Where to start?

[animeobsessions8188]

Hello everyone, I'm very new here and very new to learning japanese. I'm an absolute beginner and therefore I kind of know where to start but not fully.

Obviously I start with the Absolute Beginner section. But there are two of those, an Audio Lessons and a Video Lessons section. I went to the first audio lesson and it's simple enough, just learning how to say hello in japanese. But to be able to compile my own vocabulary list/flashcards to help myself study, wouldn't I need to learn how to write it as well? Keep in mind I'm only a free user as of right now so I don't have access to any of the extra materials.

So in the video lessons, there's a Kantan Kana series where it goes over the Hiragana and Katakana, so maybe I should do that first? That way I could write down the words I learn in the audio lesson. But that's not the first lesson in the list, Basic Japanese, Japanese Body Language and Gestures, Kanji lessons, etc is before it so am I supposed to go over those first? But this is confusing because I thought Kanji should be learnt after Hiragana and Katakana since it's a little more difficult for beginners (or so I've read).

Can someone please help me find some structure here. It would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
~Jeremy

[j_bertoni2279]

You could make yourself some flash cards to practice the hiragana and then the katakana, and do a bit of practice writing, them, too. There are some books that can help, and the Wikipedia pages on hiragana has all that you need. That'd be a good first step, IMO. I can't help much with choosing the jpod courses since I came here after a few years of study and haven't used the basic courses.

[animeobsessions8188]

You could make yourself some flash cards to practice the hiragana and then the katakana, and do a bit of practice writing, them, too. There are some books that can help, and the Wikipedia pages on hiragana has all that you need. That'd be a good first step, IMO. I can't help much with choosing the jpod courses since I came here after a few years of study and haven't used the basic courses.

Thank you for the input

[trumannseah7491]

Regarding on how to approach the j-pod courses, i have always wondered if you should learn kana or spoken first. Opinions anyone?

[tristanlane075823]

I learned the kana first. I knew that if I started reading romaji it would be a hard habit to break (and even though I can read kana I still sometimes read the romaji).

[hhaggis4931]

My partner is half Japanese and a translator and he said the first thing a beginner should do is learn how to speak and listen. That's certainly how I'm doing it now and plus I remember learning French and German first by listening and speaking and then writing as I went along.
Hope that helps!