So, as the title suggests I would class myself as a noob when it comes to learning and I may be on the spectrum too soI can find things confusing.
My main question is how long do you spend on each section? I'm currently sticking with Hiragana and Katakana until I get at least 50% mastery.
I assume the flow of suggested schedules follows in the best order to learn.
I guess I'm just over thinking if I miss the correct learning path and make things difficult for myself and get burnt out.
Is it also wise to start learning basic Kanji asap?
I have just signed up for the lifetime pro because I am committed to learning and I know that learning is a lifelong endeavour, I just like to make sure I have prepped well before starting my adventure 💖
You can also find it by: Top Menu -> Resources -> Japanese Basics
If it feels easy: speed up (a little) and do more. If you feel overwhelmed: slow down and do less. At the end of the Japanese Basics lessons it talks about kanji.
You could always try learn the kanji for the numbers 1-10 now and see how it feels. If it feels good, start learning the kanji for the days of the week. If it feels bad, hold off on the kanji for a while (you can get to it later when you feel more comfortable with the other stuff).
As long as you have a routine where you feel like you're learning and you're enjoying it, you'll be successful.
Try not to worry about the "correct" learning path. The correct path is just whatever helps you reach your goals with the language, and pretty much no matter what you study you'll be moving in the right direction, especially since you're dedicated. Just trust yourself to judge if you're pushing yourself too fast and study what interests you; there are no rules about what to study or how long each thing takes besides what motivates YOU and makes YOU feel confident (:
It's not really necessary to completely master kana before moving on to study the rest of the language, because you'll be seeing it enough that you'll get comfortable with it just from exposure. But on the other hand if you like to focus on one thing at a time or you feel like you'll start stronger if you have kana down pat first, there's nothing wrong with spending as much time as you need with it.
I also recommend the Japanese Basics lessons to get you a solid foundation to move forward from, but after that you can really do whatever you want. Lots of people learn with the JLPT materials (or the Renshuu levels which approximately line up with the JLPT), but if you aren't interested in taking a proficiency test there are also pre-made schedules for textbooks if you're using any, or you can find lessons that interest you in the Lesson Centre (or make your own!).
As for kanji, it's probably best to start as soon as you feel up to it, just because there's a lot of them and they take time to accumulate. Most people recommend just studying their meanings, at least to start, so it's not an information overload, but again that's up to your own preferences and how difficult you find it.
The best thing about Renshuu is the freedom to choose and change up how you study based on what works for you. At the start it might take some trial and error to find the methods and materials that help you most, but that's totally normal and there's no need to worry about doing things "incorrectly" if you end up changing your study plans.
I agree that if you've seen all kana at least once and have practiced a bit you could go on to study the Japanese basics lessons and basic vocab. Exposure is really gonna help with recognizing kana until it becomes second nature.
Personally, I'm on the fence when it comes to studying kanji right away vs waiting until you've learned the vocab. I've found that studying kanji without knowing what words they're used in didn't work for me, especially as they get more complex.
I'd recommend learning grammar alongside vocab because it can help you make sense of and better use the sentence questions.
The beautiful thing about Renshuu is that it's super customizable so you can feel free to try different approaches depending on your needs, interests and abilities. The best thing you can do is experiment!
I think everyone learns differently, but when it comes to Kanji it makes it ten times easier if you know the words that are compounded from them first. I started learning Kanji befor that and after a good while of repetition it will eventually stick, but now I just waited for a few months and just stuck to vocab and when I came back to the Kanji I found that all the kunyomi stuck by themselves, through the words.
I do wish though that I could at Kanji to a schedule the way you can ad words, when I come across one in library. I feel it would make more sense to learn the Kanji that are in the vocab, than just set schedules that follow the tests.
@ original starter of this threat. Just pick up on what you like. Look at how a todler learns language. They just babble, try, fail and babble something else. First they construct three word sentences, than vife etc. It's the most natural way to learn a language and I find just that idea takes the pressure of of learning. Also don't worry to much about not staying motivated. I have adhd and am terrible at staying on one subject. But this app is designed so well that I keep coming back to it and i still have fun using it as much as I did day one. I really advice to watch an episode of a show on yt in Japanese and come back to it after a few months and see how much more you understanf. Peppa Pig is a good show to start with, but for a more paced show My little pony in Japanese is more fun. On Netflix the anime The great pretender is also in pretty clear Japanese, but the easiest are dubbed American shows. Some surprisingly well done, like Seinfield and Star Trek (Voyager).
Oh my. I wasn't expecting so much advice, thank you all for the tips on how to approach this. After I posted this i did think a bit more about the time span involved with learning a new language. I had tried Japanese from Zero and made some progress, I also tried Japanesepod101 but I only got so far but for me Renshuu has it all in one great package.
Maybe it is the style of learning here that I'm more suited to.
I will give the Kanji a try for the numbers without overwhelming myself and I do look at myself as あかちゃん and to progress step by step. Mistakes are just the spaces between the stepping stones.
I do listen to a lot of Japanese shows on Netflix but never thought to try Western shows in にほんご.
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read and comment, it is really appreciated 💖
Frankly I've tried to learn a few languages in the past through different resources and apps and so far Japanese has been the one I've been the most consistent with, despite how hard it is. I'm pretty sure it's only thanks to Renshuu. It really is an awesome app and I'm glad I bought the lifetime subscription last summer
I just remembered what a struggle it was to find the shows on yt, when not knowing hiragana and katakana well enough. So this is my yt little pony list. https://youtube.com/playlist?l...
I just remembered what a struggle it was to find the shows on yt, when not knowing hiragana and katakana well enough. So this is my yt little pony list. https://youtube.com/playlist?l...
