Hi, I’m Mira. 3 months ago, I had to move to Japan suddenly because of my husband’s work.
I thought it would be good to study some Japanese before going to Japan. So I bought a few textbooks and downloaded some study apps. But the textbooks were so boring they just made me yawn, & even with the apps, I didn’t feel like I was improving at all.
My husband had said I could go to a Japanese language school once we got to Japan, so I thought It’s no problem to go to Japan without studying at that time.
But that decision left me devastated.
I came to Japan without learning any Japanese & …
The language barrier in Japan was more than I could have imagined. I thought I can communicate with Japanese people in some simple English. But even people in Tokyo barely spoke English, which was surprising.
I tried using translation apps to communicate, but it was exhausting to pull out my phone every time I needed to say something. Even shopping made me nervous and tired.
Soon, I started going to a Japanese language school. The teachers could speak English, which was a relief. First, I took a level-check test, & of course, since I couldn’t read any Japanese, I was placed in the lowest level.
“You have to learn these 2 things first!” “What??”
I expected that the teacher will teach me simple greetings and communication in this class. But the teacher said,
“First, you’ll need to learn Hiragana and Katakana, the Japanese alphabets.”
“What?!”
I was shocked. I didn’t come here to learn all these strange symbols. I wanted to speak Japanese as soon as possible! I complained to the teacher, saying conversation was more important.
“Why don’t you teach me simple conversation first?”
The teacher silently took out a textbook & handed me. The teacher said this is a conversation textbook and asked, “Can you learn conversation with this?”
I looked at it and was speechless. In my country’s textbooks, the Japanese text always had romaji (English letters) so I could read it. But this school’s books had no romaji or translations.
I asked, “Is there no textbook with romaji?” a bit annoyed.
The teacher showed me some popular textbooks, but none of them had romaji. Later, I even went to a bookstore, but 95% of the books were without romaji. I couldn’t find any helpful books.
So if you are already in Japan, you have to learn without Romaji. It means you have to learn Hiragana & Katakana first.
How about Kanji?
Japanese also has another set of characters called Kanji.
However, above each kanji, hiragana is written on textbooks.
So most textbooks, manga and even children’s picture books can be read as long as you know Hiragana and Katakana. It means, you don’t need to worry about Kanji for beginner level.
Hiragana lesson in the school was hopeless..
So in my school, I started learning hiragana characters in AIUEO order. But the characters looked so different from each other, and I couldn’t see any patterns to help me remember.
The lesson used a workbook where I had to write each character over and over until I memorized it.
It was painful. I even thought, “Do I need to pay over $1,000 for these lessons if I could just do this at home?”
2 weeks later, I could write hiragana little by little, But I can’t remember how to read each character.
& problem is not only this.
When I looked at the conversation textbook again, there were still unreadable characters.
Teacher told me, I have to learn special Hiragana “voiced consonants(with “) & combinations(small cases) (orange lines)”.
Isn’t only 46 characters? The characters are 46, but there are special cases.
& Katakana (green lines), another set of 46 characters that looked totally different from Hiragana. So I realized I’d need to memorize 92 characters just to read basic Japanese books.
When he started to read the textbook, I couldn’t stop crying out!
At that time, a guy named Kal joined the same class after me. Kal also couldn’t read any Japanese characters at all.
But he memorized all the characters at an incredible speed,
and within 2 weeks, he was reading the conversation textbook written in hiragana and katakana fluently and beautifully in front of everyone, at the same speed as the teacher was reading.
The teacher said to him, “It looks like you’ve been trying really hard. Let me move you up to a higher level conversation class right away,” and he left us all behind & went to a higher level class.
after I went back home, I couldn’t stop crying. I was studying so hard and still barely remembering anything. & I thought,
“If things continue like this, how long I’ll have to continue paying expensive school fees just to memorize & write hiragana and katakana. This is totally waste!”
My Japanese speaking skill nothing improving either. It’s just so painful. I wanted to go back to my country.
But when I nearly gave up, I just remember Kal. & I started to wonder “How did he improve his skills so fast?”
Kal tells me his trick! He was my life saver!
The next day, I met Kal after class and asked him, “How did you learn hiragana and katakana so fast?”
Kal nodded and shared his secret.
“I felt like this school’s ‘A, I, U, E, O’ order learning was too hard & not effective. So I looked for other ways to learn.
Then, I found a TikTok channel called ‘Nihongo-san’ where the teacher explained that it’s better to learn similar-looking characters in sets, not in alphabetical order.”
Kal showed me Nihongo-san online course on his phone & continued,
“This teacher “Aji sensei” teaches on the video how to write every character & demonstrate how easy to write if you learn similar shapes together.
Also he is using pictures to help remember the shapes and pronounciation of each character.
So this method helped me to memorize how to read each character first time. But eventually I don’t even need these pictures now. Why? Because of flash training games!
This course has the flash card style games. For example, the quiz speaks out a Japanese word, so I choose an answer in Hiragana. E.g. if quiz says “AME”, I choose a right Hiragana.
Especially this “flash game” is really helped. Now I can recall every characters instantly & randomly. Also I incraesed my vocabrary more than 200 words with these games as well.
It made me learning fast and fun, and that’s why I could read the textbook in front of everyone smoothly.”
After I thanked Kal & get home, I immediately started watching the Nihongo-san video course Kal recommended. This method really helped me. When I was learning in my school, I forgot quickly what I learned. but this time, with the picture & flash games, once I learned the characters, I never forgot how to write & read.
And also Katakana was so easy with this method.
Aji sensei taught similar shape Katakana together, also how to connect memorizing Hiragana & Katakana together!
In less than 1 week, I was reading the conversation textbook fluently. My teacher in my school surprised by my dramatic improvement.
Thanks to Kal & Nihongo-san course, I also moved up to the conversation class immediately. I saved my school fees alot. & Now, I’ve even started learning kanji.
Now I’m happy to go shopping. Because I can learn new words from package of products in supermarket.
I even go to Karaoke with friends & sing Japanese songs. Because I can read lyrics on the display at a natural speed.
I’m improving my speaking skills with textbooks, also I can learn from manga too!
I’m enjoying life in Japan now, even though I once nearly gave up & wanted to go back to my country.
Do you want to succeed in a long-term stay in Japan?
Then, you need to be able to read & write Hiragana & Katakana as soon as possible!
& if you don’t want to waste big money in a language school, Nihongo-san Hiragana & Katakana course will save you.
P.S. Currently Sensei is looking for testers. So you have a chance to learn Hiragana for free.
