I want to learn grammar ASAP. when should I start ideally?

Start as soon as possible
For me, I really enjoyed the JFZ (Japanese from Zero) series on youtube.
It gave me a very nice base to work off of.

I really needed that English explanation sometimes in order to understand.

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No offense, but that advice is complete bullplot. I did the reverse of what your advice said. I used to find vocabulary and kanji really difficult (before WK) and so would simply learn the grammar. Because of this, my reading ability was constantly stifled by my lack of vocabulary and kanji.

This brings me to my point: you need BOTH grammar and vocabulary (+Kanji) in order to develop decent ability. Therefore, I suggest you to from mistake and not learn just half the language (even if it is the other half to what I learnt); you would be best advised learning both of them from the beginning, subsequent making steady progress that will be visible in you listening and reading ability.

TL;DR: learn them simultaneously, otherwise one will always be holding you back from your goal.

Recommendations (for grammar):

  1. Tae Kim’s Grammar Guide
  2. [SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION] GCSE Japanese Grammar Guide.

Links:

  1. Learn Japanese – Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese
  2. Japanese GCSE Grammar Guide - Document in GCSE Japanese
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Noooo! I mean, you can—if that’s what you’d like to do–but it’s not necessary! Like others are saying, you can start learning grammar right away. If someone knows kana then I don’t see why they should wait, to be honest. I spent a few months learning kanji characters before making the jump over to grammar, but I know now that I would have been fine if I hadn’t isolated myself to kanji only for a while.

I worked through Genki to give myself a start into Japanese grammar (after a brief stint with Tae Kim), and any kanji I needed to know was supplied in the textbook anyway. Knowing some of that kanji in advance helped a little bit, but it wasn’t a necessity at all. You can always pair whatever grammar path you head down along with WaniKani, too. They don’t need to (and imo shouldn’t) be separate things, and in fact it’s natural to learn kanji alongside grammar anyhow.

I’ve currently moved on to Tobira and like to use WK to give my kanji and reading skills a boost, and even at my low WK level (5 atm) I can already see improvements. That said, I don’t need WK or other outside kanji resources to work through Tobira (aside from an online dictionary), and I didn’t need them for Genki.

Please, start grammar as soon as you like!

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No offense but

and you joined… 1 day ago, according to your forum profile. Since you’re level 2 I guess that means you first visited the forum 1 day ago and signed up for WaniKani a little before that but still, I think it’s fascinating how much WaniKani has helped you after so little time!

Not that I would generally disagree with what you said btw

Haha, yes indeed. I had tried WK up to level three on another account to which I lost access. But, of course, after that I had to start paying and at the time it was simply too expensive. This year though, I decided to take advantage of the winter sale.

At the moment I already know the kanji Iam going through, however I am already learning new vocabulary. (That just highlights how poor my vocabulary was beforehand though) :slight_smile:

Working back through WK now has just reminded me of how useful it is.

Once you start learning grammar, you’ll want to find a way to be exposed to it, such as through reading or listening to native material. But it can be difficult when the native material is 98% grammar you haven’t learned yet.

One option is to join the Absolute Beginner Book Club, either by reading the current book, waiting to join the next one, or picking a previous book to read through. You get the advantage of vocabulary lists and discussion, the latter often covering various grammar. Plus you can still ask questions on the book club threads for previously read books/manga.

Ah I see that makes sense. I suppose because I’m used to learning vocab and grammar together from learning different languages in school and in different language schools I didn’t think of that reasoning. Also I find it much easier to learn vocab in context.

The milk first or last debate (no matter if it’s with tea or cereal) is really dividing society :joy: I personally add milk later. But I learned that adding the milk first was very common for poor households as they didn’t have cups that could survive the heat of boiling water so they added the milk first. Anyway I don’t plan to fight you on it :slight_smile:

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Is it though? The joke is always “Look, he’s weird, he puts milk in before the cereal” and I’ve never encountered people who would do that

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Milk after cereal. I’m not an animal :upside_down_face:

(anyway, i shall stop derailing now :stuck_out_tongue:)

I skimmed this thread so I apologize if this has been suggested already… start here! No japanese knowledge is required and she breaks down the structure of the language in a logical and clear way.

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I do. But I don’t judge if they like it better that way they should do it :woman_shrugging:t3:

I was advised to start learning grammar at WK level 10. I felt like I was able to get started at that time with some of the grammar resources (that was before my reset, so i was level 10 then). The other thing is to figure out a source for vocabulary that is not written with kanji, that was definitely the tough one for me to figure out.

Ohhhhh. I got the numbers mixed up!
So it was 1000 vocabulary words, not 1000 Kanji. XD

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Start learning grammar so you can start to read :slight_smile:

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I tried starting right away using apps like BunPro and got really frustrated, so I’m waiting a little longer. I have, however, googled tidbits about sentence structure here and there but don’t plan on diving head first just yet.

I spent two or three years learning the most common 2,000 or so words (as per iKnow’s core deck) via SRS before I started reading.

The first full manga volume I read had maybe about 1,800 or so unique words total (if I recall correctly; maybe fewer).

When reading that first manga volume, I had to look up something like 80% of the words, because they were completely new to me.

I really think if you dont know any grammar, starting with bunpro will only confuse you. After you learn some grammar, you can add it on Bunpro and let it do its magic.

And also, i tried starting grammar with almost no Vocab, and it was a real pain in the ass. I think that with some words in your vocab will be way easier to focus on grammar, can`t really put a number though(now that i really thought about that)

I recommend starting with Japanese From Zero (Book 1 + YT channel) or any of the above YT channel + some grammar book (Genki I / Minna no Nihongo…):

Misa Absolute Begginer: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd5-Wp_4tLqYZxS5j3g6kbeOfVXlTkr3N

Cure Dolly Japanese from scratch: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLg9uYxuZf8x_A-vcqqyOFZu06WlhnypWj

There is also a lot of YT channels that follow the Genki Books (Yuki Sensei comes to mind) and some really cool tools for those books in particular. You can check it in other threads in this forum.

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I don’t know where these recommendations come from, but I just consider it typical internet noise. There is no reason to delay grammar study at all. There is no kanji or vocab prerequisite.

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Another good option is an app called Human Japanese. I think it’s like $10 for the into and intermediate level. I’ve been using it about a year and it has been the easiest way to learn grammar. It starts at the absolute beginners level so it’s really easy to follow. I’d definitely say check it out!

By who?! As others have said, just go for it!

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