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1. Don’t Worry About the Japanese Written Language – For Now

The first key to learning to speak effectively is to not worry about immediately about learning hiragana, katakana, and kanji, the three scripts that comprise Japan’s written language. Many beginning learners of Japanese believe that they must master both the written and spoken languages at the same time, when in fact they would be better off focusing solely on the spoken language.

Spend at least three months or so (depending upon how much time you have for study) learning rudimentary Japanese grammar, acquiring a solid vocabulary, and developing the ability to carry on basic conversations like basic greetings, introductions, and other survival phrases before gradually introducing the components of written Japanese.

Why focus solely on spoken Japanese? Simply because the spoken language is challenging enough and the written language so difficult that to tackle them both from the outset is overwhelming and will set up the beginning language learner for frustration and failure, something you definitely want to avoid when you’re just getting started!

2. Avoid Learning Materials or Courses that Use Written Japanese

In line with the above advice on initially focusing exclusively on the spoken language, and for the same reasons, you should use beginning language learning materials that DO NOT require you to struggle with written Japanese from the outset. There are many such learning resources available, including programs like Rosetta Stone

3. Have Patience!

I’ve saved the most important beginners’ Japanese language learning tip for last. And that is to have patience! When you begin learning any foreign language, let alone a challenging one like Japanese, EVERYTHING will seem difficult at first, and you will be tempted to give up many times. Please don’t!

Learning Japanese is a lot like climbing a mountain. At first the process is exhausting and when you look up, the peak of the mountain is still far, far away,, but if you just focus on each step that lay in front of you, eventually you will look up and see that the top of the mountain is a bit closer, and when you look down, you will see that you have indeed made progress.

Such is learning Japanese. In the beginning, just focus on thoroughly learning the very basics without trying to rush ahead. Practice your basic conversations and grammar over and over again until you have them down pat. At first it will seem like you haven’t made any progress, but trust me, the basic spoken Japanese you learn in the beginning will serve as the foundation for everything you learn later on, including your success at mastering the written language when the time comes to add that to your Japanese arsenal.

Focus exclusively on spoken Japanese in the beginning, using learning programs that do not immediately require that you learn the written language, and exercise patience as you master the very basics of the spoken language, and you’ll be doing exactly what you need to do to become a successful beginning learner of Japanese.