Learning Japanese

Living in Japan is very doable even if your Japanese skills are minimal to nonexistent. However, if you’re going to live in a foreign country for a year or more, don’t you think you should make a serious effort to learn at least some of the language? Of course, the ideal situation would be starting your Japanese studies well before arriving in Japan only to continue them throughout your stay. I started studying Japanese as a hobby at the college where I was teaching mathematics. I enjoyed the year-long course, but it moved at a very slow pace and by the end of the first year, I had self-studied the first two years worth of that college’s Japanese program by planning my studies with the help of the Japanese instructor, who was my colleague and friend.

After arriving in Japan to live, I made every effort to continue my studies and use the language as often as possible. I was living in the countryside at the time, but still found some good, cheap lessons at a local recreation center. However, by living a pretty much Japanese-only lifestyle, I found my skills advancing faster than I had imagined they would. I decided to devote myself to self-study only and gave up taking lessons since the course at the local rec center moved too slowly for my needs.

Anyway, I’ll spare you further details regarding my Japanese language learning history and will instead recommend some textbooks and other materials for self study. Here they are:

The Japanese For Busy People series worked well for me. If you can master the grammar in vols. 1, 2, and 3, you will have all the basic grammar necessary for simple daily conversation.

                   The J.B.P. series - a great way to start 

You can’t begin to achieve fluency in Japanese without having mastered all of the grammar included in the handy A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. Once you’ve made it to this level, continue on with A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar by the same authors.

      This grammar dictionary is a great grammar reference book

Mastering the kanji is difficult, at best. Kodansha’s Kanji Learner’s Dictionary provides a great way to look up and study kanji. Stroke order diagrams are included for ease of learning.

   The Kanji Learner’s Dictionary is an indispensable tool for all students of Japanese

A good place to start looking for Japanese language schools in Japan is GaijinPot. Here’s the link:

GaijinPot’s Learning Japanese in Japan Page

But, before you shell out big bucks for Japanese lessons at a big language institution, remember that many small towns, as well as wards in big cities like Tokyo and Osaka, have very cheap lessons at local culture and recreation centers. Check out what’s available in your town or neighborhood.