I try to summarize in this article all the most important and necessary. If you know anything useful that I forgot about, please leave a comment or email me:

Animeshnikov in Russia are a dime a dozen. Every second person cherishes the hope of learning the moonpeak sooner or later, and has often been cherishing it for the sixth year already. Meanwhile, anyone can learn Japanese to the level at which one can watch TV series and even read simple books in a year and a half.

Language university

If you have looked after a good Japanese department of a language university, and are ready to enter it, then, of course, you should do so. The speed of learning in language universities is average: in the first year you will pass the basics of grammar and about 500 kanji. However, the university provides a comprehensive education - not only language, but also history, literature, politics.

Most importantly, you willy-nilly be among the people who are learning Japanese. You will find friends, later, possibly, work related to your hobby.

JLPT delivery

Yarksi

The Japanese-Russian dictionary, a kanji catalog and a universal Japaneseist tool, exists for different operating systems and platforms. An indispensable tool like Wakan - especially if you don't care about English.

It contains the largest, besides Varodai, electronic Japanese-Russian dictionary (60,000 words), a base of hieroglyphs with Russian names and interpretations, supports a search by a variety of signs, a search by drawing.

How to use: as a dictionary, a reference book of kanji, especially as the first thing to refer to if you do not fully understand or doubt the meaning of kanji. Yarksi has an excellent system of indicating values, where examples of use are given for each value.

• Yarksi-online - dictionary from Yarksi on the Internet.

Anki

Flash card cramming program. A recognized leader, he knows everything in his field: any settings, mathematics, the appearance of maps, dozens of plugins, versions for all operating systems and mobile phones, the Internet version (all synchronized with each other).

How to use: Install on all your devices, set up sync, create decks and cram.

You can either compose a deck yourself, adding cards manually, or download a ready-made one from the server using the program. When downloading ready-made decks, remember that often they contain words of several levels at once - in Anki, you can choose to “cram only cards marked with certain tags”.

It's easier to download a ready-made deck, but it's often more convenient to compose a personal one - for example, if you want to learn kanji in a specific order. I use two decks: “words” (downloaded from the internet) and “kanji” (compiled by hand). In the latter case, you can build a deck automatically from the kanji marked for learning in wakana (see jp-tools below).

Be sure to install the sample kanji words and sample sentences per word plugins.

Where can I get word lists and kanji for Anka?

• Download ready-made decks.
• Create from the list of learned characters in Wakana.
• Learn the hieroglyphs that are most important for reading your favorite book.

A competitor to Wakan, which does not have a translator, but only a dictionary and cramming of kanji and words. However, many people like it (and newer).

AppLocale

A utility from Microsoft that allows you to run applications with a different system locale. Needed to run old or poorly written Japanese programs (often games), i.e. almost everyone -___-". If you see that the application shows krakozyabi instead of Japanese, run it from under AppLocale, setting the locale to 日本語.

Windows 7: To install under Windows 7, you need to run the installer with elevated rights.

Japanese Text Readers

Almost all Japanese books on the Internet can be opened with Notepad or any other text editor, the main thing is to choose the encoding. But reading books is so inconvenient. Usually they use special programs - readers.

They know how, firstly, to type the text vertically from right to left (get used to this form right away!), And secondly, to show the furigan not in brackets, breaking the text, but as it should be - from the side.

There are many readers, google “aozora-bunko reader”, “japanese reader ruby”. If you don't know which one to choose, try ArisuViewer.

It is usually impossible to copy Japanese text from such readers, so in order to search for words in a dictionary, it is useful to keep the same book open in Notepad in parallel.

AGTH / ChiiTrans / ChiiTrans Lite

Apps to translate or help translate Japanese visual novels. With their help, you can play novels, easily and conveniently figuring out the meaning of unfamiliar words, or even translating entire sentences on the fly.
AGTH is older, ChiiTrans is built on top of it and richer - a variety of translation methods, including only words, signing readings, overlaying the game, etc.

Rikaichan

Pop-up translation of words in the browser from Japanese to other languages. Dictionary of names, number and frequency of appearance of hieroglyphs and more.

Ruby support

The XHTML standard has tags for writing ruby \u200b\u200b(character captions). Some browsers support them automatically, others need plugins and add-ons:

Russian dictionaries!

• Varodai - an electronic version of the large Soviet Japanese-Russian dictionary: 90,000 entries, more than 113,000 expressions if you count the variations.
• JR-Edict - about 6000 words in EDICT format (compatible with many applications).

Links

• WWWJDIC - one of the web interfaces to the EDICT dictionary (the largest electronic Japanese-English dictionary). It is convenient to assign the search in your browser to some quick combination, for example, “jp”, so that you can search for a translation directly from the address bar.
• Yahoo Answers Japan - the last resort in the translation of incomprehensible expressions. When there is no expression in the dictionary and Google did not help, you can ask a question to the Japanese. On this and other similar sites, the most complex and confusing phrases will be cleared out for you in a few hours. Don't forget to thank the Japanese and choose the “correct answer”!
• tanos.co.uk - everything in JLPT: grammar, words and kanji for all levels, examples of past assignments, tests. In English.
• Google translate - Google translator. You should not trust him, use it as a generator of unexpected thoughts.
• / tran /, / fl / - / tran / -sections of the imageboard. One of the places where you can get a hint (and give a hint to another, don't forget about it).
• [email protected] - conference in jabber for conversations about foreign languages \u200b\u200b(including Japanese)

Hiragana, katakana and the basics of grammar

Hiragana and katakana - Japanese syllabic alphabets. Read about them carefully on Wikipedia. You have to memorize them.

Start with hiragana... Print its symbols on a sheet of paper with readings, hammer them in, and repeat for hours - on the subway, at breakfast, at lectures.

Having memorized most of it, read fairy tales. Stubbornly wade through the texts, looking for symbols on your sheet and sorting out the words.

When you are comfortable with hiragana, start learning katakana... Everything is the same, only you don't have to rush, and there are almost no texts on it. You will know less about Katakana. Everyone knows her worse, and at first they are more confused about her. Not scary.

Both hiragana and katakana must learn to write. Let the letters be ugly, but you have to remember their shape.

Grammar

In parallel, read something about the basics of grammar. Any simple book for beginners is good, even ridiculed by everyone, like japanese in one month... There is enough information in them.

You must learn:

• Declination of words (present, past, guess, command, opportunity, passive voice)
• Simple and polite form (tobu / tobimasu) and how they are applied.
• General sentence structure (wa, ha, clauses and replacing them with wa to ha).
• Roles of all simple particles (but, no, de, o / vo, then, uh, kara, made, and others)

Hieroglyphics

Find and memorize general rules kanji style. Learn how to write these twenty kanji correctly (300-500 copies each, 25-50 per entry).
If you are not going to learn how to write kanji (and many do not want to, because it is unnecessary and wastes time), then now write not 20, but 40-50 kanji. This is the required minimum, you can quit further.

Transliteration

When kana is written in Russian or English letters (for example, "jinsei" or "jinsei"), it is called kiriji and romaji. There are different options for such a record:

• Kana: マ リ イ ち ゃ ん の じ ん せ い は ち ょ っ と ふ く ざ つ
• Hepburn System: Marii-chan no jinsei wa chotto fukuzatsu
• Kunrei-shiki: Marii-tyan no zinsei wa tyotto hukuzatu
• Polivanov's system: Maria-chan no jinsei wa thotto fukuzatsu
• Different options not according to Polivanov: vat, jinsei, jeans, even, chotto, fukuzatsu etc.

There are irreconcilable disputes between supporters and opponents of the Polivanov system. Opponents argue that the words in Japanese do not sound like that, “you can clearly hear sh or sh”, and that they look funny (for example, 死者 “shisha” - dead). The advantage of Polivanov is that it is the only unambiguous system, among the notation “not according to Polivanov” there are no clear rules: someone writes “shi”, someone writes “cabbage soup”, someone does it at random.

It is not so important which system to use in chats and forums. In articles and books, it is better to use Polivanov, since it happened so, this is a good form - although of course, in each situation you need to look at the circumstances. And when studying Japanese kiriji and romaji, it is better not to use them at all, even at first: all readings should be taught only in kana.

Pronunciation

When you start learning Japanese from anime, you usually already know how to pronounce sounds in standard Japanese. Practice pronunciation by reading stories aloud. The sounds of Japanese are close to Russian, just keep in mind that whichever recording system you prefer (Polivanov or Kiridji-Hepburn), you need to pronounce the sounds "si" and "dzi" as they are heard, and not any of the variants recorded in Russian.

Cramming Kanji and Words

Find the kanji lists for N5 / N4 (ex JLPT4 / JLPT3), print them out or post them in Anki. Learn in large quantities (20-30 new, 2-3 hours in total per day for classes). Take breaks sometimes.

In parallel, read either fairy tales, or, as soon as you can, whatever the cost, simple light novels in Japanese.

How to read books.

Start with simple books, and whose plot you know well from translation. Read in a row, quickly, so that reading does not have time to get bored. Skip hopelessly difficult paragraphs, medium difficulty and easy - translate by copying words into the translator. Try not to copy entire paragraphs, guess simple expressions yourself.

Search for learned kanji. Combine their sounds, trying to get a familiar word. If you do not know all the kanji in the word, try to guess anyway, and if you guess, drive the sound into the dictionary and check if it is.

You can and should start reading simple light novels with 300-400 kanji. You can do this without crying with 1000+ kanji and 4000-5000 words, so get ready for the fact that the first time will be difficult. It should be so - only after making your way through this difficult area, you will learn to read easily.

As your kanji portfolio grows, add more - from the books you read and the words you learn. Go to JLPT N3 and create, if you have not already done so, a deck for the hieroglyphs you know in Anki. Feel free to add hieroglyphs to it that are not included in the JLPT you are currently studying. Learn the kanji you come across often first, and let JLPT just be your guide.

Kanji and words

It is useful to memorize individual kanji, but they are memorized much faster as part of words. Therefore, be sure to install yourself the plugin for anka “examples of kanji words”, and run through the examples with your eyes every time. Remembering the hieroglyph, repeat not only reading (“KAN”), but the most famous combinations with it (“aha, this is KAN from KANZEN!”).

Get yourself a separate deck for words, or download a ready-made JLPT for all levels. Select only the two lower levels in it, and cram this set of words. Install the sample sentences with words plugin and try to understand the meaning of each word, not just memorize its translation. Study by example in what situations the word is used - this way it will be remembered faster.

At first, you can learn 10-20 kanji a day, and 80-100 words. If this is too much and your debt to Anki grows, reduce the dose. Nobody forbids heroically to go through 500 words in one day, but it is not necessary. As kanji and words become more rare, the learning rate will drop - down to 2-3 kanji and 10 words per day.

When learning words, show their readings right away, because often words run ahead and use kanji that you still don't know. As soon as the word is memorized, you can begin to close the reading with your hand, and try to guess at first it, and only then - the meaning.

Never cram without understanding. If any of the kanji means "eavesdropping" or "marsh white", find out the meaning of these words, find pictures. Having stumbled upon the "chamber of advisers", read about the political structure of Japan. When you come across an ambiguous or strange word, find and add some clear usage examples to the card. Memorize the meaning, not the letters.

• How to make it easier to remember (in English.)

Grammar

Reading will automatically force you to get comfortable with the grammar of average difficulty, from which most texts are built. Nothing special can be said here: when you come across an incomprehensible or too complex sentence, work on it - disassemble it in parts, try to guess the meaning.

Buy yourself an intermediate grammar reference book, such as Lavrentiev's Practical Japanese Grammar. When analyzing a proposal, re-read the articles about each of its elements. If all else fails, ask senior comrades for advice.

Common expressions

Sometimes you will come across proverbs and sayings, stable expressions, Japanese memes. Learn to notice them even if you've heard them before. A simple rule that will help at first: if a phrase sounds meaningless, and the words are suddenly irrelevant, you may be reading a fixed expression.

How to fight: select the most characteristic, weird, unique, unchanging part of the expression and copy it to Google, enclosing it in quotes. Examine the situations in which it applies. You can add “意味” outside the quotes: sometimes the phrase is in Japanese dictionaries, sometimes someone has already asked about its meaning, and he was answered.

What to read

Where to get books in Japanese:

• (it's easy and not so expensive - less than 400 rubles per book).
• Download from the Internet:
  • Aozora Bunko - Free Literature Library with Ruby
  • Torrents, Share and Perfect Dark are an inexhaustible source of electronic copies of books you've already bought in paper form.
• Buy from city stores or borrow from libraries.

Modification of the components of the hieroglyph

Kanji are often mutated to fit into other characters:

水 (mizu) - water, 注 ぐ (sosogu) - “pour”, the left component is also “water”.
手 (te) - hand, 扱 い (atsukai) - “leave”, the left component is also “hand”.
人 (hito) - person, 住 む (sumu) - “to live”, the left component is also “person”.

It is useful to remember such simplifications over time by studying tables of radicals and parts of hieroglyphs.

Radicals and consonances

Often, entering a more complex hieroglyph, simple hieroglyphs have a special role in it:

• Used as a key in dictionary lookups
• Influence its meaning (sometimes even ask it)
• Affect its Chinese sound (OH).

The first one will not be useful to you, because now there are electronic dictionaries that search for anything. However, it is worth knowing that there is an algorithm for highlighting the main part (key) in the hieroglyph, according to which it is entered into the dictionary.

The second and third helps on a case by case basis. Studying kanji, you will notice that among the elements there are "strong" ones that dominate the Chinese sound almost always:

青 い (aoi / SEI, SHOU) - blue.
清 い (kiyoi / SEI, SHOU) - “water” + “blue” \u003d transparent, uncontaminated
晴 れ る (hareru / SEI) - "sun" + "blue" \u003d to purify, to enlighten (about the weather, for example)

生 (ikiru / SEI, SHOU) - life
性 (saga / SEI, SHOU) - gender, gender
姓 (SEI, SHOU) - last name

It even happens that both readings coincide:

中 (naka / CHUU) - the gap between something and something
仲 (naka / CHUU) - “person” + “gap” \u003d relationship between someone and someone

Plot memorization method

To memorize the meaning of the hieroglyph, you can come up with some kind of “explanation” of how this meaning is “logically” derived from the components of the hieroglyph. For instance:

脅 か す (obiyakasu) - "to intimidate, to threaten." In this picture, we see three components of "force" and one "moon". A bunch of evil people secretly, at night, appeared to the person and threaten him.
囁 く (sasayaku) - "to whisper". One mouth and three ears: obviously gossiping.

You can make up completely nonsense, if only it helps you remember:

露 (tsuyu) - "dew". Foot, “everyone” and rain: all feet are in the rain, the grass is wet. So it's not rain, but dew.

Often you cannot come up with a complete description, but in one component it is easy to see a hint:

主 (nushi) - "master"
注 ぐ (sosogu) - to pour. What can you pour? Water. And here it is, water, to the left of the "owner".
住 む (sumu) - “to live”. Who lives in the house? Man, his master. And so, to the left of the “master” is a man.
柱 (hashira) - “pillar”. What are the pillars made of? Made of wood. And here is a tree to the left of the "owner".

One word - multiple kanji

Japanese is older than its hieroglyphic writing. Some of the words in it are ambiguous, and when the kanji were borrowed from China, different kanji were chosen for different meanings. For instance:

伸 び る (nobiru) - stretch, extend (in length)
延 び る (nobiru) - stretch, extend (in time)
直 す (naosu) - straighten, fix (thing)
治 す (naosu) - to cure a disease (person)
会 う (ay) - meet, see (about people)
合 う (ay) - come together, meet (about things)
遭 う (ay) - to face (with unpleasant life circumstances)

There are also more subtle cases when the choice of kanji conveys only shades of meaning. Sometimes a word is traditionally written in one kanji, and the author writes it down more rarely in order to emphasize some intonation. Sometimes the chosen kanji is not even associated with the word at all.

Choosing the wrong kanji is a mistake, although not a critical one. Of course, the chosen kanji cannot be conveyed by voice, therefore, in oral speech, the meaning of the word is guessed from the context.

One kanji - several words

It so happens that several Japanese words correspond to one kanji. Then on the record they differ only in the ending, for example:
通 う - kayou, walk (to work), ride (to and from work)
通 る - tooru, pass (along the street, through the alley)
笑 う - warau, laugh
笑 む - emu, smile
In some forms, the words even look the same, and it remains to guess from the context: 通 っ て is kayotte or tootte.

Some pseudo-Chinese words also have multiple readings: 真 実 shinjitsu / 真 実 sana (truth), 昨日 kinou / 昨日 sakujitsu (yesterday).

Types of words

There are four broad categories of words in Japanese:

1. Originally Japanese words. Usually written in one kanji with the kana ending, the ending is declined. Examples: 笑 う (warau, laugh), 支 え る (sasaeru, support), 読 む (yomu, read), 擦 れ 違 う (surechigau, run) At the same time, kunas are used to read kanji.
2. Pseudo-Chinese words. It turns out if you make up 2-4 kanji and read them. Examples: 想像 (souzou, imagination), 要求 (youkyuu, demand), 真 実 (shinjitsu, truth). They do not bend, and if you need to get a verb, the service Japanese verb “sura” is added to the end: 想像 す る - to imagine, 要求 す る - to demand.
3. Onomatopoeia and similar words. Written in kana, less often kanji, usually two repeating syllables: に こ に こ, ち ょ く ち ょ く, こ そ こ そ. In fact, it is something like the Russian "shorkh-shorh" or "whack-whack", only there are ten times more of them and they exist for things for which there are no sounds, such as silence, irritation or dizziness. If you are not afraid of English, I recommend it.
4. Borrowing. Written in katakana, they sound like the foreign words from which they originated: ド ー ル (dooru, doll, doll), ド ラ イ バ ー (doraibaa, driver, driver / screwdriver). Often they have some unexpected, not quite ordinary meaning. Long words are often abbreviated: パ ソ コ ン (pasokon, PERsonal COMputer), バ イ ト (baito, part-time, from German arubaito - labor).

Speech styles

Men and women speak differently in Japanese. Men speak harsher, they often swallow syllables (see below), use “yes” and “yes ё” instead of “desu” and call themselves “ore” or “boku”. The girls speak softer, call themselves “watasi” or “atasi”, and the phrase is built in the form of a semi-question, ending it with “ne”, “kasira” or “des va”.

When communicating between senior and junior, boss and subordinate, polite speech is used - keigo. Besides these, there are many other speech styles and embellishments. They are used depending on the character, situation and mood. A fashionista girl, a shy girl, a boy, an old man, a young guy, a young girl - everyone will speak differently.

Some of the elements of speech diversity:

• the form of the main verb and style words change (“desu”, “yes”, “yes yo”, “da zo”, “yes na”, “desu ne”, “de aru”, “de gozaru”)
• the form of the phrase changes slightly (in female speech, for example, a semi-interrogative tone is adopted)
• syllables are swallowed (in male speech: “surya” instead of “sureba”, “sinakya” instead of “sinakereba”)

In addition to standard Japanese, there are a number of dialects that differ in the pronunciation and form of the service words.

Other information

• Kokuji are hieroglyphs invented in Japan after the Chinese. Usually they are deprived of them.
• Ateji - hieroglyphs chosen for sound transmission foreign words... Usually not used, but kana is used.

Additionally

Notes

Suggest some tutorials for a beginner to get started easier)

Anyone you like. Go to a major bookstore or Japanese literature store, flip through and take a look. I like the Lavrent'ev grammar reference book, for example (the green one, not the red tutorial). Once I read "Japanese in one month", normal for a beginner. Many people love Nechaev (this is a tutorial, I didn't really like it, but I don't like them at all).

Now still appeared
www (dot) dicter (dot) ru

It's just a wrapper for google translate, it seems. There are dozens of them.

Yes, absolutely. (sarcasm)

I can't link, it's illegal. But if, let's say, you own a paper copy, the electronic one can be found in torrents and Perfect Dark.

Thanks for the resources! They helped a lot.

If you are fluent in English, Tae Kim's Guide is probably the best way to learn grammar http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/ and Remembering The Kanji (http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Remembering-Kanji-1- James-Heisig / 9780824835927) is a great help in memorizing kanji. Tae Kim is so good that it does not force you to quickly learn the same keigo (which is what many self-study guides do), and after careful study, he allows himself to quite comfortably read various visual novels using the AGTH + Notepad + Rikaichan bundle.

A very motivating article, in general I actually started learning Japanese from it, but after eight months of studying Japanese it became clear to me that at best I could reach N5, although as practice shows I did not study according to JLPT, because my I was surprised to find that I know a little of all the levels. (For example, I found familiar hieroglyphs not only in N5, but also in N1). So, actually, what is the question: can you tell me how you motivated yourself to study the language so intensively? How much time did you spend in Japanese every day?

Ranobe wanted to read 🙂 Waste: on the way to work and home for an hour and a half or two. In the subway, there is still nothing to do, but you sit there, repeating kanji. Why do you think that you are only up to N5? N5-N4 are quite simple, hieroglyphs can be printed and learned in a few weeks.

So I know all the hieroglyphs from N5 and most of N4, and in fact, I already quite freely correspond with the Japanese on the network (though on simple topics), I start having problems when I start talking to the Japanese, and this is where it turns out what to learn it was necessary not only to translate the hieroglyph, but all the readings. In correspondence with this is much easier, because microsoft IME does not require absolute knowledge of the pronunciation of a word. By the way, I want to recommend you sites for learning the language: busuu.com and livemocha.com (I got most of my knowledge through these sites, because there you can ask questions to the Japanese, and chat is also a very useful thing in conjunction with google transalte, I already called all the Japanese back there (it turned out more than 100, but I think this is not the limit))

Wow, so maybe you shouldn't be unfair to yourself? JLPT does not test communication skills, it only needs to be read. I passed JLPT N2, but I still can't speak freely. So it is possible that your JLPT level is higher than you think.
And by the way, 100 acquaintances - you are a very sociable person 🙂 I won't have so many acquaintances!

Excuse me, but what's the point in your 2nd level if you don't own it? Why certificate then?
Language proficiency means, first of all, the ability to speak it.

I'm afraid this question should not be asked to me, but to the authors of the exam. Apparently, it was so conceived. Why do I get a certificate? This is stated in the article: out of interest, in order to assess your level, compare it with the level of others. After all, everyone passes the exam according to the same rules.

Oh, thanks for the answer, just like at the beginning of this year, motivation, motivation, motivation! (Probably only a techie understands a techie (especially IT), because when I showed your article to one girl from a linguistic one, she absolutely did not appreciate your work, but under his influence I never even thought about courses (Well, only sometimes, in moments of despair ) and when I thought about girls (because there are really only girls in Japanese courses), by the way, you are from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, and have you ever been to the “Japanese Center?” They have there so-called “Chamomile Clubs” - that is, one once a month you can meet and talk with real Japanese live there, I even went there once, but due to my weak spoken Japanese, it somehow did not go very well. Here is their website: jcenter.msu.ru (It's true now something they don't have these daisies, probably because the summer has just ended).

Yes, and about friends: out of 100 I found Japanese friends there only 4-5 people, with the rest like that, I only chatted once. (The most sociable are Japanese grandmothers).

I haven’t been, I haven’t gathered myself somehow during my studies) Lazy, uncommunicative, and so on. thanks for useful information... I see you've tried a lot yourself. If you have interesting observations, please report 🙂

I fully support Misha333 that the article is very motivating, especially considering that I am also a techie, graduated from Mech-Mat. This is the very first article I read when I decided to learn Japanese, read it many times. Just like the Author, I really wanted to read the light novel, to find out how this or that story ended. All thanks to Japanese animatars, who, God forbid, will shoot 50% of the full screen version. Already planned out for years what to read. And somehow, even imperceptibly for myself, I wanted to become a translator.
And I think that I was lucky with the teacher, I found a teacher in my little Tula, who lived in Japan for 10 years and is essentially a native speaker, I think this will be a big plus to all the efforts. And even this Sunday (9 月 23 日) a real Japanese person comes. I hope to see him, although there will probably be little sense)))
あ り が と う ご ざ い ま す, himself さ ん.

Thank you) I'm glad it came in handy for someone.

The article is simply invaluable, how many times I have already stumbled upon it, and each time I discover something new \u003d) There are just a lot of things :-))) In addition, I already have some experience in learning the language, and what is said here, I know from yourself. Although it says about light novels, I figured out for myself that the main thing is to read. I didn’t read light novel, but manga, it seems that it’s easier, and knowing the plot of my favorite manga, it’s not scary if I don’t understand something, but a lot of moments like “oh! that's how it is said in Japanese! that's how it is spelled! " Well remembered.
Quite an inconsistent review, it just struck me today that I'm not coming back here for the first time :-))) Thank you knowledgeable person, that he shared :-))) Perhaps I will use the advice and try Anki and learn words a lot a day, and not like me, in a sparing mode - t. when I want, then I teach \u003d))) I have to learn 3 levels of kanji in a short time, so gambarimas :-))))

Thanks. Successful study 🙂

Something I can't find wordlists and kanji for JLPT N4-5. Can you tell me where to get them? And yet, maybe you know where you can buy cards for this level in Moscow?

Thanks for the article, very motivating. However, there are questions, is it really worth teaching without any textbooks, or did you not indicate a single title for other reasons? It's just that when I try to teach without textbooks, just from fairy tales and lists of kanji and words, I have the feeling that I am missing something. Can you recommend a tutorial for beginners? It is desirable to have it from scratch, with grammar, because it was in it that I did not understand well, for lack of a textbook.

It seems to me that it is worth teaching without tutorials, i.e. textbooks that lead by the hand from lesson to lesson. Other tutorials and guides may be helpful. But I don't know many of them. I named a few in the article and in the comments. I learned the simplest grammar in “Japanese in one month” (it is really very simple), the more complex one - just reading books, googling strange turns on the Internet, checking with reference books like Lavrentiev (on grammar).

Oh, and I would also like to ask for some reference to a good base of Japanese fairy tales, of varying complexity. From learning hiragana to learning kanji. And how many I didn’t look for - I didn’t find any suitable and rather big database of Japanese fairy tales.

And another question, do you think it is possible to raise spoken Japanese, without language schools?

You can, if you find someone to talk to (Japanese friends, or you live in Japan).

Question. Why is katakana better to learn after hiragana? In my opinion, it is more logical at the same time. I learned, for example, the symbol あ - and after it ア. And so on with each character.

You can teach as you like. But katakana is more difficult to learn, there is almost nothing to train it. Therefore, even if you study the cards with letters equally, reading hiragana will still be remembered better. Unless you find some kind of katakana text generator and deliberately force yourself to read a lot of them to get comfortable with it (optional, but a good investment of effort).

Well, there is, for example, RealKana, where random katakana or hiragana symbols are thrown, and you need to determine which symbol it is. Probably good for practice.

No, this is cramming. Same as Anki or printed cards. Cramming is necessary, but practice is when you read the text.

Hmm. Many people start learning Japanese because of anime, and there are a lot of katakana in the credits.

In the Sabah in the sense? In general, Japanese subs are a good thing, but you need to be able to find them. But the katakanas are not really there anymore, in my opinion. The same as in the light novel.

To train katakana, try to find an old edition of Golovnin's textbook on the Internet. Half of the first volume is almost entirely in katakana. There is phonetic text and katakana words for each lesson. In this way, in practice, you can fix the entire alphabet so that later there will be no problems. When I started, I learned it, even before hiragana.

I studied Japanese at the university according to Golovnin. True, there were a lot of katakana. A good textbook I think for the practice of syllabary.

Hello himself さ ん！ How strange that over the years no one has asked, perhaps the most interesting (for me) question! You have written more than once that you watched anime, do you continue to watch it to this day? I started learning Japanese 15 days ago, I already know Hiragana, Katakana, and the simplest sentences like 「こ れ は 何 で す か？」, I know no more than ten kanji. My overall goal is to understand Japanese speech (watch anime without subtitles) and read books in the original. I am worried about the question, please tell me, do you by ear, in anime, for example, do you understand speech? According to her you don't have to disassemble? If yes, please tell me, if you remember, after what time did you start to get it? What is the minimum number of words needed to understand speech in the same anime? So far, this is my incentive, I am extremely interested in how long and how many kanji I will, albeit with difficulty, but begin to understand speech.
Thank you very much for your attention!

In order to understand speech by ear, it is not necessary to learn kanji at all (although this will help to consolidate the skill). The main thing is words. I am sure that if you want to achieve noticeable success, you will achieve it in six months. But keep in mind that speech is different: in serious science fiction and historical anime, the language is often complex, and in anime about everyday life and simple comedies, it is often much simpler.
I didn't learn Japanese for a long time, I just watched anime. And I began to understand Japanese speech in simple anime long before studying. Not even specifically learning it, just remembering which words were used for which subtitles. If you start teaching seriously, then things should go faster. Success in your studies!

Good afternoon, Vladimir! Thank you for the excellent article, I read and reread it with great pleasure and it seems to me that I will return to it more than once. I reluctantly envy your ability to learn a language: to advance so far in such a short time. I myself have been learning Japanese for a year and a half, and the cart, as they say, is still there. In terms of: it's hard to read, you have to naturally wade through the text, periodically interrupting for soothing hand-wringing and running around the room. Conversation is easier (I can handle it at a household level), listening comprehension is worse, but it also works.
From my experience, what can come in handy for those coming after: I read texts from books aimed at developing reading among foreigners. That is, Japanese Graded Readers, Nihon Bunka wo Yomu and others are many different. The essence is the same: original or adapted texts with audio recording. Reading, hearing, shadowing in one bottle.
I also write small texts, dialogues for practicing vocabulary or grammar. Freehand - in vertical writing - and on a computer - to throw language learners like italki on the net. They don't always check, but sometimes they make useful comments. I prescribe kanji a lot and for a long time - it calms, and I'm also a graphomaniac.
Of the helpful resources not mentioned above: manythings.org/japanese, I use the kanji section. What I like: The kanji field can be cut however you like. If you want - teach in JLPT, if you want - in Japanese school curriculum. You can hit the language of news and newspapers, there are quizzes for the most common words in which the studied kanji is used. Downside: The site is not very fast at all, and during the activity of America it hardly responds.
Regarding different teaching methods: I have probably tried everything except Russian textbooks. There was Rosetta, there were courses (and there are), there was an exchange visit to Japan, there were Skype lessons with a Japanese teacher, textbooks, books, independent studies. What suited me and remained: Skype, books, self-storage, courses from a Japanese philologist. Such is the story. I hope it will be useful to someone too.
Thanks again! ^ _ ^

How did you motivate yourself to learn the language?
Now I have completed the first volume in my luggage み ん な の に ほ ん ご (by the way, what level does the first book correspond to?), I seem to want to learn and study, but the textbooks somehow feel uncomfortable, I want variety. Now only in Anki I repeat the passed words.
And is it possible to correlate your knowledge of the JLPT, mb there are sites?
By the way, when applying for a job, my knowledge of the Japanese language influenced me a little, pushed me to the forefront in comparison with other job seekers, although the work is not related to Japanese in any way))))).

Maybe try reading? It's challenging and interesting. You can try your hand at JLPT on their official website (there are examples there), or else there is literature for preparation, assignments of past years (usually it's all in Japanese).
I didn't specifically motivate, when I started doing it right (that is, a lot), it was interesting simply because everything worked out.

By the way:
\u003e You can and should start reading simple light novels with 300-400 kanji.
Are simple light novels, in principle, almost everything? If not, can you advise some simple_nobe based on your experience? Or maybe you just know about some.

There are more complex light novels, usually sci-fi or historical. I did not include a list in the article, because I cannot make a good one - there is much more to read than I read. But, for example, Haruhi's first volumes are pretty simple.

It seems to me that it is more important for a beginner that he has already read this book or looked at it in translation. I would pick five or six light novel anime that I liked and seem simple, and then read a couple of pages at a time and see which one was easier.

Could you tell me if I understood correctly. Need to quickly go through the grammar, memorize something along the way, then take a light novel and translate to strengthen the grammar, and then start learning kanji?

But how are you going to translate light novel without knowing the kanji? The order is different in the article.

Well, for example, you can take a manga in which there is a furigana. I was rather worried about how well I should go through the grammar at first, quickly and not really memorizing or trying to learn something

Then yes, it is better to immediately fix it in practice. Remember, of course, you still try.

Great article, thanks. Last summer I took advice from it as a main direction and was satisfied like an elephant - reading from 1200 kanji is already working out well.

However, there is a question about the set of kanji used. You have read a lot and have a lot of experience? I myself use VN-ki for practice (extraction by hookers of text on the fly with a furigana signature greatly speeds things up), and almost at every step there I come across “uncertified” kanji. Of course, there are a lot of 常用 and JLPT lists, but apart from them every now and then 人名 用 come out not in names, but by meaning, or kanji, which are not in any lists at all, or a word usually written by kana is suddenly written kanji (よ ろ し い ＝ 宜 し い, し ゃ べ る ＝ 喋 る). Is this a normal situation for an artist, or did I just come across VNs exclusively from authors-highly intellectual snobs? I memorize them all the same, they will not be superfluous, it is simply interesting.

Normal, especially your examples - syaberu is like that at every turn. 常用 have been for a long time and not only in popularity, but since then the fashion has also changed. In terms of usage, 喋 is only on line 1389.

常用 the last time in 2010, it seems, was revised, having caught up with the list to 2 with a piece of thousand? Anyway, wiki says so.
Well, okay, that's what an artist is for. Thanks for the answer 🙂

Another stupid question, can you advise where to download the original light novel of the same Haruhi? Otherwise, perfect dark does not work on Aozor

You must write in Japanese: 涼 宮 ハ ル ヒ

Help with listening ((. Speaking too fast. How to develop listening skills?

For example, watching a lot of anime with subtitles, comparing what is said with the translation. Depending on the level of knowledge, you can search for simple audiobooks (but this is more difficult).

How can you keep up with everything? I can only understand 1-3 words in a sentence. And you also need to understand what is the meaning of the sentence. In the meantime, sentences 2-3 are being spoken in the dialogue. Will your listening skills improve significantly if you read more? Or some other method to improve hearing?

Reading doesn't help much: it's a separate skill. The more you know the words, and the easier you remember them, the easier it will be to recognize them by ear. But if you already read, but do not perceive speech by ear, then most likely it is not a lack of words, but the specifics of listening.

You just need to gain experience. Start with an easier anime. If you understand at least some of the phrases, that's good. When the phrase is interesting, you can stop, rewind, listen again. By the way, it goes without saying that novice translators have to listen to each phrase several times in order to record and translate it correctly. But, of course, this is tiring, and it's better to choose an anime where you don't have to do it all the time.

If I don't understand something because of fast speech, it helps me to decrease the speed of audio / video playback.

Hello, thank you very much for this article and for your hard work, I just started to comprehend the Japanese language and almost learned Kana, well, 10 kanji, not much of course :). You can advise a newbie which books to download or buy, tutorials and the authors will be very grateful.

Browse the store to find out which ones you like. Any simple grammar textbook will work for you, you can find lessons on the Internet.

Do I need to learn kanji reading? Is this verified in the JLPT? So far, I know 1100 words in anki + 50 hieroglyphs, again in anki (I added it because I wanted to learn how to write, I don’t see the point in memorizing readings, but I still memorized it), I read the section of basic grammar from Tae Kim, I periodically repeat to eat to the brain \u003d) I have never read any manga or light novel, I study because it is interesting, but I don’t know what to do next - either continue to replenish my vocabulary (I downloaded the program to the emikata phone there, words from different JLPT levels are given in lists), or continue to learn kanji (kanji study application) I add a card with a hieroglyph + words with it (but it's tedious, such an operation takes up to 20 minutes, in the end my maximum is adding 10 kanji per day, http://fastpic.ru/view/78/2016 /0709/3eda34fb675c6e963cd5206bba7dad05.png.html this is what turns out + words in the corresponding deck), or a grammar from textbooks. I also try to watch ovrimonogatari in the original - sometimes I pluck out familiar words, it's a pity there are no subtitles for it in Japanese. I have been studying for the eighth month. Please tell me what to do next and how to work most efficiently, and I apologize in advance for the stupid questions, because above you have already written a whole article just about how to work most effectively. I will also be grateful if you recommend an interesting and easy light novel (I myself only read kizumonogatari in translation, but this is probably too difficult) Thank you.

I learned both kanji and words at once. The more you do at the same time, the better it becomes. It's good when words are a little ahead of kanji, and anime and TV shows are a little ahead of words, so that you first memorize the word, then learn it consciously, and then learn the kanji and understand how it works. If you are too lazy to create cards, you can download ready-made ones and alter them to your taste.
Kizumonogatari has not read it, but the series is generally difficult. Even with N2, it was not easy for me to wade through it. I remember that Haruhi Volumes 1 and 4 seemed easy, and then most of Ore no Imouto.
If your acquaintance with Japanese was short before, then eight months is not so much. Just cram slowly and everything will work out)

I tried to search for 俺 の 妹 in Google, in Yandex (it gave a link to a rutracker with another light novel on scanned pages, there are no furigans, I don't know how to read it, I don't know how to read it yet), and to Aozora. Now looking in Perfect Dark. In the search I enter 俺 の 妹 ラ ノ ベ gives one result lol. And, yes, is it normal that the speed is 150 kb / s?
By the way, I am familiar with Japanese from anime - about 100 titles - but I didn’t listen much and I didn’t always watch it with subtitles, so I didn’t get any words in my head. And I also downloaded Fate with Japanese subtitles and furigana, which is really good, although I still don't understand anything.

み ん な の 日本語 has an excellent workbook for hieroglyphs, try doing one lesson a day (10-15 pieces per lesson), plus small tasks at the end of the lesson to practice. These hieroglyphs cover N4-N5.
The main thing is to prescribe every day. I started with the very first, now I can reproduce more than half of the book)).

Tell me, is it possible to determine for certain from the ま す -form which conjugation the verb belongs to? MB have any tricks or simple rules? Well, for example, as in Russian: “if the verb answers the question
"what to do?" or "what to do?" - a soft sign must be placed ”.

Many verbs have been memorized in the ま す -form, and I often get confused in conjugation.
For example） か き ま す ー ＞ か く
ょみますー＞ょむ
everything is in the first conjugation, this is understandable since the ま す -form ends in (い)
２）　ねますー＞ねる　
み ま す ー ＞ み る (does not end with (い), yes and 1 character)
why for example お き ま す - お き る
か り ま す - ＞ か り る （ends in (い) but 2nd conjugation）
3) With the third form, everything is clear.

If you know the spelling of the -masu form in hieroglyphs, then you can see in the dictionary what kind of verb it was.
If the verb ends in -emasu, then this is exactly the 2nd conjugation, because for verbs 1, before -masu must be I.

In other cases, it is impossible to determine the conjugation. Moreover, several verbs of different conjugation can have the same -masu form, including those that you yourself showed.

okiru (2nd conjugation) - oki- (2nd form) - okimasu
oku (1st conjugation) - oku- (2nd form) - okimasu

kariree (2nd conjugation) - kari- (2nd form) - karimasu
BUT, TA-LADY!
CARU! (1st conjugation) - kari- (2nd form) - karimasu
狩 る - punishment - to hunt

In this case, the only way to determine what the verb was is context.
For example, you met an unfriendly hunter with a gun in the forest.
You: Doo suru tsumori ka? (colloquially, “what are you going to do?”)
He: Kamo in karimas. (politely, “hunt monsters”, not “borrow a monster”)

However, if you had a monster, and it was tame, perhaps he wants to borrow it from you for hunting.

Verbs should be memorized in 3 forms (in -u, i.e. oku, okiru, yomu, etc.), for two reasons:
First, in the dictionary, verbs are always given in 3 forms. I don't know why in some textbooks they give the -masu forms, apparently, so that you can immediately make up polite sentences, and not have to explain that the verb must first be put in form 2, and then add -masu. But then you have to retrain everything! In addition, the -masu form is used only in polite speech and only in the last verb in a sentence.

Secondly, this way you can immediately determine the conjugation of the verb, although there are exceptions:
http://www.nihongo.aikidoka.ru/505-verb.html
I draw your attention to the fact that there are verbs that are spelled the same with Kanoi, but they use different conjugations and different hieroglyphs:
変 え る - kaeru - change (something) - 2 conjugations
帰 る - kaeru - to return (home) - 1 conjugation

I will also take the liberty of giving advice on listening - you asked above.

Pure listening is well trained by watching anime not with titles, but WITHOUT titles. If you leave credits on, the brain will jump to them. You need to watch a simple anime. Best of all is purely school, the main thing is that without any techno-magic, tk. it is often associated with terminology that is unique to the show.

First, the characters' speech is quite simple (all of them are high school students) and covers most of the everyday topics. If it is not clear from the text what is happening, in most cases you can guess from the image.
Secondly, there is a lot of it, more than 10 seasons of 50 episodes - enough for the eyes to gain skill. Most seasons can be viewed separately from others, because there are different characters. I watched 4 seasons and my favorite was Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star.

There is a second method closely related to listening - visual novels in Japanese. But this will work well if the reading skill is pumped up, but there is no listening - or vice versa. Because the characters' lines are voiced - and you immediately see the text of the lines in hieroglyphs. And you can press a funny button with a speaker in the log until you get bored - and listen to the text - and check with the inscription.

Help me please. Once again I take up the study, and try to do everything correctly and without gaps. Now I'm filling out one of them. How, according to Polivanov, is the combination of a long etiated dakuten of the sa- group written? っ понятно ゃ ， っ じ ゅ ， っ じ ょ。 If it is clear with romaji from Hepburn and nihons-shiki, then with kiriji it is not possible (jjya, zzya, zdzya (ddzya)?

Honestly, I don’t know. According to Wikipedia, the first consonant is doubled, that is: -dja. You can try with examples, but I don't remember such words. The edict only knows タ レ ッ ジ ョ… taredjo. Seems okay?

Hello. Once again passing the JLPT, I was convinced that something was wrong. Well, not as large sentences (texts) are not given to me, complex ones, and so on, I cannot understand from which side they need to be translated and how to correctly understand the meaning even if most of the words are familiar. A similar problem occurs with listening. Long lines are almost impossible to understand. In addition, because of the speed of speaking, I can't even repeat what I said right away, let alone translate ... it's some kind of dead end

Why did you only notice this on JLPT? Before the exam, you will complex sentences did not encounter regularly, or did they not cause problems for you? What level do you pass, how do you prepare?

There really was a problem before the exam. Handed over N3. This time, Shin Kanzen Master prepared for 読 解. It was difficult, but somehow I managed to understand the meaning and answer. At the exam, probably because of the feeling that there is almost no time, I did not even have time to read the largest texts, let alone the meaning.

For the last year I have been preparing almost independently. Vocabulary through AnkiDroid, learning words by itself is memorized and 漢字, listening to listening to dialogues for 2-3 weeks every (from one tutorial), but comparing with what happened on the exam, I understand that it was very simple, one 留守 番 電話 which is ...

Do you read a lot? How do you parse incomprehensible sentences?

I have not read practical literature yet. Everything within the textbooks. I can understand simple sentences almost immediately, if there are unfamiliar words I look in dictionaries. With complex matters, the situation is worse in practice, I cannot precisely formulate in Russian what is written in the proposal.

So try to read quickly. If you're trading on N3, it's high time. It is not necessary to formulate each one in Russian, it is enough to understand approximately. But it's useful to work on sentences, re-read, ponder, guess the meaning, sometimes google incomprehensible phrases.

Thanks! What can you advise regarding listening?

When you know more words and grammar, it is also easier to perceive speech by ear. Well, as usual, the more you do something, the better it gets. You can watch anime and TV series without subtitles, for example.

I passed N2 with a good mark in 1 year and 2 months of study from scratch. My journey in learning Japanese began literally with this article. The tips in it helped a lot, especially I liked (and still like) the sections “How to learn Japanese” and “Work plan”, which then encouraged and set a tough but worthy bar. Thank you very much and good luck in all your endeavors!

Thanks! I am glad for you, I am sure that you will continue to succeed 🙂

Good afternoon. I have a question that I think many people have asked.
I am a 2nd year student, I am studying to be a programmer, in principle, study is easy, but a huge number of subjects not really related to it and a terrible schedule thanks to which I am almost daily at the university from morning to evening exhausting and exhausting. I'm a little hard with English, although the guys with whom sometimes online games like ARMA, they have to communicate in English, they say that they understand my speech, but I very often do not understand them. Due to the fact that I basically need English both in life and in my profession, I have to learn it too, and I also really want to learn Japanese. Just a few days ago I swallowed motivation in this and a couple of other articles and started a leisurely study of hiragana.
Is it possible for a person who is a little hard at languages \u200b\u200bin parallel with English to learn, with varying degrees of success, such a complex language as Japanese and what difficulties can I meet?

I would not seriously study two languages \u200b\u200bat the same time, but on the other hand, are you seriously studying English now? Or just unhappy with the level? One way or another, it is harmless to slowly learn hiragana and then come in handy.

Why would you want to learn Japanese?

Listen, did you study Japanese on your own or at school / with practice? Now I'm trying to learn Japanese myself, well, my soul lies, however, everyone insists that it is simply unrealistic to do it alone, immediately the mood worsens and the desire to quit the whole thing grows.

So I studied how I write in the article. Is this being said by people who have learned Japanese, or who are just learning themselves? You can simply not start such conversations with them. Teach yourself and teach.

I took a 4-month break, before that I finished level n4. until mid-June we will pore over N3. Preparing for the MEXT program.
Thanks to the site and comments, they very often motivate and warm up interest in the language)).

You are welcome!

Where can I take the test? And what does it mean to work with hiragana, as I understand it, it is a type of alphabet, but what exactly should you do, cram?

Good afternoon. The Wikipedia article says where the exam takes place. Examples of questions are at the office. site, but not enough. Variants from past years have been published in books, and you can probably google them.

Yeah, hiragana needs to cram - it's the alphabet, you just need to learn to read it.