The best place to start on the site.

[chaos965_503329]

I have been using the site for about a week now, and i'm wondering what the best place to start is. I'm in the absolute beginner lessons, but then I find myself swinging into the Katan Kana videos trying to understand written Japanese which in turn drives me back to the beginner lessons in order to gain more words. So from the people here, what do you think is the best place to start?

[adelholtz_499460]

Hi

Imo, if you are serious about learning Japanaese you hould learn Hiragana and Katakana
before starting any course or learning vocab.
You can use the Kantan Kana videos on this site. You can learn the vocab given there, or ignore it, doesn't matter.
Learning Hiragana and Katakana should take you somewhat from 1-6 weeks depending on how much time you can spare and how fast you can learn.
If you have that down start with the Absolute Beginner Series and from there follow the Nihongo Dojo Series. Find a very good Overview for this Series here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7235&p=39937&hilit=lesson+order#p39937

While you are still in the Absolute Beginner level you should stick to Absolute Beginner Level Courses, cause the rest can sometimes be overwhelming (the sole exception here would be Beginner Series 1, cause its about Newbie Season Level).
I recommend watching the Kanji Video Series with Hiroko and the Grammar Series Videos (they give you a good explanation of basic grammar and are very helpful for reviewing stuff)
Once you are a good way in the Beginner Level you can start to explore a bit more, and listen to Intermediate Level courses and so on.

My very own special tip for you ^^: use the note taking function in the lessons. Write down if you have trouble understanding smth, what grammar point was discussed in this lessons and possible reference lessons, it will help immensely in the long run and when you come back to review.

Go by your own pace. Its tempting to do a lesson per day and go very fast through the lessons. Don't do it. Take your time, and make sure you did understand what has been talked in about in each lesson. Absolute Beginner Series and Newbie Series + Beginner Season 4 are extremely important here, cause you get a good deal of grammar. So this will be your base knowledge. Make sure to get it down. It will pay off in the intermediate courses, trust me i know what im speaking of

If you have any question you can pm me or just ask in this thread, Im happy to help out any time.

Regards.

[AustinM965]

Thank you very much man, i have an anchor now and will devote my time now to understanding Kana and the pronunciation. Also i'm, was chaos username changed but didnt in post.

[team.relationships]

Hi JapanesePod101 Listeners!

Thank you for posting.

adelholtz > Thank you for helping AustinM965

AustinM965 > Welcome to JapanesePod101! The best place to start would be the Hiragana and Katakana writing systems, you can find the whole series here:
http://www.japanesepod101.com/index.php?cat=47
I see that you are also interested in studying pronunciation, and we have series for that too:
http://www.japanesepod101.com/index.php?cat=80

Feel free to ask and comment as often as you need.
Kind regards,
Laura
Team JapanesePod101.com

[adelholtz_499460]

Hi Laura,

i think it would be good to take the post from mmmason8967 viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7235&p=39937&hilit=lesson+order#p39937 and make it a sticky.

Also: it would be very helpful to have some hints at the beginning and ending of a series as to what level of knowledge you should have to "take" a certain season and some hints on what season to study next.

Seasons and Lessons are structured pretty good and it should be no problem at all to integrate this into the site. You could even make some symbol for the 日本語道場 series and mark all seasons that belong to it. Would make it much much easier for listeners to navigate.

Also whats missing is some kind of recommendation system for seasons/lessons. You choose your level in your account and its displayed on your dashboard. But aside from that i don't see any real value. The dashboard could give you reommendations on seasons and lessons to take based on which seasons you already finished, your favorite lessons, your level and so on.

Please take this into consideration.

regards

[team.relationships]

Hi adelholtz,

Thank you for your suggestions.
We will consider them!
Our users can also learn more about our methodology here:
http://www.japanesepod101.com/helpcente ... y/lessons/

Thanks again.
Sincerely,
Laura
Team JapanesePod101.com

[eloquentyttop_503553]

You choose your level in your account and its displayed on your dashboard.











__________________________________
Fifa coins

[community.japanese]

Eloquentyttop　さん、
Konnichiwa.
Thank you for the comment.
Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com