Can anyone suggest any resources to use in my study? At the moment I have got the two Michel Thomas courses which will teach the basics of grammar and some vocabulary. I have also found a website that shows Japanese TV. But where do I go from there? There're no night schools or anything like that round here.
Learning Japanese
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Soldato
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If you've got an android phone, there are various apps that really help with keeping upto scratch. More flashcard type help, rather than learning from scratch though.
JA Sensei is one of them.
My main warning is to avoid learning Roomaji, Which if you're not aware its japanese written phonetically using English characters.
If you're going to learn it, do your best to delve into JAPANESE
Hiragana, Katakana. Kanji(Although avoid this till later as its intense, Even the japanese dont know all Kanji)
I spent nearly 12 months learning, from books(with audio accompaniment) websites, and I watched NHK world a lot! This helped give me a sense of the language, to a basic degree, and allowed me to speak phrases from memory(No fluency). But i have to say my biggest progress was made when I bought a headset and started using Rosetta stone, It works!
And it teaches you properly, no use of english during the lessons. You see visuals, and japanese. Thats it. And you learn it from the ground up.
I cant recommend it enough.
JA Sensei is one of them.
My main warning is to avoid learning Roomaji, Which if you're not aware its japanese written phonetically using English characters.
If you're going to learn it, do your best to delve into JAPANESE
Hiragana, Katakana. Kanji(Although avoid this till later as its intense, Even the japanese dont know all Kanji)
I spent nearly 12 months learning, from books(with audio accompaniment) websites, and I watched NHK world a lot! This helped give me a sense of the language, to a basic degree, and allowed me to speak phrases from memory(No fluency). But i have to say my biggest progress was made when I bought a headset and started using Rosetta stone, It works!
And it teaches you properly, no use of english during the lessons. You see visuals, and japanese. Thats it. And you learn it from the ground up.
I cant recommend it enough.
Man of Honour
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Get a Skype tutor, with languages that are so drastically different it's important to get your pronunciation perfect from the start. I did an evening class in London studying Russian and then a few Skype lessons with it. Need to get back on it with a personnel tutor really.
I never thought about that. I have an iPad - there seems to be two apps there called Human Japanese which look good but are £10 a pop!
LOL, do you know any I could borrow?
What made you choose to learn japanese out of interest? Seems an unusual choice for someone without any japanese friends
Im afraid you will have to make your own. If you live near a decent sized uni, im sure there will be exchange students who will be open to language exchange.
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Caporegime
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Is this a positive or a negative?
Caporegime
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ANIME TO THE RESCUE AGAIN, just like no one ever said, ever.
Soldato
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Oppai!
her boobs were a MASSIVE let down.
Caporegime
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And this is why we don't learn Japanese.
LOL, do you know any I could borrow?
It's very hard to maintain it if you don't have any friends that speaks it.
I did Japanese for everyday communication. I got distinction for a years worth of studying only to lose the ability to recognise all but the odd few Hiragana and Katakana and greetings.
Make friends that speaks it before you embark will help, otherwise, learn another language
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Soldato
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Personally I found Japanese from Zero to be a better textbook for starting from scratch than the Japanese for Busy People (Kana edition) textbook which quite often is used by evening classes.
I agree with wannabedamned that you should avoid Roomanji, it will cause you to make assumptions about pronunciation based on what you expect from English, which will be wrong. Sure it might give you a quick fix as you are not learning the written characters but it will cause you issues.
Watching anime may help you get used to listening to the language but I find it better to watch general or variety programs as these tend to have a lot of onscreen Japanese text.
For learning, like any language, it really helps if you can speak with someone who can spot your errors, be that a friend who speaks the language, an evening class or an individual lesson (I do the latter personally).
I agree with wannabedamned that you should avoid Roomanji, it will cause you to make assumptions about pronunciation based on what you expect from English, which will be wrong. Sure it might give you a quick fix as you are not learning the written characters but it will cause you issues.
Watching anime may help you get used to listening to the language but I find it better to watch general or variety programs as these tend to have a lot of onscreen Japanese text.
For learning, like any language, it really helps if you can speak with someone who can spot your errors, be that a friend who speaks the language, an evening class or an individual lesson (I do the latter personally).
Soldato
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Japanesepod101 is another possible option.