No one to practice with (and another question)

[Deezlink]

Hello,

First off, I apologize if this is in the wrong section. Never posted here before, but I've been a member for a while.

Anyways, I've been following the newbie lessons for a while, and I've strived for a need to practice Japanese with somebody. However, I'm just learning Japanese for fun (perked my interest while reading a section in one of my introduction to foreign language books last year, along with French). So I really don't know anyone to practice with.

And I don't have the funds to become a member of the website, so my studies are limited to the podcasts. Can I still get a lot out of the language and learn without being a member?

-DL

[Javizy]

You don't really have to practise with anyone as a newbie, especially since you will struggle to understand a lot of what they say. Try practising posting in the lesson comments, writing a diary, or just making sentences using the grammar you have learnt. If you run into any major problems you can always ask somebody on here.

As for the lesson notes, I found them to be an invaluable resource for learning to read, and it's much easier to remember grammar, vocabulary, and even entire sentences after you read something. You'll have to listen many times in order to get the same result, which is very time-consuming.

At any rate, you're going to need some sort of text for learning and reference. I didn't seem to need one for the first 4-6 months (except a dictionary and kanji book), since I was learning from and reviewing the lessons. Eventually I started buying textbooks, workbooks, reading materials, and looking for other resources.

[Joey]

I would suggest making a quick stop to your local library and seeing what japanese language books you can check out from there. Thats where I started out. I was able to check out some basic grammar books, a decent dictionary, learning the kana and kanji books, some of which i still check out to this day. Ever since I started learning Japanese the library has become a very good friend

[lazysunday]

try meetup.com depending on where you live there may be a Japanese practice group in your area.

[kc8ufv]

try meetup.com depending on where you live there may be a Japanese practice group in your area.

More closely japanese.meetup.com
Go there, select your country, enter your postal code or select a city (depending on country), and it will tell you the nearest group, or groups.