulary

1. 📇 (Anki Deck) Japanese course based on Tae Kim's grammar guide & anime version 14 by Japanese Like A Breeze. About 1000 words. Follow instructions in the official website to install the add-on.
2. 📇 (Anki Deck) Kaishi 1.5k v2.0
3. Japanese Dictionary

Settings: 20 new cards per day. Unlimited Reviews (9999). Review order: Put all new cards after review.

✨ Hiragana / Katakana

1. Human Japanese 💰 - A good introduction to kana and how to pronounce them
2. Trace Sheets to practice writing Kana and Tofugu mnemonics guide.
3. 📺 (Youtube Video) Learn ALL Kana: Hiragana + Katakana in 2 Hours - How to Write and Read Japanese
4. Practice Kana with Quizzes. Gohoneko Kana Grinding Game, Kana Pro, Tofugu Kana Quiz, Practice Japanese. There are also many Kana Quiz apps for your mobile phone.
5. Duolingo

✨ Kanji

📚 Main Resource

• 📇 (Anki Deck) Remembering the Kanji 450 with Stories, Alternative Link

From Reddit: "I personally did the 1250-something RRTK deck and I regret doing more than 400-600-ish. I did have fun doing it, but I (looking at my stats) only encountered the later kanji when I already knew around 4000 words. The word / kanji frequency isn't really worth it in my opinion", "I second this. I did around 1000, and really regret not stopping at around 300. I'd say finish your 450 from your current deck and then from here just learn the first 200 most common words (with kanji and pronunciation), then start mining vocabulary from immersion."

📚 Supplementary Resources

1. 📖 Smart Kanji Book
2. 📖 The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Courses: A Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering 2300 Characters by Andrew Scott Conning
3. 📖 Remembering the Kanji vol. I by James W. Heisig
4. Hochahn RTK - Database to easily search common Kanji

Download Kanji Books (PDFs)

Smart Kanji Book is a kanji ebook with Remembering-the-Kanji-ish stories but featuring only 734 kanji that make up over 87% of Wikipedia AND vocabulary with kanji you know.

✨ Immersion

• The Moe Way
• Some recommendations by Donkuri.
• Migaku 💰 📖
• Consume content made by Native Japanese Speakers for Native Japanese Speakers
• The best way to learn japanese is to consume content you are actually interested in. It's going to be very difficult in the beginning but start from Day 1.
• I love songs and analysing their lyrics. Study japanese lyrics of songs that I like. Try to translate japanese songs to my native language.
• More Examples: Use Netflix to rewatch shows that you love with Japanese Subtitles on or Japanese Dub turned on. Watch anime, japanese movies like those from Hayao Miyazaki. Watch japanese Youtubers
• Also, make friends and conversate with native japanese people with the same interests as you, there are many communities online (Discord) to help you with this.

✨ Miscellaneous

📚 Online

• Reddit r/learnJapanese
• yudataguy/Awesome-Japanese

📚 Physical Books I've Borrowed 💰

• 📖 Genki I: An Integrated Course In Elementary Japanese
• 📖 A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar by Seiichi Makino and Michio Tsutsui
• 📖 Japanese the Manga Way: An Illustrated Guide to Grammar & Structure by Wayne P. Lammers

📚 Educational Books That Might be Worth Checking Out Eventually 💰

• 📖 Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You, By Jay Rubin
• 📖 Unlocking Japanese: Making Japanese as Simple as it Really Is, By Cure Dolly
• 📖 Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication: A Self-Study Guide, By Taeko Kamiya
• 📖 2000 Most Common Japanese Words in Context: Get Fluent & Increase Your Japanese Vocabulary with 2000 Japanese Phrases (Japanese Language Lessons), by Lingo mastery