I want to start learning Japanese, but since I don't have Pimsleur money I need a method to hit it. Right now I have 'A Guide to Writing Kanji And Kana' Book 1 and 2, by Wolfgang Hadamitzky and Mark Spahn, and Living Language's 'Ultimate Japanese' (which is supposedly a VERY shitty book, but it was free and I'm using it for grammar/conjugation only.) I'm debating making flash cards as well.
So, how should I go about learning it? I'm sure just reading it won't be enough...
>>1
If you live in a large town, find out if your local university has a Japanese conversation club. University of Texas does, and it kicks ass. 3 hours a week of hanging out with Japanese people.
Learn kana in a week. Then move on to Kanji. You need 2,000 to be literate. Learn 20 a week, and in 2 years you'll be literate. It's hard, but just DO IT.
Learn grammar, talk to yourself all the time, and here comes the most important part
SKYPE MOTHERFUCKER. DO YOU USE IT. Seriously, if you're a white guy, there are like a billion Japanese honeys dyyyying to speak Japanese with a biggu dikku amerikan.
One of my friends literally met his Japanese wife that way.
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UKLukeEU2007-01-03 17:57
Mr >>1, I admire you. That post nearly made me teary eyed. I shal learn Hiragana and Katakana in like a week, it's piss eashy. And I'll learn Kanji after to, 20 a week you say? Sounds good to me.. I'll do it. The grammer bit seems hard, but I guess I can only but try. And yeah I use Skype, and yeah I know many Japanese people who wana talk to me. And yeah I met my Japanese girlfriend that way. Oh by the by.. I am not the dude who created this post, but the title seemed good.
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Anonymous2007-01-03 23:06
OP here.
Skimming through your two webpages, I can concisely say that they OWN. I'll read those NOW.
'University of Maryland University College has one of the largest Japanese language programs of any American university.' Too bad I don't gooooooo... I don't even have a car yet; regardless, I am now 19, dumb, and need to find out what I want to do before diving into a University anytime soon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype
Wow. Just...wow. I've heard of Skype from the whole Hal Turner business, but I'd never bothered to look it up. This is a must have.
Also, being Bix Nood, I think I fall under the biggu dikku category >:3
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Anonymous2007-01-03 23:08
P.S. I'm making flash cards as well. WISH ME LUCK!
Flash cards are very helpful, I would recommend them, also check Ebay theres a few ebooks for low prices if you want to check that out. apart from that grab yourself a dictionary, learn common words, then just learn the grammar and your in
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Anonymous2007-01-07 16:40
>>7 's kantango.com is interesting ! It works pretty well. Especially, its pronounciation is correct. The voice sounds a little sleepy for me because of the lack of accent, though.
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Anonymous2007-01-13 19:43
Op here.
So as I'm going through Tae Kim's guide here, I can honestly say that I actually feel like I'm learning a language. In school, I never really needed to study; I just knew how to memorize what answer goes to what question on a test, which simply doesn't work here. Kim's introduction is spot-on.
The only bad thing so far is I can no longer 'enjoy' certain mangas. I keep trying to read them and look things up! Well, it is practice I suppose. ~FAR~ simpler than news reports.
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Anonymous2007-01-13 19:47
This thread is HIGHLY relevant to my interests
*bookmarks*
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Anonymous2007-01-13 23:26
I picked up "The Idiot's Guide To Conversational Japanese" and despite the title, it's actually really good. While it doesn't go over any kanji, it's still very good for grammar.
Also, http://www.japanesepod101.com/index.php is a very good site. Start with the beginner lessons and go from there. Again, as it's a podcast, there isn't really any kanji or even hiragana or katakana, but, IMO, the grammar is more important anyway.
I should admit, that I didn't have to start from scratch, I took three years of Japanese in high school (albeit with a crappy teacher) had a year off, forgot a bunch of stuff, went to Japan, came back. And I'm now currently trying to learn new stuff, but both of those helped refresh some of the things that my teacher taught me, and even introduced some that she didn't but definitely should have.
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Anonymous2007-01-14 7:30
>>3
Where do you find the japanese people to talk with? I want teh dripping japanese honies :(
>>16
Should I look up a japanese white pages and randomly call people?
>>14
>>http://www.japanesepod101.com/index.php
This is a pretty cool site, I am downloading the mp3s and listening to them. I am finding it helpful, except for the first male japanese guy sounds like he has a cold and the 2nd female japanese sounds like she is deep throating the mic.
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Anonymous2007-01-14 14:58
If you have a psp load it up with mp3s of japanese lessons. you can also take make flash cards with photoshop or even mspaint. Install the japanese language onto your computer, you can do this via control panel>region and language settings. this wont change everything on your computer into Japanese. all it does is allow you to type the romaji and it out puts it into Japanese characters on your computer, you can also change back to english so you be stuck typing in Japanese.
This is also great for text based lessons. Take a screenshot, crop it then transfer it to the psp. I don't always have access to a computer and sometimes the computer chair isn't so comfy, so this makes it a great alternative.
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Anonymous2007-01-14 17:30
Sorry for being a dumbfuck sweabo, but what are flash cards?
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Anonymous2007-01-15 6:02
>>15
I met people to talk with via e-mail and messenger programs through www.japan-guide.com. There are a lot of Japanese people there looking for someone with whom to converse in English and Japanese, so give it a shot.
In a nutshell, they have a question (or a picture or kanji or kana or etc.) on one side and an answer (or the english translation or whatever) on the other side.
Also the book is was based on "A guide to remembering Japanese characters" by Kenneth G Henshall although I can't find that anywhere. I used to glance over that book for about 30 minutes every night or when I just fancied a break from whatever I was doing and gradually I consolidated a way to remeber the characters.
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Xosmi2007-01-21 11:31
if this is still relevant, i have pimsleur japanese complete in ogg format (levels 1,2 and 3, 90 lessons in total;) and i don't mind uploading this through some medium, be in torrent, though i've never made a torrent before, or a file host that allows files of at least 500 mb (the .rar package will be a bit smaller then 500 MB)
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Anonymous2007-01-21 11:58
I cannot recommend pimsleur as a starting point, to be honest I'd avoid them completely. Go with japanesepod101 and perhaps the nhk videos first at least. But unless you go to japan, you'll need to immerse yourself into various things such as tv/movies/anime/music.
For kanji it's probably best to get a book. Try finding a copy of "remembering kanji I,II,III" series, you can probably find the pdfs on the net if you know where to look.
>>27
jdrama is always shit.
Buy "minna no nihongo" instead, with the grammar books in your language, should give you a pretty good start.
and take a lesson once per week or so, you need to speak the language to learn it. going to japan for a month living in a hostfamily and going to a gaijin school helps you a lot too.
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Anonymous2007-01-24 7:07
Minna no nihongo is excellent, buy that the dictionary of basic japanese grammar and something like kanji power and you'll be set. The japanese grammar dictionaries are the shiznit. Also take it easy with the kanji learning, after a while it gets really confusing, especially when there a 8 fucking kanji for the same sodding word. Also read manga while listening to matching drama cd, it really helps. I am nihongo sensei so I know
Hey everybody. I just figured out that I have no real reason to learn Japanese. None of my old motivations apply anymore. But after having studied for a while, I'm left with a 'what if' feeling. So, are there any benefits to learning Japanese, like career-related or anything. I don't think I want to just quit now.
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Anonymous2007-02-12 14:54
>>38
a large amount of unreleased videogames, anime , superior hawwt girls, newest technology, and you will feel above any man
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Anonymous2007-02-12 16:23
Install east asian languages on your computer so you can read japanese sites
I'm learning it right now with a combination of Pimsleur level 1-3 (pirated zomg) and forcing myself to learn katataka, hiragana and kanji. I've memorized katakana and I'm learning hiragana. During class I write practice sentences in both (in english, just using Japanese characters...for now)
I'll probably either take an advanced course in it or find a speaker and talk to them in person more, if I ever get the chance to do either (living in the middle of nowhere has disadvantages)