掲示板 Forums - How do I make learning Japanese easier?

Hi and welcome to the journey! Learning Japanese is a long-term goal – after all, it's not like a day will come when any of us can say "alright, I learned ALL the Japanese/Kyrgyz/French/German, I'm finished!" :))

It's made up of many small steps, and they each require slightly different skills and approaches, so there isn't really a trick to make it all "easier". Here are a few things, though you might know them already:

• start small, focusing on each step and giving it plenty of time, so you don't burn out. In the kana-learning phase, for example, try to just focus on the kana and not think of how much you still don't know. They're the building blocks, everything else wil follow.
• practice, practice, practice. Every day, if possible. It shouldn't be tedious, tiring or frustrating, you don't want to burn out early, but sometimes you might need to convince yourself "come on, I'll at least do a few exercises today too". Look for practice sheets, funny mnemonics (Renshuu has lots!), write out the characters by hand a hundred times in different colours, make animal shapes out of them, put post-it stickers with words on objects around your room.
• make Japanese a part of your life, so your brain sees you're really using it and is motivated to remember it: once you got the basics down (hiragana and katakana first, then basic vocabulary, basic grammar, kanji), watch media in Japanese, listen to Japanese music or podcasts (even if at first you only understand "watashi", "no" and "desu"), read Japanese texts, play games in Japanese (Renshuu has a "Games" section too)... there are so many fun possibilities online.

Some things about Japanese confuse us all, no matter the level. It's normal, and it can all be worked out. It's not supposed to be easy or fast. But it can and should be fun! Just do a little bit every day, remember why you love this language and be patient and realistic about it.

頑張って(がんばって)​!