Japanese Journal Writing Beginner Level

How should a beginner learn Japanese?

The other answers here are pretty good.Learn hiragana. Don’t try and write everything in romaji. It will slow your progress significantly.Start learning basic vocabulary, such as adjectives, names for places e.g park (こうえん) or shop (みせ).Learn the basic particles;　は、に、と、を、へ、もStart learning the basic sentence structure; subject, object, verb. Learn to make simple sentences using this structure. Get comfortable with it.Learn some basic numbers, e.g 1–20.Start learning counters, e.g how to say “3 ice creams”.Learn a few basic kanji; such as 行く (to go), 食べる (to eat) and the kanji for the numbers.All the previous steps will take a significant amount of time to master. Don’t worry if you aren’t perfect with the particles. They are very difficult to master and even people skilled at Japanese make mistakes with them.Once with you are comfortable with everything previously mentioned, learn katakana. This will allow you to say English words in Japanese, such as someone’s name or a country foreign to Japan.Just keep learning and practising everything from there. It will be a very long process. You will probably forget some of the basics and that’s to be expected. I’m good at Japanese but I’ve forgotten counters.EDIT: Also very important to listen to some spoken Japanese, e.g a text book with a listening practise CD. You want to do this early on to try and get the pronunciation right for each character or combination. Otherwise it will be harder to correct later on and people probably won’t understand your Japanese if your pronunciation is bad.Good luck.

Can a non-native speaker ever become a Japanese writer?

One example that comes to mind is Alex Kerr, who wrote about the beauty of traditional Japanese art and architecture in his Lost Japan, and then a criticism of the government in Dogs and Demons. He wrote the former in Japanese from the beginning and had someone else translate it into English because he was having trouble getting the expressions he had formulated in Japanese into good English!Also, if you include academic works such as journal articles, then many, many non-natives have published their writing in Japanese (including my own humble self, several times). Academic authors are often writing about the narrow fields they specialize in, so if they are based in Japan, is is natural that they can write fluently in Japanese in such areas. Sometimes they even have to invent the terminology themselves!

Is learning Kanji indispensable for learning Japanese?

Kanji is absolutely indispensable when learning Japanese!Think of kanji as you would Roman and Greek prefixes and suffixes with English words that have borrowed from them. Without them, words would seem incomplete. The same goes for kanji.Yes, you technically could write your sentences solely in hiragana & katakana, but your sentences would appear as vague or confusing, as the Japanese language as hundreds of words that are homophones. Kanji is absolutely necessary to imply meaning, and without kanji people would not understand what you’ve written/read/typed.A good example would be かう. Now, do you see how vague that word is? Can you tell if I mean 買う (to buy), 飼う (To rear, raise, or own a pet or animal), or 夏雨 (Summer rainfall)? You really can’t tell what word that is supposed to be, and context clues within sentences can only go so far.This is precisely why knowing your kanji is of paramount importance when learning the Japanese language.

How do I learn to read and speak Japanese?

It's great that you have concentrated much of your energy on listening tasks; listening comprehension is a large portion of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) and active listening is a very powerful way for your brain to process patterns of a foreign language. You also have a great advantage in knowing Chinese ideographs, although you'll have to adjust to the way in which Japanese use them.The best suggestion that I can make is to accelerate your learning process by studying more material in a shorter period of time and focus your efforts on the specific requirements of the exam. There is a set amount of knowledge that you have to memorize in addition to further developing your listening skills; there are no shortcuts. I also can't give you a list of specific language study strategies in a Quora answer because of my own time constraints but as far as studying for the JLPT is concerned, here are some ideas.(1) Memorize the Japanese syllabaries (kana); it is absolutely necessary and it will be extremely easy for you.(2) Purchase or borrow a copy of the JLPT for any level from a previous year (these are usually published and readily available) and try it to see how well you do. You could start with the easiest level and work up to more difficult levels. Based on that result ... (3) Purchase or borrow textbooks and listening materials that are designed specifically for the JLPT; I have print editions from Japanese publishers 3A, Ark, and Unicom but there may be others. Start at the lowest level necessary for your present ability so that you build up a good overall understanding of the Japanese writing system, grammar, and pronunciation to fit with the requirements of the exam.(4) Keep looking for online sources to listen to and read Japanese at whatever level of skill that you can. Anime may be useful to a certain degree but look for other examples, e.g., Japanese movies or news broadcasts.If you really want the certificate from the exam, by all means, register for it and give it a try. However, if you don't really need the certificate, feel free to just study at your own fastest-possible pace. Good luck and best wishes with your study!