Hey guys ! I'm pretty sure that, if you have ever been starting to learn an Asian language alone, you firstly were thought : "I'm so happy ! It won't be that hard!" and things like that. BUT, once you really got into the language system, you were more like : "Oh. My. God. A writing system can't be that f****g hard, that's impossible ! How do they understand this kinda things ?!" and other astonishments...
Well, I wanted to give you, westerners, or even Asian people, some tips, a kind of "step by step" to learn Asian languages.
I don't tell you this method will work with you. For my part, if I begin a new language, I prefer to have some books with me, it makes it easier for me. However, all the things I speak about in this article are necessary to learn ANY (but more especially Asian) languages. Let's begin !
1) Writing system
First of all, you have to think about the writing system : Is it the same than your mother tongue ? As we focus on Asian languages, it is probably not the case. My first tip is to begin right now and for two reasons : firstly, you will immediately be pushed into the new language; secondly, a writing system is also one of the most important base of a language, it is a necessary to "understand" it.
If you want to learn Japanese, start with hiragana and katakana, if you want to learn Korean, learn Hangeul composition, if you want to learn Chinese, well... Good luck !