Where should I start learning Japanese?

[littleJ]

I want to learn how to speak, write and read Japanese. I've been watching JDramas and movies, and I even listen to Jpop(Arashi!!!), and I learned quite a number of words, phrases, and expressions. But, I want further learn the language. It's just that I don't really know where to start. Someone help!

[Czarownica]

You should start by learning hiragana and katakana, those are the absolute basics. You can find all the characters here http://www.kanachart.com/, for example, but there are many other resources available, if you don't like that site, just Google "learn hiragana and katakana"

After you're done with that, you can do everything else. I'd recommend getting some textbook.

I recommend checking out our Japanese resources list: http://linguaholic.com/japanese-links/study-japanese-links/

[apexa1]

A textbook is the best place to start. There are lots out there, some better than others. Textbooks usually cover all the kana in the Hiragana/Katakana alphabets and usually 50-100 Kanji. It can be done at your own pace and they usually include a cd with all the resources.

I recommend Genki to start good luck

[13vinylinfants]

Ignore every other post in this thread and go to guidetojapanese.org. It's an amazing resource, better than any print textbook or paid program I've ever used. It's not the easiest way to learn, necessarily, but it will give you the best overall understanding of the language and let you use it in practical situations

[Lasonax]

As I've written in other threads, this is what I suggest:

* Learn hiragana/katakana first, this will be a very easy step. Make sure to learn the diacritics aswell as the "combinations" (when you have one normal character and a smaller one).

* Go through Japanese The Manga Way

* Start learning the kanji

* At the same time that you are learning a few kanji a day, go thorugh Tae Kim's guide (linked in the post above mine). It is true that some of those grammar rules have already been tought to you via the manga-way book, but it doesn't matter. Consider those parts repetition.

You could skip "Japanese the manga way" book entirely if you want, but I highly suggest reading it through simply because it's a very enjoyable and easy-to-learn book, which takes a light approach to many basic grammar rules, structure, particles, and so on.

When you're done with all that, you should probably be able to find more resources yourself to learn more grammar, but apart from that you should probably start working on your vocabulary by then. You can also do vocabulary + grammar + kanji at the same time, but it may or may not slow down your learning, depending on how hard of a time you have focusing on one thing at a time. Otherwise you should probably pick up a few words here and there simply through reading Tae Kim's guide, and being exposed to the language.