What's a good way to learn japanese?

wannabedamned

wannabedamned

wannabedamned

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I want to learn, But I'm finding it hard to find a classroom environment in which to learn in, Anywhere in Barnsley\Wakefield\Sheffield, It would have to be specifically an evening course you see.

So are there any good sites\materials\books\audio tapes\video lessons. Out there that could help me?

Reason I'm wanting to learn is because Japan is a place I want to visit during my lifetime, but not just once, I'd like to make it frequent, But I dont want to go over there expecting my english language and culture to get me by, And i dont want to go into a bar and grunt the japanese word for beer\lager. I want to understand the language, and I also want to learn about the culture too.


Any help?
 
Well firstly do a search on the forum as this has been asked before (more than once).

There are lots of online resources which a simple search should throw up but a couple of suggestions would be:

smart.fm
japanesepod101.com

edit: it's not that difficult to pick up enough phrase to get by and communicate enough to survive out there and you should be able to get books on the Japanese culture from any reasonable bookshop/library.
 
Japanese is a hard language to learn. Second only to english apparently.
I've learned a few basics from people i study martial arts with (mostly japanese, but some english people too).
I found most of my stuff from the internet though.
 
I spent a couple of weeks there and it's surprising how quickly you pickup a few bits here and there.

Especially moving out of Tokyo as the amount of people who speak english just drops, even buying a cd was an entertaining experience :)
 
Honestly, I would never have thought to do a search on a predominately IT forum, But then again, What hasnt been discussed on here :D

I like the look of that japanesepod101.com, Also at the first reply, I would LOVE to just up and leave for a few years :D But I don't have the nestegg to do it lol
 
im sure theres courses out there, i was lucky enough to learn it for gcse :D

it is hard, you have to put time into revising etc, but its all worth it imo

for me speaking was easier than writing
my teacher gave me a website a couple of years ago fo some japanese tutors, but i cant remember it..
think it might be

http://www.jpf.org.uk/language/learning_tutors.php
 
aa6972 said:
Interesting, Japanese is quite hard but English is not that difficult tbh, try learning Chinese :)
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Yeah, but surely you can only truly state that if english isn't your native language.
I read once that due to all the different pronunciations of the same spelled word english made for a very hard laguage to learn, with Japanese with its old and new language very similar.
I'm stating it as fact, its just what i read once.
I agree Chinese with its 3 different internal languages must be a bugger to leanr too.
 
Eat lots and lots of sushi - after all you are what you eat!

There could be some undesired after effects like unwanted attention from dolphins and slightly confused lesbians.
 
k.Jacko said:
Yeah, but surely you can only truly state that if english isn't your native language.
I read once that due to all the different pronunciations of the same spelled word english made for a very hard laguage to learn, with Japanese with its old and new language very similar.
I'm stating it as fact, its just what i read once.
I agree Chinese with its 3 different internal languages must be a bugger to leanr too.
Click to expand...

Then with English there are some lovely spelling rules which only seem to apply to half of the words in our vocabulary, notably the 'i before e, except after c' rule; you get things like weight, weird, their and many more.
 
English is quite easy, i found that within 6 months i could understand conversation from other people. My spoken wasn't the best but at least i knew what people were talking about. At the beginning you think everyone is talking way too fast, you ask them to slow down, then translate it in your head to your native language. Then you think in your native language and translate in your head into English and then say it. After 6 months, the initial part of needing to translate English to my native mother tongue was going/gone/wasn't needed.

Chinese is really really hard, and its my mother tongue. There are 2 written forms and dozens and dozens spoken dialect.
 
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Because English is wrapped heavily around context and tone of voice. Learning to speak English is easier than trying to learn English on paper.
 
Raymond Lin said:
English is quite easy, i found that with 6 months i could understand conversation from other people. I spoken wasn't the best but at ltast i knew what people were talking about. At the start you think everyone is talking way too fast, you ask them to slow down, then translate it in your head to your native language. Then you think in your native language and translate in your head into English and then say it. After 6 months, the initial part of needing to translate English to my native mother tongue was going/gone/wasn't needed.

Chinese is really really hard, and its my mother tongue. There are 2 written forms and dozens and dozens spoken dialect.
Click to expand...

That's the problem I have when trying to learn other languages. I struggle to get past the stage of translate to English, think, and re-translate back to whatever language.
 
memyselfandi said:
That's the problem I have when trying to learn other languages. I struggle to get past the stage of translate to English, think, and re-translate back to whatever language.
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And when you can understand the lyrics of a song in another language then you are there ! With the changes in speed, tone, or even skew in pronouncation to make it rhyme, music is like the final barrier.
 
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