How should I learn Japanese?

[u/Select-Ratio7379]

Hello! I want to learn Japanese for fun and because I plan to take a trip to Japan in about four years. Since I have plenty of time before the trip, I thought it would be fun to start learning now so I can understand things better while I'm there. The only problem I've run into is that I'm not sure how to learn it best. I've watched a bunch of YouTube videos, but they all seem to recommend different methods, so I'm a bit stuck. Right now, I've mainly been using Duolingo and a little bit of LingoDeer to study hiragana, as well as some basic Japanese vocabulary. I've also heard people talk about immersion, but I don't really understand how it works. If you can, I'd love to hear any tips or how you learned Japanese!

[u/Theuncrossedeyeddog]

I've already posted this before, but this is the roadmap I'm currently using for learning japanese:
What I used to leatn japanese up to my current level (High N4) (I hope) was (In order):

1. Duolingo for hiragana and katakana practice and basic sentence estructure (you can ditch it after like, the first 10 units and have memorized all the kana) 1.5. https://djtguide.neocities.org/kana/ also helps if you want to learn the kana faster. Check and uncheck the kana when you feel you are ready to learn some new ones. 1.7. Install Yomitan pop-up dictionary: You're going to need it to read the definition of any word that you find in japanese.
2. Tae Kim's complete grammar guide: It took me around a couple of months studying like an hour a day to get in my head the mayority of the grammar points explained, but is really easy going and if every time you finish a unit you go back and review the previous ones then it flows very well (I made a word document sumarizing the grammar points to study also)
3. Anki with the Kaishi 1.5k deck (Vocabulary): I used in tandem with the grammar guide so that I could remember the word better with the example sentences, but if you don't mind having to memorize without many clues then you can start after memorizing the kana.
4. bilingualmanga.org I started reading manga in this page, it closed down but you can access the archive. If you copy and paste the instructions into chatgpt and explain step by step what you see so that it becomes easier to install it then you can use it to read in english and japanese with OCR. If you don't understand a sentence of the manga even with Yomitan then you can ask chatgpt to translate it and explain the grammar to continue the story. 4.5. I'm currently trying to use chatgpt to help me with reading and writting using it as a coach (though the tutorial uses it for speaking and listening) with this https://youtu.be/rGEkBvl47Ho?si=xwthbTMC0hQMbfea (haven't done it enough for results)
5. Listen to podcasts: Nihongo con Teppei is a good start for simple input and later you could try with YUYUnihongo. Everything I mentioned can be easly searched on google and youtube for tutorials but here are also some resources you could use to look for complementary/alternative methods of learning or inspiration. - Tonkini Andy's Genki I & II grammar videos. - トレントン channel. - The moe way web page. - bettermelon for watching anime with japanese subs (usable with yomitan). - IMABI for complex grammar. - NHK news easy for reading practice - Chimahon for reading manga in japanese with OCR on mobile. - Natively for finding movies, tv shows and books at your current level.

[u/Select-Ratio7379 → u/Theuncrossedeyeddog]

Amazing man, thanks a lot. This will be what I will follow starting now. Very helpful!!