Japanese Words

The first step to learning any language is to choose the right materials. This is especially important in Japanese since the language has changed much over the recent years. Choosing materials with the right Japanese words can save you hours and hours of wasted study time.

Since the point (for most people) of learning a language is being able to speak and communicate effectively, it is important to choose materials that contain modern Japanese words that are commonly used in conversations. Before purchasing a book, program, or course spend several minutes looking over it to make sure that it contains commonly used Japanese words. You should be able to tell just be looking at the translation in your native language. If you are unsure, then get a friend who speaks Japanese (preferably a native Japanese speaker) to evaluate the materials. They should be able to tell immediately if the Japanese words are common or not. Spending a few minutes reading through a book or trying a course can help you save hours or wasted study time.

However, even good materials will have Japanese words that are rarely or no longer used. One way to get to a level of fluency quickly is those words. The amount of time you spend learning them, to the benefit you get is very low. Your time would be better spent learning more common Japanese words. If you rarely use them it is also likely you will forget them, wasting your effort. If your goal is to gain near perfect fluency, then you will need to learn them. Though I would still recommend you set them aside for later.

Put the words in context. One of the mistakes that I have made when I first tried to learn Japanese was to focus on learning words. Its true that the more Japanese words you know the better you will be able to communicate. The problem is that the words themselves have little meaning without context. Instead, I recommend learning Japanese words in sentences and common Japanese phrases. This will help you to learn more Japanese words and to remember them much quicker.

It will also help you speak better since you will speak in sentences and phrases rather than putting together individual words. You will start to notice that many of these common phrases are used over and over again in conversation. Learning them helps you communicate better.

The last step to learning Japanese words effectively, though still one of the most important, is to use them again and again. You can spend time memorizing words and phrases, but if you don't use them repeatedly you will forget them. Since your main focus is to have conversations, then you should try to use the Japanese words you learn while speaking. This will be difficult at first, but will get easier and easier as you learn more Japanese words and phrases. I also recommend watching movies or TV in Japanese. This will help you get a feeling for the rhythm and how the word is used. If you are unable to do either, then the next best is to speak out loud, going over your materials again and again.

So you have an idea of how to get the most out of your Japanese study and how to learn Japanese words quickly. Now all you need is a list of Japanese words to get you started. Below, you can find a list in PDF format containing 1000+ Japanese words to get you started.

Japanese words list

Most of the words are quite common, but there are a few that are rare. I recommend you skip past these or remove them from your list of study words completely.