How to Learn Japanese Fast & Smart: 10+ Tips & Tricks

So, you want to learn Japanese… fast, do you?

Good, I say!

There’s nothing wrong with working smarter, not harder.

So, if you got yourself a Japanese textbook or some app… and are feeling sad about how slow it’s going, don’t despair. There are ways to “speed” things up.

This guide will teach you some realistic learning hacks to boost up your progress.

1. Be SUPER Specific About Your Goals

Why do you want to learn Japanese?

If you’re like most people… your “why” or your goal is…

“I don’t know, I just want to be fluent….”

“I just want to understand shows”

Or…

“I just want to speak and understand others.”

Well, that’s great. Why don’t you add “earn a million bucks” and “climb Mt. Everest” too?

Look, if you want to learn Japanese fast…

Big, vague goals like the above will slow you waaay down. They’re too big, too vague, and frankly… if you’re new, you’ll have no idea how to tackle them and waste years.

If that’s your goal and you want to learn fast… it’s like saying “I want to climb a mountain fast.” Ha!

So, what do you do?

You do the do opposite like George Costanza. You go super specific. The smaller and the more specific it is, the more realistic and easy it is to achieve.

For example, if you want to learn Japanese as a whole…

Your goal could be something like…

• learn the Japanese alphabet this week
• learn to Introduce myself in Japanese today
• I want to speak in Japanese for 1 minute
• spend at least 5 minutes a day learning on some app for a month

If you want to learn a bit for travel, then….

• learn Japanese restaurant phrases, asking directions, shopping, asking for English, and so on — no need to spend time learning grammar or Kanji.

So, be specific about what you want. Add a time duration… one day, one week, one month… keep it SMALL.

Why?

Because when you’re aiming for something SPECIFIC, you will HIT that goal FAST.

You know EXACTLY what you’re trying to achieve. You know EXACTLY when you reach it. And you’ll progress faster than the guy who wants to be fluent and is aimlessly bumbling around watching YouTube videos and playing DingoLingo vocabulary games… maybe he learned some words but he has no direction, unlike you.

Two important notes about this –

1. You will always need to give yourself small, specific goals… because there’s lots to do with the language.

2. It’s OKAY to want to be fluent. I know it sounds like I said you shouldn’t make big vague goals…

But…

You SHOULD have long term goals. But having SMALL goals that FEED into your BIG goals is the best way. The long term is the stuff you’re dreaming of. It’s the stuff that makes us excited. And the short term small goals are your steps there. You need both.

2. Mindset is KEY for FAST Progress

You can have all the best Japanese resources in the world…

But if your mind is not screwed on right, good luck.

A person with AWFUL resources and a good mindset will ALWAYS outpace the person with good resources and an awful mindset.

But, what’s mindset exactly?

A mindset is simply how you view things… like learning Japanese. And there are many ways to look at it…. some good, some bad.

You can view Japanese as, “Japanese is hard“… or you can view it as, “I can do it.”

You can view learning as, “ahh, I’m so frustrated I don’t understand this“… or you can view it as “it’s okay if I don’t get it now, I’ll get it eventually.”

Some of these mindsets hurt and some help.

So, what kind of mindset do you need to learn Japanese fast? Well, the 2 I listed above are good. But, actually this whole guide you’re reading now has mindset built in. Also, check out this PDF that I wrote years back. You can find it on my Japanese PDF Lessons page.

Also, plenty of tips in the rest of this guide also will help shape your mindset… so let’s keep at it.

But mindset is the #1 thing that’ll help you learn fast… above any resource.

So, keep that in mind.

3. Don’t Learn ALL Words, Just the “Core”

If you’re a Japanese beginner…

You don’t need to learn words like zebra, xylophone and zephyr in Japanese.

Focus on the core words… Core words are the most frequently used set of words that are used in conversation. Words like, “I,” “you,” “to be,” “this,” “that,” and so on.

• The 100 core words make up 60% of everyday convos…
• 300 core words make up 80%
• And so on.

Learn these first and you can start understanding basic Japanese conversations.

Where can you learn core words? Well look bucko, if you’re learning with a textbook that was written by actual teachers… you’re good. They’ve already done the work for you… which is why textbooks are a safe way of learning.

If you’re learning with some dingy vocabulary app made by programmers and not teachers, I’d raise a red flag here. Teachers know to teach from core words. Random apps may not.

If you’re learning with a program like JapanesePod101, you can learn the 100 Japanese Core Words on their site with their Flashcards. They go up to 2000 words.

4. Don’t Use Apps to Learn the Alphabet

If you want to be able to read and write fast…

(It’s okay if you don’t and want to skip this)

…you’ll need to learn the Japanese alphabet fast.

(Well, maybe not Kanji.)

There are a hundred apps out there trying to teach you Hiragana and Katakana.

…and they’ll all slow you down.

To learn fast, you must jump IMMEDIATELY into practicing… Not swiping and playing games on Apps.

So, for that, I can present you with the following:

• Free Japanese Hiragana/Katakana Workbook – Print and write in it
• My guides:
  • How to learn Hiragana in 1 hour
  • How to learn Katakana in 1 hour

Fun fact: Schools give students a week to learn ’em all. So aim for a week or less.

5. Listen to Japanese Often

What happens if you listen to a song enough times?

You end up learning the lyrics inside out, right?

Well, same goes for Japanese.

If you listen to enough Japanese… on a regular basis… all the words, phrases and grammar eventually become natural to you. And this approach helps you learn faster and without the hard work of memorizing.

Second, if you want to understand native speakers… pick up on the pronunciation… and flow of the language… listening is a must.

Third, of all the ways you can learn… listening is the easiest way to learn Japanese. Look, I love reading books and as great as it is, listening is simply easier. And if your goal is to understand real Japanese, you’re going directly to the core.

So, if you’re new to Japanese and are scared of sitting down to learn… go the audio route instead.

TV shows. Music. Movies. Podcasts. Audio lessons. Audiobooks.

Anything you can get your hands on.

Listen, listen, listen as much as you can.

Listening also plays into this next tactic.

6. Multi-task Where You Can

All of our lives are filled with small blocks of time…

Where we can multi-task.

For example:

• Going to work.
• Walking to the store.
• Doing laundry.

While you can’t pop out a textbook to learn while you’re walking somewhere…

You CAN use those chunks of time to learn Japanese!

Which is where listening comes in. You can listen to Japanese lessons while you’re out and about, or while doing things like laundry, working out, and so on.

Just imagine… you could be going food shopping for 30 minutes and by the time you’re back home, you know 20 new Japanese phrases.

And you did it all without having to “set aside time” to study.

So, look for these blocks of time where you can multi-task.

7. Speak as Much as Possible

There’s a golden rule to learning…

For every minute you spend on “absorbing new information”… whether reading, watching a YouTube video,

You should spend the same amount of time speaking and practicing.

Without the actual practice and speaking, you’ll freeze up when it’s time to perform/speak. The earlier you start, the better. So what you can do is…

• Read out loud (it’s like speaking)
• Shadow what you hear (meaning, repeat what you hear)
• Practice with native speakers and tutors
• Use AI to practice (JapanesePod101 has a Dialogue Roleplay tool for this)
• Read more: 8+ tips to practice speaking Japanese

8. Pick a Favorite Lesson & Re-Listen Often…

Because repetition is King

You know why I never worried about not remembering a certain word…?

Or not understanding a certain grammar rule…?

Two reasons. First, because of my mindset — it’s okay to not understand something immediately.

Second, because of repetition. If I’m learning, the stuff will pop up again and again and it’ll sink in.

That’s the power of repetition.

But to speed up the process, you can pick a Japanese lesson, song, TV show episode, and review it over and over. Yes, just like the song example I gave above.

But I want to you pick a specific one and repeat the heck out of it.

Say you’re going to Japan and you want phrases for getting around.

Pick a lesson that’s all about tourist phrases and listen over and over and over, and that stuff will stick fast.

Or a lesson on ordering Sushi… if you plan on going to a restaurant.

Or if you want to have everyday conversations with friends…

Pick a lesson that contains such dialogue and review it often — not in one day but over a span of days and weeks. Come back. Repeat.

9. Make Mistakes to Learn Fast

If you want to learn fast, you can’t be worried about mistakes.

Mistakes are a natural part of learning.

The MORE interesting thing is… Mistakes are one of the fastest ways to learn once you realize you’re wrong.

And there are studies that support it.

Embarrassment, especially when people make mistakes publicly, increases attention to the error, which can lead to better memory encoding and faster learning. Study: The Psychological Consequences of Wrongdoing (Wessel et al., 2008)

While perfectionists take forever to get everything perfect… mistake-makers move faster, learn from their experience, and generally outpace the perfectionists.

So, long story short, make mistakes, don’t worry, don’t be perfect and you’ll learn faster as a result.

10. Learn Through Context, Don’t Focus on the Details

Details will slow you down, especially if you’re a new learner.

What do I mean by details?

I mean… focusing on little things… like grammar nuances, words, and whatnot… and ignoring the bigger picture — and the bigger picture is to learn fast.

So, here are few ways to apply this rule.

Vocabulary learning

I know I mentioned Core Words above.

But I’m also of the opinion that dedicating time to learn words alone by themselves, as a main approach, is not the best use of time. Unless you’re just reviewing words on the way to work.

Instead, you should focus more on phrases and sentences, instead of just learning words alone. That way, you see how the words are used, you learn a useful phrase, and you also get an understanding of the grammar.

Also, if you’re learning with a textbook, you will naturally learn them as you progress… but there, you’re learning a bit of everything (which is a good use of time), instead of learning just words (which is a questionable use of time.)

Kanji learning

Similar goes for Kanji. If you want to go fast… you shouldn’t focus on learning all the readings and meanings of the character. I mean, if you want to sure, why not.

But you may well just learn the kanji through the vocabulary that pops up.

Grammar

And same goes for grammar. Instead of just learning rules alone…

It’s better to pick up the rules through the Japanese that you hear and read — through phrases and sentences.

I mean, it’s fine to look up a rule to see what it means… But the actual learning will come from seeing how it works in actual examples.

How to Learn Japanese Fast

Now you know how to speed up your learning…

Pick one or two tips here and apply them.

Amongst them, I think the ones relating to mindset are the ones that’ll truly help you learn Japanese faster. Because if your mind is right, you can figure out your way and not worry about not knowing every word, making mistakes, and memorizing details.

Ready to learn Japanese the fast & easy way? I recommend JapanesePod101 for their conversation lessons that you can play anywhere/anytime. Click here to learn more about JapanesePod101.

Reason I like JapanesPod101 is that it offers audio and video based conversations – so you can listen and learn anywhere anytime. Plus you’re not just learning random words one at a time, you’re listening to and learning everyday conversations between real native speakers. Plus, tons of learning tools inside like Flashcards, PDF worksheets, assessment, and stuff like that.

Click here to get a FREE lifetime account at JapanesePod101.

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