Starting to Learn Japanese, but with What?

Hi, nice to meet you guys! I’m CocoKaiwa.

I am a native Japanese speaker and want to help the people who want to speak Japanese and English by self-learning, on this blog.

Now, let’s begin!

What Should I Start Learning Japanese with?

Well, I think that’s the first question to have when you want to learn Japanese language or culture but not in a school, or when you want to start talking to Japanese girls but then, you realize,

“Hold up, I ain’t speak no Japanese. I only know Kon-nichiwa, Sayōnara and Ai Uehara.” lol

First, let’s look at what Gabriel Wyner said in the book “Fluent Forever”.

　

　The first part of the approach is learning the sounds of the target language…

Gabriel Wyner

Yeah! “Learn the pronunciations first.”

You may have thought like “But there are videos on youtube like ‘Learn Japanese While You Sleep’.” Or “I can listen to Japanese tho…”

But y’know, if you got pronunciation skills from the starting line, you will have more boost in to acquire other things in Japanese and, more than anything, it’s just freaking cool. Haha Come to think of it, I think I started learning English by myself with pronunciations first.

Now let us take a look at 4 reasons why we should learn them right from the start.

1. You will hear the sentence

Coco-kun

Kid, being able to pronounce means that you really know that sound.

Which means you can hear the sentence, not just words in random places in a sentence.

Young Coco-kun

Ahh, I think I can see what you are saying.

LOL Yeah. Those are… my characters. Hehe You like ‘em?

OK.

Hahaha well, just like Coco-kun right there has said, you will have ears to hear and mouth to speak by REDUCING THE GAP between your pronunciation and the real pronunciation. (Like from “arigatoe” to「arigatoh (really soft Spanish ‘r’ and for toh, don’t ‘ow’ it. Prolong ‘O’)」)

Cuz that gap, is the mother of “gringo accent.”

Thanks to your effort, you will hear, not just random words but sentences, and can converse smoothly, which will support your long journey of Japanese acquisition from then on.

2. Makes it easier to learn Japanese

This is gonna be a rule of thumb, but learning is easier when you know how to read, isn’t it?

When you see a word that you don’t know how to pronounce,

such as “연애” or “حبيب”, (Do you know how to read them?) if you have no idea of how to read or what it means, you may forget it in 5 mins.

So, knowing the sounds and how to read letters of a word absolutely makes it easier to remember the word you are learning.

ex.

・“연애” is read “yeon-ae.”

・That’s read “yeon-ae” because the upper right part of the first letter sounds “yeo”(like yock without ck) and the bottom part of it sounds “n” and… that’s why it’s pronounced “yeon-ae”.

You know what I mean, mi gente. (just wanted to say it)

The second one seems to remind you more even after a while, doesn’t it!? That is only because of our brains’ structure. You may want to learn with the ways that match with how our brains work and we should. Tokiwa kane nari! (Time is money!)

So again, because you know the sounds, you can hear what that person is saying, and when you hear a word that you don’t know, if you just ask them what it means, you now can use it without having to know how it spells. Ain’t it good?

3. A pile of practice from then makes your accent

　　Do you want to speak naturally or don’t really care?

I want you to ask yourself this question.

However, when it comes to communicating, natural is better after all, isn’t it? Especially, if you are learning Japanese for your interests in Japanese girls! haha Ain’t gon lie, that’s the reason why I started to learn English by myself! lol So yeah, as a man, I want to be able to speak naturally and cool. Any comrades?

Coco-kun

If we’re gonna study Japanese, sooner or later, our accents stick to ourselves so, why not in an early stage? Because that would be the accent of yours for that time and it’ll stack up.

Young Coco-kun

I wanna sound cool too! I’ll start now.

4. Compliments will drive you

I like all that technical stuff, but this is it!

MOTIVATION. This’ll get ya to the top through the tunnel of your long plot. Gradually, getting REAL compliments like “you’re so good at Japanese” (not that lip-service of “ahh you are good at Japanese!” from a Japanese when you only said Kon-nichiwa.) is very motivational.

Learn a new word/grammar/knowledge, use it, and correct when you get it wrong… You can do it while enjoying.

Amongst of all, having good accent can be so compliment-able since so many English speakers have accents in Japanese. If you have already graduated or are learning Japanese at a school, improve your Japanese with the earned knowledge + good pronunciations! Yay!

Summary

Since language is about communication, it’s more convenient to start with pronunciations! We got 4 reasons.

1. You will hear the sentence
2. You can learn Japanese more effectively
3. Makes good accent
4. Get complimented ⇒ Hypes you up

Looking at the way how babies grow; study the language with the real sounds, and learn and use letters to express sounds,

We can learn to acquire a foreign language easily by “correcting” the sounds of the words we know and learn more words/grammars/metaphors to use them!

OK, if you want to ask something, please feel free to write down in the comment section down below! ↓↓↓

Now I’m thinking of posting articles about pronunciations in Japanese soon so check them out!

またね〜！