Hello, hello.
First things first. I am by no measure an expert, as ryuta has introduced me to be. I am, however, learning the Japanese language, and both ryuta and Canaan have been very kind and patient with my incompetencies in the language, for which I am ever grateful. いつもありがとうございました。
With regards to learning Japanese, here are
tried and tested ways to learn Japanese while having fun. The basic idea is to surround and immerse yourself with the language I suppose.
I was once told that 兴趣是最好的老师. "Interest is your best teacher." If you find an interest in anything Japanese it can be a stepping stone or a bridge to the Japanese language. This could be manga, anime, J-pop, J-dramas, JRPGs, visual novels, light novels, literature, men, women, Origami, Transformers, Japanese cuisine... you get the drift. Anything to do with Japan can help. Especially with anime, songs or TV, try to make a link with what you are hearing and the subtitles. You might notice commonly used words or expressions which can expand your vocabulary.
Of course, like ryuta said, you will need to memorize characters and all that. Hiragana and Katakana are easier, and kind of like the Alphabet in that there are only 50 (of each). Then there's the bit that's the most fun, the Kanji! Woohoo~ You'll just have to memorize off vocabulary lists and read widely, whilst taking special note of the subtle differences between Kanji and the differences in pronunciation when Kanji are used in different contexts. If you'd like to, practice writing them out as well. I know, Japanese is
such a troublesome language. You only need to remember (for the most part) 26 characters in English, for goodness sake.
Grammar is more difficult. For a start, you can, like I mentioned before, observe common expressions used in your favourite Japanese entertainment. It's probably best if you could get a guidebook though. Also, try to actually use the grammar structures that you have learnt by interacting with people in Japanese. Try popping by the local library or bookstore. Or you could always see if there is anything helpful in
this subsection of the forum. I would recommend these two books: one for
grammar and another for
vocabulary.
All that should be enough to get you started. With sustained interest and sufficient time one should be able to learn the language.
Also, don't hesitate to find native speakers to bother with questions. I've probably come off as too arrogant for someone who is barely able to speak the language. My bad.
...And so I wrote all of that. Then I found out you were that one who penned a thread asking for advice on making a decision between Science and Art in Comic Sans. Hello again! Hope everything's going well? So like I said, you can start by looking at the characters' lines and the subtitles in anime and manga. Google Translate, while still a gift from the gods, is more useful when one translates single words and strings them together with grammar structures one already knows.
I hope I don't get scolded for using too much English in the Japanese section of the forum
