Tipps zum Japanisch Lernen

Tipps zum Japanisch Lernen

Hi, lovely cats and welcome to this video! After my last video about learning Japanese, there were a few people who wanted to hear tips. So I selected some. Please note: Of course, not all methods work for everyone. So you have to find out for yourself what works best for you. By the way, many of these things can also be applied to language learning in general, not just Japanese. So, I hope it’s helpful. These are just things that helped me personally. Okay, but before I introduce the different learning methods, there are a few important points on how to choose the right one for you: First of all, you have to ask yourself why you want to learn the language in the first place. Do you want to travel to Japan? Do you want to be able to understand shows, manga or songs in Japanese? Do you want to do something with it professionally? Or do you just find the culture and language interesting? Depending on what your goal is, you should set your priorities differently. If you’re planning a trip to Japan, you should look at the most common and important phrases for travelling. Of course, you need different vocabulary for anime or for work . If you just want to understand the language, you have to focus less on speaking and writing, etc. So, think about what will benefit you most. It would also be good to know what type of learner you are. Can you remember things better when you see them, hear them, or actively do something with them? There are numerous tests and information on the Internet. If you’re not sure, just try out different things. In general, it’s very important to not just use a single method! Otherwise you’ll have a very one-sided view of the language. Every method has weak points and the best way to identify and compensate for them is to use different methods. For example, no one will speak perfect, fluent Japanese from Duolingo alone. And what is also very important: you should enjoy the method. Otherwise, long-term motivation will be really difficult. Many people have a boring image of language learning in their heads because of school, where you read books, spend hours cramming vocabulary and doing dull grammar exercises. But it doesn’t have to be that way! So, here are some options: Despite what I just said, I still want to mention study books as a possible method because some people just like having printed, physical objects. And maybe they can concentrate better this way, or think it’s more professional than some random websites. Perfectly fine. Next, we have language learning apps. I’ve already made a separate video about this in which I describe my experiences with 3 of them. I can recommend Busuu, which is free and has a really good structure. You learn basic grammar, characters and vocabulary. You can also, for example, just take the kanji class or a travel class. Apps can be pretty good for learning because they include various elements like images, sound and interactive exercises and are a bit reminiscent of video games. And the lessons usually only last a few minutes, which is motivating. Something like the app Hello Talk or Tandem might also be interesting; This is more for the advanced learners. There you can chat with Japanese people who are learning your language. So you can apply what you’ve learned right away. Of course, direct interaction with native speakers would generally be one of the most effective methods, or even attending a language class with a teacher, but many people don’t have that opportunity. But what you can do is watch YouTube videos that teach you Japanese. Personally, I started with the “Japanisch mit Chris” series by Christina Plaka (in German). However, these videos are a bit older. What I can recommend is the JapanesePod101 channel. It’s in English and belongs to a learning website, so it’s more of a professional thing. They keep advertising the website, which can be a bit annoying, but the videos are still really helpful. I learned hiragana and katakana there, for example. Then you might know the channel “Einfach Japanese” (in German). You’ll hear a lot of interesting and curious information about Japan, but also some videos for learning the language. Among other things, you also learn a bit of everyday language there that you don’t find in textbooks. And finally another English channel: "Japanese Ammo with Misa". It puts even more focus on slang etc. So, it’s really good for expanding your vocabulary and seeing what Japanese people actually use and what they don’t. Of course there are many other YouTubers, but these are the ones I know. Next, a method that a lot of people will like: watching anime, wooo! Or of course other Japanese movies, shows and videos. It helps a lot to integrate the language into everyday life so that it stays present and learning is combined with something fun. However, it should be noted that the language used in anime does not necessarily correspond to that used by Japanese people in everyday life. Nobody speaks like Queen Beryl, or says "Dattebayo" like Naruto, except maybe as a quote. Nevertheless, watching anime is good because you hear common words, you hear sentences in context and you get a small impression of the structure and pronunciation. Of course, you should also try not only to read the subtitles, but also to listen. The best anime for this are anime that you already know and those that have a more realistic plot and/or are for younger people. These of course have more normal and simpler language. The next tip isn’t hard to guess: read Japanese manga if you have access to it. Or even better: Japanese children’s books. Of course, you first have to know the characters. However, hiragana and katakana are often enough for this, since many manga, especially for a younger audience, have furigana. These are small hiragana and katakana next to the kanji indicating the pronunciation. I’d also recommend reading texts out loud in general. This way you can practice pronunciation and perhaps remember it better. Then there’s also the option to play games in Japanese. I’ve never tried this before, but Einfach Japanisch made a good video about it. In many video games you can easily set the language to Japanese. Here, too, it makes sense to use ones that you already know and/or that have a younger target audience. Some games like "Pokémon Sword and Shield" even have a hiragana mode if you can’t read kanji yet. Some others like "Animal Crossing" at least have Furigana so you can still read everything. If that would be something for you, watch the video from Einfach Japanisch. And the last method: listening to music in Japanese. As I said, it’s good to integrate the language into everyday life. If you want to be a little more active, you can also read along to the song lyrics or even sing along. Most of the song lyrics can also be found online in romaji, our Latin alphabet. It might take some practice, but if you like singing, it’s a lot of fun. What I also sometimes try is translating song lyrics. It doesn’t matter if I have to look up every third word, it’s still good exercise. But speaking of translating, here’s a little tip: it’s best not to use "Google Translate". It often isn’t very helpful, especially with Japanese, where context is very important and words can have different meanings. I highly recommend the English-Japanese dictionary Jisho. It shows many possible meanings and also provides further information about the kanji and verbs etc. For complete sentences you can try DeepL. In my experience, at least it works better than Google Translate – but of course you can’t always rely on it. Oh, and I just thought of something else about music: There are also special learning songs that are supposed to teach you vocabulary or grammar rules. This is great if you can remember song lyrics well, like me. Of course, it’s only useful for certain topics, but songs really helped me remembering the rules of the te-form or counting words, for example . Maybe I can link you to a playlist. Okay, so you’ve seen there are many different methods. But what’s the best place to start if you don’t yet have any idea about the language? I’d say, first look for something that teaches you the basics, i.e. the first words, simple grammar and, ideally, hiragana. This can be with an app, a video series, a learning book, or whatever. But you can still watch anime in Japanese or listen to Japanese music, even if you won’t understand much at first . Once you know hiragana and katakana, you can try something like manga and games. And I’ll repeat it again: It’s best to use several methods at the same time. Now let’s get to the question: Do you even have to learn the characters? Well, if you really just want to understand or speak Japanese, then maybe you can let it slide. But in general I’d say it would really be helpful. Because this also gives you a better understanding of how the language is structured. For example, everything is divided into these syllables, which are represented by hiragana and katakana. Or if you don’t know a word, you can sometimes deduce the meaning or pronunciation based on a kanji. When I started learning kanji, I often had mind blows like: “Oooh, so this word is made up of these two words, that makes perfect sense!” So ​​yes, I know, you probably don’t want to hear that, but I’d recommend learning the characters. Even if it seems an awful lot and complicated at first, you can actually learn Hiragana and Katakana quite well and then you’ve already achieved a lot. As I said, you could read manga for younger people or some games with it. By the way, you should start with Hiragana because you need it much more than Katakana. Which doesn’t mean that you don’t need Katakana at all. But I explained in more detail what each alphabet is used for in my video “How difficult is Japanese really?” And if you’re wondering how you could ever be able to remember the characters: mnemonics. Think of something to connect the appearance of the character with its meaning – no matter how stupid it is. Often you can remember absurd things better anyway. E.g. the hiragana character for "yu" looks a bit like a unicorn. Or the “ko” could be two koi carp. You just have to get creative. Some books, apps, videos, whatever, will suggest such mnemonics anyway, but if they don’t work for you, try making up your own. Finally, I have two final tips for you: I should definitely take the first one into account more: stick with it. Of course it’s more effective if you study regularly. It doesn’t even have to be long. Even if it’s just a 3-minute exercise on Duolingo. This keeps the topic active in your brain, so to speak. And the second tip: Don’t set your expectations too high for yourself. It takes some time to learn a language, and yes, it’s hard sometimes, so be happy about every small step. Maybe it would also help to exchange ideas with other learners, because you’re definitely not the only person who finds Japanese difficult. Well, that was a lot of input, but I hope it was helpful and motivating. Learning a language doesn’t have to be boring, so find the best method for you. I wish everyone who’s learning Japanese or wants to start a lot of fun and say: ganbatte ne! Thanks for watching, bye, see you next time – your Sailor Cat.

Hi, liebe Cats!^^ Heute gibt es Tipps für alle, die Japanisch lernen wollen. (Man kann vieles davon aber auch auf andere Sprachen anwenden). Ich stelle euch verschiedene Lernmethoden vor und hoffe sehr, dass es hilfreich ist.

Mein Video über Lernapps: https://youtu.be/o87k3H_0VSg?si=oRLr3kmq4OYQqgO0
Einfach Japanisch: https://www.youtube.com/@UCguj6850MMmRXSuRrn2bqKw
JapanesePod101: https://www.youtube.com/@JapanesePod101
Christina Plaka: https://www.youtube.com/@i.am.mangaka
Japanese Ammo with Misa: https://www.youtube.com/@JapaneseAmmowithMisa
Playlist mit Lernsongs: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc6OoqL0xc0aphWZs5fLjvAvKQNlGodRR&si=4cfU5O0o-XrHGy6c
Wie schwer ist japanisch? https://youtu.be/B7VwC6Ric2c?si=eY_I36t_vp8WIMpZ

Timestamps:

0:00 Wichtiges vorab
2:07 Welche Methoden gibt es?
7:54 Womit fängt man an?
8:30 Muss man die Schriftzeichen lernen?
10:20 Weitere Tipps

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