Where to begin??

[willismarsh44_507393]

Hello,

I am new to this site and i have been studying japanese for a short time but most of my focus has been on the writing system
and not so much the spoken language .
There is so much in here im a little intimidated(i don't mind saying) and lost also,
there is a lot of beginners courses and i'm getting muddled and i think i might be missing out in some important areas.
Is there a specific place to start.

Doumo arigato

Will

[mmmason8967]

This question comes up regularly so some time ago I prepared an answer that I paste in as a response. This is it:-

JapanesePod101 Where to Start
The lessons on JapanesePod101 do not follow an obvious sequence such as Lesson #1, Lesson #2, and so on. New students often find it difficult to work out where they should start. Hopefully this short summary will remove some of the confusion.

Overview
JapanesePod101 is based around audio lessons that generally last around ten to fifteen minutes. Lessons are grouped into seasons (explained below) and are categorised by Level (also explained below).

Each lesson has a variety of supporting materials including Lesson Notes and Lesson Notes Lite. These PDF files contain exactly the same information: use Lesson Notes Lite if your PDF reader won't display Lesson Notes correctly.

Levels
Lessons are categorised using four levels: Absolute Beginner, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced.

The Absolute Beginner level contains two sub-levels, Absolute Beginner and Newbie. The main difference is that the Absolute Beginner sub-level is aimed at those who want to learn to say things in Japanese but don't feel ready for detailed grammar explanations.

Seasons
There are several seasons (or series) at each level. You are not expected to work through each season in order! When you have completed between two and four seasons at one level, you will probably feel ready to move up to the next level.

For most seasons there is a summary of the curriculum for that season. You can find the curriculum from the season's home page by clicking on the Explore Curriculum button. The Explore Curriculum button is also available alongside the seasons listed for each level on that level's home page.

Curriculum
Many members like to follow a structured curriculum. For these members there is a sequence of series called Nihongo Doujou.

Newbie S2 --> Newbie S3 --> Beginner S4 --> Beginner S5 --> Beginner S6 --> Lower Intermediate S6

Alternatively, there is another earlier sequence:-

Beginner S1 --> Beginner S2 --> Beginner S3 --> Lower Intermediate S1 --> S2 --> S3 --> S4 --> S5

マイケル

[willismarsh44_507393]

Hello and thank you for the response.
That is a nice summary you have there

It will help alot.

doumo arigato gozaimasu

[community.japanese]

マイケルさん、
どうもありがとうございます。

san,
konnichiwa.
I hope you could find a right lesson for you.

Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com