Tsuchan (I appreciate that is not your username, but that's what you go by now in a purely endearing sense - my Japanese language class took the first syllable and added chan as a term of endearment/encouragement, so I'm Halchan (or Haruchan) and Porcile is "twatchan")
THE ABSOLUTE BASICS
- Fuck the Anki core 5k or whatever it is
- Fuck any sort or 'games' that help you to learn kanji
- Fuck duolingo, delete that absolute shit right now
- The only way to learn Japanese is by doing the fucking textbooks. No exceptions.
FIRST THING TO NOTE:
HOLY MOTHERFUCKING SHIT, JAPANESE IS FUCKING HARD. IF YOU AIN'T GONNA GO 110% BALLS TO THE WALLS THEN FUCK YOU, JUST GIVE UP NOW. THIS ESPECIALLY APPLIES IF YOU'RE NOT A JAPANESE MAJOR AT UNI AND ARE TRYING TO STUDY ON YOUR OWN.
I DID NOTHING TO N1 IN 2.5 YEARS. IF YOU CAN'T DO IT FASTER THAN THIS YOU ARE FUCKING AROUND AND SHOULD GIVE UP.
(This is for emphasis, obviously you work at your own pace but bear in mind that if you take significantly longer you haven't been studying properly)
Right, my friend, here we go with the basic outline of the no BS approach to studying Japanese.
I'm fluent-ish, i.e. enough to bash my way through daily life and work at a Japanese company (and most importantly to play obscure Japanese eroge) but, genuinely, this will be the most hours efficient way of learning Japanese.
Step Ground Zero:
Sweet jesus, get a Japanese teacher as soon as possible. A native is essential. You already live in Japan so do whatever is necessary. Best situation is signing up to a language school. If you don't have a teacher, the below will be more difficult because you won't have anyone to correct your mistakes. If you don't have a teacher, you'll continue to make basic errors which may set back your progress upwards of a year.
Step 0:
Subscribe to WankiKani (
https://www.wanikani.com/) and do the reviews
as soon as fucking possible. If you do everything as quickly as possible, you will know more Japanese than 99% of the dirty plebs on the internet and will be fluent. Realistically, you'll get lazy and fuck up the review queue and end up reviewing shit you already know. See below for the answer.
Step 0.1:
If you're a cheap ass mofo or think you're smarter than wanikani (you're not) you can sign up for an account and just make your own flashcards and review at your own pace. I 100% guarantee you'll fuck it up, so you're best off just subbing and doing the reviews as planned. (I gave up on wankikani at like level 40 or something)
Step 1:
ABSOLUTELY FUCK LEARNING TO WRITE KANJI BECAUSE IT'S FUCKING USELESS
It's a fucking waste of time and as long as you can read kanji vaguely you can type it. if you studied Japanese at unit then, yeah, fine, writing is useful but if you want to study efficiently then absolutely FUCK THAT NOISE
Step 2: level 1 textbooks
- Genki 1
- Genki 2
Do these fucking books and learn everything in them. Genki is a great start to Japanese and gives you enough vocab and grammar to bash your way through 'basic' japanese. If you habu dishiprin, this should take you 3-6 months. If it takes you longer than 6 months to get through both, you have fucked up and are wasting time. There's literally no shortcut. Learn the content, understand the texbooks.
Step 3: the studying actually starts
By this point, you should have the basics. Once you're at this stage, the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) studying starts in earnest.
Step 3.1:
Buy this book:
Amazonで小山 悟のJ.BRIDGE to Intermediate Japanese 新装第2版。アマゾンならポイント還元本が多数。小山 悟作品ほか、お急ぎ便対象商品は当日お届けも可能。またJ.BRIDGE to Intermediate Japanese 新装第2版もアマゾン配送商品なら通常配送無料。
www.amazon.co.jp
Buy this book:
Amazonで哲, 土岐, 史也, 平高, 能子, 鶴尾, 正昭, 関, 康子, 新内の日本語中級J301―基礎から中級へ (英語版)。アマゾンならポイント還元本が多数。哲, 土岐, 史也, 平高, 能子, 鶴尾, 正昭, 関, 康子, 新内作品ほか、お急ぎ便対象商品は当日お届けも可能。また日本語中級J301―基礎から中級へ (英語版)もアマゾン配送商品なら通常配送無料。
www.amazon.co.jp
Do both of these. You will learn the basics of lower intermediate Japanese and, on top of Genki, have enough to bash your way through a vague conversation. Crucial is to learn the vocab and grammar.
Step 4: you 'speak' Japanese
This is the point where you can understand the convenience store workers and people say 'nihongo o jyouzu desu ne'. This is patronising. Nihongo is not o jyouzu. You're still fucking shit at Nihongo. That's why it's time to hit the JLPT studying.
Step 5: buy the following books:
- Soumatome Nihongo N3
- Shin Kanzen Master N3
My god learn shit fucking shit inside out. Until you can repeat it all, you've failed. I haven't included the kanji books because they're a waste of time and you should know all N3 kanji by now. If you've kept up with wanikani to like level 25 or so and learnt the majority of the kaniji and vocab you should be okay.
LEVEL 1
Let's assume you passed N3 once you've finished the above books. Congrats. You can 'speak' Japanese. Ish.
(I'll check in later with the next level and possibly expanded instructions for this.
I swear to god, Tsuchan, if you tell me you're working hard at duolingo I will take you outside and shoot you like a rabid old yeller because you're doing the wrong fucking thing)