I get a lot of questions on my main channel about Japan

and Japanese and lots of different things

and on Tumblr and stuff like that.

But the thing is that only one person

gets to see that response. Or maybe like 10.

So I thought I would just do a short series of videos

on this channel answering your questions about Japan.

So that means leave your question below

and the most popular questions I'll make a video about.

So today's video is one of my most frequently asked questions,

which is, how did you learn Japanese.

And it's going to get a little bit long, so hang in there!

First of all, my Japanese is not perfect.

It is functional, but it isn't perfect.

It isn't super amazing, and I'm still learning, so ... yeah!

Secondly, I self-studied Japanese.

... so I studied by myself

and I don't think that's the most efficient way to study a language, necessarily,

it depends on how you learn

but I definitely think that being in a classroom situation

with that kind of pressure cooker thing

where you have to memorise things for tests

and you have to speak in class and stuff

really helps when you're learning a language.

So look up your local language classes

and if there aren't any, stick with me

because I'll tell you how I self-studied Japanese.

First thing you've got to do is learn kana, hiragana and katakana.

Just get down and dirty and learn those beasts quickly

because you need to!

I once knew someone who had lived in Japan for a year

and still hadn't finished learning katakana

and that's just - no! You only need a week to learn them, trust me!

You could learn them in a day actually. It's rote memorisation.

Memorise it, learn how to write it - you're done!

OK. I know that sounded a little bit crazy but I'm serious.

Learn hiragana and katakana.

Now we're going to go on to my favourite Japanese textbook.

The best textbook for learning Japanese IMHO

It is slightly academically slanted

It's very very structured, which I really like

but if you learn a different way from me, you might not like it so much ... and it is

Genki. So this is the second one, the first one is red.

You can find it on Amazon and I'll put a link below.

You can buy it with a workbook and a CD.

I've never really used the CD but I think that would be really beneficial

if you're learning by yourself.

Now this book I entirely self-studied.

and it has amazing structure, like I just said.

You get a list of vocabulary and you have to memorise it.

because all the chapters integrate the vocabulary as you go on

so it's a great way to motivate you to actually memorise

I'm dropping things left, right and centre here!

But anyway, it has a vocabulary section

it has grammar, pages of grammar, explains it really well in English

and then - more stuff I used to practise -

and then it has tons of practice,

speaking challenges

and for each lesson, at the back there is a list of kanji.

Even if you don't have a teacher in a class

or a friend to study with or a language exchange partner

I think you can learn so much from this textbook alone.

Obviously, start with the red one if you're a beginner.

and then move on to Genki II if you enjoy the red one.

It can get a little bit pricey overseas

but if you have a friend who's going to Japan

or a friend in Japan, it's only 3000 Yen,

which is actually quite cheap, I think, for this kind of book.

I think I paid 90 dollars for it in New Zealand.

So, yay! Not yay for that price, but yeah.

The only downside is - you don't have a teacher to check your answers

You really have to self-check, and you can accidentally learn things wrong.

There's also "Minna no Nihongo", which is another series of beginner textbooks

and advanced and intermediate textbooks, I think.

I've never really used it but tons of universities use it, I think.

So there's that, if you don't like style of the Genki textbook.

OK, my recommendations if you've finished Genki II

It's so much harder to find solid study books

so what I did when I finished Genki II

was I went on to these books.

I did sankyu (N3) first and then I got the nikyu (N2) ones

after I'd memorised everything in the sankyu ones

but there's a bit of overlap

so just choose which one looks good for your level

And these are really good for reinforcing stuff like kanji

It helped me with my kanji and reinforcing grammar.

It has grammar, reading, kanji and also vocabulary.

These are pretty good. I'll put a link down below.

The drill is really noisy, sorry about that.

But I have to keep going.

So Japanese books, manga, magazines,

English books in Japanese, Japanese movies

- stuff like that are all great.

Supplement your learning ... that's so fricking loud!

OK, I'm back. It was noisy. I came back.

So the last step is immersion, which you can achieve by coming to Japan

or you can do it by surrounding yourself with Japanese things

Japanese music, Japanese cartoons, Japanese dramas,

Japanese movies, Japanese people and Japanese stuff.

And you can change your computer to Japanese

and you can speak to yourself in Japanese

and you can record a vlog in Japanese.

In fact if you want to try that, do your "jikoshoukai" (self-introduction)

and post it as a video response to this video

and we can all be Japanese-y. No ...

And the last thing is using the Internet as a learning tool

I put this last for a reason

because even though you can learn some pretty cool Japanese from the Internet

and you can definitely immerse yourself in Japanese

and practise your Japanese on the Internet

it is definitely not the only thing you should be doing.

It's an additional thing you can do to supplement your learning.

I've heard of people Skyping with Japanese people,

meeting on Twitter,

and there are loads of Japanese people who want to learn English

so you can do a language exchange.

There's a website called Lang-8 where people can correct your journal entries.

YouTube has tons of Japanese-y videos. Tons!

You could probably spend hours and hours and days.

It would take you years to watch them all.

Just be careful, because I know, and you know

how addictive the Internet is.

It will trick you into thinking you're studying

when really you're not.

Because you might be able to pick up a few things from a YouTube video or a website

but it's probably not as much as you would pick up

if you just sat down for 10 minutes a day and studied.

And that's the last point. I made three last points, sorry!

The last point is just a little bit a day, and don't feel discouraged.

What I used to do was study in my lunchbreaks

so I would carry around my textbooks

and any chance I had to study, I would use it.

It really helped me, so maybe that will help you.

Unless you don't work.

So leave your [sound of metal being dropped] Yeah.

So you guys, in the comments section, please leave your suggestions

and your language learning tips.

And also leave your requests

and thumb up the ones you like the sound of

and I will probably do them for you. Yay!

Byeeeee! Wow, it went really blurry. Goodbye.

And yeah! I just look like Boxxy.