Two years ago, I decided to give learning a new language a try. I ultimately landed on Japanese for a variety of reasons, but the big one being that I plan to visit the country one day and see my friends I haven’t visited in a long time. And I thought it would be great to be able to speak with them in their native language while I visited them.

While I’m no expert in the language, I do have a few tips that may be helpful to share in case you were interested in learning Japanese as well. Here’s what I’ve been doing along the way:

Find a language teacher.

In NYC, we have the Japan Society which offers in-person and virtual classes. But other teachers can be easily found as well. Check out their websites/social media account and see if their teaching style matches your learning style.

Check out the apps

There are countless language learning apps and some are better than others. When I initially started learning Japanese, I started out with Duolingo because it was free. And it was fine for the basics, but once I progressed along, it became a little unhelpful for me. Many people I know have said that Babbel is a great option, but there are many more to choose from!

Go to YouTube

There are a lot of great YouTube channels dedicated to teaching you Japanese. The ones that I’ve been leaning on (in addition to my virtual classes) are the following:

• Tokini Andy – he goes through the commonly used Japanese language workbooks and walks through the lessons. I really liked watching an episode that aligns with the lesson I had coming up to familiarize myself with the content, and then rewatch it after the class to really drive home the lesson. Sure, it takes more time, but it really helped me.
• Miku Real Japanese – I really like the listening videos she makes because even if I can’t understand everything, I’m hearing new words and also getting used to hearing real people talk outside of classroom exercises. Understanding people in real life situations tends to be a tricky point for a long of language learners, so this may be a good option for you to build up that skill.
• Learn Japanese with Tanaka san – I like this channel a lot because it’s a bit of call and answer. So, you hear a sample conversation, but then have the chance to hear the question and answer yourself. It’s great solo practice.
• Dogen – this channel is much different from the other ones on the list. It’s part lessons, part comedy. Something that’s great about his lessons is that he focuses on things like pitch, which are often forgotten in language lessons. His actual lessons are on Patreon, but he does share some of the content on YouTube as well.

Japanese music and movies

Listening to music and watching movies can be a great way to get used to hearing a language, so I’ve been trying to do that more with Japanese. I’m personally not a huge fan of the current popular Japanese movies or music, though, so I’ve had to get a bit creative.

I’ve been listening to Japanese songs from different decades and started creating playlists on Spotify and YouTube (since some albums don’t exist on streaming platforms). As I’m listening to those songs, I like to read the lyrics and sing along at times to get used to the speed and sound.

List most people, Studio Ghibli has a special place in my heart. As a kid, Kiki’s Delivery Service was a favorite of mine. It’s fun to rewatch the movies as an adult and remind myself of how much I enjoyed them when I was younger. I also look through lists of the best Japanese movies in different genres and try to watch them every once in a while. I’ve come across some pretty great ones, including HAUSU, which I recently wrote about.

Write it out

The Japanese language is a completely different writing style than I’m used to, and on top of that, I have terrible penmanship. So, practicing my writing is really critical for me. Sometimes I just sit around writing random words so I can get used to writing.

A teacher also introduced me to a website called Kakimashou, which can help with penmanship. I’ve used it on my tablet with a stylus pen and it’s been really helpful.

Learning a new language is really fun, but also challenging. I still have a long way to go, but there are so many apps and websites that have made it easier for me.