Lesson listening order / how to start out

[Sp3ctre18]

すみません!

I read this: http://www.japanesepod101.com/help-center/the-courses/ but it doesn't really help much. It does give a suggestion on how to start, but still doesn't explain the differences well enough for me to decide.

I should be considered as totally new to Japanese; I can't say anything except for what I've learned from the intro lessons up to beginner lesson #3 S1, and random phrases and words from anime, googling, or wikipedia. I know all hiragana, and am working on katakana.

so, according to the above link: "If you are a true newbie, we recommend starting with Newbie Season 2 “Nihongo Dojo” supplemented by Beginner Season 1 for the fastest and most fun way to get started with Japanese!"

1. What about Newbie lessons season 1? Does season 2 totally replace it? That makes it sound like Newbieis same level as Beginner, so how do I compare and contrast beginner seasons 2 and 3 with the other newbie seasons?

2. I plan to learn reading and writing as well as I go through the lessons, so the proper writing is important to me. For example, I've gone through the intro lessons, and learned 宜しくお願いします, but Newbie Lesson #1 from both Season 1 and Season 2 don't show the kanji even under "formal kanji," and the kanji is also no shown for some other words. I'm correct, that it would be written 宜しくお願いします? This REALLY concerns me because, not only do I strongly suspect there SHOULD be kanji because all the hiragana would be hard to read, but, had I not gone through the intro lessons, I wouldn't have learned the kanji. I WANT to learn the kanji as I learn phrases because I want to know the correct way to write them. Can someone please address this concern?

どうもありがとう。

[mayumi_k1114]

Hello Sp3ctre18-san,

The reason we recommend "Newbie Season 2 – Nihongo Dojo (25 lessons)" is that this course is designed by Naomi-sensei and it is followed by "Newbie Season 3 – Nihongo Dojo (25 lessons)" and then "Beginner Season 4-Nihongo Dojo(50 lessons)." So you will have 100 lessons in a series for newbie and beginners.

As for your question 2, we are trying to select kanji depending on the level of lessons, and also when a word is often written in hiragana, we write it in hiragana in the lesson note. よろしく is often written in hiragana, not using kanji.

I hope that would be of any help for you!

[RebelDogg]

Depends on what you want. Personally, I've been going through from the very first lesson in newbie S1. There was a lot of stuff I already knew, but hearing them talk about it really helped to flesh it out. Plus there was a ton of vocab and just interesting little things here and there. I suggest listening to them and if you find it's too easy skip past the conversation and vocabulary and just listen to some of what they are saying to each other.

S2 Nihongo Dojo is a LOT better than season 1 (mainly the PDFs) and covers some of the same material. But there's nothing wrong with going over stuff more than once. Plus, even if you know what they are talking about already I have found listening to the dialogue invaluable. My biggest problem is listening comprehension. Even if I can translate the transcript perfectly, sometimes the audio just sounds like blablablablablah.

So my opinion is that it's best to just start at the beginning and get ready for a long ride. One lesson at a time.

[Sp3ctre18]

thanks both of you. I guess that settles most of it.