So, it is true when you get older you want to learn...

sam · Post by **sam** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 4:51 pm

As of late I've been on a learning craze and reading everything I can get my hands on. One weekend I managed to read over 4000 pages of literature because all my friends were out of town and I had nothing better to do. I decided I'd take on the daunting task of teaching myself Japanese and stumbled across one of those audio teach yourself a language series so I decided I'd give it a whirl. I figure this would be the best approach seeing as I learned both french and english by speaking the language first then spelling/reading it second. After I finish the tape series I'll move onto a book on basic spelling and learn the 3 alphabets. Then, I have a book on basic commonly used kanji which I will start to memorize. Whilst in the middle of learning these characters I will be learning how they're structured by working with Japanese grammar books. I hope to have a basic grasp of the language by the end of this year.

Wish me luck!

xK1 · Post by **xK1** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 5:08 pm

Good luck! がんばってください！

I have a pretty good grasp on the grammar, but I really need to work on my vocabulary and kanji skills. When talking to the people in my office, I usually get the basic gist of what they're saying, (and nine times out of ten I can get my point across), but I have trouble with details sometimes...

Green Tea · Post by **Green Tea** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 7:00 pm

よいうんはサムさんにくるかもしれない!
I've been learning japanese for about a two and a half years now and have added it to my program as a minor... however, I learned text first. I found it alot easier to learn conversational japanese after I had the particles under my belt. I suggest if anything, learn hirigana, screw katakana and kanji for now, and focus on them. They're quite easy to learn if you try hard enough.

The one thing I can't stress enough is learning the particles... you can hold off on the less common ones, but the most common ones, make sure you have a very concise knowledge of the usage of them. of the most important (in my opinion) particles there are: は(wa), が(ga), か(ka), の(no), に(ni), を(o), と(to), で(de), and ね(ne)... and when you learn ne, don't overuse it like some valleygirl...

but anyways がんばって !! if you start to get discouraged... remember there's always the 1,945 Jooyoo Kanji to start working on

(that's what I'm doing T_T ) or you can go all out and learn all 50,000 kanji (which I don't think anybody knows all of them.) the high school graduate only knows the 1,945 character jooyoo kanji.

I think you need a cooler name to learn japanese too.... it shall be....
かなえ! (in romaji kanaye)

hascoolnickname · Post by **hascoolnickname** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 10:07 pm

I really want to start up on learning Japanese again. When I started I learned enough to speak to a few people then since I never got a chance to use it I kinda forgot it

At least I know the sentance structure and the pronunciation(of romaji XD)

Green Tea · Post by **Green Tea** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 10:50 pm

hascoolnickname wrote:I really want to start up on learning Japanese again. When I started I learned enough to speak to a few people then since I never got a chance to use it I kinda forgot it At least I know the sentance structure and the pronunciation(of romaji XD)

hey now... don't be hard on yourself

pronounciation isn't that easy.... well it's pretty easy.... but sentence structure definately isn't simple. You should definitely start again!

Mosh_Mosh_Revolution · Post by **Mosh_Mosh_Revolution** » Sun Aug 14, 2005 3:19 am

*Claps for 4000 pages of literature*

Original Sin · Post by **Original Sin** » Sun Aug 14, 2005 3:20 pm

Personally, I think Japanese is easy. The only thing that's even remotely difficult about Japanese is the kanji, and that's only because there's so damn many of them.
However, I would second that you learn hiragana before/while working with the tapes and the spoken language. It will really help you out, and help you learn how certain characters are supposed to be pronounced, in different places, which was one thing that people had trouble with in my class.
Don't worry, Hiragana is extremely easy.

Green Tea · Post by **Green Tea** » Sun Aug 14, 2005 3:29 pm

Original Sin wrote:Personally, I think Japanese is easy. The only thing that's even remotely difficult about Japanese is the kanji, and that's only because there's so damn many of them.
However, I would second that you learn hiragana before/while working with the tapes and the spoken language. It will really help you out, and help you learn how certain characters are supposed to be pronounced, in different places, which was one thing that people had trouble with in my class.
Don't worry, Hiragana is extremely easy.

Japanese is EXTREMELY easy... I thought it was easy because I didn't treat it like I had german, or spanish. What I did with japanese is take an idealistic approach to it and not attempt to connect everything to english (because particles don't translate anyways) and instead just work on the ideas of each word. it's a little confusing the way I worded it... but what I'm saying is: when learning japanese, don't translate everything into english... think about what you're saying in a contextual manner.

oh yea.... kanji is the devil... on crack... of the 100 I can read (yes it's 100 now ^^) I can only write 40ish from memory.

seveneleven · Post by **seveneleven** » Sun Aug 14, 2005 3:34 pm

Green Tea wrote:
Original Sin wrote:Personally, I think Japanese is easy. The only thing that's even remotely difficult about Japanese is the kanji, and that's only because there's so damn many of them.
However, I would second that you learn hiragana before/while working with the tapes and the spoken language. It will really help you out, and help you learn how certain characters are supposed to be pronounced, in different places, which was one thing that people had trouble with in my class.
Don't worry, Hiragana is extremely easy.
Japanese is EXTREMELY easy... I thought it was easy because I didn't treat it like I had german, or spanish. What I did with japanese is take an idealistic approach to it and not attempt to connect everything to english (because particles don't translate anyways) and instead just work on the ideas of each word. it's a little confusing the way I worded it... but what I'm saying is: when learning japanese, don't translate everything into english... think about what you're saying in a contextual manner.

oh yea.... kanji is the devil... on crack... of the 100 I can read (yes it's 100 now ^^) I can only write 40ish from memory.

100!? wow and yesterday it was only 60
@_@

Green Tea · Post by **Green Tea** » Sun Aug 14, 2005 8:38 pm

that's what happens when you quit your job

(but my ability to write them has only gone up 15

)

BakaOrochi · Post by **BakaOrochi** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 2:50 am

Japanese is easy, as long as you don't try to relate it to English (which is why some people think Japanese and Korean is hard, because it's not structured grammatically like English...which is one of THE most screwed up langauges in the world).

Pronunciations are actually very easy compared to other Asian languages, since it only uses 5 vowels, and a certain set of consonants in combination.

Kanji, don't worry about it too much. It IS difficult, but the less you think about how hard it is, the easier it is to learn. The only thing you SHOULD worry about when learning is the stroke order.

As for the written language, LEARN THE STROKE ORDER. The general rule is left-to-right and up-to-down when building each character, for kana (hiragana/katakana) and kanji. Practice the stroke orders a LOT, and it seriously will help you memorize the characters (both writing, reading, and recognizing them).

My kanji sucks, I can read a good amount, but writing...ehh...I'm better off at karaoke =)

Green Tea · Post by **Green Tea** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 2:20 pm

BakaOrochi wrote:Japanese is easy, as long as you don't try to relate it to English (which is why some people think Japanese and Korean is hard, because it's not structured grammatically like English...which is one of THE most screwed up langauges in the world).

Pronunciations are actually very easy compared to other Asian languages, since it only uses 5 vowels, and a certain set of consonants in combination.

Kanji, don't worry about it too much. It IS difficult, but the less you think about how hard it is, the easier it is to learn. The only thing you SHOULD worry about when learning is the stroke order.

As for the written language, LEARN THE STROKE ORDER. The general rule is left-to-right and up-to-down when building each character, for kana (hiragana/katakana) and kanji. Practice the stroke orders a LOT, and it seriously will help you memorize the characters (both writing, reading, and recognizing them).

My kanji sucks, I can read a good amount, but writing...ehh...I'm better off at karaoke =)

Yeah, kanji is easy if you practice it alot. Stroke order...erm... my hiragana stroke order is perfect

but I actually have been kinda slacking off on them after the grade 1 kanji

But my rememberance of the ones that I did learn the stroke order on are more remembered in my mind. Out of the 45 I can write, I probably do the correct stroke order for 30 of them :/

Green Tea · Post by **Green Tea** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 1:20 pm

yes this is a double post

if you want to have an excellent resource for learning kanji check out this site:
http://members.aol.com/Joyo96/index96.html
but it's a bit confusing to find the first lesson so I'll link to that
http://www.joyo96.org/Grade_1.html

each character has it's seperate page and it's very well organized, it gives a brief history about the character and explains where the shape originated from (for those shapes that did have a specific origin)

or it'll just give a simple mnemonic(sp?) to remember it.

unfortunately this site only has up to 150 kanji (which they don't update anymore since 2001

) but it's an excellent place to start.

classic candy · Post by **classic candy** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 2:16 pm

I just bought a really nice kanji dictionary.. it's called A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters ... It has all 1945 kanji that high school Japanese students know by leaving.. they're listed by grade.. and then general use.. it also has hiragana and katakana in it.. it also explains the meaning and origins of each of the characters.. it's really interesting.. I dropped 30 bucks for it... but if you're really interested in learning the Japanese written language.. it's a good tool to have..

Green Tea · Post by **Green Tea** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 4:04 pm

classic candy wrote:I just bought a really nice kanji dictionary.. it's called A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters ... It has all 1945 kanji that high school Japanese students know by leaving.. they're listed by grade.. and then general use.. it also has hiragana and katakana in it.. it also explains the meaning and origins of each of the characters.. it's really interesting.. I dropped 30 bucks for it... but if you're really interested in learning the Japanese written language.. it's a good tool to have..

I know that book, and I agree it's an amazing resource... I checked it out from the library a while back.... for those in the fort wayne area http://webcat.acpl.lib.in.us/uhtbin/cgi ... 84390133/9

It is one of the resources that really helped me