Japanese characters are beautiful and complex, so you may find it difficult trying to learn to read and write them quickly. You don't need to master all the Japanese kanji (there are 50,000); most native Japanese speakers only know hiragana, katakana, and about 6,000 kanji. While it will still take years for you to be able to read and write Japanese quickly, you can learn basic Japanese quickly if you know what to learn first.
Step
Method 1 of 3: Reading Japanese Characters Quickly
Step 1. Start reading children's books in Japanese written in hiragana and katakana, instead of complex texts that require you to master a lot of kanji
- Start by reading translated versions of Disney books or other children's stories. Compare the translation with the original text to help you understand sentence structure in Japanese.
- When learning hiragana, try reading Mari Takabayashi's book. He wrote a children's book that will test your ability to read hiragana.
- Once you've improved your Japanese skills, try reading Guri to Gura. This book will help you improve your basic vocabulary knowledge.
- Once you can read children's books fluently, try reading manga as a stepping stone to reading more complex texts.
Step 2. Focus on learning basic Japanese grammar and sentence structure
At first, you will find it difficult to read Japanese text because there are no spaces between characters.
The basic structure of Japanese is slightly different from the structure of Indonesian. If in Indonesian the sentence is written in the form of Subject-Predicate-Object, such as "I drink water", literally the sentence in Japanese is in the form of Subject-Object-Predicate, such as "I drink water". Make sure you know the appropriate character after the subject or object
Step 3. Learn gradually
You may find it difficult to read a page in Japanese, but try! When you read a text, you will find many words that are repeated. The more often you encounter the same word, the faster you will recognize the text, and the faster your reading speed will be.
Choose your favorite reading, according to your level of Japanese language skills. Topics you like will get you excited about reading and mastering the language
Step 4. Don't waste time learning to speak
If you just want to master reading and writing in Japanese quickly, audio lessons or conversation classes won't help you. In fact, you can learn a language without speaking it. Since kanji use characters to represent meaning, you don't need to know how to pronounce them. Most importantly, you know the meaning of a symbol and its use in a sentence.
Instead of learning to speak, spend time improving your kanji memorization, learning grammar, and practicing writing
Step 5. Turn on Japanese subtitles when watching TV shows or movies in your native language
Once you start to improve your reading and vocabulary memorization skills, you can turn off the volume so you have to read the Japanese subtitles while watching. At first, you may struggle to catch up with the speed of the text, but you can use the images on the screen to help understand context as you read.
Step 6. Develop vocabulary by memorizing the Jōyō Kanji
Most words in Japanese are written with the kanji "borrowed" from the Chinese language. The Jōyō Kanji is a list of 2136 Chinese kanji that are considered the most useful for mastering Japanese by the Japanese government.
- Create a kanji blog to track your learning progress. It can take months to years to master kanji. A kanji blog will make it easier for you to recall the words you've learned.
- Be patient. Kanji cannot be mastered in a short time. In addition, to master kanji, you have to be diligent in repeating.
Method 2 of 3: Write in Japanese Quickly
Step 1. Memorize the hiragana letters
Hiragana is one of the letters used in Japanese. Since hiragana has all the sounds in Japanese, you can write full text using hiragana.
- Hiragana has 46 characters. Each character represents a vowel (a, e, i, o, u), or a vowel and a consonant (k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w).
- Use hiragana to write nouns/adjectives that work, or words that are not common and not widely known to readers.
- Make a hiragana memory card, and write the phonetic sounds of the characters on the back of the card. Memorize hiragana by saying the character's phonetic sounds several times a day. Then, read the phonetic sounds, and write the characters according to the sounds.
Step 2. Memorize the katakana letters
Katakana consists of 46 characters that sound the same as hiragana, but are used for words from other languages, such as America, Mozart or Halloween.
- Since there are no long vowels in Japanese, all long vowels in katakana are written with a long strip of "⏤" after the character. For example, cake is written "ケーキ". The dash in "ケーキ" indicates a long sound.
- If you set aside a few hours a day to learn hiragana and katakana, you can master both in a few weeks.
Step 3. Learn the handwritten form of the characters
Like Latin letters, the shape of Japanese letters can be different between print and handwriting.
- Set aside half an hour each day to memorize and write Japanese letters.
- Test yourself to confirm your memorization. Try writing certain sounds from memory. If you can't write it down, memorize the character you want to write again. Make a list of sounds in Japanese, then try to fill it in with the appropriate hiragana and katakana. Test yourself daily until you master all 46 hiragana and katakana characters.
Step 4. Use kanji when needed
Learning kanji will help you shorten your writing significantly. However, kanji are used only sparingly, even by native Japanese speakers. Generally, you should make sure that the reader knows the kanji you are using. If you know a word but don't know its kanji, you can spell the word phonetically with hiragana.
Step 5. Learn the correct writing order
Even if it doesn't sound very important, the order of writing will speed you up writing Japanese characters, whether it's hiragana, katakana, or kanji.
- Write characters from top to bottom, left to right.
- Make horizontal strokes before vertical strokes.
- Make a shape in the center of the character towards the edges.
- Write a dot or a small dot at the end of the character.
- Learn the correct angle for each doodle.
Step 6. Write sentences in Japanese, even if they are simple
Try writing sentences like "I'm a boy" or "I'm a girl."
- Make sentences with hiragana, unless you use loanwords. You can write vertically, from left to right, like Latin letters, or write horizontally, from right to left and top to bottom.
- Write nouns, verbs, and adjectives with kanji. Most words in Japanese are written with kanji, which are "borrowed" from Chinese. When writing kanji, make sure you write correctly. Don't let you write the wrong kanji.
Step 7. Don't write in romaji
While it may seem easier to use romaji, native Japanese speakers don't use romaji, and your writing may end up confusing them. Because Japanese has many homonyms, romaji is not an efficient way to write or read Japanese.
Step 8. For faster writing, try cursive or semi-continuous writing
Once you've mastered the writing sequence, you can start cursive or semi-cursive. Practice writing sentences and words without lifting a pen or pencil from the paper. Because you have mastered the order of writing, you will be able to differentiate the emphasis as you write, and end up writing quickly.
Like characters in other languages, some characters in Japanese can be simplified to make them easier to write. Context of writing can help readers understand your writing. However, do not let you write too fast that the writing is not legible
Method 3 of 3: Using Basic Japanese
Step 1. Say "hello"
or konnichi wa, means "hello".
- , or ohayo gozaimasu, means "Good morning".
- , or konbanwa, means "Good night".
- , or oyasumi nasai, means "Good night."
- , or sayonara, means "Goodbye".
Step 2. Say thank you by saying, or arigatou gozaimasu
When you receive a thank you note, respond by saying, or dou itashimashite
Step 3. Ask someone how they are by saying, or ogenki desu ka? ".
When you're asked how you're doing, respond with or genki desu, which means "I'm fine"
Step 4. Introduce yourself by saying or watashi no namae wa..", which means "My name is..".
Step 5. Know the directional guides to guide you on the go
- (masugu) means straight.
- (migi) means right.
- (hidari) means left.
Tips
- Find Japanese books at your local bookstore or library.
- Try studying in a distraction-free environment.
- Use Japanese apps to help you learn.
- Look for a Japanese/English or Japanese/Indonesian dictionary with Latin characters. However, don't rely on latin characters when reading in Japanese!
- Japanese classes can help you master the language, but will focus on the conversational aspect.
- The adage "little by little will become a hill" is very applicable when learning Japanese.
- Find a study time that works for you, such as in the morning or at night before bed.
- Find friends who speak Japanese, or even native Japanese speakers, and ask them for help. They will definitely be happy to help you.
