Learning Japanese

Seems as good a place as any...

I am interested in getting ahead in Japanese before I start my classes next fall. I am a native English speaker.

Anyone have any good books or recommended ways to make my learning the language easier?

 

There was another thread about this earlier. Anyways, here's something that hasn't been said before.

If you want to get ahead, I would recommend memorizing hiragana and katakana as well as you can, and try to learn some vocabulary. Don't have to worry about the grammar that much before you start class. If you feel like you're up for it, also try memorizing some elementary kanji's. The most important thing is learning the hiragana and katakana, if you can do that, you'll be well ahead and prepared for your class.

 

Any recommended books/sites/etc. you know off hand for this?

P.S. Thanks for the previous thread, I will look for it. Who knew it was covered before... /versus/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

I don't know that much websites for learning japanese, as I don't feel that it's possible to do a good job of teaching through the web. There is one website, however, that I use to look up words and how to conjugate verbs.

Jim Breen

As for books, I would suggest you order the text book that your class will use, as most likely, using other textbooks at your level of understanding would probably be too hard for you to follow along. If you would like to use another book for outside source besides your text book, I would recommend the Yookoso series. (If your class isn't already using it.)
ISBN is 0-07-072336-2

For kanji study, I would recommend Basic Kanji Book.
You would probably have to order this from japan, maybe certain bookstore can do this for you.
ISBN is 4-89358-091-4

 

Re: Learning Japanese (Kanji Learning)

The first thing that I would recommend that you do is determine how far you want to go with Japanese. When taking your first class, try to figure out if this is something that you want to devote a good portion of your life to. I say this because higher level Japanese will take over your life quickly and effortlessly.

Secondly, it is a good idea to start with learning hiragana. Memorize them first. Make sure that when you are learning words in Japanese that you move away from romanji (using english letters to represent japanese words) as soon as possible. You'll want hiragana imbedded in your brain. Then, memorizing Katakana will be easier, because it's all the same sounds.

Then, you'll eventually get to the point where you'll start learning Kanji. Kanji, in my opinion, is the single most difficult thing about learning Japanese. For those who are currently learning intermediate to high level Japanese, I highly recommend this book: "Remembering The Kanji Vol. 1".

Now, this book is not for everyone. This is kind of a weird, off the wall way of learning Kanji. Basically, it's good for people who are better at learning logically then people who are best at just route memorization. Basically, the way it teaches you, is it helps you create a story for each kanji that corresponds to the different radicals inside the Kanji. I have several friends that recommended this book to me (including someone on VFDC but I forgot their name). This book will teach you all 2000 Juyou Kanji, which are the Kanji that all Japanese highschool students know by graduation.

Anyway, the book only teaches you the meaning and the way to write the Kanji. Volume two actually teaches you how to say the words, and how to put them in compounds. I know this method is strange, but some people have learned all 2000 Kanji in 6 months. Although I would be using the book myself, it's kind of impossible to do third year Japanese, business classes, and a book course at the same time.

Oh, and here's a nice (125 Page) sample for those who are interested in this book:
http://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/RK4/RK4-00.pdf

Anyway, good luck with your Japanese studies. If you ever need inspiration, go to this link: http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~thoureau/japanese.html

You won't be disappointed.

 

Re: Learning Japanese (Kanji Learning)

Personally, I wouldn't even bother messing with romaji at all. Learn hiragana and katakana first. Different books use different styles of romanizing japanese and it just makes pronunciataion that much more confusing. Your English side "sees" a particular sound/letter combination but it may or may not be the way it's said in Japanese.

With that said, you might try the Power Japanese series. There's about 20 different books in the series and each one teaches you about different aspects of the language. For example, one book is all about katakana, another is all about particles/grammar. Others are about increasing for vocabulary and speaking more naturally. I'd say there's something in that series for everybody learning the language. The books are in English with the examples written in kana and romaji, so there shouldn't be any problems.

If possible, get some books/mags you'd read if you could read Japanese... ie some video game magazines, music lyrics, or something. If you stay with the same kind of mags, then you'll start to see the same kanjis and words. You'll be more apt to study if the topic interests you. A lot of the "learning Japanese" books I've seen get pretty boring, so I just stick with reference books for words/kanji I don't know, but read things I have interest in.

FYI, I've been studying Japanese on and off for many years. my speaking skills aren't that great, but I'm a pretty decent reader. Not complete newspaper reading level, but I read a lot of game stuff, translate music lyrics, bid on japanese online auctions, and generally read stuff everyday. I also live in Japan so that helps.

Hope this helps.

 

Re: Learning Japanese (Kanji Learning)

[ QUOTE ]
Anyway, good luck with your Japanese studies. If you ever need inspiration, go to this link: http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~thoureau/japanese.html

[/ QUOTE ]

English Sentence:
Jane went to the school.

Same Sentence In Japanese:
School Jane To Went Monkey Apple Carbeurator

LOL.

GE

 

Re: Learning Japanese (Kanji Learning)

HAHAHA that site about learning japanese is hilarious. Depite the sarcasm, there is spot on truth behind those comments.

 

There's three ways to to do well, as far as I can say.

1: Always stay a chapter or two ahead of the class. THis might be tricky, but is worth it.
2: Study abroad
3: Japanese Girlfriend

Any (or all) of the three above tend to work.

 

Re: Learning Japanese (Kanji Learning)

lol, that guy is really saying the thruth, Now im really discouraged, I think im better of with Chinese

 

Re: Learning Japanese (Kanji Learning)

[ QUOTE ]
KTallguy said:
Anyway, good luck with your Japanese studies. If you ever need inspiration, go to this link: http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~thoureau/japanese.html

You won't be disappointed.

[/ QUOTE ]OMFG!!! I am in pain from reading that site. Way too funny.
Also, remember there are new GI Joe dubs out.

"Who wants a body massage?"