Heya, I thought I’d give a bit of an updated response to this as my skills are progressing!
For those unaware, I had VERY little Japanese knowledge when I got here. I could recognize different hiragana and katakana okay, and knew all the giant nerd words, but that was about it.
Since then, I’ve used a variety of resources to varying degrees.
Google Translate on my phone has been super helpful, especially since it lets me write in and check kanji that I’m unfamiliar with.
I’ve also been studying the Genki textbooks, which are a bit difficult for self-study but are super helpful in checking my understanding of grammar and such.
For Kanji, I’ve actually just been using some workbooks I got in Daisou that are intended for first and second grader study XD It’s slow going but there’s no easy way to learn kanji.
Now that my level’s improved a bit, I’ll occasionally read through easier manga like Yotsuba!. It spells out all the kanji for you, so it’s really easy to recognize words you know (but don’t know the kanji for) and to look up other kanji that was important enough to be included in something of that level. (If you try to learn kanji from more advanced manga/other material, you’ll end up learning a LOT of kanji that isn’t exactly essential to daily life. Not that that’s a bad thing, but you gotta prioritize when you’re living here!)
I also get a lot of help from various coworkers who know English and other ALTs who are better at Japanese than me.
So yeah, obviously studying any new language is a long and complicated process =3=;; But everyone is right when they say that being thrown into that language’s culture is a huge help. There’s no way I would have gotten this far if I wasn’t living in Japan, and I’m still kinda proud of how far I’ve come since getting here! But I have so very far to go, and there’s no way I’ll be truly fluent by the time I head home.
But imma do my best! >:0
