How to Start

[jmcdowell01428]

I have no prior experience with japanese but I would like to learn. How do I start, and how should I go about using this site to learn?

[jkid]

Hi,
Have a look at: http://www.japanesepod101.com/help-center/the-courses/

From that page:

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! The Nihongo Dojo is a very structured curriculum and Beginner Season 1 takes a more casual approach based on repetition.

Good luck!

[Javizy]

First of all, you need to learn the basic scripts (hiragana and katakana), and find yourself a beginner's textbook that you can use in addition to the content on this site.

From there, it really depends on your aims. You'll need to focus your learning on your needs. If you're learning just out of interest, however, then you can plan a more long-term approach that will suit your learning style and ultimately help you gain fluency a lot quicker.

Kanji is the obstacle most people make a big deal out of, but it really depends on your approach. You need to know roughly between 2000-3000 eventually, but you can see their relative importance by looking at the statistics from a study of kanji used throughout wikipedia:

173 kanji cover 50%.
454 kanji cover 75%.
874 kanji cover 90%
1214 kanji cover 95%
2061 kanji cover 99%
2456 kanji cover 99.5%
3489 kanji cover 99.9%

I recommend Heisig's Remembering the Kanji. You can learn how to write/recognise over 2000 within 3-6 months, and it gives you security in actually remembering them. Recently a small set based on the above statistics has been organised containing around 1100 characters (RTK Lite). You can save yourself time by sticking to this set, and learn the others afterwards or as and when you feel you're ready. You might want to ask more questions at this forum http://forum.koohii.com/ since I haven't used RTK Lite myself.

After you can recognise these characters, you can start reviewing sentences which will teach you how to read them while learning vocabulary. There are premade decks available online with audio to get you started quickly.

http://ichi2.net/anki/ (download and check the shared decks)
http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?id=2548
http://smart.fm (check core 2000/6000 decks)

I really recommend Anki since it's more flexible and portable. Either way, using some form of SRS-based learning tool works wonders even if your memory isn't particularly great (much like Heisig). You'll find premade spreadsheets for higher-level grammar as and when you need them, too.

You also need to expose yourself to as much real language as you can through TV shows, radio, reading, etc, and get as much practice using the language as you can. If you're a complete beginner, JPod will help you with this until your comprehension skills are ready for tackling the "outside (Japanese) world". You also have a lot of time to think about what methods you want to use, so don't let all the information overwhelm you.

[jmcdowell01428]

Thank you both for the responses. I am learning out of self interest.
I am already studying Italian at University, so learning 2 languages at once is perhaps pushing it a bit. However, I think that I can learn hiragana and katakana for now to start me off and then once this semester is finished I can look a bit further.
Regarding textbooks, I googled 'beginner japanese textbook' and found a couple possibilities. Here is one that seems good: http://www.thejapanshop.com/product.php ... 270&page=1

What do you think? Is there another that you would recommend?

[peachrules]

I've heard good things about Genki. I'm not very far at all in learning the language, so I can't comment on how it is long term. I personally like Japanese for busy people. It gets a little bit repetitive and doesn't even teach kanji until the second of 3 books, but other than that, it's helpful.

Good luck!

[taikutsu]

I don't think you really need a textbook, to be honest. This website and the lesson podcasts actually have most of the same information you'd get from a textbook, but not as stiff and boring.

Also, I never used a textbook and haven't suffered one bit for it.

[tanitayou]

I think a textbook will be an useful guideline to track your study.

By my experience the "minna no nihongo2series is one of the best. You can check on the publisher site ( in english too) all the materials and the sample pages.

Ganbatte

[Javizy]

I don't think you really need a textbook, to be honest. This website and the lesson podcasts actually have most of the same information you'd get from a textbook, but not as stiff and boring.

Also, I never used a textbook and haven't suffered one bit for it.

You must have used some resource other than JPod otherwise you'd struggle to reach even JLPT Level 2. I didn't use a textbook myself, but rather A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, which is a really great resource. It fills in a lot of blanks from the rather brief grammar explanations on JPod.

I think looking back, if not a textbook, I would have at least liked a workbook, because drills and exercises are really effective, and the structure is invaluable. I must have spent over a year learning bits of Level 2 grammar through JPod lessons and A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar, but when I got the Kanzen Master workbook, I whizzed through everything in a couple of months and was able to test myself at the same time. It's all laid out for you, so you might as well take advantage of it.

[mrsspooky5154]

I was in Borders and picked up "Dirty Japanese" (not sure how useful it's going to be but it's hilarious) and "Japanese for Dummies."

Does anyone have any experience/opinions about Japanese for Dummies? It looks to be pretty good, but I really like the idea of Kanzen Master workbook. I'm going to look into getting that one. I also got Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji I" that looks really good!

Spook

[Taurus]

Regarding textbooks, I googled 'beginner japanese
textbook' and found a couple possibilities. Here is one that seems good: http://www.thejapanshop.com/product.php ... 270&page=1

What do you think? Is there another that you would recommend?

A lot of people recommend Genki. I used Minna no Nihongo and think it's excellent, but it requires you to be able to read kana. It's just very sensibly organised and provides plenty of exercises - and you can get audio CDs for it. When I started out I used it and used japanesepod to reinforce it. I wouldn't recommend the Busy People series because it's a bit slow and it doesn't seem very intuitively organised to me.

I think there are quicker ways to learn the language than going through a textbook, but if, as you say, your time is limited by your commitment to learn another language, then I think a textbook is a good idea to provide your studies with a structure - and they're easy to return to after a long absence, too.

I also think that the Kanzen Master series of JLPT grammar guides are pretty good too - they just contain a bunch of grammar points and a load of example sentences (from level 2 all of the explanations are in Japanese so you might want to start with level 3).