Japanese Study: 5 Steps For Effective Input

Have you ever tried to study Japanese really intensely, only to get burnt out?

It’s great having so much passion and motivation, but learning Japanese shouldn’t be stressful. Short bursts of intensive study rarely leads to fluency. Sadly, I’ve seen many learners lose confidence and give up when they approach Japanese in this way. 

Your method of study should be fun and sustainable.

How you study is just as important as what you study.

Once you understand how to study properly, you’ll automatically stay motivated, and enjoy a Japanese language journey full of joy and confidence.

One of the most important factors in how to study properly is making sure that you have the right input. Input is the material you study, listen to, read and watch. 

Here are my 5 steps for choosing effective input.

1. Don’t jump ahead
2. Take baby steps
3. Find clear grammar explanations
4. Make sure what you’re learning is practical and fun
5. Practice effective listening

Once you apply these steps to your Japanese study, your progress will be much smoother and a lot more enjoyable! You’ll be reaching your goals before you know it.

1. Don’t jump ahead

It’s so tempting to rush from one lesson to the next as quickly as possible!

But there’s real danger in this approach. It’s not sustainable and it leads to burnout.

If you rush ahead from day one, you train your brain to think it’s normal to study at a fast pace. However, there will come a time when you meet tricky grammar points or advanced vocabulary, and you won’t be able to progress as quickly as you’re used to. When this happens, it’s really easy to feel frustrated and disappointed. You might lose confidence and feel like it’s just a matter of time until you give up.

Jumping from one grammar point to another before you’ve mastered the first one is also a recipe for disaster. Most materials use previous grammar points in their examples for new grammar. So, if you jump forward too quickly, you’ll end up facing unfamiliar nuances and you’ll quickly become overwhelmed.

Here’s a good way to find the appropriate level, and to make sure you’re progressing at the appropriate speed.

American linguist, educational researcher and activist Stephen Krashen’s Input Theory gives two important points you can apply to your Japanese study:

1.  When you feel stressed because you can’t understand what you’re learning, then the level is too high for you
2. If you’re bored with what you’re learning, the level is too low for you

In the goldilocks zone, you’ll find material at a level that makes you feel excited to learn! Not too easy, not too difficult.

As long as you stay in this zone, you’ll make steady progress and you’ll never get tired of studying Japanese! 

I’ve mentioned Krashen before in my article on How To Choose The Best Materials For Learning To Speak Japanese, and I highly recommend his methods.

2. Take baby steps

Do you feel like each lesson in your current learning materials covers too much new information?

Don’t worry - there’s nothing wrong with you, and it’s not your fault. Don’t believe me? I can prove it - with science!

Another part of Krashen’s Input Theory deals with how much information you should take in from each lesson. Most materials cover a lot of information at once. This can easily make you feel overwhelmed, and can sometimes make you feel like you’re not good enough.

Taking baby steps is the answer.

When you think about how babies learn to speak, they spend a lot of time on input - listening and watching. From there, they try to output sounds, then simple words, then simple sentences, and before you know it, they can say everything they want to say.

It’s important to approach Japanese in the same way, gradually building on previously learned knowledge. 

Of course, as adults with fully developed brains and a good grasp of at least one language, we can progress much faster than babies who are learning their very first words.

But what do baby steps look like for adults learning Japanese?

You should learn a small amount in each lesson. Then, you should try to speak (output) using your new expressions straight away after the lesson ends. Repeat this small amount until you can use it smoothly and confidently.

Then, when you progress in the next lesson, you can add a small amount to it, which you will also revise straight away. 

For example, if you’re a complete beginner, you can study Japanese vowel sounds:

• あ [a]
• い [i]
• う [u]
• え [e]
• お [o]

Then, once you’ve revised until you’ve mastered the sounds, you can move onto the next lesson:

• か [ka]
• き [ki]
• く [ku]
• け [ke]
• こ [ko]

Of course, this is a very basic example, but I hope you can see my point.

Aside from increasing your confidence, maintaining your motivation, and avoiding burnout, taking baby steps allows you plenty of time to revise, too!

I cover the importance of revising and its impact on long-term memory, and give a detailed revision schedule, in my article 5 Tips For How To Study Japanese In Your Busy Life.

3. Find clear grammar explanations

This is a simple one. 

You shouldn’t have to read the same explanation over and over again to understand a new grammar point. You should be able to understand it instantly.

So, find crystal clear explanations of grammar and vocabulary that make you feel like ‘Yes, I got it!’ without having to spend a lot of time on it.

Here are the benefits of finding great, clear grammar explanations:

1. Clear explanations save time and protect you from frustration
2. Crystal clear explanations help you memorise new learning points smoothly because they make a big impact on your brain, which helps you remember them automatically
3. They help you avoid common mistakes because you’ll understand the subtle differences between similar expressions and usages

4. Make sure what you’re learning is practical and fun

Compare these two example sentences. Which one are you likely to come across? Which one is more practical?

Example 1: これはやまださんのかばんですか。Is this Mr. Yamada’s bag?

Example 2: これはおきゃくさまのスマホですか。Is this your smart phone? (spoken by a clerk)

The grammar point is exactly the same, but the second sentence is much more practical. You’ll be in a lot of  trouble if you lose your phone! But you’re unlikely to ever hear the first sentence in a real life situation.

When you study new input - new grammar and expressions - you’ll progress much more quickly if you use practical and fun Japanese! 

5. Practice effective listening

When you have conversations, you need to understand what the other person is saying to you. It’s important to practise listening before having conversations.

I encourage you to think about finding appropriate input from a listening perspective.

Many learners jump straight into listening to native speakers on podcasts, YouTube videos, anime and films. This can be great for getting used to the sound and flow of Japanese, but it takes time and doesn’t really help you achieve concrete results.

Another problem is that if you only listen to anime, for example, you’ll learn very casual speech patterns that aren’t useful in most situations you’ll encounter in real life, like restaurants and business meetings.

When you’re choosing a conversational input to listen to, you should be able to understand about 70% of it. If you can’t understand half of what’s being said, it’s really not an appropriate level and won’t help you improve quickly.

For the other 30%, you can make a short list of expressions you don’t yet fully understand to study and practice. In this way, you can enjoy learning and stay motivated without struggling!

These are my 5 steps for effective input for studying Japanese. I normally only share these with my students, and I hope you found them useful. If you’re intentional with your input, your Japanese will improve very quickly!

Mineko Arai

Hello! I'm Mineko Arai. I’ve been teaching Japanese for about 20 years. I was a lecturer at top UK universities like the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, the University of Sheffield, and King's College London.

I was also employed by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office to prepare diplomats for postings to the British embassy in Tokyo.

I'm now the director of the Arai Academy of Japanese Studies. The academy has provided corporate training to the British Museum,  as well as executives and business leaders at companies like Deloitte, Sony, Dentsu and Mitsubishi UFJ Bank.

I was also voted #1 online tutor at Vidalingua.

I have an MA in applied Japanese linguistics from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and an MBA in Education Management from King's College.

Most textbooks and courses lock you in to stock examples and phrases, which are unusable, and sound stiff and unnatural. However, the Master Speaking Japanese course empowers you to say exactly what you want naturally and fluently from the very beginning! Get started for free!