When it comes to languages, there are so many ways that you acquire fluency and speak the tongue of your choice. From online tutors to having meaningful conversations with native speakers and understanding dialects, both working harder and smarter plays quite a significant role while acquiring languages.
Today with the widespread popularity of anime and kawaii fashion, Japanese has emerged as quite a popular language. Especially with more and more wishing to travel to Japan for its food, style, aesthetic, and genius inventions, learning Japanese is a priority for many.
While the culture has been easily taken in by so many people, the language continues to baffle many. With its seemingly complex letters, way of writing, speaking, and understanding dialects, Japanese can be pretty hard to learn. Fortunately enough, there are still quite a lot of ways that can help you learn the language. If you are put on becoming an expert of this tongue, here are a few ways bound to help you:
1. Take Classes
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Well, this is one of the most important ways to learn Japanese if you are serious about learning the language in all its proper glory. Classes and tutors help with making a set schedule for you to learn that helps with learning language structure. Moreover, having a syllabus in front of you that you wish to go through can help you conquer the fear of the unknown and become accustomed to all that the language has to offer.
The one best place for learning Japanese has to be TutorOcean. The website has a plethora of topics to choose from, but their Japanese lessons and tutors offer state-of-the-art insights into the language. You could select anything from immediate help for introductory Japanese or get right to the very core of learning the tongue. The courses offer everything from writing to speech training to one day becoming a Japanese expert yourself.
2. Invest Time to Watch Japanese Entertainment
Anime and Japanese dramas are a great way to become familiar with the language all on their own or even while you are getting professional classes to become proficient. Humans being visual creatures, the elements, expressions, and the visuals of the TV series or Japanese films you watch will help you relate the words you learned to actual objects, feelings, and situations.
All in all, you get a real-life kind of experience when confronted with those same words and know all the contexts they can be used in. For better ease of learning, of course, you can use subtitles in English or your regional language. Soon you will be surprised to see that your eyes wander to the subtitles less and less, and you can understand the words all on their own.
3. Read Japanese Literature
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If you are more of a bibliophile and can not stay an idle moment without a book in your hand, you could rely on Manga or children’s books in the first stages of acquiring the language. If you have already spent countless hours watching Japanese TV and are familiar with plentiful words, reading will help you put shapes to the sounds and eventually make you better at understanding the written language.
Japanese manga is highly popular in America and is one of the ways for both adults and children to get accustomed to the language. These come with the basic Hiragana characters that are the perfect prequel to your ultimate quest for the native kanji characters. Books with Hiragana and Katakana are two other ways to become a Japanese master eventually.
4. Learning Hiragana and Katakana
If you haven’t yet descended down the path of written Japanese and are totally flustered by the thousands of intricate letters of the language, you could ease your descent by learning Hiragana and Katakana. These are two basic 30 letter Japanese alphabets that can substitute the way you capture the words into writing.
These characters provide an easy prelude to the kanji characters, which might take you a bit more to master. Hiragana is in a way a common way of easily writing the language’s original characters, while Katakana is used more for foreign sounds. Eventually, the best way to go ahead would be to learn these characters and Kanji characters side by side so that you can learn the native writing, too.
5. Immerse Yourself in Japanese Music
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If there is one thing to behold while traveling to Japan, then it is the country’s karaoke booths. From big karaoke halls to roadside rooms, the country’s love for karaoke can be seen in the way there is a karaoke booth that is always lingering just around the corner. Lucky for you, you can use this opportunity to get a better hold of the language’s pronunciation and what those words mean.
Considering just how easily we tend to remember lyrics through music and hold it a long while in the head, you too could use the same factor to learn Japanese. So, head over to a private karaoke booth and switch on both Japanese and English subtitles. The catchy beats and lyrics are sure to stick with you for a while and help you relate to what the lyrics mean and improve your pronunciation.
6. Speak with Natives
For all the effort you could pour while learning from a tutor or reading and viewing Japanese literature, nothing could compete with you if you actually practiced your language with Japanese natives. Everyone would agree that talking with natives helps with language flow. Of course, it would also help with understanding the subtle complexities of the language that are not so refined when going through textbook syllabi.
So as you get a basic grip on the language’s introductory phase, join Japanese language and cultural groups, approach natives through social media, or find natives in your city that are willing to help you.
Learning Japanese can be a bit challenging in the beginning when you have no idea of what’s going on, but as you remain patient and work, becoming proficient is only a matter of weeks!
