learning japanese

[CrimsonRyu17]

well i've noticed alot of people up here use japanese language sometimes and well does anyone know where or how is the best way to learn japanese? I love Japanese it just sounds so cool but my mom thinks its too expensive so shes making me learn spanish, bleah . so does anyone know if its hard or is it easy?. hows they best way to learn it like how much time should you put into it? whats the best thing to use to learn it? and well, is it expensive or not? please, i need some advice here ^ ^.

[TrigunX89]

Japanese-Online.com has some free starting lessons to give you a little taste.
YesJapan.com has [from what I've heard] great lessons for a monthly fee.

Or you could try taking a class at your school or something.

Sorry if I'm not much help. I'm trying to figure out how to learn as well. Right now I'm trying to memorize some kana. I don't know if I will be able to take a class this semester, or if I'll study at home for a while. Anyways, good luck! I'm sure someone else around the site can give you better advice.

[CrimsonRyu17]

thanks i'll check out the site. but i don't go to public school, i homeschool ^ ^. thats why my mom worrys if it costs too much and all. but thanks.

[Scribs]

I know Sennin has been teaching himself Japanese, perhaps he would have some good ideas.

[Debitt]

Look into community colleges in the area. You can register for classes if you get permission from your regular school. ^_^ That's how I learned.

[TrigunX89]

thanks i'll check out the site. but i don't go to public school, i homeschool ^ ^. thats why my mom worrys if it costs too much and all. but thanks.

That's cool. I homeschool too.

Like Kokoro Daisuke said, you may want to see if you could attend a class at a local community college. That's what I'm looking into.

[Azier the Swordsman]

Azier's Quick Guide to Japanese Language Resources for the n00b

IE: The Best and Most Financially Friendly Method

For starters, you need to head to http://www.yesjapan.com and get an account. Yes, they are a paysite, ($20 per month) but you get well more than your money's worth. There are 5 courses with around 60+ lessons total, along with over a hundred downloadable shows on interesting Japanese topics along with message boards, chat, games, and more. This is the kind of site with so much content it's unlikely you would ever want or need to cancel your account even after finishing the lessons.

Second, you need the book 'Japanese: The Manga Way - An illustrated Guide to Grammar and Structure as a supplement. This book teaches you Japanese via manga examples, and it teaches you stuff that actual Japanese classes often wait several years to begin teaching you. No other book has made my comprehension of Japanese fly through the roof like this book. This is seriously the most important book you could buy.

Third, you need a small red book called 'Japanese Grammar', published by Barron's. It's the best handbook for brushing up on the basics, and most aspects of grammar you would need to know are conveniently in one spot.

'13 Secrets for Speaking Fluent Japanese' by Giles Murray is also an interesting read I would recommend as you can learn some good techniques for memorizing any language.

If you are going to want to become literate, I have recommendations for that as well. First, you'll need 'Remembering the Hiragana and Katakana' by James W Heisig.

For the Kanji, you will need 'Kanji and Kana: A Handbook of the Japanese Writing System' by Wolfgang Hadamitzky and Mark Spahn.

I also recommend 'Making Out in Japanaese' and 'More Making Out in Japanese' by Todd and Erica Geers as a brush on the informal Japanese. Be warned, however, that it teaches some bad language and sexual dialogue, however, it's not nearly as dirty as Philip Cunningham's 'Zakkenayo!' which is an extremely dirty Japanese language book I can't really recommend.

[GhostontheNet]

so does anyone know if its hard or is it easy?

Yes, both, as with every language including the one you're speaking now. For example, I've found after learning Japanese for three high school levels that because Japanese is a very syllabic language that pronunciation isn't that difficult really, much easier than the way english has one navigating through interfacing all manner of spellings and pronunciations that have very complex rules altogether - on the flip side, you may come to dread kanji, which is complex indeed but nessecary.

[Hitokiri]

I second whoever Community Colleges. it may be a tad bit expensive but you get the professional help instead of working on your own. Without Yuriko-sensei, I would be no where I am right now.

I never used Yes Japan but I know alot of people use it so I would suggest utilizing it.

Listening to anime in Japanese. After you figure out sentance structure, certain words, etc you will get the basic of what they are talking about in it. To fully understand takes a while and I am no where near that stage.

Learn Hirigana first. Then begin reading manga, books, pamphlets, etc that are in Hirigana or write Japanese words in Hirigana do further understand. Then begin learning Katakana. Hirigana, to me, is much easier then Katakana but they are basically the same. Then when you have both Hirigana and Katakana down perfectly, attempt Kanji. I am finishing up on Katakana and working slowly into Kanji.

Find refrence books or dictionaries. They are good to look at and help support your main subject matter.

[Debitt]

Listening to anime in Japanese. After you figure out sentance structure, certain words, etc you will get the basic of what they are talking about in it. To fully understand takes a while and I am no where near that stage.

I ALWAYS watch anime in Japanese before a test. I don't know what it is, but it gives my ear a bit of practice picking things up. ^_^ I can watch Get Backers without subtitles now. <3

[TrigunX89]

Great advice. Although this isn't my thread, I will take all your advice to heart. Do you mind if I ask how long you guys have been learning?

[Josh Fisher]

MWHA HA HA HA HA I TAKE JAPANESSE CLASSES FOR FREE AT MY HIGH SCHOOL


Ogenki desu ka Minasan?


that means how is everyone?

[Hitokiri]

MWHA HA HA HA HA I TAKE JAPANESSE CLASSES FOR FREE AT MY HIGH SCHOOL


Ogenki desu ka Minasan?


that means how is everyone?

MWHA HA HA HA HA I TAKE JAPANESSE CLASSES FOR FREE AT MY HIGH SCHOOL


Ogenki desu ka Minasan?


that means how is everyone?

ありがとお　ございます。　　げんき　です。

That was easy though cause I have a converter on my computer and I didn't use kanji heh heh.

Sadly I have only been studying it for a semester so I am a starter at it but I am going ahead of the chapters as well as learning on my own. For instance we are just wrapping up Hirigana and it's the end of the semester. In Beginning Japanese 2 we will start Katakana. I am done with Katakana now and slowly getting into Kanji.

Like I said I have a great sensei that really cares about the students and interacts with them as much as she can. She calls me じょーのすけーさん。

It's kinda funny cause I tried taking Spanish and I had to drop out of it cause I was doing so bad. I am at least getting a low A in Japanese.

[Bobtheduck]

You could not buy anime and games and movies and food for the next several months, and get the pimsleur programs instead (http://www.cheappimsleur.com, trust me those prices are actually the best ones you'll find, the programs run 345 a piece (with 3 pieces) when full price)

Now, actually, a class isn't gonna be much cheaper... The benefit of taking college classes during High School, though, is that you get them out of the way early on, getting credits you'll need during your run for an associates or bachelor's degree... Well, That's the best course, actually... Do it at a college.

Spanish is boring... It's the language everyone and their dog tries to learn in California, and I'm sure it's that way in all the southern states (I'm talking purely geographically, not culturally) You'll often hear it's the most "practical" language to learn, and that's true if you plan on staying in the southern line of states in the US and have no interest in living anywhere more culturally diverse than "European Americans and Mexican Americans"... Contrary to popular belief, there are OTHER languages that can be valuable to learn... Japanese, Mandarin, Korean... Why not learn some of the native languages of the indigenous people in Mexico or South America? Learn something that not a lot of people outside of their own nation knows... Ok, so I guess that wouldn’t be interesting to most students, not enough to merit the money it takes to teach it... So, still, people should look at other important languages like the three I mentioned...

Following the white rabbit on its trail, I thought I'd mention to never stop using the language you start to learn! Never never never!!! I forgot so much...

[Azier the Swordsman]

I never cared for Pimsluer much. It was an okay program, but paled in comparison with the other methods I checked into. I have been studying for quite a while and have personally checked into nearly a couple thousands worth of dollars worth of text books and methods.

Don't get me wrong, Pimsluer IS one of the better language programs, but I would recommend at least supplementing it with one of the books I mentioned earlier. (Pimsluer = 8/10; 7/10 if you are paying full price.)

[Debitt]

Great advice. Although this isn't my thread, I will take all your advice to heart. Do you mind if I ask how long you guys have been learning?

I'm in my 3rd year of Japanese class at the moment. I'm going to have to take a break after this class finishes up, though, because night classes have put a real strain on my regular schoolwork. =/

[TrigunX89]

2 years ago I thought kana was too hard to learn, so I got discouraged and quit. Boy, was I wrong. After just a week and a half, I can read Hiragana! (well, I do need to brush up on the variations a little, but I pretty much have it all down) It's much easier than it looks and sounds. I really want to encourage others to give it a try if they haven't.

All I did was print out the tables found at This Site, and then write them over and over again, learning new ones every day and reviewing the ones I learned before. I am amazed by how easy and fun it was. I also have a program called Kana-kun which has been some help, but it is definately not necessary. I did most of the memorization with pen & paper, but used the computer program's flash cards and stuff a little bit too. There are other great online resources to help you out as well. Like I said earlier, I recommend creating a free account at [url=japanese-online.com]Japanese-Online[/url] and checking out their stuff.

I'm just excited and wanted to tell you what I'm doing to learn, and encourage you to keep going if you're serious about learning. I wish I hadn't given it up two years ago. Oh yeah, I watch subtitled anime whenever I can to keep me motivated. I think being motivated and passionate about learning is important. It's a lot to learn, and I'm not even pretending that it's all going to be easy, but I'm just going to take it one step at a time and try not get overwhelmed by it all.

So that's it I guess. My next goal is Katakana. *gulp* I'll be very interested to hear what you decide to do, and how it all works out. So keep us posted!

[Hitokiri]

Seriously Hirigana is not that hard to learn. When I saw wer were learning all of them I was like "man I am going to fail this class soooo bad". But I stuck to it and it was quite easy. Just keep on practicing it.

What I do is I go through one sections such as "k" or "t" and write each character 30 times. When I am finished writing them; I test myself on them.

So I might be doing ta, chi, tsu, te, and to in Katakana. Write those characters 30 times and then test myself from a,i,e,u,o to ta,chi, tsu, te, to. So the "k" and "s" characters will be in it too.

[Debitt]

Hirigana and katakana aren't bad at all. Especially when you compare that to kanji.

[Arnobius]

[quote="Hitokiri"]あ]
何でやねん？　日本語がすごいのだ

I studied it for almost 3 years before having to drop due to a family emergency. I'd love to continue though. Japanese does require a dedication because there is enough different that you will need continual review (I carried flashcards everywhere I went). I found it rewarding. I started it to increase my anime watching experience and then kept with it as I fell away from anime.

There's a special feeling of being able to read an untranslated sign in the background and understand what it says

And kanji is fun too... but be careful not to be too used to the computer IME, since to look up kanji in dictionaries, you need to know how the strokes are done.

[Lynx]

hey im teaching myself japanese now. i bought some books from overstock.com and ebay, where i could get them cheap. i have a few files on my compy here and more at home about learning japanese. some of them i found online, some of them i made myself. if you're interested PM or IM me sometime. i can get ya started w/ the basics if ya want, unfortuantly i've had to put learning it on the backburner for awhile since my major is very demanding... but break is soon!

but seriously, i'd be more then happy to share with you what i know, especially if ya catch me over break when i've got the free time to do so!!!

[Sennin]

I just noticed that Scribs recommended me to give some advice about learning Japanese. However, the method proscribed by Azier the Swordsman is sounder than the way I went about it. But, I'll tell you the Sennin method anyway (I've been doing it for nearly two years now).

The first thing is to have the proper disposition. One must be passionate (perhaps obsessed is a better word ) about the culture of the language, otherwise it's very difficult to learn. For example, I find French very difficult to learn because I don't care too much about the culture at the moment, which means it's about time for me to pick up a new Alexandre Dumas novel.

After determining that Japanese was fun to learn through listening to Pimsleur's four hour audio-cassette course, I picked up these books:

1. Barron's Japanese Grammar
2. Guide to Writing Kanji & Kana Book 1: A Self-Study Workbook for Learning Japanese Characters (Tuttle Language Library)

After spending enough time with these to memorize hiragana and katakana and understand the rudiments of Japanese Grammar, I purchased Kodansha's Essential Kanji Dictionary and Random House's Japanese-English English-Japanese Dictionary in order to read four volumes of Inuyasha (with the help of a translation site). That is where the virtue of persistence comes in!

The next thing I recommend is to pick up a new Japanese language book every once in a while (but not more than one at the same time!). Here are several I found useful:

1. Read Japanese Today (the descriptions of Kanji characters' formation makes them easier to remember)
2. Japanese in Mangaland: Learning the Basics (I consider this book priceless)
3. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Conversational Japanese with CD-ROM (introduces useful sentence structures and gives information about visiting Japan, Japanese culture, and other interesting stuff)
4. Easy Kanji (I probably purchased this book because I was lazy about learning kanji in the beginning)

Don't stop reading untranslated manga and listening to the Japanese in anime shows. Of course, it's also good to know someone who speaks Japanese and to practice with them. A good, but expensive program for practicing Japanese is Rosetta Stone’s Japanese program, because it tests out one’s pronunciation against a native speaker’s. (Did you know that there’s a slight difference in saying the words ame (candy) and ame (rain)?)

[Myoti]

I'm teaching myself, and yes, it's hard.

I know most of the hiragana, and a tiny bit of katakana, but I'm still working on it. I actually learned most of it by rewriting several Japanese song lyrics into hiragana. Worked pretty well.

I know the sentence structure, how to pronounce stuff, etc., but yeah, I'll probably be trying some of the above stuff.



Oh yes, and I greatly despise Spanish, moreso than English (at least I get a chance to practice writing hiragana on my Spanish folder ).

[Alice]

Wow you guys are... dedicated!

I'd like to learn Spanish and Chinese... which probably aren't as hard at all.

[TrigunX89]

Chinese seems much harder than Japanese to me. Perhaps I'm wrong.

[Nami]

OOH! I want to learn Japanese! *runs around* Lol.. I will look at the site's ya'll posted.. ^^ And yeah.. hehe I also want to learn Korean.. but that's off the subject!

[Debitt]

Chinese seems much harder than Japanese to me. Perhaps I'm wrong.

That's because it is. =) Chinese is the 2nd hardest language to pick up, after English. Especially the writing system, which is 100% "kanji", instead of the Japanese writing system which has kanji alongside the simplified hirigana and katakana.

[Sennin]

OOH! I want to learn Japanese! *runs around* Lol.. I will look at the site's ya'll posted.. ^^ And yeah.. hehe I also want to learn Korean.. but that's off the subject!

At one point, I also wanted to learn Korean, but I have no idea where one can pick up Korean manwha. So, there was not much of a chance that I would remain motivated and I dropped the idea. Oh well. It would have been fun to read Chronicles of the Cursed Sword in the original!

[TheDrunkenNinja]

I only know scattered phrases from listenning to J-Pop.

Baka.

[Sennin]

I must say that curses and insults are the easiest things to remember. Though not exactly a curse, my favorite rude thing to say is: kisama! The literal translation means "you," but it's often translated into English along with another word to help with connotation.