宇崎ちゃん

I never had problems with any Japanese sounds, because all Japanese sounds are equal to the ones in Dutch and Polish together (except that "Y" and "J" are interchangeage in both languages unlike in Japanese). However, I understand if your native language is English or Spanish, both languages have quite different sounds from Japanese (like "E" in Japanese = "A" in English, and the "J" in Spanish doesn't exist in Japanese at all).

And I eventually forgot about this topic. In case somebody is interested in the Alpha source code, I published its source code a while ago: https://github.com/Blaveloper/Alpha-Windows

If you don't mind, I'll move this topic to "Japanese Language Learning" -> "Japanese Kanji". I think that's the best fit for kanji-related topics like this.

There is no sure-as-hell rule that applies to everything, but there is a general rule that applies to MOST cases: ON-yomi (Chinese reading) is used when multiple kanji form one word (also known as "jukugo"). KUN-yomi (Japanese reading) is used when the kanji stands on its own. In English, consider the words "telephone", "far away" and "sound". "Telephone" is derived from Greek and/or Latin words meaning "far away" and "sound". So if it were Japanese, "telephone" would be written with 2 kanji with the ON-yomi, while "far away" and "sound" separately would be 1 kanji each with the KUN-yomi, despite the fact "tele" and "far away" is the same kanji in English and so are "phone" and "sound". It might be a weird example, but it's the way you can look at it.

Well I actually find it a nice idea. The only problem is: it already sort of exists.

Your native language is English if your profile is right? Then in that case what you can do is this: 1. Start learning German first. 2. After a few months while learning German, learn French. 3. Set a clear deadline for both languages (could be the same day). This is because even though English and German are both Germanic languages and French is a Romance language, English and French share lots of vocabulary and (I think so) they have a closer grammar to each other too. I did the same with Japanese and German. I started Japanese first and after I got comfortable enough to have a conversation in Japanese for some amount of time, I started learning German (which is so close to Dutch, I actually had very little to learn). But there is a sharp edge to it: it will be a pain to keep up with your progress if you concentrate on 2 languages at a time, but if you make it to the end, the feel of accomplishment is much greater than it is when you learn 1 language at once.

This is because the vast majority of language books are written by people who learnt that language a bit and think they know what they do, rather than native speakers or at least very advanced speakers of the language. It just feels really cool to teach others what you just learnt, but at the other hand, it's proven that teaching people is the most effective way of learning. (I had a nice looking pyramid showing what's the most and least effective way of learning a language, but I lost it. Should be somewhere at PolyglotDream.com.)

My biggest struggle would be the part of kanji that have a whole sentence as its meaning (or at least, it feels like it). The second would be the way their grammar translates. Like: Japanese: 読まなくちゃいけません。 Translation: I must read. Literally: Unless you read, it does not go?

It all depends on your motivation and how much time and effort you want to put in it. This isn't limited to just Japanese, it actually applies to every language. If you want to learn Japanese for business, to pass an exam, to make people jealous, because you must, etc., you'll have a very tough time learning Japanese. On the other hand, if you want to lean Japanese because you love the Japanese culture, their anime/manga/movies, their food, etc., you'll realise learning Japanese will be much easier than you think. When you've got that out of the way, you'll need to find the right tools and materials that work for you. I personally prefer speaking over anything, so Skype and FluentU are among my favourites, but I also use Anki and Memrise for the written half of the language. And I also use YouTube and iTunes to find Japanese videos and songs respectively. Reading stories doesn't work for me at all, so I don't even bother finding myself a Japanese version of "The Lord of the Rings" or something else and force myself in reading all of it.

I prefer RAW. Maybe I'll misunderstand sentences here and there, but subtitles always distract me. I read subtitles automatically, no matter if the subtitles are in English (language I understand) or Vietnamese (language I don't understand), just the fact they are there distracts me. And because of that, I miss a lot of action, visuals and more importantly: voices (important for language learning). If I watch without any subtitles, I feel forced to listen to the characters carefully and therefore be forced to understand them.

I don't think we can count a DVD and phrasebook as an "online lesson".

The beginning is always challenging. Once you get used to a language, everything becomes much more easier.

Just try to speak to Japanese people in Japanese. The beginning will always be hard, uncomfortable and slow, but it's all OK. Once you speak, it'll become easier, more comfortable and faster over time. I wish I could explain the magic trick behind that, but unfortunately, there is no magic trick behind that. It's all a matter of getting used to it. As for myself, I have autism, meaning that social interactions are much harder for me than it is to 'healthy' people. I mention it to show you that if I can do it, you definitely can do it as well (and probably you'll have a bigger advantage too).

Wasn't Lynda.com a tutorial website for more creative/technical stuff?

Only one thing I would say differently: you should learn vocabulary and sentences at the same time. For the most of the time, you can't simply do a 1-on-1 translation to a different language. "Tengo hambre" (Spanish) would literally translate to "I have hunger". Same sentence in Japanese (お腹が空いて | onaka ga suite) would then become "belly is empty". While in English it should be "I am hungry". That's why it's so important to learn vocabulary WITH context, because context is king.

I'm no American, but each language spoken comes with an accent. If you really wouldn't have an accent, it would only mean your voice is muted. I therefore agree with Nikolic993 (even though he's not around here any more).

I have never completed anything on Duolingo, it comes with lots of mistakes any way. But yes, if you really want to learn a language, you'll have to use multiple resources and not just rely on only 1 app. But I would suggest you both to train your speaking and listening skills either in real life or over Skype with a native speaker. Trying to learn a language without speaking it is like trying to drive a car without tires, really (although it would be awesome to have a floating car in the future!). Of course writing and reading skills are important too, but not only that.

I didn't know of any of these neither. Although I would really like to visit a polyglot event, but they're all far away from me (Berlin, New York, etc).

The question isn't "are there any languages that don't have a 'yes' or 'no'", the question is "are there any language that have an alternative way to say 'yes' or 'no'".

That's exactly why most people fail to speak forever: they don't feel comfortable enough to speak. I can tell you this: you have to try to speak early on, because otherwise you will never be ready to speak (so you will remain uncomfortable forever). I went through this problem in the past too. Half year ago, I thought I could speak Japanese well enough after 7 years of study, but in reality: I was uncomfortable to speak. I didn't understand a thing the other person said. I even failed to form sentences as simple as "I am (DELETE)" without hesitating (or any longer sentences at all). But I got used to it quickly and I can speak and understand Japanese with no issues (unless a new word pops up, half year ago I had a gigantic list of new words per session, now I only need to note down 1-5 new words per session). When I started learning Spanish last month, I went through the same problems again. And it's all improving quickly too.

If you use MS Word, I know you can add notes which is only visible in the DOC(X) document (so it won't be printed or exported to PDF for example). I don't remember exactly how, I only used this feature to pass my MOS (Microsoft Office Services) certification and that happened more than 5 years ago. I shouldn't make notes in the document itself. But if you don't know how to use that feature, a workaround would be to either make a separate file with the translation notes, or you could use the same document and make notes on a separate page (tip: use "CTRL" + "Enter" to create a new page).

I know English has lots of different words for "no", but not in Dutch or Polish. Both languages are quite direct, so if you use a different word for "ja"/"tak" or "nee"/"nie", people won't understand. Well, with obvious exceptions like "(in)correct" or "absolutely (not)" of course, but as long as it's clear to the listener.

Yes I do pay for Skype lessons. Or rather, conversations. At the moment, I pay for 45 minutes of Japanese on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, plus 30 minutes of Spanish on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Then I fill up a lot of gaps (free time) with free tools (either with or without a premium/pro/platinum/whatever subscription, it depends on the service they provide). These fill ups are mostly Anki, Memrise, YouTube videos, songs, meetups (if I can find any Japanese or Spanish people around here at all and not confuse them with Chinese or Italian) and more. As tools are concerned, I only pay for Memrise and FluentU at the moment (and Italki, but that's where I get my Skype lessons from).

Which is my point. Native speakers normally learn speaking and listening at home, and writing and reading at school much later on. This is the reason why I can speak Polish perfectly fine, but my Polish writing skills are terrible.

Since this event already happened, I think I'll lock this topic to prevent any further confusion.