Your Japanese Learning Guide

How to learn Japanese?

Welcome to Refold’s 2025 Japanese quickstart guide!

If you want to speak Japanese fluently, you’ve come to the right place—no matter whether you’re a complete beginner or a seasoned veteran.

By the time you’ve finished reading this guide you will know…

• Why you’ve struggled with traditional language learning methods.
• How to build an instinct for language so you can stop translating and speak fluently and naturally.
• The secret to conquering motivation once and for all.
• The core activities and resources you need for each phase of your language learning journey—from zero all the way to fluency and beyond.

Why trust Refold?

Refold is two things: a language learning company and a community of language learners.

We began in 2020 as a small community of passionate language learners who believed that anyone can learn a language with the right approach. Since then, our community has grown to over 50,000 language learners and includes learners from all over the world. Join us and say hi!

As a company, our mission is to ensure every language learner achieves their goals. Our free guides, courses, coaching, and vocabulary decks have helped tens of thousands of learners reach fluency. Our hands-on experience working with coaching clients and our community gives us unique insight into where learners get stuck—and what actually helps them move forward.

And we can help you too! Think of us as your personal trainer for language learning—here to help you overcome any obstacle you face and make huge language learning gains.

The language learning industry is broken

Despite the fact that billions of people set out to reach fluency in a foreign language, few adult learners manage to reach this goal.

This leads learners to wonder…

1. Am I too old to learn a language?
2. Do I need to have a language-learning “talent” to reach fluency?
3. Why do other people seem to know what they’re doing, but I feel clueless?

Let us assure you:

1. You are NOT too old to learn a language! We have many older members in our community who reached fluency regardless of their age!
2. You don’t need any “talent” to reach fluency! Several members of our core team have ZERO talent and still reached fluency just fine.
3. You are not alone in your struggles! Success stories simply tend to go viral because of the nature of the internet. The vast majority of language learners don’t really know how to make progress, but the algorithm won’t show you their stories in your YouTube or TikTok feed.

The traditional approach won’t get you to fluency

Most learners are familiar with what we call the traditional approach to language learning.

You memorize grammar rules and words, and then you combine them to translate from your native language into your target language — kind of like a language-based math problem. The assumption is that if you practice translation enough, it will eventually become automatic and you can stop translating — resulting in fluent speech.

Unfortunately, very few learners ever reach that automaticity.

You need to build an instinct for language!

So how do you overcome the drawbacks of the traditional approach?

Since the early 80s, second language researchers have discovered one fact, over and over: humans learn languages through input, not translation. You get input by reading and listening to the language.

Humans are naturals at learning languages in this way because our brains are pattern-matching machines that excel at mimicking the language of our peers. As you get more and more exposure to the language, your brain will subconsciously build a model of the language’s patterns. When you’ve built up a complete language model, you’ll be able to feel what sounds right and what sounds wrong on an instinctual level — allowing you to speak naturally and automatically, just like you already do in your native language.

How to build an instinct: Understand before speaking

Your goal in the instinct-building approach is to imitate natural speakers (to sound as fluent and natural as they do). But here’s the catch: you can’t imitate what you don’t yet understand. As a beginner, native speakers sound like incomprehensible noise.

This is why we take a counterintuitive approach: we delay speaking to focus on understanding first. Once you can understand native speakers, imitating them becomes much easier.

How to understand a language: Use comprehensible input

To build your internal model of the language, you need to consume language that you can at least partially comprehend. We call this comprehensible input.

If you can’t understand your reading or listening input at all, your brain will have nothing to latch on to and won’t be able to identify any patterns (it would be like trying to understand white noise or figure out a crossword puzzle with no clues).

Although partially understanding input is enough, it’s more efficient if you mostly understand it, as your brain will have an easier time with pattern identification. But as a beginner, you’ll have a hard time mostly understanding anything, so here’s what we recommend:

1. Find input that’s comprehensible by default thanks to visual context. When you can look at pictures and gestures while the speaker is talking, it’s possible to understand what they’re trying to say even when you don’t know any or most of the words or grammar involved. We recommend resources like this in the Activities & Resources section below.
2. Make your input more comprehensible with preparation and techniques. Here are some example techniques:
   • Study words or grammar, and then, try to notice them while reading or listening.
   • Read the plot of a TV show episode before watching it (or simply watch a TV show you’ve seen before in your native language since you’ll already know the plot well).
   • Use a popup dictionary to quickly look up the meanings of unknown words in your reading.

As your comprehension grows, you’ll find that you need to rely on these support tactics less and less, and then eventually — you’ll understand native speakers with no help at all.

Reaching fluency takes more time than you think!

It’s important to have the right expectations so you can plan accordingly.

Native speakers know 20,000-30,000 words, but apps like Duolingo only teach you 2,000 words — and they design their apps to keep you using them and paying them for YEARS. This means that when you’ve hit your 500-day Duolingo streak you won’t even be close to fluency.

For conversational fluency, you’ll need 5,000 words you can actively use in conversation and 10,000 that you can passively understand. This is a big goal that takes lots of time — typically several years of studying one or two hours every day.

The key question becomes: How do you stick with this long term to rack up all the time you need?

Relying on motivation is a recipe for DISASTER!

Most people rely on motivation to keep their language learning going, but motivation comes and goes — you cannot completely control it. Learners who rely on motivation end up burning out very early on in the process.

The solution isn’t to endlessly chase motivation! You need a personal learning system.

Here’s how to make reaching fluency inevitable

The key to avoiding motivation burnout is to build systems that keep on working even when you don’t feel like learning.

There are four key things to focus on when building your personal learning system:

Make learning automatic with habits

Instead of relying on motivation, build strong habits that keep you moving forward. Habits are behaviors you’ve repeated so many times they become automatic — like waking up, taking a shower, or brushing your teeth. You don’t need motivation or willpower to do them. Build strong habits by prioritizing consistency before intensity: begin studying for a smaller amount of time each day and slowly increase it after you’ve consistently reached your goal for a while.

Struggling to stay consistent? Learn how to build consistency with our course: Build Habits That Stick.
I’m ready to build habits that stick

Make learning fun

If you focus on activities that are more enjoyable for you, you won’t need to rely on willpower or motivation to do them. Don’t feel pressured to do the “most optimal” approach if it isn’t enjoyable for you. Lots of learners spend too much time and energy trying to optimize everything. In reality, the most important thing is just that you show up every day. If you aren’t having fun and you stop showing up, you’ll never reach your goal.

Keep yourself honest

A lot of people overestimate where they’re spending their time. When they first try tracking their time they are almost always surprised to discover how much time they waste each day.

Time and habit tracking force you to be honest with yourself and better understand your behavior patterns so that you can make the necessary adjustments that keep you on track.

We designed and built a free time and habit-tracking app specifically for language learners. Level up your learning today!
Get the FREE app

Get help from others

Surround yourself with other language learners who will push you to do the thing every day.

Join the Japanese community now

If you need more support, consider getting help from our coaches to keep you on track.

Struggling with language learning?

In just 1-hour, we can help you overcome any challenge and get back on track.

Eliminate any doubts

Get your questions answered and learn what tools and strategies are most effective for you.

Create a detailed action plan

Wake up every morning knowing exactly what you need to do and how you’re going to get it done.

Rekindle your love for language learning

Discover the activities that are the most fun and effective FOR YOU.

Get back on track today

Okay, that’s enough theory. Let’s move on to the practical activities and resources that you’ll need for each phase of the learning process.