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So here are some mistakes that I had to learn the hard way, seen other people doing, etc.

1. NEVER NEVER NEVER use romanji.
   It’s a huge waste of time. It only takes like a week or two to learn Hiragana and Katakana. If you even want to learn the most basic Japanese those are necessary. Starting with Romanji means that you’ll have to relearn how to spell everything all over again. And what do you gain out of it? Nothing.
2. NEVER use a dictionary to go from English to Japanese.
   One-to-one word translations between English and Japanese are the exception not the rule, so don’t rely on them and don’t use your dictionary as if that’s how it works.
   There are so many literary words and old words that people NEVER use. Chances are you’ll probably end up remembering a word that is useless, or using a word that nobody understands. Only use the English->Japanese as a reference for words you already know/have seen, but can’t recall. Simple nouns can be an exception (ie cat, dog, book, etc).
3. Don’t translate things from English to Japanese literally.
   This is especially true for phrases and idioms. Since you’ve been speaking English your whole life you probably don’t realize how rediculous the things we say are. If you try to translate them literally into Japanese people will have no clue what you mean. For example, there is no way to translate “sick as a dog” into Japanese. Don’t even try it. Just say “I’m sick.” There’s lots of colorful Japanese sayings and idioms that are out there if you want to learn them, but they are very different from the English ones. Get the basics down first.
4. Don’t think that you can get by without learning Kanji.
   Yes there’s lots of Kanji. Yes it’s very hard to remember them all. BUUUT there is an upside. Each kanji has a unique meaning. If you know that kanji you will know the gist of what a new word means just by seeing it’s kanji. Also if you know the reading of that kanji you can sometimes guess as to how the word is pronounced. Kanji is your friend not your enemy. If you don’t learn Kanji, learning Japanese will be much harder than it already is.
5. Don’t pronounce katakna words like the “should” sound in English.
   Yes, you are using the original and correct pronunciation, but not a single Japanese person will know what the hell you are talking about. This sounds a lot easier than it is. Your tongue will naturally and unconciously tend towards the English pronunciation. You must learn to be aware of this. The more you try to imitate Mr. Miyagi the better your Japanese will be.
6. Pretend like the words “I,” “me,” and “you” don’t even exist.
   Of course they do exist, but in Japanese they are rarely used. I hear so many foriegners overusing them all the time. It makes your Japanese sound really unnatural. And if you’re a guy and keep saying “anata” you will sound really gay.
7. Don’t pronounce things like you would in English.
   There’s nothing that will make your Japanese sound crappier. Don’t be the person that says “Waaataaashiii Waaaa … Deeessuuu”. Think of how Keanu Reeves talks. That’s how you sound in Japanese if you do this. You must divide your brain into 2 areas, one for pronouncing English and one for pronouncing Japanese. Imitate the sounds that Japanese people make, even if you think you sound rediculous.
8. If you are not at least 95% confident of a word or grammar point, Don’t use it in real life.
   If you do, chances are you will offend someone. Or in the best case you will sound really silly.
9. There are no shortcuts to learning kanji.
   No matter what stories you hear about your friend’s friend, or how many books you buy… there are no shortcuts, no magic tricks to make you learn faster. I won’t say that there Isn’t any good advice about learning methods, but nothing will shrink the vast mountain of characters that there are to learn. Just learn them. That’s all you can do. Little by little, day by day.
10. Are you really sure you want to learn Japanese?
    I mean don’t get me wrong, Japan is great, and learning Japanese is fun and interesting. But it’s really hard. Let me say that again, it’s REALLY hard. Do you fully understand the amount of effort and memorization that is involved? Even if you live in Japan and study every single day it will take you at YEARS to be considered somewhat “fluent.” You could probably learn French, Spanish, and Italian in the time it takes to learn Japanese. It’s a wonderful journey, but be sure you know what you’re getting yourself into before you set off on it or waste your time/money.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 3:49 pm and is filed under Learning Japanese. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.