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Preface: This article was translated from Mandarin to English using an AI tool for testing purposes. Please forgive any linguistic or grammatical errors. Thank you.
Although I consider my starting point to be when I was preparing for graduate school, in fact, I attempted to take a Japanese course at school during my sophomore year but failed. Two semesters passed, and I couldn’t even memorize the Gojūon… It wasn’t until later, while preparing for the graduate school entrance exams, that I truly found my way of learning Japanese, which is why I believe that year was my starting point for self-learning Japanese.
Here’s a brief timeline of my experience:
- 2008: Started self-learning Japanese while preparing for graduate school exams.
- 2009: After the graduate school entrance exams, began attempting the JLPT (Japanese-Language Proficiency Test).
- January 29, 2010: Achieved JLPT Level 3. At that time, the levels were not N1~N5 but Level 1~Level 4. I chose to skip the easiest Level 4 and directly challenge Level 3.
- August 28, 2010: Achieved JLPT N2. That same year, the JLPT levels were restructured to N1~N5, and I happened to obtain my N2 certificate that year.
- August 25, 2012: Achieved JLPT N1. My goal was to be able to read Japanese novels rather than to pass the proficiency test. Due to the busy coursework in graduate school, I wasn’t very focused on preparing for the JLPT. It wasn’t until after I graduated and started working that I finally passed JLPT N1, taking two years to progress from N2 to N1.
In this article, I will share my experiences, including the failure in the initial course and how I eventually self-studied to N1. However, I must say that this is my personal learning method and may not suit everyone. For example, my goal was simply to read Japanese novels, so I didn’t focus much on speaking and writing. If your goal is to study in Japan, my method lacks emphasis on these aspects.
Hopefully, this article can provide some help in devising your self-study strategy.
First Level: How to Self-Study Japanese? – Have Passion!
If someone asks me now how I managed to self-learn Japanese, I usually respond with: “Because of love.”
I know this answer may seem insincere, but it’s my biggest realization after learning Japanese for over ten years. Initially, when people asked me this question, I would share my learning methods in detail, but it usually didn’t lead anywhere. When I later asked how their learning was going, most found it too difficult and felt unmotivated.
Conversely, perhaps because people with similar interests tend to attract each other, I also know many friends who self-learned Japanese and learned much better than me. Reflecting on our differences, I felt that the key lies in the depth of our passion.
Here, the love I refer to is not just for the Japanese language itself, but a deep enthusiasm for a particular goal that requires Japanese as a tool to achieve it.
For me, I loved novels. During my year of preparing for graduate school, I was deeply fascinated by Japanese novels. After reading many Japanese novels translated into Chinese, I realized there were many novels not published in Taiwan, but I really wanted to read them. The only way was to learn Japanese! At that time, I didn’t know how long it would take to understand Japanese novels, but I knew Japan published many more books than Taiwan, and I would only want to read more over time. So, no matter how many years, I had to gain the ability to understand Japanese novels!
Passion Can Be Anything
Reading novels was my motivation for learning Japanese through self-study, which I didn’t have when I took my Japanese courses during my sophomore year. At that time, I didn’t understand why I needed to memorize those strange symbols, why I needed to learn new vocabulary, or why there were both hiragana and katakana. In the end, I barely passed the final exam with a score of 60 thanks to the kind teacher.
So, saying you need love might seem a bit abstract. Specifically, you need a clear goal that requires Japanese. Among my friends who know Japanese, some love Japanese dramas, anime, games, idols, music, studying in Japan, or Japanese culture and food. Various goals, but like me wanting to read Japanese novels, learning Japanese enables us to do more things that we couldn’t do before!
If you want to self-learn Japanese, I strongly recommend finding your passion. Whatever it is, as long as you have it in your heart as your motivation, you don’t need to say it out loud.
Second Level: Memorize Those Weird-Looking Symbols – The Gojūon
Once you understand your passion, you need to start learning Japanese formally, and the first challenge will likely be the Gojūon. I got stuck here during my sophomore year Japanese class.
I think learning the Gojūon might be similar to how foreigners feel learning Mandarin pinyin. Other than continuously writing them down and memorizing them, there may not be many other methods. My breakthrough came from copying song lyrics.
Since lyrics often read like poetry, copying them felt like writing poems. I loved the beautiful sentences, and writing them while listening to music felt enjoyable. So, I overcame the Gojūon hurdle with the help of Japanese songs.
Of course, you don’t have to copy song lyrics. The key is repetitive practice in recognizing and handwriting the Gojūon. You can choose to copy things you like, such as quotes from novels if you love reading, or game walkthrough if you love gaming.
Third Level: Passing JLPT Level 3
I took Level 3 back in the day, which is probably somewhere between N3 and N4 difficulty now.
This level is not particularly difficult. In my case, I just read through the textbooks “Minna no Nihongo” (Beginner I, II, and Intermediate I, II) and was almost ready for the test. The difficulty here might be studying without a teacher, having no one to solve your doubts, but nowadays, there are plenty of tutorials online. Plus, at this stage, it’s basic grammar, so answers are generally easy to find. You can even find many tutorial videos on YouTube and follow along.
During this period, I would read from this book daily, copy the grammar and vocabulary into notes, and review them from time to time. Since we studied basic grammar at this stage, I found myself starting to understand some Japanese sentences, and that sense of achievement made learning very enjoyable! Reflecting back, I remember this stage as quite fun to learn.
The above books are Japanese language textbooks that were published in Taiwan.
Fourth Level: Passing JLPT N2
Reaching N2 is a level where textbooks alone won’t suffice, and this is one of the major hurdles after the Gojūon hurdle.
The JLPT exam broadly covers vocabulary, grammar, reading comprehension, and listening. Below are my strategies for each component.
Vocabulary
Reading Novels. After passing Level 3, I started buying and reading Japanese novels. Initially, I chose novels related to daily life situations, allowing me to learn common vocabulary and grammar in daily settings. Since these contexts are closer to daily life, it’s easier to avoid rare words or phrases.
Reading Comprehension
Reading Novels. Since my goal was to read Japanese novels, my preparation for this section was simple: read novels that interest me. Hence, the reading comprehension part of the JLPT wasn’t too difficult for me, and it always boosted my total score.
Listening
Listening to Anime and Songs. I didn’t specifically buy books for this part because I loved watching anime and listening to Japanese songs. I would watch a couple of hours of anime daily and listen to Japanese songs whenever possible (walking, riding, reading, writing, studying).
Additionally, since I had not yet visited Japan at that time, to familiarize myself with listening to Japanese speakers in real-life situations, I would go to doujin events to listen to Japanese voice actors’ talk shows. While listening to them speak, I would translate in my mind, and there would also be interpreters providing the correct translations for me to check my understanding. I highly recommend this approach.
Some people also recommended watching Japanese variety shows or dramas, since anime voice actors have clear pronunciation, and listening to real Japanese dialogues can help with listening comprehension.
Grammar
I relied on the book “完全掌握文法問題對策２級” (published in Taiwan) for this part. I don’t have any particular insights for grammar; I just looked online for recommended books and bought this one.
Fifth Level: Passing JLPT N1
When you reach N1, I believe that anyone who can self-study to this level already has their methods. Since I don’t have any guarantees, I will simply share what I did.
After passing N2, I was already able to read Japanese novels, so the goal of achieving N1 was not very urgent for me to pursue (since my main objective had already been achieved). For me, the way I engaged with Japanese daily didn’t change much from the time I was preparing for N2:
Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension
Since I prepared vocabulary and reading comprehension together, I will discuss them together.
My approach was to continue reading novels. The difference is that, compared to the N2 level, I started to explore a wider variety of novels, rather than specifically choosing those that closely resemble everyday life. Instead, I now read any novel that interests me. It was certainly a bit challenging at first, but over time, I became more familiar with common vocabulary and grammar, and even started to develop a slight language intuition. Eventually, I could somewhat guess the meaning of unfamiliar words or grammar structures.
Where to Buy Japanese Novels
Here, I’ll briefly discuss where I purchase Japanese novels.
Initially, I mainly bought physical books. In Taiwan, you can find them at stores like 雜誌瘋, Junkudō Bookstore, Books Kinokuniya, or Animate (retailer). However, you need to pay attention to the exchange rates. Personally, I prefer Junkudō Bookstore because I find their exchange rates don’t deviate much from the current Japanese yen rate, and they offer a wide variety of books.
- 雜誌瘋：I now rarely shop here. Their Japanese books mainly focus on manga, games, photobooks, and magazines, with fewer general literature options.
- Animate (retailer)：Specializes in the ACG (anime, comic, game) field, but I also seldom buy from here now.
- Junkudō Bookstore：Offers a wide range of Japanese books. I feel that the books you can buy at 雜誌瘋 or Animate (retailer) are mostly available here too, and their yen-to-TWD exchange rates are more reasonable.
- Books Kinokuniya：Also has a wide range of Japanese books, similar to Junkudō Bookstore. What impressed me most about Kinokuniya is their extensive selection of stationery and related items—highly recommended if you are a stationery enthusiast. I visit less often myself because I find their exchange rates a bit high.
Another way to Get Japanese Novels – E-books
Of course, you can also buy directly from bookstores in Japan when you visit. I used to do this initially—seeing what books are trending in Japan and buying those that interested me. However, I soon realized that books are very heavy and luggage space is precious, so now I almost exclusively buy e-books from Amazon Japan.
- Amazon Japan Kindle Book：This is my most common way of buying Japanese novels now. As long as you have a Kindle reader or the Kindle app on your phone, you can read anytime, anywhere. You can also freely add notes in places you like, and when encountering unfamiliar words or sentences, just select them, and the Kindle app will automatically look up translations from dictionaries and the internet. Since the purchase is directly from Amazon Japan, the exchange rate follows the current actual yen rate, making it much cheaper than buying in Taiwan.
Listening
This part is similar to the N2 stage, where I watched anime and listened to music. The only difference is that I started to look for anime without subtitles and also watched Japanese programs (since Japanese programs usually don’t have subtitles). In addition to the clear pronunciation of professional voice actors, I tried to get exposed to different accents, speech speeds, and even dialects.
Grammar
Since I hadn’t finished reading “完全掌握文法問題對策２級” (published in Taiwan) when I passed N2, I continued studying this book during this stage. At the same time, I bought “適時適所日本語表現句型500” (published in Taiwan) to study.
Final Stage: After Passing N1, What’s Next?
I think everyone who has passed N1 would say the same thing: passing the test is just the beginning.
Indeed, this is true. Even after passing N1, I was still a novice in Japanese—barely decent in reading, not great at listening, terrible at speaking, and awful at writing. However, since my goal was to read novels, along with watching anime, movies, and dramas, my current level was roughly sufficient for my needs.
Of course, as I grew fond of traveling to Japan and actually using my broken Japanese to chat with locals and understand their culture, I gradually began to wish I could improve my speaking skills. This became my next goal.
Regarding improving speaking skills, the ideal scenario is naturally conversing with native Japanese speakers. However, if you don’t have a Japanese-speaking environment, I think practicing singing Japanese songs can also be a good method. To keep up with the melody, you have to be very familiar with the lyrics, and even if you read the lyrics while singing, you need to read them at a speed that matches the melody. I believe this is somewhat similar to the “shadowing” method used in learning English, helping you gradually get accustomed to Japanese speaking speeds and tones while also improving your reading speed significantly.
Your enthusiasm will guide your way
After N1, there are no more proficiency tests. What follows depends on what goals you want to achieve and the level of Japanese required to reach those goals. After climbing the N1 ladder, what I see is a big gate that opens to a vast, pathless field, each direction offering different scenery. Here, everyone is free to choose the path they want to take to see the scenery they wish to experience. In the end, it still comes down to whether you have passion—your enthusiasm will guide your way.
This sums up my journey of self-learning Japanese over the past decade. In essence, it really comes down to one simple sentence: you need passion.
So, I’m not being dismissive when I say this; it’s truly how I feel after learning Japanese for so long. If I didn’t have a love for Japanese novels, I probably would have given up back at the Gojūon stage, and this article wouldn’t exist.
Other Readings
Apart from Chinese books, after reading Japanese books, I also record my own insights. If you are also interested in Japanese novels, feel free to share and discuss with me!
- 日文小說閱讀心得 (Mandarin Chinese)
- 《 實體書/電子書/日文書的購買 》 關於我如何買書以及找書 (Mandarin Chinese)
