が vs. のが

Hi guys.

I'm trying to understand when to use が vs. のが. From what I've read, のが is what you say when you describe the actual action of doing something. I still find that when I interpret the meaning this way both the のが and が form of the sentences have similar (or just the same) meaning.

For example:

日本語勉強のが好きです。
日本語勉強が好きです。

I interpret the top sentence as "I enjoy studying Japanese" and the bottom sentence as "I like Japanese studies" which basically mean the same thing. Am I misunderstanding something here? When would it be appropriate to only use のが or only が (in any sentence, not just the ones above)?

Thanks.

Those two sentences are both wrong. It should be 日本語を勉強するのが好きです。 and 日本語の勉強が好きです。, respectively.
のが is just "the nominalizer/pronoun の + particle が", so it's attached to verbs or adjectives. The meanings of these two sentences are the same.