Japan's economic and industrial development has increased by new level Japan's interaction with other countries, a huge number of foreigners came to Japan for a variety of purposes and currently live there in close contact with the population. This could not but affect the increase in interest in the Japanese language. Whatever your interest in Japan, be it Japanese culture, art, music, manga, anime or bonsai, etc. - Lingust will help you take the first step in learning Japanese, thereby bringing you closer to your goal.

Step by step online lessons presented on the site will help you master the basics of the Japanese language from scratch and prepare you for independent more serious study of Japanese. Well consists of initial lessons on learning the alphabet + 10 lessons from the international tutorial Minna No Nihongo. The lessons consist of theoretical and practical material, including audio accompaniment and exercises to consolidate knowledge. To see the answer to the exercise, move your mouse over the key: .

Reasons to learn Japanese

• Unique culture of Japan. From sushi and anime to bonsai and origami, it has become part of international culture. Knowledge of the language will open you up to the world of Japanese cinema, animation, and music. You can learn the technical terminology of your favorite martial art, or order sushi just like a Japanese does at his favorite Japanese restaurant. Everyone will find something to their liking!
• Trip to Japan and communication. Of course, knowing Japanese will make your trip much more enjoyable and exciting. Knowing the language will help you understand the behavior and way of thinking of the Japanese, thereby you can avoid awkward situations and also make new friends.
• The road to business and the world of high technology. The Japanese economy occupies a leading position in the world along with Japanese companies such as Sony, Toshiba, Honda, Mitsubishi, Canon, etc. Knowledge of the language can help you develop your professional career in areas such as business, information technology, robotics, etc.
• Discover new world! Experiencing Asian culture will allow you to see the world with new eyes. And Japanese can serve as a bridge to culture Korean language, because they have similar grammatical systems, and of course into the culture of the Chinese language, from which writing was originally borrowed.
• One last thing: learning Japanese is not that difficult. Yes, they have a complex writing system, but it consists of alphabets that can be learned just like any other alphabet, be it English or Russian. The grammar of Japanese is in some respects much easier than the grammar of any European language. There is no gender, no plural, no future tense. So - go ahead! To knowledge!

Study of any foreign language“for yourself” will not bring any results except disappointment. This rule especially applies to Japanese. A clear understanding of the specifics of your goals is the basis for building an effective training plan.

Tourism, obtaining a unique education, developing international business, a passion for traditional and modern Japanese art, professional immigration - whatever you choose, this will become your main motivation and driving force for immersion in the Japanese language.

Setting specific deadlines will help set reference points throughout the training. For example, your goal is to pass the Japanese language exam “Nihongo Noryoku Shiken” at the initial level (N5) in eight months. The list of words, hieroglyphs and grammar required for the exam can be viewed in advance on the relevant sites and compiled step by step plan for the entire duration of study.

2. Structure your training material

Select several proven textbooks and print out the copybooks. This will form the basis of your learning. At the same time, you can use the online simulator to test your knowledge. One of the most popular and effective is the Japanese textbook Minna no Nihongo: Basic Workbook in two parts, which is best taken immediately with a grammar commentary and additional teaching materials.

If you are good at English language, then you can use the textbooks, workbooks and audio materials of the GENKI series that have been tested by time and thousands of students. From Russian publications, we can recommend the “Textbook of the Japanese language for children” in two parts by M. R. Golomidova, a well-known Russian specialist in the field of the Japanese language. The textbook will be an excellent educational aid for adults.

3. Start simple

The Japanese writing system consists of two syllabaries (hiragana and katakana) and kanji (hieroglyphs). First you need to master both alphabets, where each of the 46 symbols represents not a sound, but a syllable. And only after that move on to kanji. Try to study symbols and hieroglyphs not separately, but in the context of words and sentences.

The basic set of knowledge is very clearly stated in the requirements for the fifth level of the international Japanese language exam. For a beginner, this can be a great reference point.

When moving on to studying kanji, it is worth paying attention to the so-called keys, from which, as if from Lego bricks, you can compose and remember quite complex Japanese characters. Don't forget that your successful learning depends in no small part on constant written practice. To do this, you can download and print ready-made copybooks. It is better to work on pronunciation by reading aloud.

4. Practice Japanese regularly and in a variety of ways

Despite the logic of this point, many people forget about it over time. Undoubtedly, if you are constantly busy, it is really difficult to devote several hours a day to learning a language, but 20 minutes is quite possible!

Vary your weekly lesson plan, for example:

• Monday, Thursday - theoretical lessons according to the textbook;
• Tuesday - reading your favorite manga in the original or information from Japanese Internet resources;
• Wednesday - work with copybooks;
• Friday, Saturday - watching interesting videos;
• Sunday - communication with native speakers.

Studying Japanese every day, if you enjoy it, will bring tangible results very, very soon!

5. Use proven techniques for memorizing hieroglyphs

There are several original tools for memorizing hieroglyphs.

Card method

Cut out the required number of cards from thick paper, indicate the symbol or hieroglyph being studied on one side, and the corresponding meaning on the other. This will help not only in learning, but also in testing your knowledge. By the way, you can buy ready-made kits cards.

Irecommend.ru

Association method

Memorization is perfect for the Japanese language. When learning kanji, it is often difficult to remember the spelling of the character and its meaning. To solve this problem, come up with your own image for each hieroglyph! For example:

• 木 (tree) really looks like a tree;
• 森 (forest) - but three trees turn into a real forest;
• 火 (fire) - a little imagination, and you are already warming your hands by the fire not far from the mountain (山).

This way you can effectively memorize several hieroglyphs at once.

s5.pikabu.ru

Word replacement method

For this you will need an excellent computer program called “Cananization” (from the Japanese word “kana” - alphabet). The program replaces syllables in any Russian-language text copied into it with Japanese alphabet characters.

There is a Japanese belief.

In short, in simple terms:

Withおtookいs oneあevery beastい

Choose a king!

Using this program will help you remember Japanese characters easily.

Perhaps the most important rule of learning Japanese (and not only) is to believe in yourself and focus on results. Don't believe that Japanese is impossible to learn. Foreigners say the same about the Russian language. But did we somehow learn it? Good luck, patience and fulfillment of the Japanese dream!

These Japanese language lessons have been captivating readers for two decades. Their secret is probably in the illusion of simplicity, because they were written taking into account their own experience of independently entering the Japanese language and this, apparently, determined their success. Although, it must be admitted, the reader’s enduring love for these lessons, written at the turn of the century, continues to amaze.

The first ten lessons were designed so that nothing would shock the reader, already frightened by the complexity of the Japanese language, its writing, hieroglyphs, and new vocabulary. Therefore, in them we do not encounter Japanese writing, but the next batch of lessons will touch upon it.

Therefore, we slowly enjoy the simplicity given to us in pleasant sensations :)

READER'S OPINION

“When I first came across these Japanese language lessons, I considered their primitivism too offensive for me. This is not for me,” I thought and without regret left these pages. As it turned out, in vain. The next year was wasted, because no matter what textbooks I I didn’t start reading, the authors diligently walked me around the table with their snout, proving that I was a fool and there was no place for me in the Japanese language. A year passed, I returned and these lessons were like a balm for the soul. Truly, Japanese is for the soul, so I write for it. everyone: start with these lessons - it seems simple, but for a beginner it’s like a sip of water in the desert."

Language is a means of communication. Language allows people to understand each other. At the same time, language can be a serious barrier to understanding, since there are thousands of different languages ​​on our planet.

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Success in language learning depends largely on the learner, but more specifically on access to learning and interesting content. Success depends more on interaction with interesting content than on the teacher, school, good textbooks or even living in the country. You have more freedom to choose when and how to learn Japanese. Once you realize that you can learn more languages ​​and enjoy the process, you will want to discover more and more languages.

Many people would like to learn Japanese from scratch on their own, but don’t know where to start. Therefore, I give my own instructions based on my experience. First, brief instructions will be given, giving only the names of the points and a minimum of information, and then full instructions.

Table of contents:

1. Brief instructions
2. Full instructions

How to learn Japanese - brief instructions

1. Learn hiragana.
2. Learn katakana.
3. Enable Japanese keyboard.
4. Watch anime, Japanese films or dramas for at least 20-60 hours (with Russian subtitles).
5. this link. This is a very simple and understandable textbook, the best guide for beginners who are not familiar with the Japanese language at all. This point is the most important. PS. For a very small number of users the site does not open. In fact, the site works fine. If you encounter such a problem, try logging in through a VPN / proxy / tunnel or from another Internet. If you are not well versed, then simply install any browser extension for VPN.
6. Install the Rikaichan add-on - this is a very good dictionary that allows you to point to the desired word on any website, and the add-on itself will find the end of this word and give its translation according to the dictionary and tell you what form this word is in.
7. Start using dictionaries.
8. Learn Kanji. The 100 most popular kanji allow you to read 36% of the kanji in the text, 200 - 50%, 400 - 66%, 600 - 75%, 800 - 81%, 1000 - 85%, 1500 - 92%, 2000 - 95%, 2530 - 98.0 %, 3000 - 99.0%. You don't need to know 100%. The best site for learning kanji is .
9. Watch another 50-150 hours of anime/films/dramas with Russian subtitles (can be done in parallel with points 5-8).
10. This item is described in full instructions below. The point is very broad.

Complete instructions for learning Japanese

Introduction - Japanese Writing

If anyone thinks that the Japanese language uses only hieroglyphs, they are wrong, hieroglyphs make up only about 23% of the characters in the text (although in phonetic proportion, hieroglyphs make up more, since one hieroglyph on average represents more than one syllable) . In addition to hieroglyphs, Japanese writing uses two syllabic alphabet - hiragana (46 characters) and katakana (46 characters), for a total of 92 characters. The syllabary alphabet is something like the Russian alphabet. All 3 types of writing are used simultaneously, for example, part of a word can be written in hieroglyphs, and part in kanai. Examples of hiragana characters: あ - a, い - i, う - u, え - e, お - o, か - ka, き - ki, etc.
Examples of katakana characters: ア – a, イ – i, ウ – u, エ – e, オ – o, カ – ka, キ – ki, etc.
Examples of kanji (Japanese characters borrowed from China): 食、誰、大、好、何, etc. In total, 2136 characters are used + about 500 more that are not included in the list of standard characters.

When to use kana and when to use hieroglyphs

Hiragana:

1. All particles.
2. All the parts of words that change (and sometimes the parts that don't).
3. Some words.

Katakana:

1. All foreign words.

Kanji (hieroglyphs):

1. All basic words.

This is a sufficient explanation of what is used where, but you can read in more detail about kanji and kana characters (in the section “What are kanji and what are they used for?”).

1. Learn Hiragana

The best hiragana tablet is in the akanji app on . You can also read about hiragana on Wikipedia. Hiragana consists of only 46 unique characters and takes approximately 6 hours to learn. Hiragana is a syllabic alphabet, something like the Russian alphabet. Please note that when writing kana characters, the order of the strokes is very important. You need to find a website that lists the order of the strokes. You must also be able to write in hiragana by hand on paper (if it’s crooked, it’s okay). Personally, I taught it this way: first I wrote in a notebook and pronounced the first character あ (a). When I remembered it, I added another sign to it, and copied 2 signs into the notebook at once (from memory). Then 3 signs at once, and so on until the very end. When you learn hiragana, be sure to pay attention to the following things:

1. If you add a small ゃ (ya), ゅ (yu) or ょ (yo) to syllables ending in “i”, you can create a syllable ending in i/yu/yo. For example, きゃ is “kya”, but きや is kiya, because in the second case や is big. Your tablet should contain columns with syllables ending in i/yu/e.
2. If you add two sticks, you can voice the consonant, for example, か is ka, が is ga. Your sign must contain lines starting with "g", "z", "d", "b" and "p".
3. う (y) after "o" denotes a long vowel. For example, the word ありがとう (arigatou) is read as "arigato", where the colon indicates the length of the vowel. When writing in Latin, English speakers often indicate longitude with a stick above the letter (macron), for example, instead of arigatou they write arigatō, but if you are not writing English text, you do not need to write it that way. When writing in Russian letters, the longitude after a/u/e/o/ya/yu/e is not shown and is written, for example, simply “arigato”. But after “and” they show, for example, “kawaii”, “shiitake” (shiitake).
4. aa, ii, uu, ee are also long vowels, for example かわいい (kawaii) is read as “ka-wa-i:”.
5. You can see how to pronounce sounds in this video.
   1. The syllables し (shi), しゃ (sha), しゅ (shu), しょ (sho) use the sound "soft sh". There is no such sound in the Russian language. That is, it is correct to say not “sha”, but “shya”.
   2. The syllables じ (ji), じゃ (ja), じゅ (ju) じょ (jo) use the sound “soft zh”. There is no such sound in the Russian language. That is, it is correct to say not “zha”, but “zha”. Examples: じゃない - jyanai, 大丈夫 - daijo:bu.
   3. In the syllables ち (chi), ちゃ (cha), ちゅ (chu), ちょ (cho) the sound “ch” is softer than in Russian. That is, it is correct to say not “cha”, but “cha”. You don’t have to try it for now, but in the future, to make the “ch” sound softer, pay attention to how this happens with other sounds in the Russian language (for example, ta-tya, na-nya, ka-kya).
   4. The sound わ (wa) is not labiodental, but labiolabial. To pronounce it, try to pronounce it as close as possible to the regular Russian "va", but passing air through the gap between the two lips, rather than between the lip and teeth.
   5. ざ、ず、ぜ、ぞ - at the beginning of words it is more like “dz”, in the middle it is more like “z”.
   6. じ、じゃ、じゅ、じょ - at the beginning of words it is more like “j”, in the middle it is more like “zh”.
   7. Other sounds that differ from Russian are “u” and “e”, but I have no description for them. I think you don’t have to bother with this for now; in the future, understanding will come by itself.
6. Small っ (tsu) is sokuon, indicating doubling of the preceding consonant, for example, ずっと - dzutto. In pronunciation, if you break it down by syllable, then っ will refer to the syllable in front: zu-tto. There is even a word in Japanese that starts with sokuon - って (tte).
7. ん before "p", "b" and "m" is pronounced "m".
8. You can also find general rules order of features in the General Guide section, but there are many exceptions to the rules.

2. Learn katakana

The best katakana tablet is also in the akanji app and is available at . Katakana consists of only 46 unique characters and takes about 6 hours to learn. Katakana is a syllabary alphabet, something like the Russian alphabet. Everything is absolutely the same as in hiragana. When you learn katakana, pay attention to the following things:

1. In katakana, a long vowel is indicated by a ー stroke, for example, デート. Doubling a consonant is also using small tsu, but from katakana: ッ.
2. Exists informal katakana table, compiled by me personally. There is no point in learning katakana using it; this table can only help you understand how some combinations are composed in katakana.

3. Enable Japanese keyboard

On a computer You can do this in the Control Panel. After switching on, you can simply write in English letters- they themselves will transform into hiragana. Hiragana will be converted to Kanji by pressing the space bar. Helpful information:

1. On Windows, the Japanese layout has an English layout built into it. To switch between Latin and Cana, press Alt+~ (Alt+Ё).
2. Ctrl+Caps Lock - hiragana.
3. Alt+Caps Lock - katakana.
4. F7 - convert the entered word to katakana.
5. An "x" or "l" in front of the required character will make the character small.
6. Other combinations are possible.
7. In the settings, you can also make it print hiragana without the Latin alphabet, but for this you need to have a Japanese keyboard with hiragana characters on it, and since you don’t have one, this method will not suit you. However, firstly, this method is not significantly faster, since many characters still require more than one click, and secondly, most Japanese themselves type using the Latin alphabet (including because it does not require learning separate layout). Nevertheless, on phones it is quite possible to enable typing directly with kana characters, since they have a touch keyboard.

When you have 3 layouts on your computer, switching is difficult. The method of switching layouts described can help. If you know others, write to me (contacts below).

On the phone

For typing Japanese on your phone, I recommend the Gboard keyboard (from Google) or Google Japanese keyboard. Gboard is preferable because it includes other languages, and for Japanese it now seems to be no worse than the Japanese “Google Japanese layout”.

3.1. Also install Japanese font

There are 2 fonts for hieroglyphs - Japanese and Chinese. The required font is selected depending on the language. Chinese characters look a little different, and some look a lot different. Unfortunately, some sites or programs do not indicate the language, so you need to select your preferred language. You can also choose your preferred font for the Japanese language, as fonts can vary in beauty (especially on Windows).

• Android: By default, if the program does not specify a text language, all characters are displayed as Chinese, not Japanese. To set this up in Android 7+, go to settings, find "Language" and add Japanese as a second language. After this, the system will understand that when the language is not specified, you prefer to see the Japanese style rather than the Chinese one. There is no such function in Android 6 and below, but the Kanji Fix application can save it. Unfortunately, the application requires root access, so this method will not work for most people. If you don't want to root your phone, the only solution is to update Android, ask app developers to choose your preferred style, or buy a new device. If you have the MIUI shell, then the function of changing the style only works starting from MIUI 10, so even if you have Android 7+, you still need to update to MIUI 10.
• Browsers on Windows: Here, characters are usually displayed normally by default - as Japanese, not Chinese. Nevertheless, for some reason, some browsers on Windows use the old ugly MS Gothic font (which also does not support anti-aliasing), when a new, very high-quality Meiryo font appeared on this system a relatively long time ago. You can configure it like this:
  • Mozilla Firefox: Starting with Firefox 57 (11/14/2017), Meiryo is already used by default. But if you want, you can check here: Menu → Settings → Basic → Language and appearance→ Fonts and Colors → Advanced → Select Fonts for "Japanese" → Select "Meiryo". I’m not sure if this happens, but if for some reason you use Chinese characters instead of Japanese, try: 1) make sure that you have the Meiryo font, 2) go to Menu → Settings → Basic → Language and appearance → Language → Select the language you prefer to display web pages → Select → Add Japanese to the end of the list.
  • Google Chrome: Unfortunately for 2019, it displays in an old font and does not support customization (which is very strange, since correct display of text is the main task of the browser). However, I found an add-on that allows you to customize the font, just like Firefox does: Advansed Font Settings.

4. Watch anime, Japanese films or dramas for at least 20–60 hours (with Russian subtitles)

This will allow you to understand the sounds used in the kana you have learned. This will also allow you to study it much faster during further study of grammar, as well as understand the intonation with which you will need to read the examples. If you have already watched so many anime before this, you can skip this point.

5. Read the entire grammar tutorial at this link

Read the entire grammar tutorial at this link. This is a very simple and understandable textbook, the best guide for beginners who are not familiar with the Japanese language at all. This point is the most important.

PS. For a very small number of users the site does not open. In fact, the site works fine. If you encounter such a problem, try logging in through a VPN / proxy / tunnel or from another Internet. If you are not well versed, then simply install any browser extension for VPN.

6. Install the Rikaichan add-on

Install the Rikaichan add-on for Firefox or for Chrome and Opera.

Rikaichan is a very good dictionary: on any website you can hover over the desired word, and the add-on itself will find the end of this word and give its translation according to the dictionary. The addition will also tell you what form the word is in.

After installation, you should also do the following:

1. Click on the add-on icon, select Options and select Color Scheme - White VL, because the default theme is very bad, but this one is good.
2. Next you need to install 3 dictionaries. By default, there are no dictionaries in the add-on. To install, go to the dictionaries page (the link to it can be found on the add-on page). Here you will see a list of dictionaries. We will need the following of them:
   • Dict_Japanese-Russian - Japanese-Russian dictionary
   • Dict_Japanese-Russian (Warodai) - Another Japanese-Russian dictionary
   • Dict_Japanese-English - Japanese-English dictionary
   To download a dictionary, right-click on it and select "Download". Now you need to download them in addition. To do this, click on the add-on icon, select Options, find the "Dictionaries" section and download all three dictionaries. Move the "Kanji" dictionary, which was the default, to the very bottom.

When you look up the meaning of a word, you can switch between dictionaries using the Shift key.

Rikaichan can be used without hovering the pointer: click on the add-on icon and select Search. In this case, Rikaichan will work like a regular smart dictionary that understands word forms. Unfortunately, Search usually does not work correctly for them, in this case you can use it to simulate a Rikaichan bar.

There is also a better version of Rikaichan, but it only works with older Firefox. This version is more convenient + “Search” works correctly there (which is convenient) + “Search” itself is more convenient there, because it is created in the browser, and not inside tabs. If you want to install it, you need to first install Firefox 56 (can be found), disable auto-update in Firefox, go to the official add-on page and install it using the link "The latest version of Rikaichan can be downloaded here". On the same page, install 3 dictionaries in the same way. The dictionary "Russian (Warodai)" is now hidden there for some reason, but you can download it.

7. Start using dictionaries

Quite often there is a very great need to translate some word into Russian. The following dictionaries may help you:

1. Firstly, the Rikaichan add-on, which has three built-in dictionaries:
   • Japanese-English EDICT. It is an open base on which many applications and websites are built.
   • Japanese-Russian JMdict (as well as other languages). Also an EDICT project, but for languages ​​other than English - Russian, German, French, Hungarian, Vietnamese, Thai, etc. The dictionary and languages ​​are available both in Rikaichan and in other applications and sites.
   • Japanese-Russian Warodai. There is an online version (you can download the entire dictionary), and many applications and sites include this dictionary.
2. Yarxi is a powerful Japanese-Russian dictionary, installed on almost all platforms, but with a complex interface. There is also an online version. Uses his base.
3. The list is not finished... Write to me (contacts below) to add dictionaries to the list.

8. Learning Kanji

After you have read the entire textbook, if you wish, you can start learning kanji. The best site to study is . I also wrote an extensive article that covers everything and answers all the questions that you may have, I highly recommend reading it.

• If you have no desire to learn at all, I advise you to learn the 1st year of kyoiku kanji (80 pieces) + 170 of the most popular kanji (250 kanji in total). This will allow you to read 54% of all kanji in the text! (not read 46%).
• If there is a desire, but not very great, then 1st year and 420 most popular (500 in total) - this will allow you to read 71% of the kanji in the text (not read 29%).
• If there is a strong desire, then 1 part and 920 of the most popular (1000 in total) - this will allow you to read 85% of the kanji in the text (not read 15%). 1500 will allow you to read 92%, 2000 - 95%, 2530 - 98.0%, 3000 - 99.0%. You don't need to know 100%.

You can also:

• Find more detailed statistics on hieroglyphs.
• Read old article from .

9. Watch another 50–150 hours of anime/movies/dramas with Russian subtitles

This point can be performed in parallel with points 5-8. For example, you are completing point 5 and have learned a new grammatical structure. You know her, but you have no intuition for her, she seems alien and unfamiliar to you. In fact, there is nothing to worry about: when you start looking at Japanese, you will immediately begin to recognize this construction in speech, and very soon you will not even be able to understand how you did not notice it before. And over time, you will be able to use this structure yourself unconsciously. Watching in Japanese with subtitles will also help you understand what intonation and how to pronounce phrases, and will also allow you to understand someone else's speech. It is impossible to learn a language without ever hearing it. If you have already watched so much anime before, then 10–30 hours will be enough.

10. Last point (big)

At this stage, you understand Japanese sounds, intonations, grammar, speech, and some hieroglyphs. You can also speak yourself, but with difficulty. Nevertheless:

• You still cannot watch without subtitles due to a small vocabulary, as well as, perhaps, insufficient understanding of speech or acquired, but not yet deposited, grammar.
• You can't read Japanese because you have a small vocabulary and only know some of the characters.
• It is difficult for you to speak (harder than to perceive speech by ear) due to a small vocabulary and lack of speaking experience.
• There are also other less serious problems.

In this section, we will describe the things you need to further improve your Japanese knowledge. This is a very extensive section, but since all these things now need to be done not in a certain order, but simultaneously, we have included them in one tenth paragraph. So:

1. Expand your vocabulary:
   • Use to improve your vocabulary. This mobile app with decks. You should find a ready-made Japanese deck with 13 thousand words and study these words while traveling, waiting in line, and so on. More details are described in the link.
   • Usually when you look at something in Japanese, you use a dictionary. But after entering a word, do not immediately delete the word, but leave it with the entered kana or hieroglyphs. At the end, when you finish watching (so as not to interfere with viewing), take all these words and write them in a regular text file in the format "<слово> <чтение> <значения>" (each word on a new line). You will have to learn these words. The point is that when you heard this word in a real situation, it will be much easier for you to remember it. Firstly, you already have an example of its use, respectively , You better understand the meaning of this word (because just a translation from the dictionary is not enough). Secondly, you will already have an image associated with this word. Thirdly, when you remember this word, you will remember the situation. where you heard this word, thanks to this, remembering the word can be 2 times easier, and the word will be remembered longer. Fourthly, you will know how to pronounce this word. Moreover, pronunciation from real life will additionally help. memorization, because it will pop up in your head. The advantage of this method is that such study of words will be much better than with AnkiDroid. You will also learn those words that come across to you more often. You can also do this study without knowledge. all hieroglyphs. But the big disadvantage is that you can’t just sit down and teach. Instead of studying, most of the time will be spent on browsing, i.e. this method does not allow you to expand your vocabulary in an accelerated manner. Of course, not all the words you hear will be popular. But to check the popularity, the site will later compile a list of the most popular words based on a large number good sources according to a smart algorithm. We will provide a link to this list in this manual as soon as this list becomes available. For example, you can skip words that occur more than 10-15 thousand, or put them at the end so as not to spend too much time on them, but learn more popular words first. If you heard the same word on different days, you can also put a number in front of it indicating the number of times you heard the word. After the list appears, we also recommend that you start writing its number in front of the word. This will give an incentive in learning words. For example, when you see that a word is among the first 5000, you know for sure that you are learning one of the most popular words in the Japanese language, and not that you came across a word that appears very rarely. Learning becomes more interesting.
   • When a list of popular words appears here, try using the same principle to write down and learn the most popular words, for example, from the first 1000. You will already know most of them, but you still won’t know some of them, but the most popular words are the most important.
   • Find other sources to improve your vocabulary, preferably with audio playback. I can personally recommend memrise.com, it has audio, but there are very few words (about 700). In it you need to study the decks "Japanese_1", "Japanese_2", "Japanese_3" and "New Approach (vocabulary)". If you know other sources of words, write to me (contacts below).
2. Learn all the necessary hieroglyphs. To have a good knowledge of Japanese, you must know 2500–3000 characters (of which 2136 are joyo kanji, and the rest are the most popular jinmeiyo kanji and hyogaiji). You can find instructions for studying, and an application for studying. Knowing hieroglyphs will also help you expand your vocabulary, because firstly, in AnkiDroid you cannot learn words whose hieroglyphs you don’t know, and secondly, when learning hieroglyphs you learn some words, especially those that are also kun readings of the hieroglyph.
3. Continue watching in Japanese:
   • Firstly, with Russian subtitles. You won't be able to start watching without subtitles right away, as you need to build up your vocabulary and become more familiar with the language. Watching with subtitles is needed to reinforce learned words and other things. Also, if suddenly you still have insufficient understanding of speech or grammar, viewing with subtitles will solve this problem. Viewing with subtitles helps in expanding your vocabulary, but at a low speed.
   • With Japanese subtitles (when available) or without subtitles (when not). Such viewing helps to listen specifically to Japanese speech and speeds up vocabulary acquisition and learning Japanese compared to viewing with Russian subtitles. As a minus, you will need to look into the dictionary while watching.
   • Advice from me personally: try watching the program モニタリング (full name ニンゲン観察バラエティ モニタリング). This is something like Japanese pranks (but not really, it takes a long time to explain, so watch it for yourself to understand), only in Japanese style. There are no Russian subtitles for it, but there are Japanese ones, and very good ones, and they are part of the program. To watch it, I think you need to know at least 5000 Japanese words. It’s much easier to watch than, for example, anime, because a lot of things are either clear in meaning or easy to miss. Now it comes out every week (more details on Japanese Wikipedia). You can find the show:
     • On Youtube on request (Monitoring / モニタリング) + date in the format 20190509.
     • On the Chinese video hosting bilibili on request (Monitoring / 人类观察 / 人间观察) + date in the format (190509 / 20190509 / 2019.05.09 / 2019年5月9日 without zeros). Most of the episodes are available (they are found 5–10 times more often on YouTube). To view in HD you need to register. You can do this not by phone, but by e-mail using this link (if it suddenly changes, you need to hover over the account icon at the top, click on the registration link, and then on the registration page there will be a link to switch phone/e-mail). Unfortunately, the site is in Chinese, so either use the translation function of the entire page using the Google Chrome browser or Google Translator, or right-click on the input field, select "Examine element" / "View element code" and copy the text that is located next to the "placeholder" label in the Element Inspector that opens.
     • On the Chinese video hosting youku for the same requests. There are probably a lot fewer releases.
4. Practice sounds that are problematic for pronunciation (at least when you already know well what the sound should actually sound like).
5. You can look for other grammar books. However, personally, the textbook indicated in the article was enough for me - I don’t come across unfamiliar grammar in my speech. PS. Do not learn from "Minna no Hihongo" - this textbook is intended for learning with a teacher, not on your own.
6. Once you feel confident in Japanese:
   1. Read lyrics, comments, manga, comics, light novels, inscriptions, etc. (as you wish). You need to read in Japanese, preferably without furigana, because you must learn to read well with hieroglyphs and kana.
   2. If you want to be able to speak freely and express your thoughts, you will have to speak. Without this, this skill will suffer.
   3. Learning to use the correct intonation when speaking also takes practice.
   4. You can try to start communicating with the Japanese. Ask them to correct your mistakes.

It should also be noted: the most important and difficult thing listed here is vocabulary, because when you already know all the rules of grammar and know how to use them, you know the intonations of the language, you perceive speech well by ear (if you have watched something in Japanese for enough time ), the only thing that will further hold you back in your knowledge of the language is vocabulary. If you don’t know the word, then you don’t understand what was said to you. And it’s even harder to speak yourself, because you may not know the words you need, which will confuse you when composing a phrase, even if you had very good speaking skills.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to collect all the things you need to know Japanese:

• Understand sounds. Achieved by watching anime already by the 4th point.
• Know hiragana and katakana, be able to read it fluently. Achieved with:
  • Direct study (points 1 and 2).
  • When studying grammar, because you will read example sentences (5th point).
  • When studying kanji, because studying hieroglyphs, you will also actively encounter kana (points 8 and 10).
  • Reading manga / comics / light novels / commentaries / song lyrics, etc. (10th point).
  • View with Japanese subtitles (10th point).
• Know grammar. The most important. Achieved by direct study at point 5.
• Understand speech by ear. Achieved by viewing in Japanese (4, 9, 10 points).
• Have a vocabulary. Achieved with:
  • Viewing and reading in Japanese.
  • Direct study in point 10.
• Know hieroglyphs and be able to read fluently. Achieved with:
  • Direct study (8th and 10th points).
  • Reading manga / comics / light novels / commentaries / song lyrics, etc. (10th point).
  • View with Japanese subtitles (10th point).
• Pronunciation:
  • The ability to speak and express one's thoughts. Achieved by practice (10th point).
  • Ability to pronounce sounds correctly. Achieved by itself + training in the pronunciation of problematic sounds (10th point).
  • Ability to use correct intonation when speaking. Achieved by practice (10th point).

The most difficult part of this is vocabulary, and it is this that will hold you back at the very end from very good knowledge of the language (however, I think this is the case in all languages). At the same time, the Japanese language, as luck would have it, has a rich vocabulary =)

Dialects

The Japanese language consists of more than one dialect. The most popular is the standard Tokyo dialect. Next in popularity is the Kansai dialect, which is actually a group of dialects that includes the dialects of the Kansai region, such as the O:saki dialect, the Kyo:to dialect and other dialects that differ from each other. After Kansai there are many different other dialects. This raises questions: How much will the diversity of dialects hinder the understanding of Japanese? What dialects should I learn?

In reality, everything is quite simple. It is the Tokyo dialect that you need to learn. On it you can find a common language with any resident of Japan. All products are also produced in the Tokyo dialect. Including because it is the most popular dialect of Japan, because this dialect is understandable to everyone, and also because it is the “official” dialect. Tokyo dialect is the dialect of the Internet, television, works.

Nevertheless, you will also occasionally encounter other dialects, usually Kansai, which is not something to be afraid of. They are found:

• On programs, people from Kansai are often asked to speak in their own dialect.
• In works, sometimes characters are specifically given a Kansai dialect.
• When photographing ordinary people.

There is no need to be afraid of this, because:

• After all, the Tokyo dialect is usually used on the Internet, television, and especially in works.
• Dialects in Japanese are not like in Chinese. In most dialects, the differences compared to Tokyo are not enormous.
• Over time, you will begin to roughly understand the Kansai dialect even without special study. You can also study it specifically. The point is that the better you know Japanese, the more often you have encountered the Kansai dialect, and the better you know it.

Other dialects besides Kansai are even less necessary. If the Japanese himself doesn’t understand a dialect well, then you don’t need it. It will not be used where all Japanese people must understand. But if it’s something simple, and a Japanese person still understands it, then you can understand it too, depending on your knowledge of the Japanese language. It's like a 'vocabulary'.

As a result, fortunately, dialects are not a problem that you will encounter. Without any study of dialects, you will much more often be faced with ignorance of words, the need to spend some time studying hieroglyphs, or something else. And if all this is not a problem for you, then dialects are even more so - either without studying or with it. You don’t even have to think about dialects until you realize that you already know Japanese quite well.

But if you have a desire to go to Japan, then the situation will change a little. If you go to a place where the non-Tokyo dialect predominates (which is far from necessary), then the majority will speak it with each other, because here it is no longer necessary for any Japanese to understand. That is, the situation when you are inside Japan is different from when you are outside. But even in this case, you can easily speak Tokyo or learn the dialect of the region you are going to.

How long does it take to learn Japanese?

Feedback

If something is unclear while following the instructions, or if you want to add something to the instructions, you can write to me