Relatively early on Japanese 1 course adds names like Suzuki or Riho with complex kanji that make no sense to any kind of newcomer (like me).
What’s even the point of remembering those this early on without knowing the kanjis behind them?
Why do I have to decypher those complex kanjis in the timespan of 5 seconds to get the correct answer for “Mr. Suzuki is a genius”.
How am I supposed to do that at this point without fluency in kanji other than memorizing the shape of whole sentence which is a very wrong way of learning.
I loved this course at the beginning for it adding actual phrases and simple kanji at the beginnig compared to anyn anki deck. Enough to subscribe right away. But the way the latter parts of the earliest Japanese level are I’m already considering canceling.
Why should I stick with this if it’s so impractical?
This is just my opinion, but the main courses are pretty flawed. I’ve learned Japanese for 2 years and still don’t bother to learn Japanese names mainly because they can be written in a billion different ways. Japanese people usually tell you how their names are written anyway.
So, the solution for your problem is either ignoring everything name-related or just creating your own course. I highly recommend creating your own course because it can be customised to your liking and it will include words/phrases you recently came across, which makes them easier to memorise.
Adding to LangAddict’s point, there are a ton of very good user-made courses already around, too, that can help you in the early stages. I’ve been learning Japanese with Memrise for about four and a half years now, and I’ve never taken any of the official courses. They weren’t even around until a year or two after I started, in fact.
I posted a list a while back of the courses that helped me early on here.
In any case, good luck with whatever path you choose on your learning journey!
