By Jaylen Warfield

Ever since 1952, when the US occupation of Japan after World War II officially ended, the USA and Japan have been improving their friendship more and more over time. In 1954 the Governor of Tokyo gifted the Stone Lantern which you can see at the Tidal Basini to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of Commodore Perry’s mission to Japan, and this year, in 2026, the Japanese government made a gift of 250 cherry trees in honor of our country’s 250^th birthday. On top of that, Japanese culture has had a large impact on DC with things like the Sakura Matsuri Japanese street festival and the Tanabata Festival. All of this Japanese involvement sparks many peoples’ interest in Japan. Some may even want to learn the language, but they might not know where to start, so I am here to help.

There are different ways to learn Japanese in DC, and it doesn’t matter what kind of person you are because I’m sure there’s something out there for you. Sadly, out of all the public schools in DC, only one has an actual Japanese class, which is CHEC (Columbia Heights Education Campus) and that is it. So unless you are switching high schools, or are planning on going back to high school, you are out of luck. But if you are a high school student, you could be in luck because of a little thing called the Japanese Plus Program which is a Japanese learning program that meets twice a week and provides a full Japanese learning experience, with language classes, cultural workshops, and career exposure! Did I mention that it’s free? Because it is.

Now, if you are not in school or don’t live in DC, there are many different ways to learn different languages. Some well known ones are Duolingo, Mango, Tandem, HelloTalk, and Japanese music/podcasts. While Duolingo is a language learning app, it is way more useful for learning words and meanings, and maybe phrases, but actually speaking, it’s not very good. Another great resource is something called Mango. You need nothing but a library card to start learning! Mango helps with grammar patterns, pronunciation, practical vocabulary, cultural etiquette and more, but it is not as great for learning kanji. For more experienced Japanese learners, Tandem and HelloTalk are apps that can help a lot with actually having conversations with other people who know Japanese, but it can also be very humbling. Lastly, listening to Japanese podcasts or listening to Japanese music with captions is a pretty good way to pick up phrases or words, and it helps with conversations, singing, etc.

After reading this, I hope that you learned a lot about different ways to get started on your journey to learn Japanese, and I hope this helps.