japanese question

I've been learning Japanese for a short while, and I feel like I've been going about it the wrong way.

The shit I've been using is teaching me how to say shit, but I feel like it's building it on... zero foundation.

I mean, there's nothing wrong with knowing how to say KANKOO DESU KA or anything, but it's not teaching me grammar, what I'm actually saying (it just gives me a general English translation like "are you sightseeing?") or how to read or anything, and I feel like it's more of a gimmicky tourist version of Japanese. It's kind of like Rosetta Stone, I guess.

So, I've decided to ask you fellow basement dwellers. I found this particular blog

http://learningjapanesewithanonymous.blogspot.com/2011/07/introduction.html

Should I follow this guy's lead? I've heard mixed things about Namasensei, I've heard about the Genki books but I don't really know shit about them, Rikaichan is a godsend from what I hear, and all that shit.

All his advice seems to be really good to me, so I figured I'd ask someone who actually knows how to speak it what your basic assessment is.

TL;DR should I follow this guys advice to into nihongo?

Yo. I was reading that thread. His post has some good points to it, and some really terrible ones.

Namasensei is not a great teacher to learn from. he posts some individual kanji with a vulgar video, it's entertainment rather than education.

Genki books, while I haven't used them myself I hear are great. Rikaichan IS a godsend and should be downloaded immediately.

My take; the bulk of my grammar training came from a $7 japanese grammar book by Barrons and the rest from random shit around the net in videos/text and by taking in as much Japanese as I could.

For Kanji, I used the Kanjidamage.com method, it's Heisig in a better and more efficient organization I feel. Give it a read and stay on track. Most important thing is to KEEP. GOING.

Stop by yesjapan.com once a month and watch some of the free vids they post, just a side thing.

I do recommend that Barrons book though, it's a great little thing. You can really get to a great level without paying much at all, what with the internet these days.

Also don't get Rosetta Stone, it's fucking terrible.

Go take fucking classes.

If you're serious about it, just take collage classes.

>>4
And then after you become a master at collages and scrap-booking, try going to take college classes.

I recommend checking out http://www.humanjapanese.com.  It's a fantastic starting point.  You seem like you're already a little farther along, but you might still get some good use out of the application.

>>4
>>3
Ok see these guys here? Fuck them, because they probably have never studied a language on their own before.

I guarantee you, if you do things right you will get farther in so much less time than any college class will get you.

>>7
This is probably only advisable for someone who's quite experienced learning a foreign language.

Yes you may progress faster but you'll probably develop really bad habits. Lessons from a trained teacher who is also a native speaker would be best. You can tell the difference between someone who has been studied properly and someone who is "self taught". The former generally has a working understanding of the language and linguistics, and although it may have taken longer to gain natural sounding speech, they actually understand what they're saying.

Long story short, if you want to sound like a weeaboo who's in Japan to find his Kawaii waifu, then teach yourself. If you want to sound like an educated professional, get lessons.

That's not to say self study and research are not beneficial, but it would be like becoming an optometrist but without studying anatomy for any other part of the body. You may know how the eye works 100% but it's useless unless you understand its importance in relation to the rest of the body.

>>8
incidentally I'm self taught from Russian. It shows yeah?

>>7
Basically, learning from a native speaker is the preferential option. Chances are the professor is a native. He's better than kanjidamage. The end.

>>8
>You can tell the difference between someone who has been studied properly and someone who is "self taught".

This is so much bullshit you don't even know. I can't count how many times I've met people that "studied" Japanese in college for 3+ years and yet they can't form a proper sentence. When people ask how I studied and I tell them on my own the reaction is 100% "え？マジで？". Weeabooism lies in the person himself. I know a guy that wants nothing but to learn Japanese because he loves anime and wants to fuck a Japanese girl, and because of it he's always just chiming in with stupid ass broken sentences about dicks and asses. Those same weeaboos you speak of are also always in the formal classes.

>>10
Make Japanese friends, ask them contextual questions about kanji you don't understand once in awhile. I gave him everything he needs to get to a pretty good-ass level.

>>11

>Those same weeaboos you speak of are also always in the formal classes.

aww yeah brother don't i know it. They're the ones that study 3+ years and can't create a decent sentence. They're also they ones who learn 5000 pretty kanji to post of facebook and draw all over their notepads. Also learning a language takes more than 3 years. 3 years should give you a grounding for self study, which is another reason to attend classes.

but you really can tell the difference between people who are self taught and those who have been schooled. One example is when you take self taught people out of say, a casual situation, and place them in a business or political setting.

anyway, the fact remains that classes, where you are graded and assessed, will highlight your weaknesses and bad habits. You're deluded and full of yourself if you don't think SOME sort of academic assistance. Japanese friends are good, but does the average native speaker know why or how their grammar works the way it does? Even in english people i notice forget the an/a rule. Simple things go a long way to show if a person is (not sure of the word right here in context) talented at the language.

Why should OP need to learn to be a pro nihongo speaker?  If he's just going to watch teh animes he may as well teach himself.

>>12
To me, the sole benefit of learning in a classroom environment is to learn 敬語 for use in business and formal environments as you say. But I also think that can be obtained on one's own.

I mean shit, most books utilize 敬語 and 標準語 and if you learn in a class, you face the opposite problem of sounding too formal in most situations and need to learn how to be casual instead.

Op, you might wanna try to print out some worksheets. That's what I do to learn Korean. I tried to learn Japanese before but I have shit memory so memorizing all those characters would be pointless for me.

>>12
>Even in english people i notice forget the an/a rule
Not to mention the capitalisation of 'I'.

>>16
well that proves my point. I said I was self taught at English.

Classes suck. Well, foreign language classes suck.

The internet is filled with weeaboos who think they're the shit at Japanese, and clearly have taken some intermediate classes, but are completely incapable of producing normal sentences (the kind actual Japanese people say), even keigo.

Example:
http://hanzismatter.blogspot.com/2011/08/dr.html#comment-form
This blog entry shows an amusing mistranslation of an English sentence into other languages. The Japanese in the image is clearly wrong for that context. However, many of the people commenting on the Japanese text are also explaining the Japanese in a way that's not quite right, and some even offered alternative translations that are just as bad!

>>2
I beg to differ. Namasensai is a wonderful teacher who keeps you intrigued and makes you feel good when you do something right. You might not want to take him seriously at times but it's all in good fun, I've learned a lot from him and I am continuing to. He has his daily dump of Kanji and his regular lessons where he starts from the あ row of hiragana and continues to teach grammar and am always excited to learn something new in the next lesson. I encourage any beginner to use Namasensai.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9987A659670D60E0