Learn Japanese The Easy Way P3 - Beginner Level

2/23/2017 06:58:00 AM Unknown 0 Comments

Table of links for "Learn Japanese The Easy Way":
part1:  Start
part2:  Self-Learning Method
part3:  Beginner Level
part4:  Intermediate Level
part5:  Advaned Level
part6:  End / Motivation

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1. Anki
a. Anki is a flashcard software that schedules and spaces out your review over a certain period of time so that you can store those words in your long term memory. Once a card has become "mature" from after correctly guessing each card right 4 times straight, you can say that you've mastered that word for now. It's a good way to know you're making progress and so you don't get lost.
b. Whatever unknown word, grammar point, or phrase you encounter, put it all in anki so you won't forget what you learned. Seeing how there's 10,000+ things to remember, anki will schedule review times for each item.

c. Here's a youtube tutorial on how to create an anki deck. Might be necessary to watch more tutorials to get the basics down.
d. Once you get here, make 2 decks: one for words and the other for kanji. Later on, you might need to make mutliple decks for words as having 200 words in one deck can be a handful.

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2. Hiragana / katakana
a. These are the basic alphabet of Japanese, containing 46 characters each. Master these before going on to kanji and grammar.

b. Here's an easy way to learn: they basically look like fancy English characters if you bend your imagination.

-Hiragana / ひらがな:
i. い = i = 'i' with the dot at right side
ii. ろ = Ro = resembles a (Ro)cket
iii. の = No = 'n' and 'o' fused together
iv. ら = Ra = looks like a (Ra)bbit
v. お = O = looks like an 'o'
vi. え = e = lower case 'e'
vii. き = ki = car 'keys'
viii. そ = so = backwards 'S' with 'o' at bottom
ix. つ = tsu = 'tsunami' wave going to the right
x. と = to = 'toe' with nail jammed in it
xi. ん = n = fancy 'n'
xii. せ = se = someone 'seated' at steering wheel

-Katakana / カタカナ:
i. イ = i = weird shaped 'i'
ii. ク = ku = holding a fancy 'kup'
iii. コ = ko = dead end 'korner' in a maze
iv. サ = sa = horse 'saddle'
v. ス = su = bowl of 'soup' that has a leak
vi. ト = to = 'toe' of a messed up chicken
vii. ユ = yu = 'yu' with the 'y' laying on its left side and the 'u' inside the 'y'
viii. ヨ = yo = one side of a 'yo'-yo
ix. ラ = ra = bowl of 'ramen' with steam floating over the bowl
x. リ = ri = 'ri' rotated 180 degrees to the right
xi. レ = re = 'rear' when seated on a weird seat

d. I suggest watching anime openings / endings, music lyrics, or read along with the Japanese subtitles of any show for review. Also, don't forget to write down how you remembered each of the characters on each anki card as it's easy to forget.

e. To type hiragana & katakana on your pc, here's a short vid to show you how.

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3. Basic Grammar
-Now that you can read hiragana & katakana, try and learn the basic grammar. From the link above, I've summarized the main points below, but it won't make any sense unless you've at least looked at each of the links listed in each section. After that, only learn more grammar when encountering the unknown so you don't learn useless stuff (to save yourself time). You will see these basic grammar points in almost every sentence.

i. だ and です = to be
ii. じゃない = isn't
iii. じゃなかった = wasn't

i. は = topic marker
ii. も = also
iii. が = indicates sentence subject (sometimes object). Most of the time, the thing marked with が will end up doing the verb that follows [another link for が].
 
i. な adjectives = acts as noun, but to use it as an adjective, you need to add な after it.
ii. い adjectives = words that end in い are usually adjectives.
 
i. Most words that end in る or う are verbs.
 


i. る verbs = drop る and add -ない.
ii. う verbs = replace u-vowel sound with a-vowel equivalent and add ない.
 


i. る verbs = drop る and add -た.
ii. Other forms in chart (gets complicated).
 

i. を = direct object (receives action)
ii. に = in, to, on
iii. へ = to (only used for destinations)
iv. で = at (used for place of action)
 

i. Transitive = verbs that do actions to direct objects (を) [Ex.  I eat an apple].
ii. Intransitive = verbs that don't use direct objects [Ex. The book falls]. 

-Relative clause: Adds additional information to noun.  Goes before nouns in Japanese.
i. と = and
ii. や, とか = lists vague items [etc…things like…stuff like…]
iii. の = possessive particle [My stuff, his stuff, her stuff]

 
i. ね = agreement, emphasis
ii. よ = indicates certainty
iii. よね = dontcha

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4. Assuming you've completed the previous steps, you can venture off in anime, music, manga, etc. and start learning from your favorite stuff. Just remember to add those words to anki so you don't forget, and try to accumulate 6000 words and 2136 kanji that you will eventually add if you intend to go this route. Or if you're ready for the next step, then proceed.

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