Japanese From Zero: Where to Start and What Order to Learn In

This page is the answer I would give a friend asking how to learn Japanese from zero on their own. It is not a list of resources — it is a concrete order: what to learn first, what to postpone, which mistakes cost beginners months, and how long each stage realistically takes when you study at home without a teacher. Everything described here you can practise for free in Kanazora, in English or Romanian.

Open the app Free, no account. Works offline too.

Where to start: kana, not kanji

Start with hiragana. Not with a textbook, not with a kanji list, and definitely not with romaji. Hiragana has 46 basic signs plus the voiced variants and combinations — over 100 forms in total, but the core set sticks within five to seven days if you do ten a day and review yesterday's before adding new ones. Write them by hand from day one. Stroke order is not pedantry: it is what makes a character recognisable when someone else has written it. Katakana comes next and goes faster, because the sounds are identical and only the shapes change. Kanji comes after that. The reason is practical: without kana you cannot read furigana or verb endings, so everything else stays locked. In Kanazora every sign has a stroke-order animation and recorded native audio.

What order to learn things in

There is no single answer, but there is an order that works for most people: hiragana, then katakana, then the first few hundred common words, then basic grammar, with kanji running alongside vocabulary. Never learn a kanji in isolation, as a drawing with no context — learn it together with two or three words that use it, or it is gone in three days. In grammar, do not skip the particles (は, が, を, に, で). They are the skeleton of the Japanese sentence, and postponing them means reading words you know without understanding what they say together. A concrete target for year one is JLPT N5: roughly 100 kanji and a few hundred words. If you want a self study JLPT N5 roadmap, Kanazora covers exactly that list — 100 N5 kanji, 95 grammar exercises and 22 lessons with dialogues.

How to study at home when nobody is checking on you

Twenty minutes a day beats three hours on Saturday. Split them simply: five minutes on what you got wrong yesterday, ten minutes of new material, five minutes of handwriting or listening. Spaced repetition does the hard part for you — an SRS brings back exactly the signs and words you keep missing, not the ones you already know. Listen every day, even for one minute: Japanese read silently in romaji sounds nothing like real Japanese. And write on paper at least for the first month, because the hand remembers what the eye skips. Kanazora has printable A4 practice sheets, on-screen handwriting recognition, dialogues with audio and recorded native pronunciation. It works offline and you can learn Japanese free without an account, so "no signal right now" stops being an excuse.

Beginner mistakes that quietly cost you months

First: romaji. It is comfortable for two weeks and gets in your way for two years, because it locks in a wrong pronunciation and delays the moment you actually read. Second: passive recognition. Seeing 水 and thinking "oh, I know that one" is not knowing it — the test is producing it from the meaning. Third: collecting resources. Ten apps open and none finished is the most common way people quit; pick one and see it through. Fourth: grammar memorised as a list of rules, with no sentences attached. Keep whole patterns in your head, not explanations about patterns. Fifth: postponing listening "until I'm better". You do not get better at listening except by listening, and the gap widens every month you read with your eyes only.

How long it actually takes

It depends on how much you put in per day, not on talent. At a steady 20-30 minutes a day: kana in two to three weeks, simple sentences and short texts in three to six months, JLPT N5 level in six to twelve months. At an hour a day you cut those roughly in half. What cannot be compressed is frequency: seven sessions of 20 minutes beat two sessions of an hour, however unfair that feels. Japanese is a hard language for a European-language speaker, but the difficulty is front-loaded — once you read kana fluently the curve softens noticeably. To see where you actually stand, sit a mock N5 exam scored out of 180. It will tell you more than any estimate on the internet, mine included.

Frequently asked questions

Should I learn romaji first?

No. Use romaji as a crutch for the first few days while you learn the sounds, then drop it entirely. The sooner you switch to hiragana, the sooner you can read real Japanese text.

Can I learn Japanese for free without a teacher?

Yes, at least up to N5 level. Kanazora is completely free, in English and Romanian, and covers kana, N5 kanji, grammar, lessons, reading texts and listening dialogues.

How hard is kanji once I know kana?

Easier than it looks, as long as you do not treat it as a drawing. Kanji are built from components that repeat, and in Kanazora each one shows its components, an explanation of the shape, and mnemonics for the ON and KUN readings.

Do I need an account or an internet connection?

No account is needed. The app works offline, there is an Android version (APK), and you can move your progress between phone and computer with a code.

What if I only have 10 minutes a day?

Ten minutes a day is enough to make progress, just more slowly. Spend them on spaced repetition, which serves you exactly the signs and words you keep getting wrong, and save the longer lessons for your free days.