Beginners Guide

Everyone starts here. Hiragana usually takes a few days to two weeks. Katakana tends to take longer, simply because you run into it less.

Focus on reading first. Writing a few characters by hand helps them stick, but recognising them quickly is what you'll use every day. And you don't need to know katakana perfectly before moving on: it gets easier every time you run into it.

• Kana Dojo - KanaDojo is a fun, minimalist, aesthetic platform for learning and practicing Japanese online.
• Katakana Chart - Comprehensive guide to learning Katakana.
• DJT Kana - Interactive kana learning tool.

Most learners use Anki, a flashcard app that shows you each word right before you're likely to forget it. You might not find the UI glamorous at first, but you'll get used to it! 15 to 20 minutes a day beats a two-hour session every Sunday.

About kanji: you don't need a separate kanji course to begin, since learning words teaches you the kanji inside them. Some people prefer to study kanji on their own first. Both approaches work, so go with whichever one keeps you going.

• Japanese course - Self-contained Japanese course using sample sentences from anime.
• Core 2.3k V3 - High quality cards for the most common Japanese words.
• Kaishi 1.5k - A modern Japanese deck in the spirit of Core 2k with additional useful features.

Japanese puts the verb at the end of the sentence, and small words called particles (は, が, を, に…) mark what each part of the sentence does. Once that clicks, a lot of things start making sense.

A good approach is to read a grammar guide from start to finish without trying to memorise everything. It will come back when you see the same patterns in real sentences. Tae Kim is short and to the point, while Imabi goes much deeper and is better kept for later.

• Imabi - Extensive Japanese grammar resource.
• Tae Kim's Guide - Your go-to guide for grammar and basics.
• All About Particles - A organized book containing detailed explanations of Japanese particles.

Real Japanese is coming for you, and earlier than you'd expect! At first it'll sound like noise. That's normal. It doesn't stay that way once you get use to it.

Start with simple things: graded readers, videos made for learners, slow podcasts. Keep a dictionary close. Yomitan is especially useful, since it lets you hover over any word in your browser to see what it means.

• Jisho - Powerful dictionary with detailed explanations.
• Jotoba - Multilingual dictionary with context.
• Yomitan - Translate text on webpages easily.