My Journey Learning Japanese as an Indonesian Developer

As someone who already speaks Indonesian, Sundanese, English, and is learning Arabic, picking up Japanese might seem ambitious. But there's something about the language that keeps pulling me in.

The Similarities

Indonesian and Japanese share some surprising structural similarities — both are agglutinative to some degree, and the politeness levels in Japanese remind me of Sundanese speech levels (undak usuk basa).

My Approach

• Hiragana & Katakana first (done!)
• Basic Kanji through context, not rote memorization
• Immersion through anime, manga, and games
• Grammar through patterns, not textbook rules

Tools I Use

Anki for spaced repetition, Bunpro for grammar, and lots of native content. The key is consistency over intensity — 30 minutes daily beats 3 hours on weekends.