Learning Japanese

[Kristi]

Hi,

Can you recommend some useful way to start learning Japanese? I've always been interested in Japanese, now I know I won't be able to learn it very well and use it on a high level because of work and family reasons (don't have much time unfortunately), but I still want to learn some of the basics.

[linguaholic]

are you interested in learning how to write as well or are you just interested in speaking? If you would like to learn how to write I would suggest you having a look at the books "remembering the kanji" from James w. Heisig.

It is very effective and "gamifies" studying Japanese Characters. It is also available for Chinese characters -->"remembering the hanzi".

you can find more information about this here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembering_the_Kanji_and_Remembering_the_Hanzi

I have both, remembering the hanzi and remembering the kanji and they are both great.

[Kristi]

are you interested in learning how to write as well or are you just interested in speaking?

I'm more interested in speaking and vocabulary building at the moment. 

[BWL]

Here is a good link to a site (NHK) for learning Japanese (spoken and written). www.nhk.or.jp/lesson/english/

You can even download radio lessons to hear the actual lessons being spoken by native speakers.

Some things that I can recommend; learn Japanese by familiarizing yourself with the sounds. Try to visualize the nouns and verbs when you hear them being spoken. The more you try to visualize them ,the better you will remember them.

[mccanono]

I am currently learning Japanese and I must say that having a Japanese friend helps a lot. We often talk via Skype.

I teach him English and he teaches me Japanese in return. Maybe you can consider that one too?  :grin:

[Czarownica]

I'm a very conservative language learner and I think it's really necessary to know how to write and read it. I highly recommend learning at least hiragana and katakana. The best kana learning book is "Remembering the kana", in my opinion, but there are also many free resources online (for example, http://learnthekana.com/ but just googling "learn hiragana and katakana" will give you many more good results). It can be done in a day or less, seriously It's a fast way to start learning Japanese.

After that, I recommend checking out this thread: http://linguaholic.com/japanese-links/japanese-learning-websites/

It has many helpful resources.

[Meera]

I'm more interested in speaking and vocabulary building at the moment.

Hey Kristi, if you are not interested in writing Japanese at the moment I suggest an audio course called, "Speak Japanese", it only focuses on speaking and uses everything in romaji. It comes with three or four cds with a tiny booklet with the transcriptions. I think it is quite fun to use too:

http://www.amazon.com/Speak-Japanese-Confidence-Three-Audio/dp/0071664637/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1380132223&sr=8-14&keywords=speak+japanese

There is also "Get started in Japanese" which teaches basic Japanese also using romaji, it comes with two audio cds but you can also get the book without the audio. I haven't finished the book yet but from what I have gone up to it's good. There is also "Complete Japanese" by the same company, that uses romaji but also teaches the scripts but I think that course goes up to intermediate. I have it also but have only used a couple chapters and it seemed pretty good even for a beginner.

http://www.amazon.com/Get-Started-Japanese-Two-Audio/dp/0071749780/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380132329&sr=8-1&keywords=Get+Started+in+Japanese

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Japanese-Two-Audio-CDs/dp/0071747850/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380132651&sr=8-1&keywords=Complete+Japanese

If you want to seriously study Japanese, I suggest getting Genki, I actually was signed up for a Japanese class a couple years ago and it ended getting canceled but I got the book before hand, and decided to keep it in case I took it again and the book was Genki. Again I haven't finished it but it is really good if you want to go really deep into Japanese. However after a couple of chapters it just uses the scripts.

http://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Edition/dp/4789014401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380132716&sr=8-1&keywords=Genki

There is also a new course by Living Language for Japanese, I don't have it for Japanese, I have it for Arabic, but I really like it. It is setup like a workbook and has tons of audio.

http://www.amazon.com/Living-Language-Japanese-Complete-Edition/dp/0307478653/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380132809&sr=8-1&keywords=Living+Language+Japanese

I'm no expert in Japanese and I really don't know much about the language but I hope this helped a little.  :grin:

[mccanono]

You might also want to watch Japanese movies / dramas when you have the time. And if you like, you can also watch animes.

This way, you'll be able to know how certain words are being used depending on the context.

Happy learning!

[calebmelvern]

I'm interested in learning Japanese as well and this thread guided me towards some very useful resources. I just want to thank all of you for sharing! I'm off to study now!

[xlzqwerty1]

You might also want to watch Japanese movies / dramas when you have the time. And if you like, you can also watch animes.

This way, you'll be able to know how certain words are being used depending on the context.

Happy learning!

One thing I want to stress is that one should NOT learn Japanese from watching Anime or typical overrated movies and TV shows. A lot of the times, the voice actors talk in a way that is different from the way people usually talk in Japan, so your pronunciation may be very off from the norms if you try to only learn how to say words from anime and such. It's suggested to learn pronunciation from native speakers and expert polyglots; knowing how to pronounce the syllabary is enough for you to piece it together yourself.

[mccanono]

One thing I want to stress is that one should NOT learn Japanese from watching Anime or typical overrated movies and TV shows. A lot of the times, the voice actors talk in a way that is different from the way people usually talk in Japan, so your pronunciation may be very off from the norms if you try to only learn how to say words from anime and such. It's suggested to learn pronunciation from native speakers and expert polyglots; knowing how to pronounce the syllabary is enough for you to piece it together yourself.

Indeed, in fact, one of my students told me that they find people who speak like in the anime very irritating. Haha

Thanks for pointing that out by the way.

[Meera]

One thing I want to stress is that one should NOT learn Japanese from watching Anime or typical overrated movies and TV shows. A lot of the times, the voice actors talk in a way that is different from the way people usually talk in Japan, so your pronunciation may be very off from the norms if you try to only learn how to say words from anime and such. It's suggested to learn pronunciation from native speakers and expert polyglots; knowing how to pronounce the syllabary is enough for you to piece it together yourself.

Do they speak diffirently on radio and live action movies too?

[mccanono]

@Meera - from what I have observed, as long as it is on media (radio, TV, anime), the pronunciation is exaggerated while in casual conversations, I find Japanese people to be a little bit lazy.

Just like British people not pronouncing the sound /r/ at the end of each word. Haha

[Meera]

@Meera - from what I have observed, as long as it is on media (radio, TV, anime), the pronunciation is exaggerated while in casual conversations, I find Japanese people to be a little bit lazy.

Just like British people not pronouncing the sound /r/ at the end of each word. Haha

Oh okay. But could it still help with prounciation? Like if you couldn't go to Japan to practice? Sorry I know it's a weird question.  :vampire:

[xxxxxx]

I am also interested in learning the Japanese language because me and my husband are planning to visit Japan next year to my cousin who is married to a Japanese so that at least we can have a good conversations with them. I will try all the links that had been posted here. Thanks guys for all your infos