(Re)Learning Japanese (reading only)

Well I decided I'm going to (re)learn Japanese. However, I only want to be able to read and understand Japanese, I have no current need for writing or speaking Japanese (no doubt I'll still learn it on the way). Reason? Manga, TV and movie subtitles, and video games, mostly for reading. in before "WEEABOO", my automated response to that: "Fuck off."

Current proficiency:

Can read & write Hiragana 100%.
Can read & write Katakana 100%, and decent enough at translating it.
CANNOT read & write Kanji at all, outside of numbers.
Is aware of the difficulty of Japanese grammar, levels of politeness, particles etc... but does not know much about it.

Anyone have any decent Japanese-learning links or download resources (textbooks, audiobooks etc)?

I'm currently going through my old high school textbooks and a Genki Vol.1 e-book. I need a decent hardcopy Japanese dictionary though, know a good one?.

Thanks.

Let's face it: less than 1% of us are going to go to Japan to learn the language, because of many reasons; economic, families, friends, fear of discrimination, fear of living alone in foreign land. If half of ppl interested in the language go to japan soon it'll be so crowded we'll have to live like monkeys in the mountains. So going to Japan is not practical advice to foreigners learning the language.

At the moment I'm just trying to find a decent non-noob dictionary that will suit my purposes. I already have an offline one (IE. Jim Breem's dictionary on PC) but would like a hard copy one to carry around.

On a related note, I find it interesting that people continually say learning Japanese is hard. I mean, if the international Chinese students at my university can pick up English decently (with English having probably as much inconsistencies and stupidness as the Japanese language), then I fail to see how non-Japanese people can't learn Japanese.

Put in the effort and you'll get the results, amirite?

>>25

>STFU you nigger. Truth is you don't know jack shit. You are what we call weeaboo, now stfu and go become an hero. "BUT URBAN DICTIONARY SAYS..." NO! GTFO.

HULK RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE.

Wow, looks like I hit a nerve. You must feel so much better after typing that out.

What, did you and/or your mom get raped by a Katana-wielding Wapanese or something?

To everyone else, your advice will be considered.

And age, because this will become a legendary thread.

>>42
That's because the Chinese students you are talking about are forced to speak English around people who speak English. And there's no way you can find a Japanese-speaking environment, unless you go to Japan. Because English is an international language, you get to meet English-speaking people even if you're not in England, so English is easier to learn. No way you're going to gain mastery without speaking to Japanese on a constant basis.

At least he can accomplish his goal of reading, though.  Speaking...maybe not.  But reading, yes.
Needs something comprehensive for grammar like "Teach Yourself Japanese" (cf Amazon), plus something like "Kanji and Kana" (again, cf Amazon), and start making 3x5 kanji flashcards and vocab flashcards (kanji compounds).

Needs something comprehensive for grammar like "Teach Yourself English" (cf Amazon), plus something like "Teach yourself ABC" (again, cf Amazon), and start making 3x5 English words flashcards and vocab flashcards.

Truely, you people are underestimating the difficulties of being able to reach a stage where you can read mangas, play games or watch tv. That's what the memes at the start of the threads are trying to say.

Of course, if you want to learn it only to a stage to impress non-Japanese, be my guest. But if you speak it to Japanese, you'll only get laughed at, like how we make fun of Engrish.

ok look, i studied japanese for 4 years in the states,two years in high school and two years at college, my major is even japanese studies/language.  i am currently living in japan going to the second best university in japan (waseda or keio, i'm not going to tell you wich one) on an exchange program for a year, i thought i was good at japanese before i came to japan, then i was like.... oh fuck.  learning another language is much much easier said than done, you have to be determined to do it, and if you are not determined enough to learn it to go to a country where it is the primary language then you are NEVER going to become fluent in the language.

>>45 i agree, after all i have been studying it is a bitch to read manga or play games, it takes forever because i have to look up a kanji every sentence or two. 

>>46
"and if you are not determined enough to learn it to go to a country where it is the primary language then you are NEVER going to become fluent in the language."

I disagree. I've never been to an English-speaking country, but I consider myself fluent in English. Watching movies and reading books worked for me. Of course Japanese is probably a lot more difficult, or else the weeaboos would eventually learn it simply from watching all that anime.

>>47
One word, the forced pervasion of English speaking people in non-English-speaking countries. Thread over.

A goal must be defined.  The last few posts are mixing many goals:  speaking to native speakers, watching movies, reading books.  These are all separate.  I now make the point that should be obvious:  that learning to read a foreign language does not require travel to the country of origin.  Unless you somehow cannot access that country's reading materials, which is certainly not true for Japan!
>>46 I'm sorry that looking up kanji bothers you so much.  But you can stick to manga that have furigana over the kanji...

>>49
That also depends on the IQ of the learner, and his need to learn the language. While a small percentage of people are able to do that, it is but a very very small percentage. You also didn't mention to what extent a person learning a foreign language becomes proficient at it. Sure, any one can learn any freaking language without going to the country dude, if it doesn't exceed "good morning" or "good night".

Have you ever wondered why the Japanese are generally poor at English? Firstly because their English teaching system sucks, and secondly, they don't need the language, they can do without it. This is the same for most people learning Japanese, and not needing a language for survival makes mastering the language much harder.

And the memes are saying, you can't master writing/speaking without mastering reading/listening. One is the absorption of knowledge and one is the usage of it, they have to go hand in hand in order to master a language. If you're so great, try speaking Japanese here, so that people can laugh at you.

>>49
i didn't say that it bothered me, i said that it was a bitch, which is what learning is, a big fat bitch, and you weeaboo bitches are not going to learn japanese from just reading manga and shit,  japanese has three different ways of speaking depending on where you are related to the person and when you get to being really really fucking formal (keigo けいご　敬語) there are three different forms within that.  you know what is never used in manga or anime? that's right, formal form, like i said before, stop trying now to learn japanese from manga and anime, now GTFO!

>>26,27
Have some good ideas (suicide?)

I personally picked up a bunch of books at my university's oriental studies department library

Some of the books I took out hadn't been for 20 years but they still worked...

Under windows using the IME hand writing recognition thing will speed up your kanji lookup a lot

If you use firefox I recommend an extension like rikaichan to look up words you draw and those you find online

I didn't find heisig's "remembering the kanji" particularly useful. I liked the graded lessons books and the readers (annotated reading practice) more. Right now I'm using a book by 'Vaccari', "complete course of japanese conversation grammar" edited in 1980, which makes it RAD TO THE MAX

I felt my reading had improved a lot after I had learned the first 500 kanji. I picked a specific area of study to build vocab on which was japanese grammar terms, so I still don't know Japanese for 'kitchen sink' or 'toothbrush', etc. Learning that basic living crap always annoyed me in elementary classes for other languages. Borrowing one(let's be real here) magazine in japanese was worth it too. Also, tons of porn doujin.

>>52
you are obviously not as good as you think you are because you picked some of the easiest things ever as examples you dumb piece of shit, guess what kitchen sink is in japanese.....that's right シンク(shinku), and toothbrush....ya that's right 歯ブラシ(haburashi), or even easier,歯(ha)means tooth and burashi....well it means brush, learn more weeabo

歯ブラシ 歯ブラシ IT'S AWWWWWWWWWWRIGHT

歯ブラシ!!!

>>53
yes I chose that to illustrate the danger of learning without a teacher

секусуальные анекдоты

>>56
you are full of shit

>>26
Wow, you must really suck at learning languages now. I studied Japanese for two years, moved there and after my first semester there I passed the JLPT level 1.

>>26
>YOU CANNOT LEARN JAPANESE WITHOUT LIVING IN JAPAN

I call bullshit, especially with the CAPS LOCK.

Sure you might not be perfect, but I'm sure with effort and dedication anyone can get close.

Talking about human failures..... this whole board is full of them!!!!!

huahuahuahuahuahuahuahuahua

Try arguing in Japanese, and we'll believe you.

Kawaii desu~

up

ok, look, japanese is considered a hard language because it is.  i would have to say that chinese and japanese are the hardest languages that are spoken by mass ammounts of people, ya call in the "experts" but seriously, i've studied boh, and without living in the country you will not become fluent, and even then it is hard, i've been in japan 5 years and china 4.  come one, stop thinking you know everyhing, because you never will, i doubt that there are many experts on asian languages on 4chan unless they were born in asia.

日本語でやってやろうじゃないか！こっちは日本語をマスターするのが超難しいと賛成する。

>>66
finnally, fucking at last
本当に難しいだね！この奴らは全然知らないもん。おい！これを読んで、分かれば、返事してくれ。どのぐらい返事するだろ。少ないかな！

>>65 Name: Anonymous : 2007-03-28 08:59 ID:2sJ/3Rc6

>ok, look, japanese is considered a hard language because it is.

Either that or you just suck shit at it.

I'm leaning more on the latter.

GTFO.

>>68
日本語ではなさんか日本語で？！WEEABOO野郎が・・・

>>68
英語で喧嘩を売るのは説得力ねえぜ。

>>68
負

>>70
勝

>>67
本当に難しいだね！
DON'T USE だ AFTER い-ADJECTIVES.  It makes you sound like a retard.

What is the Japanese word for weeaboo?

>>73
私

>>73
Gaijin? :P

>>72
ニダ〜〜〜〜〜〜

lol

fuck off wapanese

fuck off >>78

>>79 fuck off asian lover. You would even suck a asian donkey ass so much are you an asian lover