How I learned Japanese - with textbook recommendations!

Right, so let's switch to English because
it is easier and for a wider audience

also its takes very long to subtitle.

Today I am going to talk about five ways
I learned Japanese.

A lot of people asked me,
"How do you learn Japanese?"

and it's not as simple as just saying

"Well I've studied for a few years
so that's why."

There are different ways
that you can study

and also ways that are more effective
than other ways.

Number one: before I started
I made sure to listen to the language

as much as possible.

This will make your ear used to
what the natural language sounds like,

helps you pronounce things easier,

and really improves your
listening comprehension.

Remember to do it actively though.

Don't just listen and
not take anything in.

Take notes: what kinds of words are you
hearing?

Listen to the inflection
and the tone of sentences

and actively try to copy
what you are hearing.

Now, obviously you can't do this if you
don't know how to speak the language,

but what I'm trying to get at is that
your ear has to get used to the language

before you dive in, and that you can do
through listening to Japanese music,

watching Japanese movies with English, or
whatever your native language is subtitles

listening to the Japanese radio.
All of this will just tune your ear

into the sound of the language.

Number two: invest in a good textbook.

There are so many Japanese textbooks
on the market that are great.

Personally, I used "Japanese for Busy
People" when I just started.

It's excellent for beginners.

And they have different levels as well,
and they introduce kanji at a very

natural pace. So, it can go up from
beginner to advanced.

I highly recommend
"Japanese for Busy People".

A lot of other people liked
"Minna No Nihongo".

My parents used "Minna No Nihongo"
when they studied in Japan.

Personally, I found it a bit boring and
archaic, but, not the language archaic,

but like the layout of the textbook.

Even though it is possible to learn
Japanese without buying a textbook,

it's always good to have a book to follow.

It is possible to get PDFs online,
there's a bunch of different websites like

Maggie Sensei, or JGram, where you can
look up grammar and kanji, but a textbook,

personally I like to use physical books to
write in and copy the words and get my

hand used to writing kanji.

So, three special mentions that I haven't
talked about yet are these three books

which I really enjoy.

First one is "Sugu Ni Tsukaeru Nihongo
Kaiwa". They have different levels.

These are Cho Mini Phrase, it's like mini
phrases which really help you sound

natural in Japanese. A lot of textbooks
will not teach you these kinds of phrases.

It comes with a CD, so what I did when
I lived in South Africa and had a car,

I would listen to this on the way to work
everyday, and I cannot emphasize how much

it helped me to constantly hear these
phrases. So even now,

when I go through this book and read the
phrases that they're showing, I can hear

the voices of the people who recorded the
CD in my head because it's been so

ingrained in my memory. Sometimes I will
forget the meaning of one of these phrases

but I will know that I heard it before. So
I need to remember to keep on practicing

these phrases. It doesn't just help if I
read it and hear it, I need to use it

myself as well. The next special mention
is this series "Shin Nihongo."

I'll put the link in the description. They
make books for every level of the JLPT.

So currently, I am studying towards N2,
which I'd like to do next year.

I have spoken about this book in a lot of
my other Japanese videos, so I won't go

into that now, but please check out my
Japanese playlist.

But that's one that I really love, and
then of course, there's another prep book,

you can recognize them from the -
there's like a monkey, or an owl, or some

kind of animals on the book
and they all look the same.

"Nihongo So Matome" is the name of the
series. You get them for kanji, and any

other section that you will get on the
JLPT, so it's like JLPT test prep.

I like that they have practice tests in it
and also showing you how to write the

kanji, or like, what the kanjis are.

So I've gone through listening, and
investing in a good textbook.

Number three is immersion.

You will never learn a language if it's
not constantly around you.

I mean, yes you will, but it's
going to be very slow.

So, if you want to speed up your process
in learning a language,

do everything you do in whatever language
you generally operate in, but

change it to Japanese.

If you are making a shopping list, rather,
write your shopping list in Japanese.

If you're writing a diary,
write your diary in Japanese.

If you're listening to music, why not
listen to Japanese music.

If you're listening to a podcast,
change it to a Japanese podcast.

Obviously, it is going to be difficult
in the start when you are just a beginner,

but the more you push yourself, and the
more you look up these words you don't

know, the more you hear the language,
the faster you are going to improve.

Also need to remember not to be shy to
speak the language.

So, point number four is putting myself
out there, and trying to use the language

as much as I can.

I did my internships in Japan, I worked in
three different design companies,

and it is so embarrassing to look back at
the emails I sent in my first year of

working in Japan. It was so bad. My
Japanese was a horrible level, I didn't

know about keigo, which is like,
formal honorific business language,

and I must've come across as so rude to
these people when I was applying for

internships. Like, no wonder I only got
into a few companies, but the point is

I used what I knew, the little bit of
Japanese I knew, I put myself out there,

yes it was difficult but that was such a
great opportunity for me to be

surrounded in a Japanese working
environment, and then to learn on the

spot, what is keigo, formal Japanese,
how to use it in context.

Then by my third year, of applying for
internships, so this was during the time

I was a student, I would go back in the
holiday. So the three years after that,

when I did an internship at a big
advertising agency in Japan,

I was very comfortable using keigo, I
could apply professionally, I had a

Japanese format CV, which is different
from a Western format CV,

and if I hadn't put myself out of my
comfort zone in my first year,

I wouldn't have been able to get to that
level by my third year. If I hadn't

made all of those mistakes
in the beginning.

So, really mistakes are part of how we
learn, and the more you put off

speaking the language, the less natural
you are going to sound.

It's okay to embarrass yourself, it's okay
to make mistakes because at least you are

trying. If you never make a mistake,
you'll never know where to improve.

A lot of you might say, "Well I don't know
where to find native speakers, I don't

live in Japan, I can't travel to Japan".
You can download apps to talk to native

speakers. There are pen pal websites,
there are Facebook groups to meet people.

Really so many different ways that you can
learn just using the internet.

There are language exchanges like Mundo
Lingo, so you can do a search on a website

like meetup.com, and see if there are any
Japanese groups in the city where you live

So really, where there's a will,
there's a way.

You will meet someone online or in person.

And, tip number five is actual
hard work and study.

It sounds like a silly tip, but I think
there are still people who think language

learning just happens overnight. You'll
look at a YouTube polyglot and you'll be

like, "Wow, you know, they speak so well,
I'll never get to that level, I'm just not

going to try." Or conversely there are
people who are like, "Oh well yeah, I'll

just put in a little bit of effort
and I hope the results come."

Guys, what you don't see behind the scenes
is like, really late nights of studying,

thousands of flashcards, writing the same
kanji over and over and over, sitting in a

café until closing time because I'm
stressing to prepare for my JLPT exam.

There is a lot of work that goes into
language learning.

Don't look at polyglots and think they
have a natural knack. What they do have

is they know how to study. You teach
yourself how to learn.

And this only comes from years of
practicing. It's okay if you're still

figuring out what methods work for you,
but the most important thing is to put in

the work. Don't do something half-
heartedly and expect the results to come.

This can be in any way: you can sit and
study from a textbook, you can be

listening to podcasts and actively writing
down the vocab words, looking them up,

you can get a Japanese teacher and do your
homework on time, and go to exchanges.

As long as you're doing something in the
language, actively, you will learn very

quickly. So, remember to put in the
hard work.

Now, it is too much to mention in this
video, so I'd like to give a shoutout to

my own resources page. I love collecting
resources for you guys so do check out the

Japanese resource page I have on my
website. There's a long list of

resources, apps, textbooks, everything
on there, so please look at that if you

want to check out more different ways
that you can study Japanese.

That is all for today, and I will see
you guys in the next video.

Thank you for watching! Bye bye!