Other ways to learn Japanese?

[SolistraSora]

Hi guys,

I really want to learn Japanese and will be following the lessons here if it is constantly updated but...

I want to ask, how did you guys start learning Japanese? Did you use some online resources / websites that are easy to use and learn from? And if so, can you please give me a few links?

Thanks

[Gdragonx]

Well.. Talk the truth.. I learn unconsciously..
Following Latest Anime for about 2 years, and listening ONLY to japanese song (w or w/o lyric) for about one years..
And Finally.. Visual Novel for about 2 months.. Tada~ I Learnt It!! lolx..
Its kind of unusual for my case anyway..
Something like Extra Reward for myself..

Hmn... I'll update Katagana Lesson ASAP.. and something fresh =].. too bad having 2 camps (to prepare) in 3 weeks.. and gotta finish hoshikaka >< (own desire)..
Anyway.. I'll update some interesting Lesson.. Don't worry.. =]
But will it help you.. Depends on yourself.. If you have enough interest in it, it shouldn't be any problem.. ^^
Good Luck~

[SolistraSora]

That's unfair >.< You learnt Japanese so easily!!! (well compared to using textbooks and whatnot )

I've been watching anime for 7 years or so now...and I still know nothing but common japanese expressions only :L

So now...you are able to play a whole visual novel right?

[Gdragonx]

Yup >< lolx..
Try to play some visual novel.. Should help alot =].. thu in the beginning might be hard =/..
Ganbatte ne ^^

[Ignis]

Hmm, let's see...

I started off with learning katakana by playing a GBA game, namely Tales of World: Narikiri Dungeon 3. No English version of the game was available, so I had to play in Japanese. Almost all skill names were written in katakana, and were altered English (e.g. fireball written as ファイアボール; faiabooru). I then forced myself to memorise all the katakana letters from its table. As for hiragana, it wasn't much different - I forced myself to memorise all the letters; took me like 2-3 hours. Make it 2 days with all the exercises.

Then I watched animu and listened to Japanese songs - that's pretty much how I started recognising words and eventually sentence structures etc. Dictionary was never really reliable, so I did lots of analysis on my own to decipher structures, patterns, and other essences of the language. As I learned how to compose sentences, I started trying to communicate in Japanese with various people. Of course, my sentences were broken when I started, but as long as I had someone fix them and explain my mistakes to me, it was always fine.

It still continues up until now - well, currently I'm majoring Japanese literature, so how I learn is out of question, but I still do much self-learning. Not to boast, but I've observed that most of my friends of the same major lack the skills and sense needed in dynamically phrasing out sentences. Such things aren't something you can learn academically, but kinda depend on your feel. That's how studying languages is, after all.

Animu is actually a very good way to learn structures as well as informal expressions and words. When you're good enough to watch raw animu, try moving on to visual novels. Start off with simple ones with short and simple dialogues, preferably something with a simple theme like school romance. That's where you will most likely encounter sentences that get used often on daily occasions.

Hope this helps somewhat. Good luck.

[Tsubame]

Well.. Talk the truth.. I learn unconsciously..
Following Latest Anime for about 2 years, and listening ONLY to japanese song (w or w/o lyric) for about one years..
And Finally.. Visual Novel for about 2 months.. Tada~ I Learnt It!! lolx..
Its kind of unusual for my case anyway..
Something like Extra Reward for myself..

Hmn... I'll update Katagana Lesson ASAP.. and something fresh =].. too bad having 2 camps (to prepare) in 3 weeks.. and gotta finish hoshikaka >< (own desire)..
Anyway.. I'll update some interesting Lesson.. Don't worry.. =]
But will it help you.. Depends on yourself.. If you have enough interest in it, it shouldn't be any problem.. ^^
Good Luck~

hohoho.. sound like GD~ :p
our Japanese Specialis..
help me to romanized this : チェリーボーイにくびったけ
^^v

Hmm, let's see...

I started off with learning katakana by playing a GBA game, namely Tales of World: Narikiri Dungeon 3. No English version of the game was available, so I had to play in Japanese. Almost all skill names were written in katakana, and were altered English (e.g. fireball written as ファイアボール; faiabooru). I then forced myself to memorise all the katakana letters from its table. As for hiragana, it wasn't much different - I forced myself to memorise all the letters; took me like 2-3 hours. Make it 2 days with all the exercises.

Then I watched animu and listened to Japanese songs - that's pretty much how I started recognising words and eventually sentence structures etc. Dictionary was never really reliable, so I did lots of analysis on my own to decipher structures, patterns, and other essences of the language. As I learned how to compose sentences, I started trying to communicate in Japanese with various people. Of course, my sentences were broken when I started, but as long as I had someone fix them and explain my mistakes to me, it was always fine.

It still continues up until now - well, currently I'm majoring Japanese literature, so how I learn is out of question, but I still do much self-learning. Not to boast, but I've observed that most of my friends of the same major lack the skills and sense needed in dynamically phrasing out sentences. Such things aren't something you can learn academically, but kinda depend on your feel. That's how studying languages is, after all.

Animu is actually a very good way to learn structures as well as informal expressions and words. When you're good enough to watch raw animu, try moving on to visual novels. Start off with simple ones with short and simple dialogues, preferably something with a simple theme like school romance. That's where you will most likely encounter sentences that get used often on daily occasions.

Hope this helps somewhat. Good luck.

Your method is very interesting Iggy..
i would try it later, i was like u playing a japan game (Super Robot Wars Series), but what i do is not learn the katana/hiragana.
i just memorize how the words looks like and what is function (sound like a fool). LOL!
and, here i wanna ask.. if we already now hiragana and katana.. could we read Mangas ? i mean could we understand perfectly ?
or we still need to learn some Kanji's ? (this is a nightmare).

and for me i only understand what i hear or read a romaji. lol

and here, could u help me to romanized this : チェリーボーイにくびったけ

[ONC]

For me.... well its the standard books and stuff I suppose... first phrase I learnt: 全力全開！ (zenryouku zenkai !) XD

We were forced to memorize both hiragana and katagana within a week if I recall correctly. Constant exposure to the language will let you get use to the language but I think the main component is practice.

if you know both hiragana and katagana.. yes, one can start to read manga... but both hiragana and katagana are like alphabets. They make no sense unless you string them together to make words out of it...

and tsubame.. you really confirmed what check thought of you eh ? that phrase is good enough to be used as evidence to your... "devotion" lol here is the romaji ver cheriibooi ni kubittake or if you want - cherry boy ni kubittake

[Tsubame]

For me.... well its the standard books and stuff I suppose... first phrase I learnt: 全力全開！ (zenryouku zenkai !) XD

We were forced to memorize both hiragana and katagana within a week if I recall correctly. Constant exposure to the language will let you get use to the language but I think the main component is practice.

if you know both hiragana and katagana.. yes, one can start to read manga... but both hiragana and katagana are like alphabets. They make no sense unless you string them together to make words out of it...

and tsubame.. you really confirmed what check thought of you eh ? that phrase is good enough to be used as evidence to your... "devotion" lol here is the romaji ver cheriibooi ni kubittake or if you want - cherry boy ni kubittake

i see.., thx for your good advice..
i think i can learn a little from your words.
Devotion ?! lolololol..... like i told u it was a "MISTAKE" !
hahahaha.. don't get it wrong, its a Eroge title that i share in my seedbox. >_<

[Zero2DS]

I learned japanese from hiragana first :3 taught by my friends *they really helped me out* XD then next is katakana....
For words listening to anime song and watching it probably its quite enough for everyday conversation...
the last is the kanji<<< the hardest one my only advice "go and play vn" do hear and compare and remember the kanji from the easiest one that you hear

[ayanochanmk2]

The way to learn Japanese for me is just listening and speaking.
So for the ppl that wanna know just listening and speaking can use my tip ne.
I just play Visual Novel and watch anime.........That is the way to learn how to speak and listening Japanese for me.
How? Visual Novel or Anime got the same thing that are Japanese Voice and subtitle (VN got it in case of english patch or use AGTH).
In this case, you can listen the word and match it with meaning in subtitle.
Moreover, when you listen for a long time you will see the same words that you know the meaning keep appear in everyday conversation so you can guess the meaning of the sentence and keep build up your Japanese vocab ne.
I can listening 40-50% of conversation by this ne.
And I use the same way to deal with English too