Recommendations for learning Japanese?

[yoda313]

I've been watching Anime for quite a few years and I've finally decided to try to learn a little Japanese. I just bought a "for dummies" book that I'll dabble in.

I'm not looking to become proficient in it but I want to know some basics.

Also are there any good "hooked on phonics" type material I should look into?

Again this is not for a job or anything and I don't think I'll get to the point of being fluent in it I just want to learn more about the language.

I did take some Spanish in high school and college so I have studied another language before. Again I'm not proficient in spanish but I know more than just hola and stuff like that.

Thank you.

[DB83]

Six glasses of Sake and you will be fluent

[yoda313]

Six glasses of Sake and you will be fluent

Fluent or wasted?

[El Heggunte]

Maybe this will be "too much" for your current needs, BUT it can be useful to other people

http://ftp.monash.edu.au/pub/nihongo/

Enjoy ^_^

[yoda313]

Maybe this will be "too much" for your current needs, BUT it can be useful to other people

http://ftp.monash.edu.au/pub/nihongo/

Enjoy ^_^

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out later.

Right now I've only read some of the book. I haven't taken to memorizing yet. But it is actually interesting that you get a bit of a n english lesson while learning about another language.

You forget all of the ins and outs of language and just take it for granted that you know what you're doing. Verb usage and things like that. Every day things you don't think about you have to kind of relearn when looking at another language obviously.

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One thing I thought of just recently was to track down links on youtube. I don't know how safe that is to get "official" instructions on learning a language. But its another resource to check out.

Hey are there repositories for those free online courses a lot of colleges have started hosting? Do any include language classes? I guess I could start searching "free Japanese classes" and see what pops up.

Thanks.

[yoda313]

I found a good android app. I just searched for Learning Japanese on google play and found one that is good. It has the english word than it has the kanji script and the romanji version (did I type those write?). And the best part is it has somebody speaking them.

I also bought for 9.00 on amazon an mp3 album for learning japanese. I'll still be flipping through my for dummies book I bought. Now that I have some other sources I think I'll definitely be dabbling in this more.

I think I'll try learning at least a word or a two a day and work on the grammar and stuff as I have time. I know its probably not the best way to learn a language. I should invest more time into it but as I said this isn't for anything in particular its just to learn something new.

Wish me luck.

[suelaine]

Wish me luck.

Good luck! I am not motivated to learn Japanese even though I have a daughter studying there (for a whole year in addition to two previous summers). I would love to visit her there but it does not look like that is going to happen.

[yoda313]

Wish me luck.

Good luck! I am not motivated to learn Japanese even though I have a daughter studying there (for a whole year in addition to two previous summers). I would love to visit her there but it does not look like that is going to happen.

Sorry to here that. You still keep in touch though right?

I am going to try to force myself to dig in a little more on the learning bit here. I'm gonna try to set aside time to really dive in.

I hate to admit but I really have to do the m word - memorization..... But I think I'll benefit in the long run.

[suelaine]

You still keep in touch though right?

Yes, we Skype and email. She has translated a book from Japanese to English and the original author gave her all the royalty rights for her English version. But I can't honestly say I know even one word in Japanese!

~Sue

[deadrats]

my recommendation for learning Japanese is don't, if they expect you to watch their cartoons then the least they could do is have the decency to make versions of their crappy shows with badly dubbed Godzilla English, like the Chinese Kung Fu movies of the 70's and if they object just remind them that we won the war, all of them, and not them.

obviously i'm just kidding, if you really want to learn such a hard language you'll probably want to take classes in a community college, none of the Asian languages is easy to learn for Westerners, i can speak, read and write Greek and i studied Russian in high school and i tried to learn Japanese on my own and i think i managed all of 3 or 4 words, not an easy language to learn.

[yoda313]

@deadrats - thanks for the encouragement

I'm beyond 3 or 4 words. Now thats the romanji version. I haven't tackled the scripts yet.

I just have to sit down and read more. I'll get there eventually. I don't know about taking classes though. I'm not that motivated. I have bought some books and audio mp3s so that will get me going.

[KBeee]

Best way is in bed with a Japanese girlfriend.
Just make sure she doesn't have a wicked sence of humour, so that when you think you're saying "Good Evening Miki, it's a pleasure to meet you" to her friend that you're meeting for the first time, you're not really saying "Good Evening Miki, you have very nice tits"

[Joe The Dude]

Or, you can just speak English, with a Japanese accent.
They really love it when American tourists do that, in Japan.
I'm just kidding, you really shouldn't do that. XD

I'd suggest sticking to the romanji, until you become fluent enough to have meaningful conversations, in Japanese, with a native Japanese speaker..