Can you give me some resources on how I can learn? I want to learn how to read and write over the next 5 years, and I have at least 30 min to dedicate each day.
Learn the hiragana and Katakana on your own, then use JapanesePod101.com material.
This is not a paid commercial or sponsorship. I haven't used the site in years.
But, the material at JapanesePod101 really bootstrapped my learning and helped me progress from beginner to advanced beginner.
The other thing that you can't do without is conversation with native speakers. In my case I went to physical language exchange meetups, but if you can find online ways to do it, that should work too.
The great thing about podcasts is you can listen to it while walking/commuting/etc.
To be quite honest it can be quite an overwhelming endavour, and it's very easy to think "f this I give up I don't care about this anymore".
Physiucal language exchange events help give you an "anchor" so that your learning has a purpose: you're meeting people and having positive social experiences with them.
Yes, learn Hiragana and Katakana first. It doesn't take that long. Young people can do it in days or a week, I took about a month or so.
But, unlike what I did, and many others do, I recommend learning Hiragana and Katakana at the same time. Most people learn Hiragana first and Katakana second, and will run into trouble with the latter, which also sometimes confuses the Hiragana they have already learned. Imagine learning the alphabet: Do you think it's better to first learn "ABCDEFGH.." and so on and then, after mastering that, start learning "abcdefgh.." Or wouldn't it be better to learn "Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh.. " right from the start. I'm now a firm believer that the last method is better, and as you can think of Katakana as the cursive version of Hiragana (which is why it's used for loan words and also in literature for naming e.g. plant species, "Belladonna"), it makes sense to learn them at the same time. Faster, and avoids later confusion.
