Learning Japanese

If you do decide to learn Kanji(and you should, they're interesting and satisfying and I don't think you can really claim to *know* Japanese without them) then get this book "Remembering the kanji" http://www.amazon.co.uk/Remembering-Kanji-Vol-Complete-Characters/dp/4889960759

It is extremely daunting at first but this method does work. My girlfriend and I learnt 1000 Kanji in about 4 months and I can still remember many of them now despite not having studied for nearly a year.

Oh also while I wouldn't recommend to be a slave to his method, this website www.alljapaneseallthetime.com is really helpful.
 
I'm learning Japanese, I think I'm learning Japanese, I really think so. :)

I've found Rosetta Stone good, but it's expensive. I mostly just posted because I wanted to say the above.
 
httk said:
I'm learning Japanese, I think I'm learning Japanese, I really think so. :)

I've found Rosetta Stone good, but it's expensive. I mostly just posted because I wanted to say the above.
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We actually found RS quite unhelpful in the end. It was great for some things and the interactivity of it was good (except when you'd be repeating a phrase exactly right but the voice recognition wouldn't pick it up).

The big problem we found, and we decided it was because it has been designed with European languages in mind, was the Japanese counter system. The system is very complex but the program never seemed to take this into account. Because the program doesn't explain anything it ended up being extremely confusing which counter you were supposed to be using.

For example a picture of 3 people standing next to bicycles.


Is it ３人 san nin, 3 people, or ３台, san dai 3 machines or 3自転車, 3 jitensha, 3 bicycles?

Then you do the next one and it's 2 people next to bicycles and the answer is 二人　futari, when you'd expect 2人 ni nin or something about bicycles.

In the end we got there but it was really confusing to start with, when a little explanation, help or even just a clearer picture, would have gone a long way.

Having dredged up all that information I now feel like studying again, but I can still remember what a nightmare it all was in the end, and that was while living there!

PS in case anyone doubts what a pain the counters really are, here's the list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_counter_word
 
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Lil old me said:
We actually found RS quite unhelpful in the end. It was great for some things and the interactivity of it was good (except when you'd be repeating a phrase exactly right but the voice recognition wouldn't pick it up).

The big problem we found, and we decided it was because it has been designed with European languages in mind, was the Japanese counter system. The system is very complex but the program never seemed to take this into account. Because the program doesn't explain anything it ended up being extremely confusing which counter you were supposed to be using.

For example a picture of 3 people standing next to bicycles.


Is it ３人 san nin, 3 people, or ３台, san dai 3 machines or 3自転車, 3 jitensha, 3 bicycles?

Then you do the next one and it's 2 people next to bicycles and the answer is 二人　futari, when you'd expect 2人 ni nin or something about bicycles.

In the end we got there but it was really confusing to start with, when a little explanation, help or even just a clearer picture, would have gone a long way.

Having dredged up all that information I now feel like studying again, but I can still remember what a nightmare it all was in the end, and that was while living there!

PS in case anyone doubts what a pain the counters really are, here's the list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_counter_word
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Gotta love those counting units...Korean actually has a specific counting unit for chinese cabbages :o
 
I go to a college course once a week in the evening and they use the genki textbooks, which seem pretty good. They're expensive though at about £50 for 1 book with the discs.
 
And sumo! How could I forget sumo? I would love to go to a basho. It looks as if there's one starting on Sunday. I hope they show it on NHK or something.
 
I like to learn in my spare time. I love Japan, I find the language, culture and history fascinating and I would really like to be able to hold conversation with a native speaker.

I'd like to echo what an above poster said, in that you should stay away from using Romanji because I find it encourages wrong pronunciation. As native English speakers it's all too easy to fall back on how the alphabet sounds because, well we've had a lifetime using it! You only need to cross your eyes over a sentence and the sounds are already there. So if you're wanting to sound as naturally Japanese as possible, learn Hiragana and Katakana from the start using an audio guide to go with it.

Aside from Rosetta stone which is very good. I'd also like to recommend Pimsleur Japanese. It's an audio only learning course and teaches you in a similar way to how a child learns a language. It's different to Rosetta stone type lessons because it's much more natural and less cerebral, so it's good to have as many different types of material as possible.
 
ic1male said:
Does anyone know where you can buy proper Japanese Rice Crackers (arare) over here?
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Where do you live?

When I first started learning Japanese I just sampled a few books and found what I preferred. Definitely don't bother with romanji, it's pointless and actually harder to read. I'd say start learning Kanji as you go (elementary school grade 1) but don't focus on it too much at first or you'll overwhelm yourself. Get to grips with hiragana and katakana and the basics of grammar first.

Once I got to a basic level I found the best way to learn was to just constantly read Japanese. Not learning Japanese books, but newspapers and websites. It helped that I was living in Japan so had easy access to all this, but I'm sure if you search hard enough you can find something. By immersing yourself in this kind of stuff you'll be surprised what you pick up.
 
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