Basic Japanese Grammar is the key to learning Japanese online or anywhere else.
If you are learning Japanese online, we recommend immersion tactics like the Japanese-Subtitled Anime Method. Learning basic Japanese grammar and vocabulary won’t teach you the language. It will only teach you about the language.
To learn Japanese online (or anywhere) you need to use it, both passively and actively. Children don’t learn grammar by theory in their own language. They learn naturally and organically.
Can you do this? Yes. But you shouldn’t.
Why? Isn’t it the best way? Yes it is. But you still shouldn’t.
Why not? Because it takes thousands of hours and true immersion. That is why pseudo-immersion methods like Rosetta Stone don’t work.
People imagine that small children learn language quickly. They don’t. Think of how long they are “studying”. Almost every waking hour for years before they become “fluent”.
Also, small children have the massive advantage of not already knowing another language. You need something to make up for this. And since you have the disadvantage of knowing another language, you should leverage its (lesser) compensating advantages. The main, and only significant, one of those is your ability to learn grammar.
Grammar is a quick and dirty shortcut. But you should use it. It is going to help you enormously when you start to actually learn Japanese online by immersion methods.
How to Learn Basic Japanese Grammar Online
How do you learn basic Japanese grammar, and what do you need to learn? Let’s walk you through how we did it:
1. Watch my Japanese Structure course. I now have a course covering all the basics of Japanese structure. This cuts through all the fog and overcomplication of conventional Western “Japanese grammar” and shows you how this simple and beautiful language really works.
Please go carefully through this series in order. You may want to go back and re-watch some lessons. After the first 20 lessons you will have the core structure of Japanese and understand how the language fits together.
There are many more lessons after that going deeper and explaining various usages and expressions. But the first job is to make sure you have the core structure.
Even if you have looked at some textbooks and Japanese learning websites, I recommend going through this course from the beginning. It will clear up many of the complications and misconceptions of conventional “Japanese grammar”.
Please note that there are full subtitles for every video so if you find my android voice difficult to follow just turn them on (click the cogwheel button at the bottom right of the play window to find them).
You can watch the first episode right here on this page and find the full series here.
3. Get the Cheat Sheet! Download the Nihonshock basic Japanese grammar cheat sheet. It’s free (unlike the other Nihonshock products) and it is a work of genius. Get it, print it, laminate it and keep it with you at all times. It gives you the whole of basic Japanese grammar in one two-sided sheet (plus kana and basic kanji). At first it won’t all make sense, but as you learn grammar you can use it as a quick-check reference and brush-up learning tool all the time.
4. What about exercises? Textbooks have a lot of drill exercises. If they suit you you can use them. I didn’t (I never went to school and don’t understand exercises). Also you don’t have anyone to correct them. But you might need to drill some grammar points, notably verb and adjective so-called “conjugations”.
Once you’ve watched the first three lessons of the Organic Japanese series you may want to try the free worksheet here, which make you work through the logic of the language structure.
However the best way of grasping “conjugation” structure is to watch this video lesson which cuts through all the misinformation surrounding the subject and and gives you a “master chart” showing you how simply Japanese words fit together. This one video will cut weeks of the process of learning Japanese structure.
Also, read and re-read Unlocking Japanese, it is short but it will leave you knowing how things like Japanese particles, adjectives and tenses really work. Actually understanding in depth the is far better for your memory than brute-force drill-learning. And for some reason the textbooks never tell you these things.
But remember: What is going to make Japanese grammar stick in your long-term memory and become instinctive is not artificial exercises, but real encounters and use of it in anime, books conversation etc.
3. At what stage can I start learning Japanese, not just learning about it?
How dedicated are you? I started the anime method around the end of Genki 1 (the first 20 lessons of the structure course take you further than that). Did I have enough grammar by then? No. Not to understand everything, but enough to just barely manage. I watched Karigraushi no Arietty and it took hours. But I really loved it. I was moved to tears by Japanese words for the first time.
Let’s be frank. The anime method is not easy in the early days and you have to be pretty dedicated to use it, even if you leave it a bit longer. Any method of learning Japanese is tough unless you are prepared to learn at a snail’s pace and only know about Japanese at the end of it. If you want to do immersion you have to be ready to ganbaru.
Look, I’m a Precure/Ninja. Just tell me the mission. How much do I need to know?
OK, hero (and I mean hero). You need to know:
Kana
(Preferably some basic kanji – it’s good to start Alice in Kanji Land from early on)
The basic particles: wa, ga, wo, ni, he, to, de, mo, ka, no, mo
Plain present
Plain past (-ta form)
Plain negative
Plain past negative
-te form
Desu / da (the copula)
Masu form
Adjectives present, past, negative, past negative
All this is on your cheat sheet (you do have it printed and laminated, hero?) You won’t learn it from there but it will be your friend and companion once you have learned it. Keep Unlocking Japanese by your side too. It will help you to know what is really going on in the sentences you hear.
With this and some vocabulary and a huge machete (in the form of Jisho and a willingness to research phrases you don’t understand) you can start slogging through some simple subtitled anime. You will have to let some things go.
You can also wait till you know everything on the cheat sheet. I didn’t. Whether you do or not you should be continuing to learn basic grammar. You need the other helper verbs (so-called “conjugations” -you can probably manage without causative-passive. By the time it becomes an issue it will be logically obvious anyway) and the other things in the basic Japanese grammar texts.
Are you having problems? Need help? Any questions? Did I miss anything? Use the comment form below.