I finished 20 hours of Japanese Language 1 consisting of 10 sessions every weekend and it was worth paying for. The course I took gives students the basic knowledge about the Japanese language in preparation for the JLPT N5 or N4 exam. There's an exam after taking the course but one can get a certificate whether they passed or fail at it which implies different things I won't get to in detail here.
Can you just self study the Language and get good at it? Why pay for it?
Yes and no. The yes part comes from going through the content within our lectures and learning the bulk of it can be done by self studying. There are tons of free learning materials out there online and YouTube has a lot of creators that can deliver the lessons just as well. The first 3 sessions made me think, shit, I could've done this thing for free but a few more sessions in I've realized:
I need the structured schedule and pressure. This is where the "no" part comes in. You can learn the language as a hobby, at your own pace and time without being pressured to do so. This freedom can sometimes be what other learners would want if they are highly motivated to study on their own and know what they are supposed to be reviewing for. But for procrastinators like myself that also get easily distracted, having the pressure to show up to class on time, knowing there will be no refunds, and the peer pressure of performing while other classmates are also looking at your activity gives a good combination of getting your shit together for a brief period in class.
One thing these programs can do that you can't on your own is getting expert feedback in real time. The bulk of it is self study but refinement comes when you get confirmation that you're learning the right way as Japanese language is highly contextual and filled with specific rules for different occasions.
If you think anime is a good source to familiarize yourself with the language, it's partly right and partly trying to set yourself up to fail. Anime you see on mainstream has slangs and mostly informal conversations.
These are only good if you want to learn what it really means to converse in daily life but if you're thinking about employment, using what you learned from anime has the same energy as submitting a resume to a company you're applying for with the contents written like "eeyyooo wassup, just wanna let you know I saw your ad and wanted to apply for work, please kudasai yeah". It's an exaggerated example but I think you can get my drift.
The writing system isn't a joke for beginners starting at 0.
There's Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Think of each as their own set of alphabet from the English version except when applying into writing from twitter, online newspapers, textbooks, and etc.. you can find all three used in a sentence. Memorizing the characters and adding some muscle memory into writing them helps. So far, I've only memorized all the Hiragana characters, but that's enough for me to read some words from my favorite erotic doujins which is what it's all about.
Be ready to acquire another set of vocabulary and speak like you know know parseltongue.
Think of it as acquiring another dictionary and getting a new rule set about how to pronounce each word. Can you tell the difference between read and read? one of them is meant to be spoken in present tense and the other is in past tense. Japanese words need some careful articulation as words that sound alike can have different meanings. This is when watching anime became an asset because it helped me understand how it's supposed to be said, just be careful about emulating characters that have exaggerate speech or accents.
If English isn't your main language, you need to put in more work translating the instructions of another language on top of the intended language you want to learn (Japanese on this case). I'm not a native English speaker but it's my default head space language the Filipino language and some dialects. I also speak fish but only those native to the Pacific Ocean.
Want to work in Japan? Take a Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT)
JLPT N5 to N1 is an official proficiency test on Japanese language with the easy mode at N5. If you're planning to get employed in Japan, passing these exams is a requirement and the minimum I think is an N4 certificate but it depends on the company hiring so don't quote me on this.
While it is possible to self study your way to be competent enough in the language up to N4, nothing beats having an instructor to give you a feedback about what you're doing wrong and a routine to adhere to.
If you're just trying to learn the language as a hobby, it's possible with enough diligence to competently read Japanese but speaking it will require some immersion with the culture or have a language study partner to constantly coach you.
The reality for hobby learning the language without getting real time feedback is you could go on your way making mistakes you get used to and it's hard to correct those bad habits once they take root.
Thanks for your time.