Japanese is a difficult language to learn, especially if you haven’t had much experience with learning another foreign language before. There is a bunch of vocabulary, new grammar structures, various conjugations, and on top of it all is the ever-daunting kanji. It gets even more challenging when you realize how different listening, reading, writing, and speaking can get. There are so many layers to Japanese, so it is important to have a variety of resources and strategies to tackle each part of the language.
Listening
Japanese is known as one of the fastest languages and has a low “information density” and a high “syllable rate”. This means more needs to be spoken to get ideas and meaning across. More speaking means more listening that needs to be done. Combined with a grammar structure that is different from English, you will find yourself asking people to repeat themselves. And because of the low “information rate”, Japanese will often leave out some specifics and rely on lots of implied context. You can hear 100% of what is said, but can still be confused if you don’t understand who is speaking and the situation it is being spoken in.
However, one of the nice things about listening is that you don’t have to bother with kanji! Listening can become a real struggle at first, but as most Japanese learners improve, they find that listening becomes much easier. As you become more immersed in daily life in Japan, you will start to understand more frequently used phrases and vocabulary. You will be surprised how quickly you can pick up on Japanese used in classrooms, restaurants, and konbinis. Many textbooks will include audio CDs to practice with and many popular study programs include audio recordings as well.
Word of warning for beginners, anime and TV dramas can be a fun way to practice listening, but some of the language and/or word choice may not be the most common or standard. (For example, dated Japanese from historical dramas, specific words for monsters and magic in a fantasy, or super rude/casual Japanese.) You may learn a new word or phrase from a show, but it may be something you shouldn’t be saying to your principal or JTE.
Reading
There are three alphabet systems that get used in Japan (four if you count romaji), hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Hiragana and katakana are phonetic and don’t take as long to learn, but kanji is the real beast. Even if you learn and memorize the Joyo Kanji (2136 basic kanji used in 95% of the language), there are still countless combinations you can put them in to create more vocabulary, and how a kanji is used can affect how they are read. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced Japanese learner, kanji will always be one of the harder parts of learning the language.
Despite the complexity, reading does have some of its good points to make it seem less intimidating. Speaking and listening typically requires more direct interaction with others to improve but reading can be done on your own and taken at your pace. Furigana (the little hiragana written above some complex kanji) can also help make things a little bit smoother and help to give you some context. You may not be able to read a specific kanji, but when you sound out the furigana, you may realize that you know the word, but not its kanji. As you become more familiar, you may even encounter the opposite situation where you may not know the exact translation/reading of a kanji, but you can still remember the general meaning when you see it.
Flashcards and memorization programs like Wanikani or Anki will be your best methods for not only filling your head with many kanji but making sure it sticks there too. Aside from memorizing the kanji, resources like NHK Easy News are great for practicing full sentences, stories, and articles.
As with our warning with using anime and TV shows, be careful if you try practicing with works of fiction, in particular manga. Not only is there a lot of non-standard grammar and vocabulary, but there is also lots of onomatopoeia. It can be fun to learn, but they can be incredibly specific. Tofugu has a great article the goes DEEP into Japanese onomatopoeia.
However, manga can still be helpful! Instead of picking up one of the more popular fantasy or adventure stories, try a more simple “slice-of-life” type story that covers more daily life topics. A personal favorite is “よつばと！”, a cute daily life story of a little girl who is always learning about things in her life. She needs lots of explanations, so as she learns, you will be learning as well! This link is a great place to get started. They don’t have all the chapters, but you can easily switch between the Japanese and English translations to help you when you get stuck.
Online translators can be helpful in a pinch, but the translations can come out very garbled and aren’t able to factor in context. You shouldn’t be translating everything anyway, so physical or online dictionaries are going to be able to help you more. (https://jisho.org/ is a personal favorite, allowing you to look up words you don’t know.)
Writing
Of the Japanese skills that people develop, writing is one that often gets neglected by ALTs learning the language. Why send an email to a teacher, when you can walk over and talk directly to them? Even if we need to send an email, the recipient is usually a JTE, so English is the usual default.
It is important to know that there is a big difference between actually “writing” Japanese and “typing” Japanese. Thanks to typing software, writing something out on your computer or phone is much simpler. It really comes in handy for those kanji that have over a dozen little strokes. Predictive typing is also beneficial, but it’s important to not rely on it too heavily. You still need to use the correct kanji or grammar to make sure what you say actually makes sense.
Handwriting Japanese is harder than typing, but it can be a huge benefit when learning the language. Knowing how to write and learning proper kanji stroke order can help you better recognize handwritten Japanese that gets scribbled on chalkboards or on notes left at your desk. There is also lots of research showing that the physical act of writing helps with memorization by combining the muscle memory with the visual memory. Knowing how to write a bit can help in the classroom when the students need a little bit of Japanese clarification.
When self-studying your Japanese writing (whether writing or typing) a good focus is to use different grammar points. This is where making use of textbooks can help you. Mixing in some kanji/vocab you are currently practicing can help you kill two birds with one stone as you study. As with reading, you can take your time when writing, so you can check on things like proper conjugation or referring to example sentences. If you get tired of creating your own sentences, Bunpro is a great program that focuses on helping you learn grammar points with flash cards and sample questions you would see on the JLPT.
However, to get the most out of writing practice, it is extremely helpful to have someone like a tutor, JTE, or higher-level friend check your writing. Often, there are little writing nuances or context that aren’t obvious or don’t get explicitly covered in textbooks and learning software. If you can’t find someone readily available to help, https://lang-8.com/ is a great place where you can post your writing or questions and other users can correct your writing and respond with feedback.
Speaking
One of the most feared and stress inducing parts of learning any language is going out and speaking it with people. You can’t really take your time like you can when reading and writing, and you also can’t sit and nod your head pretending that you understood absolutely everything said to you. When you speak, it is immediate and more fluent Japanese speakers will know what mistakes you’ve potentially made. Unfortunately, even if you read, write, and listen to everything perfectly, speaking is the way most Japanese people will judge your Japanese ability.
BUT, the best way to overcome the challenge of speaking is understanding and accepting that it is okay to not be perfect! It may feel like a real struggle at times to remember the right word or proper grammar, but as long as you are able to communicate what you wanted to communicate with another person, then you have successfully spoken Japanese! So what if you have to draw little sketches or use more gestures than a game of charades, you are putting yourself out there and applying what you know. You can’t get better at speaking if you don’t do it at all.
Finding a good person to practice speaking with will be your best way to improve. It helps to try and make a little small talk with the cashier at your local conbini or the obachan down the street, but they aren’t likely going to help correct you if you’ve made a mistake. A tutor, a Japanese friend, or even one of your JTEs (if willing) can be a great way to practice and check things like word choice, pronunciation, and (our good pal) context. Keep in mind though, that your conversation partners might not be able to easily explain why a particular word, phrase, or grammar point is used. Japanese is hard, even for the people who grew up with it as their first language.
Do be careful of some language exchange groups. Being able to mingle with a larger group of Japanese speakers can seem promising, but they can lean heavily towards English being the primary language spoken. You are already getting paid to be an English ALT, so don’t get sucked into teaching it for free without getting a little Japanese practice in return.
If you are unable to find a tutor, JTE, or Japanese friend to regularly practice speaking with, there are some good resources online, but there are MANY out there, so it’s advised to talk with some ALTs who do online lessons and ask about where and how they signed up for lessons.