New Students Guide!
Questions you’ll be asked!
Why do you want to study Japanese?
Have you studied Japanese before? If so when, in what setting and up to what level?
Do you plan on taking any JLPTs (Japanese language proficiency tests)?
Do you have any textbooks/ other study material?
Things to consider:
Do you have the time, and can you commit?
A bit heavy for a first question, but the most common reason I have for people discontinuing their studied is that they didn’t realise how much commitment learning the language would be. Remember, Japanese is one of the hardest languages for English speakers to learn. On my part, I’ve tried my absolute hardest to gear my guide to English speakers and always opt for the simplest explanations….
For example, if we’re doing ‘present continuous form’, I’ll make sure to remind you that this generally presents its self as ‘ing’ in English, such as ‘Swimming’. This will save you hours of wrapping your head around what the Textbook means when it’s saying ‘present continuous’ when it could have just noted beneath it ‘ing’ and you could have gone to bed early that night (not that I learnt this the hard way).
… But on your part, you need to be prepared for it taking time!
2. Be realistic with improvement..
I have a few students who learn at a very fast pace, but this is more the exception than the rule. If you’re working a 9-5 and only have 1-2 hours a week you can devote to learning, just be prepared for a long journey! Japanese has a long road to fluency due to it’s different levels of politeness (we’ll get into this) and it’s writing system which means you not only need to learn the vocab, you need to learn to draw its characters!
3. Consume media.
I asked some of the top students on my uni course how they picked everything up so fast, and they all gave answers such as ‘I just love Japanese music’, or ‘I watch a lot of anime’ and even ‘I spend my free time translating manga I want to read’. Now, you don’t have to find a manga and start translating, but I recommend finding something you like that you can do in your free time, even if that’s watching a TV show in Japanese (in fact, Disney+ has many Disney movies dubbed in Japanese, as well as TV shows such as Buffy The Vampire Slayer).
Notes:
If your a beginner and decide I’m not the teacher for you, I recommend, looking for a teacher that has learnt Japanese as a Second Language until you’ve picked up the basics, as they’ll have been in the same position as you! Once you’re getting the hang of things, nothing beats learning from a Native Japanese teacher! This is in fact the reason I currently only teach up to N4!
ビデオおすすめ
All homework pages come with recommended videos related to the lesson you just completed. These are videos by other creators that are relevant to the lesson we have just completed. I use lessons by other creators because:
Its a chance to get some Japanese native listening practice in when revising.
If you find you didn’t completely understand the weeks grammar, sometimes having it explained differently helps!
Now, if your not already familiar, let’s take a quick look at the Japanese writing system below!
Politeness levels:
One thing that makes Japanese a tad harder to learn is it had different levels of politeness, which can quite literally change how a word it said. For example, the following all mean the exact same thing, ‘To eat’, with varying levels of politeness:
Casual: たべる/Taberu
Polite: たべます/Tabemasu
Horrific Honorific: めしあげます/Meshiagemasu
As you can see, the final one looks very different to the first two. This means you have to learn an extra word to understand the word ‘to eat’ in every situation.
But, don’t worry! If we learn the first 2, we’ll be able to understand most situations! And in fact, we don’t even dig into Honorific speech until N4/N3! Lastly, it does make it easier to work out how polite you are being, so it does have its pros!
ひらがな Study Sheets
Below are some study sheets you can use to practice before the first lesson! All the vocab is words we’ll learn in the first ten lessons, so you can learn useful vocabulary whilst learning to write!
Each lesson, you’ll have 3-4 Kanji to learn. I do not teach Kanji using the radicals method, I use my own system of introducing Kanji as we learn related words. You will have learnt all the Kanji needed for N5 by time you take the exam (if that’s what your aim is) using this method and more, just not in the typical order!
The reasoning behind the method:
The lessons Kanji and almost always relevant to the Lessons word list. This means occasionally you’ll get a few Kanji that are N4 as a beginner, but it also means that you can read and write what you can say.
The Kanji are introduced relevant to how you will use it.
For example:
We learn 辞 In lesson 14 when we learn how to write Dictionary (辞書/じしょ/Jisho). However, we do not learn the vocab 辞める/やめる/Yameru (To stop) until Lesson 30, therefore we do not learn the reading 辞める until it is relevant!
In Lesson:
You’ll have a word list each lesson. I will pause for you to write it down. Please write it down rather than screenshot-ing it! They’re words we will be using in class (of course, as a student has mentioned before, I will not jump out of the screen and force you to write them down if you really don’t want to!). Same goes for Kanji!
There will also be some writing tasks. Im very used to pausing for 5-10 minutes for students to write, so don’t worry about me, take your time and complete the task. The best way to put it is, if we were in a classroom setting, it would be normal to expect writing tasks! After we’ve completed a few lessons we can discuss the lesson options that involve completing these tasks outside of class time!
おすすめおんがく
Recommended Music! Never forget たふん or でも again!
Sometimes I attach music that includes words or grammar we learnt in the lesson to help you remember grammar points and vocabulary in a more light hearted way!
宿題
Below are some examples of homework sheets you’ll receive after lesson 3!
Homework sheets are optional, if you decide to do any/all of them, we will go over the, at the beginning of class. If you’re on the guided self study program, please make sure you complete at least 1 before class!
Quizlet Flashcards:
You’ll usually find a link to Quizlet versions of the word list so you can use their free digital flash card function to help you learn! It has a voice function that you can play on repeat in the background.
At the end of some homework pages, you’ll find embedded online quizzes! They’re optional if you want to test your knowledge!