習う
ならう
narau
= to learn from someone / to take lessons
Japanese splits the idea of “to learn” into three separate verbs, and narau is the one that always assumes a teacher is standing right there guiding you.
Narau means to learn a skill from someone, usually through structured lessons — piano o narau (take piano lessons), sensei ni narau (learn under a teacher). It belongs to a trio of “learning” verbs: narau implies being taught step by step by another person; manabu suggests deeper, more independent study, often of ideas or fields rather than physical skills; benkyou suru is the generic “to study,” used for exam prep and schoolwork. As a godan verb, narau conjugates to naratte (te-form) and naratta (past tense). The noun form naraigoto refers to the after-school lessons — piano, swimming, calligraphy — that fill a huge part of Japanese children’s weekly schedules.
The particle pattern is worth memorizing: the thing being learned takes を (X o narau), while the person teaching it takes に (Y ni narau) — piano o sensei ni narau, “to learn piano from a teacher.” Saying nihongo o naratte imasu implies you’re taking formal lessons with an instructor; someone teaching themselves would more naturally say dokugaku shite imasu (self-studying) or simply benkyou shite imasu. Interestingly, the proverb narau yori narero — “better to get used to it than to be taught it” — turns the word against itself, telling over-preparers to stop taking lessons and start practicing.
Everyday use
娘は五歳の頃からピアノを習っています。
Musume wa gosai no koro kara piano o naratte imasu.
My daughter has been taking piano lessons since she was five.
Casual / Social Media
先月から茶道を習い始めました！先生が本当に優しくて楽しいです。
Sengetsu kara sadou o narai hajimemashita! Sensei ga hontou ni yasashikute tanoshii desu.
I started taking tea ceremony lessons last month! The teacher is really kind and it’s fun.
Formal / Cultural context
「習うより慣れろ」と言うから、そんなに悩まずにまずやってみたら？
“Narau yori narero” to iu kara, sonna ni nayamazu ni mazu yatte mitara?
They say “better to get used to it than to be taught,” so why not stop overthinking and just try it?
For many Japanese children, naraigoto — the umbrella term for extracurricular lessons — starts before elementary school and rarely lets up. Swimming, piano, calligraphy (shodou), and abacus (soroban) form the classic lineup, often stacked two or three afternoons a week alongside juku cram school for exam prep. The sheer density of this schedule reflects an assumption built into narau itself: skills aren’t picked up casually, they’re transmitted deliberately from a qualified teacher, on a set schedule, with visible markers of progress — belts, exam levels, recital pieces — along the way.
That same teacher-centered logic shows up in a stricter, older form in traditional craft apprenticeships, where new arrivals are called minarai — literally “learning by watching.” Rather than being taught through explicit instruction, a minarai spends months or years observing a master’s hands, absorbing technique through repetition and correction more than verbal explanation. It’s a reminder that even within the “taught by someone” model narau describes, Japanese still distinguishes between being told how to do something and being shown.