7 Books for Learning the Japanese Language

Books, apps, websites, and more!

Joseph Chancey
11 min readApr 6, 2022
irasutoya

Learning Japanese was one of the most rewarding things I have ever decided to undertake in recent time. It had ups and downs, and I am still not anywhere near fluent in speaking the language, but I am able to piece together what is being said to me and formulate a response. Originally I got invested in learning Japanese because I was dazzled by the culture and the beauty of the country. However, beginning this journey was rather daunting until I had finally established a path for myself to follow and learn the language.

This list of books is ordered so that someone who knows nothing about the Japanese language can follow it in order and become a fluent speaker. The first few books focus on the Japanese alphabets, then it moves into vocabulary and grammar, and then there are Kanji reference texts. These books are also aware of teaching Japanese in a native-speaker way. Meaning, they try to not make you sound like a textbook and emphasize every-day spoken Japanese.

Learning a language is more than just studying alphabets, vocabulary, and grammar. One must invest some time learning about the culture the language is from. Culture shapes language, and as you begin to study Japanese you will see just how true that statement is.

Kana From Zero!

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