Tips on Learning Japanese from Anime

This guide is especially intended for Japanese learners who watch anime, but practically anyone can learn from this advice, as well.

Start with Names

The most basic thing you can do to improve your comprehension is to listen to characters’ names being spoken in Japanese. It may seem odd to you, but names will actually sound very different from how they’re spoken in English (or other languages).

For example, Edward Elric becomes EDOWA-DO ERURIKU. Think that’ll sound the same in Japanese as in English? You’re probably in for a surprise!

Also, watch out for Japanese words that were originally English. For example, AISU KUREAMU. What do you think that is? Yes, it’s an English word. It’s “ice cream”! When you listen for words like this in anime, you’ll start getting a feel for how things sound in Japanese. This is really the most difficult barrier to penetrate at the beginning.

Try to work out how your own name might sound in Japanese. The names of your friends and family. This is an interesting exercise, and useful too.

Once you know how words are pronounced in another language, you can basically figure out anything you hear as long as you have a dictionary!

So work on honing your ear. It is very important.

Focus on Words you Know

When you’ve learned a few words and started watching subtitled anime, it’s easy to stress out and think:

“I’ll never be able to understand the entire thing! They’re speaking so fast! How on earth is that long dialogue supposed to translate to that puny English sentence?!”

Instead, slow down. What you should be doing is…

learning one commonly spoken word at a time
seeking out specific instances of the word you know, while ignoring what you don’t know

Example: Say you know that boku (“I”) is a common word. You think it might be easy to hear it being spoken. So put on an anime that you won’t mind listening to a few times and just go through the whole thing listening carefully for the word you’re looking for, boku. Try to find a scene in the anime that you have a feeling they’ll probably say the word.

The purpose of this is twofold.

One, by listening carefully just to hear one specific word or phrase, you’re actually listening carefully to everything being spoken. You’ll develop an ear for the language much faster by paying attention all the time.
Secondly, it’s much more confidence-boosting to think, “There! I’ve heard them say it! Now I know at least one more word!” rather than: “Geez, I can’t even figure out a single word in this entire dialogue! It’s impossible!”

Transcripts

If you can, try to get your hands on entire transcriptions of the dialogue for the anime you’re watching. A transcription is a line by line script of what each character says, along with some brief descriptions of action and place.

Transcripts can be found, with some effort. (Probably only for the more popular ones, though. So don’t spend too long trying to find one if the series you’re watching isn’t that well-known)

If you do find one, they can be unimaginably helpful, especially for those just starting out. If you happen to find one actually transcribed in Japanese characters (not romaji), save it for later because this makes excellent reading practice, too!

Intermediate Stages

Once you start getting good enough at Japanese to distinguish the various sounds with precision and accuracy – harder than you might expect! – then you’ve graduated to the next level. Congratulations!

How to continue building on your knowledge:

listen to entire sentences
pick out each individual word you hear
look up all the ones you don’t know in a dictionary, or type them into Google and see what you get
try to understand the sentence as a whole

Watch Anime WITHOUT Subtitles

As a test, you should now challenge yourself by watching anime without subtitles (“raw” files).

They can be hard to find, but try to locate a few (even if they’re not your favourite anime) and watch them when you feel you’re up to it.

If possible, try to watch it the first time all the way through without pausing or going into your dictionary at all. Just enjoy the story and try to follow along as best as you can.

Next, go through again and make note of all the words, phrases or sentences that you can clearly grasp. This is your moment of triumph.

Lastly, if possible, find a version that has subtitles or is dubbed, and go through to check your accuracy.

Not only is watching a completely raw anime good practice for your Japanese comprehension skills, it’s also an incredible confidence booster. (If you wait until you’re ready for it, anyway)

Transcribing & Translating

The final step, the final mark of proficiency, is to be able to make your own transcriptions from the Japanese dialogue (or even translations, if you’re really up to it).

First, find something easy that you know you can handle. Don’t go overboard. Pick an anime where they talk slow and there aren’t too many complicated concepts. Maybe even an anime geared towards children.

Then carefully transcribe every word you hear. Sometimes you have to listen to the same phrase or sentence about a dozen times to get it just right! Be patient! Have faith that you’re doing some great learning here!

If you really can’t figure out what they’re saying, you should probably Google your approximation. Google will tell you if you’re on the right track or not. Or, if there are subtitles or you sort of know what’s going on, Google the Japanese translation for the English words that you think are likely being spoken.

Next, with the help of a dictionary, write down the meaning of every word you’ve transcribed. If you’ve made a mistake, it usually becomes obvious at this stage.

Finally, connect the words using what knowledge you have of grammar. Make your own English sentences. Always try your best – don’t just put in a big blank if you don’t understand. It’s better to make a blind guess than write nothing.

If you have the subtitled version of the anime, go over it now and see whether your translation matches up.

Repetition is Key

Most important to your studies is to find anime you really like watching. If you know some of the words, watch it over and over again until you’ve memorized the dialogue. If you don’t know any words, watch the anime until you get it.

Repetition is very important. Once you’ve found an instance of a word you know, listen to it as many times as possible, one after another. It might sound crazy, but it really helps. The more times you hear a word or sentence being spoken, the more your knowledge of its sound and meaning is reinforced.

Wrapping Up

These are just about all the general tips I have at the moment for learning Japanese from anime. I’ve gleaned these through about 7 years now of watching anime with the intention of learning from it. I hope this helps you in some way.

Good luck with your studies! ^o^