Don’t worry if you’re a new Japanese learner and have been wondering if you can really self-study Japanese, you’re not alone. The idea that anyone can learn one of the hardest languages in the world without any teachers was insane to me.

It was only after graduating college that I decided to challenge myself with this challenging goal, and I did successfully achieve it (in some sense). Despite a year of full-time self-studying, I achieved level N2 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, only to find that it wasn’t as impressive as I expected. The details about that will follow soon, but for now let me tell you exactly how I learned Japanese and passed the JLPT N2 with a score of 97 / 180 (the passing mark is 90).

It is probably easier to remember hiragana and katakana charts than it is to memorize 2000 Kanji characters. Due to a headache, I decided to temporarily skip learning the Kanji in the first month of my journal. As I thought about it, why don’t Japanese people only use hiragana in their writing system like Koreans do? There would be much less hassle for everyone if that was done. zing used to disgust me, and I later became enamored with it.

Remembering the Kanji by Heisig might be familiar to you. Japanese learners who want to learn Kanji quickly should own this book. The book helps you remember the characters by encouraging you to create a story or image for each one. While this book does not guarantee that you will become an expert in Kanji after using it, it will certainly be one of the best among hundreds of Chinese character books on the market.

This book lacks the character’s on and kun readings, which is a slight drawback. The author knows we can learn to read each character elsewhere, so he wants to focus on how to remember the characters. Google the on and kun readings of each character if you’re a serious learner.

Writing as many sentences and short essays as you can is a good way to learn how to write Kanji. Repeat the same word in different sentences until you are finally able to remember it. As well as typing your sentences to your computer, you should ask someone else to check them for grammatical errors.

You can find thousands of lessons in audio, video, and pdf formats on their website. A better Japanese learning site won’t probably be found online. Each lesson is divided into four levels: Absolute beginners, Beginners, Intermediates, and Advanceds. Seasons within each category contain 20+ lessons each. If you want to learn offline, you can download the pdf and mp3 files from the website.