Where to Learn Japanese?

[Zeldafan2]

Basically, I'm planning to take a language course in Japanese, and I'm wondering if you guys know any good places I could learn it. Thanks.

[Xeno]

Rosetta Stone

Initiate rage about Rosetta Stone for whatever reason in

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[Atria35]

*challenge accepted*

Rosetta Stone is fairly expensive, and isn't really that effective if you're also trying to learn to read it.

My personal preference is to buy a textbook and a workbook (they usually also come with CDs for audio exercizes), and teach yourself. It's not a professional way to learn, but it can be effective if you keep up with it.

[goldenspines]

My personal preference is to buy a textbook and a workbook (they usually also come with CDs for audio exercizes), and teach yourself. It's not a professional way to learn, but it can be effective if you keep up with it.

This is an excellent idea.
Thus, adding onto this, the textbook I've used is called Genki (http://genki.japantimes.co.jp/index_en). It comes with a CD and you can buy the workbook separately. It's fairly easy to follow and teaches the basic foundation of the language.

Otherwise, for the best way to learn, I recommend taking a class(es) for Japanese, either in college or private (private lessons can be crazy expensive, though]http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar[/URL] is a good introductory (and beyond) for the Japanese writing systems as well as a good tool for learning grammar/sentence structure/etc.

Protip: When learning Japanese, get away from romaji as quickly as possible (Japanese words spelled with English letters (e.g. "watashi" as opposed to わたし)) and start using/reading hiragana and katakana. You will be happier in the long run, trust me.


Er, I guess start with that for now and if you need any other resources later (try not to overload yourself), feel free to shoot me a PM.

[Atria35]

[quote="goldenspines (post: 1586412)"]This is an excellent idea.
Thus, adding onto this, the textbook I've used is called Genki (http://genki.japantimes.co.jp/index_en). It comes with a CD and you can buy the workbook separately. It's fairly easy to follow and teaches the basic foundation of the language.

Otherwise, for the best way to learn, I recommend taking a class(es) for Japanese, either in college or private (private lessons can be crazy expensive, though]

I used Genki for one of my classes. It's a good textbook/workbook combo.

And yes, taking classes is always the #1 way to go if possible.

[ABlipinTime]

Point in advance: this is more of an advice post than a resources post.

I'm of the "less monetarily inclined". Being so, I've found various places to get information. For a dictionary, I use tagaini jisho, which has a built-in flash card system that's easy to use (once you figure it out). It takes information from the WWWJDIC, a huge online database of Japanese words.

If you're going to learn Japanese, though, the question is, How far do you want to go? For example, a friend of mine has a slight fascination with it but only wants to learn how to speak it. That's fine, but it really limits how you can learn it (and speak it, since I imagine he'll use romaji) and what you can do with it. On the other hand, if you want to go the full 9 yards and learn the whole language, you're essentially re-learning everything you know... with new words. As Goldy said - best way to learn is to devote time to it. If you're not sure how much time you have, find quick exercises (flash cards are good) - things you can do on your spare 5 minutes here and there, because if you slow down your studies, you'll start to forget things.

Oh yeah, go back over and restudy words that you know already. It's not like once you get them, they'll always be with you, sadly...

[Yuki-Anne]

If you have an Ipod, I recommend downloading the midori app. It has some great tools: A Japanese-English dictionary, flashcards, example sentences, etc.

Also, when I was learning I used iknow.jp. It's a really good system, and it's about $10 a month. When I was using it before I came to Japan it was free.

[ABlipinTime]

The Midori app:

it's about $10 a month. When I was using it before I came to Japan it was free.

Aww... too bad.
That reminds me, though. There are a few trial versions of language-learning software available online that one can look into.

[Vii]

A website/blog I found called Tofugu has a pretty good list of Japanese resources:
http://www.tofugu.com/japanese-resources/

They've also got a lot of great articles on how to learn/what to learn when learning Japanese:
http://www.tofugu.com/guides/
http://www.tofugu.com/category/learn-japanese/

[Hiryu]

Koichi (the creator of Tofugu) is a great tutor for japanese. Be sure to check out their YT channel for great videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/tofugu/videos

[Lilac#18]

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/lesson/english/index.html

[Zeldafan2]

Thanks for the advice, guys. I'll definitely look into those suggestions.

And ABlipn Time, I'm planning to go "the whole nine yards", as you put it. So it will be challenging, but I'm definitely going to put my all into it.

[metolosophy]

http://livemocha.com/
Its a free, online kind of Rosetta Stone, but it is actually more fluid in its learning. Its almost like a social media site, so you can talk with native speakers and they'll grade your work.
I've been learning Russian for the past three years on the site, and it really helps. But, using other sites like Genki or books for Japanese really help sew the benefits of LiveMocha to the benefits of bookwork and others sites and has made my language learning a lot easier. However, I had to learn the Cyrillic alphabet and basic grammar before I started on the site, so I got a book from the library and spent a couple of weeks getting the alphabet into my head so reading was easier.

[Lynna]

Like many people have mentioned, nothing beats learning it with a live teacher, however, as far as online programs go, I would recommend http://www.yesjapan.com/ The first three lessons of each course are free (Although if you're just a beginner, the only really useful ones are the first course v.v) If you become a free member. There are also games to help you learn the kana, and there are some free videos. The lessons are fairly easy to understand and beside each Japanese word/phrase is a button you can click to see how it is pronounced. To access all the lessons and to ask questions to get help from a teacher, you do have to pay around $10 per month.

[Kaori]

Textbooks: Genki, which Goldenspines mentioned, is good; I use a different series, called Minna no Nihongo, which is about on par with Genki. For each level you do have to buy two books, though: the workbook and a separate book of English translations (of the dialogues, etc.) and grammar explanations. I'm not sure which physical book is cheaper. However, the Genki textbook has quite a few exercises that you can do online for free.

[url=iknow.jp]iknow.jp[/url] is definitely excellent—their vocabulary sets are based on the most common words in the Japanese language, and that in itself is invaluable. It also keeps track of your practice so that you review words that you missed more frequently and review all words with decreasing frequency as time goes on, which is ideal for long-term retention. It’s just too bad that it’s not free anymore.

Although the name sounds silly, Slime Forest Adventure is a resource that I used a lot when I first started learning Japanese; you can learn hiragana, katakana, and the first 500 kanji, or however many the game includes (meanings only, no readings). It really is a good source for fast, repetitive drill; I’d particularly recommend it if you haven’t learned hiragana and katakana yet. Like many of the best language resources, it will drill you more often on items that you miss than on items that you consistently get right. Apparently there’s a free version and a paid version, but at $10 the paid version is not expensive.

Everything below is a free service:

http://www.renshuu.org has tons of resources for practicing vocabulary, kanji, and grammar. You can use it to study according to what is on the JLPT or Kanji Kentei tests; there are also some textbook lessons. Also, it has a really neat feature where you can choose the format of the question and answer, so you can practice both receptively and expressively: for example, you can choose to see a Japanese vocabulary word written in kana as the question and practice whether you know its English meaning, or you can do the opposite, see the English term, and practice coming up with the Japanese equivalent. Or for anything that includes kanji, you can practice readings (whether you know how it is pronounced in Japanese).

http://kanji.koohii.com/ is a good site for learning the meanings of kanji using mnemonics. In that regard, it’s a good substitute for books like Heisig's Remembering the Kanji or Henshall's A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters. (The Henshall is a great book, by the way!) However, it only has drills for the English meanings of kanji and will not help you remember kanji readings (the on-yomi and kun-yomi).

For getting information on specific kanji, [url]japanese.about.com[/url] has surprisingly good pages on kanji, indexed by grade level or by reading. They also have a bunch of other resources I haven’t looked through. But I like their kanji pages because for each kanji they give the stroke order, list the on-yomi and kun-yomi, show which radicals the kanji is made of, and give examples of kanji compounds that use that kanji character. All of the readings and compounds are given both in kana and in romaji (though I can't imagine why someone studying kanji would not be able to read hiragana and katakana). Somewhere or other on the japanese.about.com site there are also pages where you can view the stroke order of hiragana and katakana, which is helpful if you want to be able to write.

Anki is a flash card program free to download to your computer, and it is very customizable. This is great for any language, really, not necessarily just for Japanese. It will also keep track of your progress, drill you more frequently on words you have missed and less frequently on words that you got right easily, and taper off practice so that you practice a word frequently at first and less frequently as time goes on.

My Language Exchange is another resource that’s for any language, not just Japanese. I haven’t used it and can’t vouch for it personally, but it’s a free service that will pair you with a native speaker in your target language who wants to learn to speak your native language. You will spend half your time conversing in your target language and half of it conversing in English; there are some reasons why even the time you spend speaking in English is helpful, which the website explains.