Study Guide
Information on how to use this site
and general tips for Japanese language study
Welcome!
Japanese-Lesson.com offers self-study courses and materials for learning the Japanese language.
Contents of this site are produced by a native Japanese language teacher who passed the Japanese Language Teaching Competency Test.
We do hope our site will be of some use for your study. Enjoy!!
How to Use This Site
This site consists of four sections - Courses, Characters, Vocabulary and Resources.
Course is the main section and other three sections provide supplementaly information and materials.
These suplementaly contents are introduced through the course. You basically do not have to study them separately.
Courses
Presently, the following courses are available.
We plan to produce more conversation courses which are suitable for the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) study. But It will take some time.
| Character Courses | Conversation Courses |
|---|---|
| Hiragana Course | Basic Japanese Course |
| Katakana Course | |
| Kanji Master Drill |
Study Order
At the moment, our courses can cover elementaly level only.
We recommend to study in the following order;
| Step 1 | Hiragana Course | |
|---|---|---|
| Step 2 | Katakana Course | |
| Step 3 | Basic Japanese Course | |
It is best to learn Kanji step by step while taking Conversation Courses.
For this reason, production of Kanji course has been stopped. We plan to re-make it along with new Conversation Courses.
Basic Japanese Course is designed to learn commonly used basic phrases. It can be useful for traveling in Japan, but not sufficient for JLPT study.
Planning
Learning language is a big project. It is important to plan well to achieve the goal with minimum time and effort.
Time Required
| Study Level | General Required Time of Study |
|---|---|
| Elementary | 300 hours |
| Intermediate | 600 (+300) hours |
| Advanced | 900 (+300) hours |
Basic conversational skills can be gained quickly. But the writing system is complex.
Three types of character sets - Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji are used in a mixed way.
You need to know around 2,000 Kanji to read publications. It can take several years to learn them.
Time for Kanji study has to be included in each study level.
What to Study
| Study Level | Things to be Mastered |
|---|---|
| Elementary (JLPT: N5 and N4) |
|
| Intermediate (JLPT: N3 and N2) |
|
| Advanced (JLPT: N1) |
|
This chart was made to meet the particular levels of JLPT - from N5 (easy) to N1 (difficult).
It is recommended to follow such steps even if you don't plan to take JLPT. Most Japanese language schools have the similar curriculum.
How to Study
How to Schedule
Language study requires a lot of memorization. Frequent repetition is the key to retain and enforce your memory.
Better to study short everyday, rather than study long once a week.
Practice Makes Perfect
Learning language is like learning how to play sports. You need a lot of practice to make a great shot at will.
Spend minimum time for understanding the rules, and do practice (drill exercise) as much as possible.
Extra Activities
The following activities are recommended to accelerate your learning process.
Have a Japanese friend or a language-exchange partner (teaching each other).
Have a Japanese pen-pal or e-pal.
Listen to your favorite Japanese songs over and over till you memorize the lyrics. Singing these songs is also a good practice.
Watch your favorite Japanese anime or movie repeatedly with subtitles of your native language.
