How to Get Past Japanese Beginner Level
Focus Points
Most new Japanese learners ask this questions all the time. Here is a breakdown of the basics no one can avoid from before leveling up his or her Japanese level.
- Learn basic Japanese pronunciation: A-I-U-E-O (あ-い-う-え-お)
- Learn Hiragana characters:
あいうえお、かきくけこ、さしすせそ、たちつてと、なにぬねの、はひふへほ、まみむめも、やゆよ、らりるれろ、わをん - Learn sound changes on Hiragana characters
For example:- たちつてと→だぢづでど、さしすせそ→ ざじずぜぞ、
- はひふへほ→ばぶぶべぼ and ぱぽぷぺぽ、and so on.
- Learn Katakana characters and their vocal changes:
For example:アイウエオ、カキクケコ、サシスセソ、タチツテト、ナニヌネノ、ハヒフヘホ、マミムメモ、ヤユヨ、ラリルレロ、ワヲン - Understand the concept of Kanji
- Learn and stockpile Kanji knowledge:
- The Very Basic Kanji : the first 250 Kanji
- Basic Kanji: the first 500 Kanji, and so on.
- Intermediate Kanji: the first 1000-1500 Kanji
- To read a general article on a newspapers, it is said that a person should learns around 2500 Kanji
- Put a very big effort on practice what you have got from the textbook. Practice Speaking, listening, reading and writing more to brush up your Japanese!
Useful Materials
- Reading:
- NHK News Web Easy: Read latest news in Japan written in easy Japanese
- Aozora Bunko (青空文庫): Aozora Bunko is a Japanese digital library with several thousands of works of Japanese-language, both fiction and non-fiction. Almost all of them are out-of-copyright books or works whose their authors wish to make freely available.
- Listening: Online streaming of Japanese radio broadcast
- Reading:
