I'd say figure out what your goals of learning Japanese are first. If it's something like watching anime or Japanese drama series, then your focus of learning the language would be different from let's say, reading a novel, since the speech patterns would include the use of colloquial words as opposed to novels which are more grammar and vocabulary-based. From there onwards, you could probably start looking at some study methods that are more effective towards achieving that goal.

I've also recently restarted my Japanese studies and decided to start from scratch through a well-known textbook. From there on, I've also picked up various children's books to read since reading Japanese novels is my goal for studying the language. I do not think that speaking the language would benefit me much currently and therefore have chose to not place much focus on that right now. That way I can keep myself motivated by doing something that I love and am excited about. :)

Hey Tadashi,

If you feel like you need to start over and cover any lost ground from your past studies then I have some suggestions that may be helpful to you.

-First, you should check out memrise.com (if you don't already use it). It has amazing flashcards which can help you continue to review your katakana and hiragana while adding more Kanji and Vocabulary to your studies. 

-Then to get a feel for listening to the language and reading it you should visit this website https://www.erin.ne.jp/en/lesson01/index.html ;

It is totally amazing and can basically get you a much better grasp on Japanese, especially grammar.

-After studying for 1 week or 2 weeks, you should jump right into speaking so that you can practice what you have learned. I reccomend messaging Japanese native using iTalki and trying to set up some language exchanges.

Good Luck and if you need any more advice on resources/learning or some cheering on then feel free to message me!

Hi Mimi,

I taught myself hiragana and katakana and a little bit of kanji with very little grammar through books. Outside of italki I have not found a lot of places to practice speaking Japanese since I don't feel I have progressed too far I thought I could just restart and hopefully find out if I missed anything from self-study

Hello Tadashi,

In order to give you advice on how to restart your studies then I would need to know where exactly are you in your studes. Have you already learned hiragana, katakana, some kanji? What study methods have you been using so far? What resources (books, dvds, websites) have you been using during your self-study? 

If you want my suggestion, sometimes people feel the need to start over their language study because they feel as though they are in the wrong place and haven't progressed as much. However all that means is that you may need to try new methods. (Such as using iTalki to start having conversations with native Japanese people!)

So why do you feel like you need to start over?