A suggestion for lessons

[shane757]

This may have been covered, I didn't see any posts though in a quick read through. I am a true beginner and, as such, have no idea how sentence structure works in japanese. I've gone through a good number of beginner, newbie and survival phrase podcasts when driving and am learning a good amount of vocabulary...... But it seems even in the newbie lessons when they come across particles and things that have no equivalent in english they just explain what that particle does right there.

I guess I would like some basic lessons in sentence structure and particles ect...., rather then dealing with them as we come across individual differences in the lessons. I am still quite unclear on these basic points and it feels like I'm just collecting words sometimes . Its been hinted at that many lessons are meant to aid in people taking low-level classes already, but there are none offered where I am..... My semi is my classroom and my Ipod my instructor , so please help me clear up some conceptual issues.

[QuackingShoe]

But it seems even in the newbie lessons when they come across particles and things that have no equivalent in english they just explain what that particle does right there.

What is there to say about a particle other than what it does? I'm not sure I understand the complaint there. Of course, it also depends on exactly what you're listening to, because they got more efficient about these things as time went on.

Be that as it may... a podcast isn't the most efficient place to talk about grammatical structures because it takes a very long TIME to discuss these sorts of things - that's (one of) the conveniences of the written word, because explaining with the spoken language takes far too long. The focus of a podcast like this will ALWAYS be more on comprehending the spoken language than lecturing on grammar because the spoken language can only be heard, but grammar points are most easily read. They take months and years to cover grammar topics in this podcast that one should know very early on through other study - and that's not a criticism, because that's the way it has to be. This can't be your one-stop for Japanese learning.
You can pick up a couple books (like All About Particles) or hit some websites like Tae Kim's guide ( www.guidetojapanese.org/ ) and learn it there.

[markystar]

All About Particles

i recommend this book!!!!!!

[Javizy]

All About Particles

i recommend this book!!!!!!

I thought this book was okay too, probably something you should read before you break into the likes of A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, which is at the end of the rainbow in your quest for grammar gold.