Hello! I am also currently learning Japanese. Here are my tips. 1.) First, decide what your goal for learning Japanese is: conversational or conversational and reading level. 2.) Second, look for resources. Initially, I chose to focus on just conversational Japanese. Thus, I've picked books that targeted conversational Japanese only. Most of conversational Japanese books are introduced with Romaji (Romanization of Japanese words). I also took advantage of online resources (e.g Youtube), where I could memorize basic phrases. For conversational level, learning Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji are optional. However, as time went by, I decided to learn Japanese at both conversational and reading level. Therefore, there are new things I had to work with. Japanese has 3 writing systems: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. All are equally important if you want to understand Japanese on a pretty advanced level. In addition, I also had to buy more books that fits my target. I bought a book that taught Hiragana, Katakana, and some Kanji. I also bought another book that teaches Japanese grammar. 3.) Stick to your goal. Review and learn at least 30 minutes per day. This step varies per person as we all have different schedules and learning styles. You just have to find your own. Hopefully, this can help your friend. I hope they'll enjoy the wonderful journey of learning Japanese!