Starters Guide To Japanese

[w33t]

Hello everyone! just wondering what is the best starting point to start learning Japanese. The most i know are just little things that ive picked up from watching dubbed anime. Id seriously love to learn to speak, read, and write in the language.

Is there any really good starting point that someone could recommend? I can't really go emerce myself in the country to learn unfortuantely. I can't afford to do that as of right now. Maybe some day though.

 

[~SnowAngel~]

hiragana and katakana~ it'll make the rest of learning more fun :3

 

[Plus]

http://www.textfugu.com/

Totally.

 

[Decalcomania]

I would just learn some of the basic words first in romanji because typing in Japanese does require you to type in romanji. After that, learn the alphabet of Katakana and then Hiragana.

Overall, self-learning is quite fun, but I suggest a teacher if you do wish to learn at an effective and steady pace.

 

[Frankincense]

Hi wEEt. What do you mean by starting point? Learning from scratch? ^^

If you want to learn from zero then you absolutely have to start from memorizing hiragana and katakana. After that, each people has different learning method. In my opinion, it's better to start on grammar and don't focus too much on vocabulary, only some basic words. Once you're confident in your grammar, go for vocabulary & kanji (and other miscellaneous things, such as slangs, colloquial, etc.).

Vocabulary is something you have to study for the rest of your life because you'll keep seeing new words as you read more. If you know grammar you can understand almost everything people say or write with a dictionary.

Try to listen to Japanese as often as possible even if you're a beginner and it makes no sense to you (lesson, song, news, etc. preferably every day). Just let it run into your ears and it'll seep through your brain. You'll catch the pattern as you study grammar. If you listen much enough it'll eventually pay off.

Last thing is, don't believe in everything I say. If my advice works then follow it. But it's better to find the most effective learning method for yourself. ^^

 

[w33t]

Thank you so much for all the answers! I actually went with textfugu after looking it up! Great site! I'm currently learning how to read and write hiragana! Than you all so much for your help!

 

[choonagi]

You may also want to check this out:

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/complete

I found it quite useful when I first started out learning Japanese on my own. (downloadable on PDF)

I also found this site very useful for practice:

http://japaneseclass.jp/

They're all free.

 

[w33t]

Free is my favorite price!

 

[~dreamer~]

+1 for Tae Kim's guide to Japanese grammar (best free grammar ebook you'll ever find)

this video series is pretty good too. maybe a little slow, but definitely helpful for begineers.
+ she makes some good points