I'm what you call a stupid person.

[longtimedead6666304]

I want to learn another language but everything usually goes in one ear and out the other. I'm just wondering what is the best way to go about learning Japanese? I mean I tried listening to the Noob lessons but they teach you phrases and don't help me to understand the fundamentals and the structure of the language. For example I'm confused with this whole Kanji, Hiragana and katakana business.

I'm wondering if theres a good book out there explaining or if this website does and I've missed it? This site can be confusing and hard to navigate for a noob.

Thanx.

[mieth]

First thing first. Attitude. You gotta switch that around into the little engine that could I think I can I think I can mentality. Everyone is, has been, or will be a n00b. So guess what, you are just like everyone else. If you don't like the noob lessons jump right in to the beginner ones. They will really take you step by step. Go for it.

[longtimedead6666304]

Just something I want to do because I import a lot of Japanese games and they aren't released here in the UK so I'm fed up of not being able to understand them. I'm trying to understand the text but it's so complex lol and English seems so Basic compared.

[XeroXenith]

I want to learn another language but everything usually goes in one ear and out the other. I'm just wondering what is the best way to go about learning Japanese? I mean I tried listening to the Noob lessons but they teach you phrases and don't help me to understand the fundamentals and the structure of the language. For example I'm confused with this whole Kanji, Hiragana and katakana business.

I'm wondering if theres a good book out there explaining or if this website does and I've missed it? This site can be confusing and hard to navigate for a noob.

Thanx.

Here's a simple explanation of hiragana, kanji and katakana, and here's a good place to start with the language.

Then, you should probably learn some particles- these form the basis of Japanese grammar, and all sentences.

The two textbook-like sites I always recommend for Japanese are these -
http://www.timwerx.net/home/index.htm
http://japanese.about.com/

However, livemocha.com and smart.fm are very good, more contemporary tools, and they both start from scratch (AFAIK). Definitely give all four a go!

If you want a good textbook series, I'm using Japanese for Busy People, and it's working just fine - though get the workbook as well or you won't remember things. I think Genki and Minna no Nihongo are two others that are often recommended, but I don't personally use them.

The most important thing to remember about Japanese is that while it can be bloody difficult, it's also perfectly possible - this isn't a genius club, we're just regular people learning the language!

However, you will have to put in some time regularly, or you'll just phase out and lose interest because you're not getting anywhere, or because you've hit what seems like a roadblock (this happens often in language learning, no matter who's doing it). I'd say half an hour to an hour every day, or an hour several times a week is OK.

Once you start understanding the sentence structures of your games, you might want to start learning some of the vocab. jisho.org is an excellent online dictionary and kanji lookup source.

Best of luck

[ggenglish]

Sounds like you want to attack learning scientifically. I like that.

If you want to get going and have fun then you are at the right place. Learning greetings and jumping into phrases is a hell of a lot more interesting than pod casts reciting the alphabet or going into depth about grammar. You can read up on that stuff. To do that go here: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar Then come back and listen to the dialogs to see real life scenarios. Japanese is a great language for the visual learner in my opinion. The PDFs are a must, so if you tried just learning from the audio its not enough.

good luck.

[XeroXenith]

That site's sprung to the top of my list for textbook-like resources. I printed off a few of the intermediate pages to clear up some things I wasn't clear on. Very nice site indeed, definitely check it out alongside the others

[longtimedead6666304]

Thanx.

Giving these websites a read but man I just wish I was born in Japan so I'd have learnt it as a child when it would have been easy. Spent like 6 hours last night trying to learn all about the language to just have a headache all today thanx to it and Watashi Wa stuck in my head. Then listening to a podcast and the guy says we stress our words over here and I never even thought about it until now. So from what I thought pronouncing words in Japanese would be easy, it made me realize I can't lol.

Have to read these pages again and again and again until it gets stuck into my mind. However it's very hard because I don't use it in everyday life so I quickly forget.

[XeroXenith]

Haha, I'm sure we've all just thought at some point or another "dammit, this would be so much easier if I was Japanese!". But we all have reasons for wanting to learn this language - I don't know yours, in the same way that you don't know mine, but the important thing is just to keep them in mind if you ever lose traction.

By the by - I wouldn't recommend doing long multi-hour shifts like the one you described. Little and often works best (for me, at least) - try to stick to between half an hour to an hour each day, and revise everything often. If it means having to re-read about something six or more times before you remember it, then don't worry - that's completely normal!

Now if it seems like you're just not getting anywhere even though you're doing everything right, the important thing is not to give up. Learning a language takes time, and the movement is like a glacier. If you take yesterday as a reference point and see how far you've come since then, you'll see little or no difference, but if you keep at it and compare today to last month, you'll see a big difference.

(This is why you'll never see someone rightfully claim "I learned -insert language here- in two months!"; it's just not possible. To get to a fluent standard in Japanese takes a matter of years, perhaps two or three.)

Finally, as ggenglish stated, practice what you've learned with the podcasts here if you're not already using them - they give you a much better insight into a real conversation than a textbook or webpage ever could

(Also, about using Japanese in everyday life - what I try and do is randomly and pointlessly try and think in Japanese when possible, when I feel like it. Like if it's raining hard outside, I might just think to myself, "hidoii ame desu ne..." Try it! )

To summarise -

• Find a main learning method that works for you, perhaps one of the websites we listed, or maybe the podcasts and PDFs. Stick to it/them for half an hour to an hour each day, or an hour several times a week.
• If you're not using the podcasts and PDFs already, use them to get an insight into a real conversation!

That's all there is to it ganbare!

[ggenglish]

lot of good points xero.

is this your first language you are trying to learn longtime? it seems you are bundling a lot of the frustration we all find with languages in general. persistence is key. to add to what xero said, if you feel you aren't getting anywhere, every once and a while go back to stuff you went over weeks ago. i think you'll find that you absorbed more than you thought. Things that you didn't pick up on at the time will all of a sudden be clearer.

がんばって　ください！

[Javizy]

Check out http://forum.koohii.com/index.php as well. Some methods to learn to read quickly. Look for some info on Heisig and getting a Kanji Odyssey SRS deck.

[fredma]

My high school teacher just told us to practice 10 minutes a day, and I practiced like a few hours everyday with hiragana the 1st month and then katakana the 2nd month.

Oh, how easy Japanese was in high school.

I mean, now I can do like 5 hours straight Japanese studying. Our textbook has different things for practice. Eavesdropping for 2 hours, then Utilization (English -> Japanese) for 2 hours, and then Speaking Drills for 1 hour. And the conversations take me like an hour or two to memorize because they're pretty long. But, I'm at the chuukyuu (intermediate) level, so yeah, I need to do this to get an A on my tests. Plus I use Anki for memorizing vocabulary. Last year we did a lot of kanji writing, but this year it's more about kanji recognition.

But I wouldn't recommend that at your level. Just get some graph paper, and practice the hiragana and repeat the pronunciation as you write. You can learn some basic set phrases too.

[Iwakurasan]

LOL, I can soo relate, longtimedead6666304! When I did my very first lesson, a few days ago, I had a hard time even memorizing "yoroshiku onegai shimasu." To the experts here that may well sound exceedingly stupid. Whatever. Point is, it all just sounded and looked like one long blur to me. And memorizing blurs is hard!

I totally get your need for wanting to understand the language first. But, way I figure this, it's like the chicken and the egg: you'll be able to memorize a lot faster when you already understand the language some; but in order to understand the language some you'll need to memorize certain things first! So, as a fellow noob, I advise you to just bite thru that sour apple, as it were, and stick with the 'really hard' part for a few days. I'm only on Lesson 6 of the newbie course now (started last week); and already, after just a few days, I notice a significant drop in difficulty. It's still bloody hard, of course, but it's gone from "near unsurmountable" to "probably doable." :)

Also, be sure to check the grammar notes!! For instances, it helps my brain enormously to recognize some basic Tenses, like in 'shitsurei shimashita' (Past Tense) or 'dou itashimashite', or 'hasjimemashite.' And that the latter is made up of the verb hajimeru, and that you can form new compound verbs with it, like taberu (to eat) + hajimeru (to begin) to form tabehajimeru = to start to eat. I'm naturally still a galaxy away from truly understanding any of this, but the fact alone that my brain begins to see the different elements of a word, that already makes a world of difference! Like I now recognize 'ichi' in "mo ichido," or 'toshi' (year) in "kotoshi mo." Small things, of course; but, like I said, for the first time, since last Wednesday, I'm beginning to feel that I could actually do this! And I'm sure the same will go for you!