CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

I have a nice big gappy summer ahead of me and instead of letting my brain rot, it would be good to attempt to learn a language. I'm looking at either Spanish or Japanese, but I'll probably go with Japanese since I'm going to have two consecutive years of high-school Spanish anyways.

Either way I can't got classes for them. No teen apparently wants to enrich their mind with a new tongue since the community college didn't even offer one single language class for teens this year.

So I'm stuck with self-teaching really. Since consistency is NOT my strong point, that could prove hard. I have a weak will...*glances at stubby nails with chipped polish*

Any tips for a self-teacher?

I don't know...check out some sites where you can here them speak it...I am doing the same thing...but I chosen German....@.@ Maybe we can start a thread for others who want to learn a different language. PM me please.
- Soran

I did Latin that way for a bit. Find some good texts and set a goal of being able to read or understand something.

And, since you are looking at a language that somebody actually speaks (I did classical Latin), find somebody who speaks the language to practice with.

Umn. I have taken Spanish classes in public school (just finished level 3 recently! ^_^) Japanese seems like it will definately be the harder language to teach yourself because you are dealing with a completely different alphabet and symbol system than English. Spanish uses basically the same alphabet system as English.

As for suggestions on how to study, each person is different and also learns differently. If you are just starting out teaching yourself, try some different methods: getting audio tapes from your local library, getting books from the library pertaining to whichever language you decide to study first, and there also maybe some sort of tutorial program in your area in which a person could help you learn a language. Sometimes public libraries have such programs.

I wish you well on your journey to better your mind, and to increase your language abilities!

try C++

Yeah I know Japanese will be a hard one. I tried to do some hirangana last year and got throught the first line and stopped...-_-'
But the 3 writing styles will probably make it murder. I'll definately lay off of kanji for now.
I hope my library has some books.

JapaneseOnline is a good place to start if you want to teach yourself Japanese. They have sound files for all of the lessons, and it's all completely free. If you want to pay for lessons, I hear YesJapan is excellent. They have a couple of free sample videos.

I wish you the best of luck! It's so hard to stay motivated and teach yourself. I've tried and given up many times. Whatever you choose, have fun with it! It's always easier to learn something if you enjoy it.

Oh yeah, one more thing: When I first came to the point of learning hiragana, I was just completely overwhelmed and gave up. A year after that, I decided to take it on. I learned both Hiragana and Katakana in just over a month. (I could have learned in a month, but I kinda took a week off at Christmas) The best thing about it was I had fun! Who knew? The best thing I found to do is just practice one line of kana each day (or as you have time for) writing each character a good 30 to 50 times, and testing yourself in the end. Repetition is key for memorization. I still know absolutely no Kanji, but at least I can brag to my friends that I can read/write simple Japanese.

Make it fun for yourself. I've used two different games, and they've greatly improved my reading ability in Japanese(though I'm a pretty sloppy writer still).

Look up on Google: Slime Forest and Knuckles in China Land. They require you to call up the meanings and soundings of different characters, starting with hiragana. You "fight" enemies by recalling it. It's like flashcards, but much more entertaining.

If you can get yourself hooked on it, it'll help ya!

Nifty stuff.

I had a Japan-Online.com account, methinks. Should be around somewhere...

I especially like the games, but the slime one started on katakana not hiragana. Different versions maybe? ...unless I selected some option without realizing it.

If anyone knows somebody on here who will teach a language, please have her/him PM me and Ruby....thankies!...oh, hi Ru.

Definately give YesJapan a serious look. Best pay site you will ever invest in.

...I will keep that open, Thank you!

Attention: If anyone hear is interested in learning while teaching, or teaching Japanese, please pm Phantom_Sorano and RubyRed with your information. Thank you for your time and cooperation.