I Never Planned to Learn Japanese. Then This Happened.

I've never told you the story of how my own Japanese started. It wasn't a plan. It was a sound on a train.

The night train 🚆

After school, a friend and I were moving to Mumbai to study animation and design at an institute there. On the train, around 9 or 10 at night, I kept hearing a little ding, ding from his seat.

"What are you doing, bro?" He was practising hiragana and katakana on a language app.

A couple of months earlier we'd talked about the MEXT scholarship, and he'd become serious: if we want MEXT, we should start Japanese. You know how it is between friends. He's doing it, so I have to do it too. That night was my first real touch with Japanese, and that conversation is how we reached MEXT.

Self-study didn't work for me 😩

His parents didn't support him, so he decided to self-study, and I tried too. I struggled.

• Too many resources. Books, PDFs, endless YouTube videos. I kept doubting which was best.
• No clarity, no consistency. Sleep late, can't wake up, skip study. Family chores. Two or three days of intense motivation, then back to nothing.

For a 19- or 20-year-old, sitting down every single day is hard. The problem was never a lack of material. It was a lack of clarity and consistency.

I asked for help 📞

About a month in, I realised I needed guidance and someone to keep me accountable. I called my father. He's a modern man, and he says money spent on food or on your own education is never too much. His one condition: keep doing everything you're already doing, and learn Japanese alongside it.

So I found a good institute, and my N5 classes began from absolute zero: hiragana and katakana first. I was as excited as on the first day of school.

Classes don't do the work for you

From outside, you think a class will "handle it". It doesn't. Within a month I realised I had to become disciplined. Sleep early, because there's class. Finish homework, because next class the teacher will ask. And because my dad had paid, I felt I had to study.

That wasn't a bad thing. That was exactly what I'd been looking for: accountability.

The teacher who made me fall in love with Japanese 🌸

My first Japanese teacher is the reason I became truly interested in the language. She taught with humour and always added a cultural tip about Japan, so for those two hours it felt like we'd stepped into Japan through Doraemon's anywhere door. While learning hiragana we listened to Japanese songs. It never felt like a textbook.

I did my homework just to hear her say "very good" in front of everyone, and I'd send her photos of extra work on WhatsApp: "Sensei, I did this too!" Slowly I got comfortable asking anything.

A good teacher doesn't teach you every word. A good teacher makes you so curious that you start learning everything on your own.

If you're reading this, Sensei: thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Immersion made it a habit 🎧

Every serious learner will relate to this. On the red Mumbai bus to my studio, earphones in, I'd listen to Fujii Kaze and other Japanese artists, imagining myself in Japan. At N4 level I didn't understand much, and I enjoyed it anyway.

I watched Alice in Borderland in Japanese, along with anime like Attack on Titan. I wrote down lyrics and memorised words. So even outside class, my environment was Japanese.

Then the magic happened. My teacher would explain a grammar pattern, and I'd think: I've heard that in a song! It clicked instantly. Soon I was learning ahead on purpose. Japanese stopped feeling like studying. It became part of my daily routine.

My first JLPT 📝

My first JLPT was in Delhi. I was nervous, but I'd practised well. Outside the centre I saw people frantically reading the most basic things from their books, and thought: it's not rocket science!

That same day I visited the Japan Foundation in Delhi, run by the Japanese government, with a library full of books. If you haven't been, go. It's a fun place.

Then came N4, and things got more serious. As your level rises, you have to tighten your study hours and your seriousness.

What I learned ✅

1. Start, even if it's because of a friend.
2. If self-study isn't working, get structure and accountability. There's no shame in it.
3. Find a teacher who makes you curious.
4. Immerse yourself: songs, dramas, anime, lyrics.
5. Make it a routine, not a chore.
6. Raise your effort as your level rises.

That's the philosophy behind Kihon too, where JWA's senseis teach: Japanese should be structured, interactive, and above all, enjoyable. A teacher's job isn't only finishing the syllabus. It's making students fall in love with the language.

Whether you learn on your own or in a class, invest something: your time or your money. Start with our free course, my beginner roadmap, or watch a free Kihon demo class.