| MAL seemed like the perfect place to ask the question so here I go.. What helped you get started on learning basic Japanese? Just purchased these 3 books purely based on the review comments but I doubt I will get far. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0007313667/ref=oss_product http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0870117092/ref=oss_product http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0746023103/ref=oss_product |
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| Genki is a pretty well-structured way of starting out with Japanese, but it's a little on the pricy side if you're just learning for fun/love-of-anime: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Genki-Integrated-Course-Elementary-Japanese/dp/4789009637/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282590248&sr=1-1 There's also the podcast JapanesePod101, which has limited free content but a 7-day free trial that gives you enough time to download every mp3 on the site: http://www.japanesepod101.com/ |
| I'm not the best person to ask, I plan to learn Japanese properly too but I have already started learning basic Japanese.... online :P It's not going to get you far with the language but learning online is useful to learn the basics, like info on the alphabets, how to speak and pronounce words, etc. I'm going to study it as school as an extra as soon as I go back (Which is pretty soon) but I decided in the long run it would be necessary to write Japanese too, so I worked on writing characters from the hiragana alphabet too, I haven't progressed that much but I can write the vowels and a few of the consonants. |
| Thanks for replies. Signing up to that Japanese 101 site and I will do as you say with the MP3's. As for Genki I will wait and see how I get on with the books I ordered and then if I do okay I will purchase something more advanced. |
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| I'm trying to learn too, but I can't really give you websites adresses or anything...unless you speak french well enough, but still It probably wouldn't be easy. But I can give you one piece of advice: don't try to go fast, and go back to the previous chapters of your book often...In fact, every time I practice, I start again at chapter 1, that's the best way I've found to remember the katakanas and kanjis...though it's quite boring. :s I think you're fine with your 3 books for now, it will already took you some time to read them. :P Oh yeah, and japanese101pod looks good, thanks for the link boocah! |
| watch an anime in subs then watch it in raw 2x you start picking up the words the second time in raw. its to the point that i can understand 90% what was said (unless they do 'play on words' in the episode trying to be clever) this is of course once you have a general understanding of the structure and basics and are looking for practical applications for your memory ;) |
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| Well, it's always fun buying books/dvds to learn, but I think that at least for the alphabets, it's easier to learn online, and cheaper ;) I've learned hiragana and katakana online, and some basic Japanese, though, I'd like a dvd for that as well ^^ I'm starting school tomorrow, and will be learning Japanese in school, so that'll probably improve my Japanese a lot, and hopefully I'll get a good classbook :) |
     Get chance and luck - TK, Angel Beats |
| I took Japanese 4 years in high school so that's basically how I learned it...lol. What helped me a lot was my teacher encouraged us to purchase a Japanese to English and English to Japanese Dictionary by Random House...basically you can look up a word in English and it shows you what it is in Japanese and also what the kanji, hiragana katakana are for it. Likewise for a word in Japanese it will tell you the English translation of it. |
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| Genki is a good book. If you plan on really studying, I recommend buying the workbook and answer book along with it. The best way to learn, aside from going to Japan, would be to take a class. Too bad that's not always an option... Like in my case... |
| Not that I'm hating but, Only if you plan to visit or live in Japan, how many times will someone actually need to speak Japanese??? I understand if you want to learn so that you can understand anime and manga better, but Japanese is NOT a global language. |
alexcampos said: I just have a hobby of learning languages. Japanese connects to something I like, so I chose to learn it. Application isn't everything.Not that I'm hating but, Only if you plan to visit or live in Japan, how many times will someone actually need to speak Japanese??? I understand if you want to learn so that you can understand anime and manga better, but Japanese is NOT a global language. |
zharnotczar said: alexcampos said: I just have a hobby of learning languages. Japanese connects to something I like, so I chose to learn it. Application isn't everything.Not that I'm hating but, Only if you plan to visit or live in Japan, how many times will someone actually need to speak Japanese??? I understand if you want to learn so that you can understand anime and manga better, but Japanese is NOT a global language. I guess, again I'm not saying it's a waste, it's just more of a hobby like you mentioned. I speak English and Spanish fluently, Japanese is actually easy for me to speak since the vowels sound like Spanish. I once knew all the Hiragana and Katakana characters, but I kinda stopped since I knew I would never conquer Kanji :( |
alexcampos said: Kanji is the worst... I've been avoiding it, and now I have to catch up. I've improved my speaking quite a bit, but my reading is still shit. That's probably not a good thing since I plan on maybe doing some translating eventually...zharnotczar said: alexcampos said: I just have a hobby of learning languages. Japanese connects to something I like, so I chose to learn it. Application isn't everything.Not that I'm hating but, Only if you plan to visit or live in Japan, how many times will someone actually need to speak Japanese??? I understand if you want to learn so that you can understand anime and manga better, but Japanese is NOT a global language. I guess, again I'm not saying it's a waste, it's just more of a hobby like you mentioned. I speak English and Spanish fluently, Japanese is actually easy for me to speak since the vowels sound like Spanish. I once knew all the Hiragana and Katakana characters, but I kinda stopped since I knew I would never conquer Kanji :( |
| Best three materials for learning a language are; 1) Book and audio. I prefer the Teach Yourself series. There are other options I am sure. Avoid Rosetta Stone, it's expensive and very dumbed down. 2) A pure grammar reference. Expensive, but a big help. 3) An English (or whatever your preferred language is)/Japanese (in this case) dictionary, preferrably a "big name" one like Websters or some such. In the case of Japanese, you might want a writing guide, since a lot of audio and book guides don't go over the characters. Remember; 20 minutes a day everyday of the week is better than 1 hour every three or four days. Make flashcards, immerse yourself in the language. Look into an online language exchange community if you can't converse with actual native speakers. |
GoodEnoughForMeAug 23, 2010 4:32 PM
alexcampos said: Not that I'm hating but, Only if you plan to visit or live in Japan, how many times will someone actually need to speak Japanese??? It'd be nice to use it... just to make fun of someone. >:D |
| Click on this. I dare you. | MAL Fantasy Football League | Currently Watching List RWBY Club. RWBY is anime. Deal with it. |
| genki I is the best place to start. That hiragana book is fun and effective. Photo-copy the pages so you can use them for practice again and again. I have lots of good web resouces, what them? |
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| The Genki books are brilliant. But very hard to get hold of. We use them on my university course, so I HAD to get hold of them. Lucky the uni sold them to us at a discounted price! There are many web resources out there, but they should only be used as supplements in conjunction with a good textbook if you want to learn it seriously. Are you in the UK? There are plenty of books easy to get hold of. I also recommend Japanese for Busy People. I used the JfBP Hiragana textbook, myself. |
| 頭脳は子供、見た目は大人！ ƪ(˘⌣˘)ʃ |
| Play some japanese game then play the American version or vice-versa. Try to learn the hiragana and katakana, and memorize them. Unless yoiu do that first you're not gonna go far. |
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| what started me was anime watching. i started listening to what words go together, sentence structure etc. it's much different than English sentence structure which sucks for me :x. but other than that, i haven't done anything else to further my knowledge, which i really should because it'd be interesting to know most of the words in the Japanese language and how to structure a fully-fledged sentence and maybe even paragraph? :D:D:D |
 "It's just...a bad dream! Wake up, wake up...!" |
| I think text books help you learn the grammar.For myself,the most difficult thing is to recite words.As I'm native Chinese, it'll be easier than you Westerners. I also like Japanese songs,so I learn to sing the songs I like and recite some Japanese words. |
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