Can You Learn Japanese For Free?

Wanting to learn Japanese is a big commitment, but it is something you can do for free.

There are plenty of resources and techniques you can use and I will go through some of these below. Although the information is free, it will still take a lot of effort, but if you put the effort in you will see results.

Using Online Courses / Apps / Websites

Usually when we think about learning a language, we think of sitting in a classroom and doing a course. You can do this, but going to a university to study can get quite expensive ….luckily there are plenty of free alternatives online that you can do at home.

You can find plenty of web based free courses, like my own Japanese Beginners Guide.

There are also courses that come in the form of apps, the most well known being Duolingo. The quality of the free apps, such as Duo isn’t always great, but you can still make them apart of your study regime. Usually the better the apps is …the more money it asks for.

You also have a lot of websites that are not really “courses” but still have extremely useful and important such as Tae Kims Awesome Grammar Guide.  

You could argue that everything you need is out there on these types of web pages for you to master the basics, you just have to go and find them and use them.

(You can read more about – Apps You Can Use To Learn Japanese)

You are Going To Need Immersion To Learn Japanese

If you want to reach a strong level in Japanese, you will need immersion, which really means listening to a lot of the language, or reading it.

This is often called input, which makes sense, as you are “putting the language in to yourself” and you will need to find lots of native content that you can consume, which luckily there is lots of that out there on the internet.

Youtube and Nico Nico

I am sure you all know YouTube, which is filled with videos from all over the world, but there are plenty of videos in Japanese, made by Japanese people, for other Japanese people, which are perfect for immersion. You also have all the teachers on there too, explaining all sorts of things around the language, so you can really use youtube for the bulk of your immersion and learning.

Nico Nico …this is the Japanese version of youtube, so if you feel like you can’t find any Japanese videos, this site will solve this. However, some videos are geotagged and sometimes behind a pay wall, which is annoying if you are trying to keep the price at zero, but this is usually for the new episodes of anime,  the content uploaded by random people, it’s usually free to watch, from anywhere in the world.   

Amine Streaming

Watching anime is a great way to immerse in Japanese, but you will usually need to do this on a dedicated streaming site. These usually cost and they are basically like Netflix, you pay a subscription and can watch as much as you want and usually reasonably priced.

However, if you are keeping things free, then you can find free options. They are maybe a little grey on the legality of their existence, and the range of available amine is maybe not always the best …but these sites are out there and they do work in a lot of countries, so they can be an option if you are stuck.   

(You can read more about – Is Anime Bad For Learning Japanese?)

Free Books/Manga

When it comes to reading, you are not going to get free physical books …but you can find plenty of online digital versions. I know they are not the same, but they will get the job done.

There are plenty of sites offering free digital manga or light novels and sometimes I think it’s better to read these on your computer screen as you can highlight the unknown words and easily look them up, especially if you have something like Yomichan installed on your browser.   

Anki Will Help With Learning Japanese

When it comes to learning words, you will need to see them a number of times before they start to stick in your brain and this is where Anki comes into play.

Anki is a free flashcard app you can use on your computer to add your new words to and it will use its spaced repetition system to show you these words at the right interval to help you remember them.

Some people can find this whole process boring, but it does work. Anki works extremely well when you pair it with immersion. You can watch videos and come across new words and then use Anki to help your memorise them.     

(You can read more about – How To Use Anki To Learn Japanese)

Social Media Can Be Useful

Social media is free, and while it is not perfect, it can be useful. You can start a new account and only follow Japanese creators and only interact in Japanese. It’s maybe not the best “learning tool” but it will expose you to some Japanese, so it does have some use.

There are plenty of mirco lessons as such, like short little videos on intsagram or ticktok, but I see these more as practice or little bites of info. I wouldn’t put a lot of time into these.

It wouldn’t be the first place I would go to learn the language, as there is often too much other stuff on there …but it has its place on this list.  

(You can read more about – Can You Learn A Language From Social Media?)

Language Exchanges Are Great For Learning Japanese For Free

You are going to reach the point in your learning journey where you want to actually speak, which means you need to find some Japanese people to talk to.

If you want to do this for free, from your own home, then you will need a language exchange partner. This can be done on websites and apps where you can meet Japanese people who are trying to learn English and basically you talk to each other about whatever you want and help each other learn your language. You can maybe see this more as practice, but it is still important for your overall development.

As it’s free and you do end up talking to random people, so the quality is not always great or guaranteed, but overall this is a good way to meet people.

The alternative would be to pay for an online tutor, who will probably help your conversation skills a lot more efficiently, but of course this costs.

You could also go to Japan and just try to speak to people on the street, which isn’t cheap, or time efficient, so language exchange apps certainly do have their place for helping you learn Japanese.

(You can read more about – Japanese Language Exchanges You Can Use To Help You Learn)

Is Learning Japanese For Free The Best Way To Do Things?

Really what we are asking here is …is doing it for free going to work, or is it going to be better to put some money into learning Japanese.

Unfortunately it’s hard to know, spending money does not automatically mean you will have success. You could argue that you will be paying to make things more time efficient, such as a course will have everything set out for you and you just need to follow along and there will be more structure than trying to find everything yourself.

I still think you can find anything and everything you need for free and you can certainly get very far by yourself, but the option to pay for help is always there if you need it.

Conclusion   

Trying to learn Japanese for free is totally possible and this does mean it is something you can start right now, so what is your excuse?

I would just keep things simple, and slowly build up your base knowledge over time. You can use my starter course to help you out, or any of the other great resources I have mentioned above. So long as you put the time and effort in, you will see results.