Steps to Start Learning Japanese

Define Your Goals
Learn About Learning AJATT is a Good Place to Start
Start Listening to Japanese
Learn Katakana and Hiragana
Try to Forget Romaji
Start Learning Kanji
Seek Out Friends Learning Japanese
Get a Good Book
Vocab Is A Key
Be Aware
Note: During this whole process you should be trying to read and learn vocab

Define your Goals
One of the most important things for people to realize is why they are doing something. So the first step is to figure out why you are learning Japanese so you can stay motivated to continue. Write down your goal on a post-it, and post it somewhere you will see it everyday. Every time you get another reason add it to another post-it note next to the last one. That should help to keep you focused.

Learn About Learning – AJATT is a good place to start
Everyone always talks about learning something new, but often people don’t realize knowing “how to learn” is almost as important as learning. So I recommend visiting the AJATT (All Japanese All The Time) site and reading his site to learn more about learning. You can maybe also pick up a few pointers on where to start learning Japanese

Start Listening to Japanese
If you aren’t watching Anime, Japanese Dramas or listening to Japanese Music it is recommended to start, now. Start surrounding yourself with Japanese video, audio, and as much culture as you can. The more you hear Japanese the more learning new Japanese will be easier for you. For example during a local Language club meeting people will use phrases I hear all the time or say things with specific tones and I’ll recognize them because I hear them a lot in Anime or J-Dramas, so it makes figuring out the language easier. I recommend first just start listing to Japanese Music by finding some Japanese radio stations.

Learn Katakana and Hiragana
One of the most important steps to learning Japanese is learning the writing systems. There are 3 to learn (hiragana, katakana, and kanji) the first 2 are the easiest, and can get you started quite well. It is very important to learn Hiragana and Katakana over romaji since it is native to Japan and you wont go to Japan or to Japanese sites and see romaji. I also made a post about how to Learn Katakana and Hiragana in 2 weeks, please feel free to check it out and give it a shot.

Try to FORGET Romaji
Romaji is the devil, Waterboy reference there. One of the biggest problems is too many people rely on romaji. It hinders not only their reading of Japanese, but also their speaking. I expand a lot more on this in a post on Why Your Language Book is Holding you Back. Suffice it to say remove romaji from your daily use as quick as possible.

Start Learning Kanji
I used to fight Kanji a lot, still do at times. I always felt like some drunk Chinese dude sat down one day and said “Hey, I am going to make a screwed up writing system just to mess with foreigners”, still do feel that way at times. Some of the kanji just makes you go “What?”. However, as I learn more and more Kanji I understand the importance of kanji, and that kanji makes japanese easy, believe it or not.

I recommend to at least start learning Kanji from the Hesig book “Remembering the Kanji“. It is an easy book to follow and gets you started down the path of learning some of the most important Kanji to learn. The book teaches 2047 in total.

Seek Out Friends Learning Japanese
This I think is one of the most important aspects of learning Japanese. If you can’t share it with anyone then what is the point in learning it. So either start looking for friends who are Japanese or others learning Japanese, or both. For in person local friends checkout Meetup.com. It is how I found our local city based Language group, maybe even start one if there isn’t one. Also here are some online ways to connect with others too.

Smart.fm
Twitter – Follow Me
Lang-8
EduFire
Get a Good Book
One of the things I disagree with the AJATT method on is how to learn grammar. While it is entirely possible to learn proper grammar from finding patterns, have done it a bit. I personally feel it takes a bit too long, plus I like to be a bit nerdy and learn grammar. So I recommend finding a good solid text book to follow. Remember the link above,Why Your Language Book is Holding you Back, when selecting your book. There are 2 textbooks I recommend you choose between Elementary Japanese and/or Genki. I plan to do a review on both of them in the future as to why I recommend them specifically.

Vocabulary Is A Key
I analogize this to golf. One thing you hear all the time in golf is “Work on the short game”. My problem for the longest is if I can’t get off the tee-box close enough to the green to use my short game, the short game doesn’t matter. You can learn grammar, writing system, culture, everything, but if you don’t have a vocabulary then it is all useless. The biggest hindrance for a lot of people is knowing enough words to understand what is going on around you. So learn vocab and keep at it.

Be Aware
Finally, be aware of your learning and your progress. How you study, habits, and your personal life change over time. As you learn newer and better ways to do things you will tweak things in your life. The key thing is to be aware of these changes and the changes around you and to adjust your learning accordingly. Also be sure to pay attention to your goals of why you are learning Japanese. Many times our goals and reasons for learning new things change. It isn’t bad to change, but it is important to realize the importance of ever changing goals. So just be aware, and go with the flow. most of all have fun.

Conclusion
A lot of the time when people want to learn something new they aren’t sure where to start. Hopefully these 10 steps provide you the starting point to at least get far enough to know where the next step is in learning Japanese is. Just remember this is a place to start and isn’t a definitive guide.

If you have any recommendations or questions please leave a comment. Especially if you disagree let me know why and where.