Learning Japanese

I want to learn japanese in order to play untranslated visual novels. My question is if pimsleur is a good idea for me or not? It seems to be primarily focused upon audio, I am not sure if this will be a waste or essential in developing an understanding of japanese. I would like to learn japanese as fast as possible and this is my first time learning a new language so I am very lost. Thank you in advance.

Pimsleur would be pretty much the worst method for you, because it's 100 percent audio. You need to learn how to read Japanese.

Little primer on Japanese writing... there are 3 things you need to know.

1. There is a group of 46 "letters" named the Hiragana, which represent syllables. せ　is "se", よ　is "yo", etc. These are usually only 1 or 2 stroke each, and the only way to learn them is by rote memorization, as there is no pattern to them.

2. There are another 46 of these named the Katakana. These are the exact same in terms of pronunciation, but are used mainly for foreign loanwords. セ　is "se", ヨ　is "yo."


3. Kanji. This is the big one. You will need to learn to recognize about 2100 of these, also known as the Jouyou list. There are several ways to go about doing that, but the most popular way is to use James Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji" book, along with an SRS program. That stands for spaced repetition system, and it's a fancy way of saying electronic flashcards. I would recommend "Anki" for that, as would most people.

Disclaimer... when you are learning hiragana there will be a point where you get really frustrated and will despair at having to learn 2100 of them in kanji form later. This is not true, because kanji are set up in patterns and building blocks that make them easier to learn. You'll understand this more as you make your way through "Remembering the Kanji", assuming you go that route.

Tons of people have gone into this stuff in more depth... you can learn a surprising amount from Wikipedia. Good luck, and if you have any more questions feel free to ask.