What materials do I need to learn Japanese?

Since you're here, I'm guessing you already have some kind of access to the internet. That's probably the biggest resource you have right now. But if you want to get really serious about studying Japanese, you're going to have to put a little bit more into it. You don't need much outside of your computer, but you will need some stuff.

TEXTBOOKS - I don't believe that textbooks are the ultimate key to learning Japanese, but textbooks were created for the sole purpose of assisting students in learning the language. They're more than just reference books -- they are teachers and guides as well. They explain things in ways expecting you to be learning from them.

A lot of reference books are websites are just that -- reference material. They're for looking up things you're already familiar with, organized in a way that's good for looking stuff up. Textbooks try to teach you things, and are organized in a way so that you learn as you go. There's a big difference.

There are tons of reference websites out there, and even some that function like textbooks with lessons, but I still think that buying textbooks will be really helpful. Textbooks have been written by professionals who spend their life studying how to help others learn Japanese.

The first book I think any student serious about studying Japanese should buy is Japanese: The Spoken Language (Part 1). I mentioned it in the getting started post, but I'll mention it again.

This book serves as the ultimate "road map" for self-study. It's not going to teach you Japanese, since it's made for a specific classroom experience, but it will give you a great idea of what you should be doing to build a foundation and grow from it. You'll know exactly what would be good to study next and how to think about everything. It goes into even the smallest grammar points in great detail, making sure you fully understand every last little sound you're making when you speak Japanese. It's really a wonderful resource, but you'll need to complement it with other things.

Just combining JSL as a guideline and reference with all the resources available to you on the internet is good enough for the very beginning. As you go on, you might want to pick up more textbooks to see more ways of learning the language than just the dry, linguistically-detailed JSL text.

Two popular texts that can help accompany your studies are Genki and Japanese for Everyone. Each is a different approach to learning Japanese and are quite popular with self-study students as references and guides.

Remember that textbooks are meant for classroom use, so you're not going to get their full experience without a teacher and classmates. But that's why you buy different texts -- each one takes one role of teaching and leaves the rest to a teacher; each one also covers up for the missing "teacher" in the others.

Of course, finding a teacher is always a good idea. If you ever gain the opportunity to study in a classroom or with a private lessons teacher, take it!

I would say it's best to start out, once you've decided you're going to become serious about studying Japanese, with JSL, following their general structure and order of lessons while using everything out there online, and then add texts once you feel you need more approaches to the material. JSL comes in three parts, but you only need the first book to get a solid foundation in Japanese. If you like using it, you can choose to continue on to books 2 and 3 if you like the style and feel you've mastered the first book.

If you don't have the money or desire to purchase textbooks, just follow your heart and learn what you want to learn. Hopefully this blog will provide you with direction that can help you gain a foundation in Japanese.

RESOURCE BOOKS - In addition to textbooks, it's helpful to have other books to use as resources. At first, you're just going to want to have a dictionary, because you'll be wanting to look up a lot of words. Luckily, there is a wonderful open dictionary system online called WWWJDIC. The best way to access it is through Jim Breen's site. Not only is it a word dictionary, but it includes detailed and useful Chinese character (kanji) lookup and it's customizable.

But there will be times when you can't use Jim Breen's, or you just want to use a book. When I was new to studying Japanese (and internet wasn't too big back then with everyone on dial-up, ahaha), I got all my words from Random House's Japanese Dictionary. It works pretty well for new students. It has a large collection of words and provides you with Chinese characters as well. The words are listed in English alphabetical order, so you can look them up easily without knowing how words are organized in Japanese.


Unless you are planning on going to Japan or being in a Japanese-speaking area where you will need to look up words at any given point in time, I would not waste your money on a pocket dictionary. The Random House dictionary and other good "big" dictionaries will have more word entries and be easier to read, and they really don't cost that much more than a pocket dictionary.


As you progress in writing, you'll want to find a kanji dictionary that allows you to look up the Chinese characters. There are all kinds of these, and I will review some good ones later. But you can also use Jim Breen's for this kind of lookup.

STUDY MATERIALS - You may not be a student in a classroom, but you could still make great use of school supplies! Get yourself some notebooks and pencils and stuff so you can keep notes for yourself. It's true for learning anything -- writing it down helps. Plus you can organize your thoughts and keep track of your own study progress. You can also quiz yourself and things like that. Paper and pencils are not hard to come by, but it's good to get a notebook to devote just to your studies. You can use it however you see fit, but keep all of your study materials in one place. You might even want to get a bag or binder to keep everything in.

As you get into writing, you'll want to get some Japanese writing paper so you can practice writing with the proper spacing. You can find some for free online to print off here. It's PDF. 

JAPANESE STUFF - Listening to and seeing Japanese is very important. On the internet, you have access to all kinds of Japanese websites and places where you can hear Japanese. Try to find websites relevant to your interests. Japanese news sites are a really great resource for Japanese and will cover a variety of interests. Start reading your NFL news in Japanese :)

In the beginning, though, you're not going to be reading at that kind of level for a while. But you can still look. You can also go to youtube and find all kinds of Japanese-language stuff. Music, clips from TV shows, anime, stuff like that.

I personally spent a lot of time playing Japanese games. I have bought tons of games from Play-Asia.com. It's cheaper than a lot of game import stores online, with a huge selection, ability to buy used games (Japanese "used" quality is astounding compared to what you're used to... it's pretty much like buying stuff new!), and they're always having sales and bargain deals and stuff. You can buy movies and CDs and stuff there, too, I think, but I don't know what the pricing for that kind of thing is. I just buy games. If you have a Nintendo DS or Sony PSP, they are region free, so you can play Japanese games without having to buy any special equipment or hack for your system. Note that the new 3DS is region-locked, so you can't play Japanese games on it. For other systems, you'll most likely need to buy a Japanese console to play the games on.

You can also, of course, just shop on Amazon.com and look for Japanese movies that have been released in the United States. For those of you outside of this region encoding, I don't really know what is available, but if there's anyone from the UK or other countries who knows a good place online to buy Japanese movies, let me know!

OTHER PEOPLE - This is probably one of the most difficult resources. There are a few other people you'll want to seek out:

It can be really helpful to have someone to study and/or practice with. It's not necessary, but you won't believe how much easier it is when you have someone else studying alongside you. You can help each other out and practice with each other. The problem is, unless you're planning on going into this with a friend to start with, this kind of person is near impossible to find. So if you can't find someone, don't worry, you can always study and practice by yourself.

You'll also want to find someone who can help you if you have questions. Likewise, this can be difficult to find someone in real life, but luckily, there are places online where you can ask questions. My favorite place, and where I think is the most useful, is the LiVEJOURNAL community ~japanese. It's a forum where everyone can posts questions, and then the users comment giving advice. Usually there is discussion if answers contradict or are different, so you can get a variety of opinions and views on a subject. Plus, there are many people there who are really good at explaining even the most complicated and difficult aspects of the Japanese language.
 
As you get better, you may want to find someone to teach. I find, as do a lot of other people, that the best way to learn is to teach. By trying to teach someone else, you find out what you really know, and you are forced to come to a better understanding. It works with Japanese! Plus you'll get to see someone else having fun learning Japanese, and may even develop another practice partner!

AN OPEN MIND - Okay, this one is a lot less literal, but you need to prepare your mind! Learning Japanese is indeed very fun, but at times it will be discouraging and frustrating. You need to just step back and have fun with it, even when you're studying diligently and seriously. 

You're training your brain to do something it's not supposed to do -- learn another language after the language-learning process has been shut off. It's going to be hard! But in the end, it's very satisfying and rewarding, and you'll learn a priceless skill that you can enjoy and use practically at the same time.

Good luck with your Japanese studies!