I have my japanese study books.....now what?

[donutzwilliamz88215]

I have everything I need to study Japanese but I realized that I don't know how to study. ^_^;
I already know the Katakana tables and a few kanji but hardly any grammar&vocab.

So can you help me with study methods?
I'll tell you everything I have at the moment:

Japanese Demystified: A Self-Teaching Guide
Oxford Japanese Grammar&Verbs
Berlitz Concise Japanese-English/English-Japanese Dictionary
Breaking into Japanese Literature
Some Children's books&Workbooks
Note-cards&Notebooks
& of course the Internet(Youtube.Ameba,Twitter)

Thank you for your time((:

[Nekomancer0158144]

Awesome...
well.. you could start reading XD
I have this app on my ipod but theres also a MAC version
http://www.thinkmac.co.uk/ikanji/ they also have a kana version
and for the grammar i mostly use
http://www.japanesepod101.com/apps/#gengo_grammar
Lol anyway i think with all those books you wont get any problems..

[Kat]

donutzwilliamz88215,

I think the best (and even only) way to get started in Japanese, or any new language, is to get your grammar base down. Grammar is like the foundations for the house of Japanese you're going to build. I also recommend the gengo grammar app that Nekomancer linked to, as well as the Newbie lessons on Jpod. I myself found that the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar and the Japanese for College Students series were the best books I used when I was learning. Best of luck!

[mwbeale6642]

I think you need to knuckle down with a textbook (like Japanese for Busy People or something similar: Genki??). I think that a textbook adds structure to one's learning. The Jpod101 material is excellent, but in my head I always tie it back into the structure of the textbook I am using (Japanese for Busy People). If you only use a textbook, I think you won't make as much progress as you would if you used Jpod101 and the textbook.

I agree that the (yellow) "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar" is good. In fact, it's awesome. It costs a lot, but is is excellent value or money as the content is just so good.

マーティン

[jaehwi]

mwbeale6642,

I will also agree in the combination of a textbook like the ones you mentioned (they are very good ones) with our JapanesePod101 series to help give a good strong base. The audio and video lessons are really useful and no book by itself can provide such a rich learning process.

Coming back to "donutzwilliamz88215", as Kat said, the grammar is really important and it's what's going to help you build a strong knowledge about the language. It will also help you use the few vocabulary you know at first correctly, but also give you the flexibility to express yourself in different ways once you know the points, rather than in a "memorize sentences" way.

Good luck to you all and thank you for sharing all your knowledge and information you have about this!

Stefania/JapanesePod101.com