20 year aspirant of learning Japanese here. If I was a complete beginner, knowing what I know now I would do the following: - De-emphasize textbook study, only doing it lightly. - Emphasize consumption of actual Japanese content regardless of understanding level from day 1. The most fun way to do this is anime with Japanese subtitles, but YT videos with Japanese subtitles will also work. - Learn both Kana systems - Learn Kanji after Kana with a memnonic method like Remembering the Kanji