Learning Japanese

Hey guys! Now I finally have exams out of the way I'd like to start seriously learning Japanese - my goal is to spend a year or so teaching English there after I finish university. Though a lot of programs say knowing Japanese isn't necessary, I still want to learn it simply because it will make things far easier and I'd also like to watch a lot more things without subtitles and so on.

However, I don't have huge amounts of money to spend on an expensive computer program (like Rosetta Stone) or tutoring. As a result I was wondering if anybody had any recommendations in terms of textbooks for beginners or good websites? Thank you~

I hear the best textbooks are the Genki textbooks. I've just started trying to learn properly and they're what I'm using. My friend is at N3 level... that's like, business level I think, and he's been using the Genki textbooks. They seem really good so far. As for websites I'm not sure...

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Post last edited by Kazegami on 06.22.2012, 10:08 AM.

Ooh, exciting! I have some friends who've done that and they've all really enjoyed it. I agree that learning Japanese is a really good idea, even if it's not required for the job.

My favourite resource so far has been JapanesePod101 . The basic subscription is not expensive ($4/month), and I found their lessons to be more fun than textbooks. Also, I noticed that I remembered phrases much more easily when I learned them by hearing them in a dialogue, than when I read them, especially when they were spoken with some dramatic emphasis so the sound sticks. I didn't have to listen to a lesson more than once or twice, to remember it permanently.

That said, it's probably good to get a textbook too, as a written resource. Their website does have PDFs and videos and other good things for helping with reading/writing, but it can be easy to get distracted when you're on a computer.

Also, some of my friends who I've recommended Japanesepod101 to complained that there's too much "fluff". I like the fluff, since it's entertaining and also has useful cultural stuff, but if you're disciplined and want to cram lots of grammar and vocabulary in a short time, it's definitely not the way to go. It's better for twice-a-day, improve-slowly-over-months stuff, I think. And of course, if there's a word you're trying to remember, it's easier to look it up in a list than hunting through audio tracks to find it.

I used Genki I and II at university, and they were good too. But it would take a lot more discipline to study with them I think, and you need a partner to practice with to make use of most of the content.

I also bought A Guide to Writing Kanji & Kana, which I tried many times to use to study Kanji, but I didn't have enough discipline, I guess. When I moved to Japan, I brought it with me and tried again and found it was much easier to study Kanji when I was surrounded by them everywhere, so each one I learned was a new one I could recognize. But it's not really essential to know Kanji, except for some simple ones like numbers, until you want to read.

I would recommend learning the two phonetic alphabets, Hiragana and Katakana, starting with Katakana (although most resources start with Hiragana). Katakana is used for foreign words like English, so as soon as you know the alphabet, you can read the words. Then, by the time you start learning Hiragana you'll know some Japanese vocabulary too, so it will make more sense.

Tae Kim's guide is a good quick resource for grammar if you want to say something in particular but don't know to express it.

Rikaichan is a really helpful browser plugin that will translate kanji when you hover over it, and can also be used as a Japanese-to-English dictionary by typing in words. (You'll probably want to add Japanese typing to your computer, too, so that you can type in Japanese. That's done through your operating system settings, and doesn't take long).

Umm... that's all I can come up with right now! Good luck, and がんばって！　

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Post last edited by Mush on 06.22.2012, 01:39 PM.

This is helpful to me too. Makes me wonder what textbooks at university I'll have for this.
(oh god, so many language books to be had...)

Genki is what I use in class, and I think it's very good, but the books are also pretty expensive! And Rikaichan is definitely a useful thing, thought perhaps not so much for actually learning. It can help you for recognising kanji though, I suppose, and for translating individual words.

In my course there's also a big list of online resources, so I can sift through that and see if there's anything that would be useful for you!

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I sit in the library pouring over every japanese language textbook/workbook.

Whether you learn hiragana or katakana first, the fact remains that when learning japanese, it's better to know your kana first and learn basic japanese by reading them in japanese and not in English alphabet. Doing the latter will affect your diction, particularly when it comes to characters like 'tsu' and 'fu/hu', and weaken your emphasis for the character 'n'.

Whichever way you decide to do it though, remember that our lil' community here have got quite a few relatively fluent speakers ourselves, so you can count on free tuition anytime, ja?

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Originally posted by fenkashi
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Oh you guys :') Thank you so much for giving me such extensive advice! It is really, really helpful!

I've heard of the Genki textbooks before but been put off by how expensive they are - but I think it may be worth investing in one for their quality. Still spending £50+ on a textbook is daunting aha! I might investigate what other textbooks might be good to get me started? Humhum.

But yeah thanks! I'll take a look at some of those sites suggested now And yeah arren definitely do so!

I would be interested as well, arren....

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Originally posted by Nausicaa_Cat
Oh you guys :') Thank you so much for giving me such extensive advice! It is really, really helpful!

I've heard of the Genki textbooks before but been put off by how expensive they are - but I think it may be worth investing in one for their quality. Still spending £50+ on a textbook is daunting aha! I might investigate what other textbooks might be good to get me started? Humhum.

But yeah thanks! I'll take a look at some of those sites suggested now And yeah arren definitely do so!

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Originally posted by Kazegami

quote:

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Originally posted by Nausicaa_Cat
Oh you guys :') Thank you so much for giving me such extensive advice! It is really, really helpful!

I've heard of the Genki textbooks before but been put off by how expensive they are - but I think it may be worth investing in one for their quality. Still spending £50+ on a textbook is daunting aha! I might investigate what other textbooks might be good to get me started? Humhum.

But yeah thanks! I'll take a look at some of those sites suggested now And yeah arren definitely do so!

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You have a PM on that subject. ^^;

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So I looked up the stuff on that list and got a few things!

Here are a couple of good interactive charts for learning kana:
http://genki.japantimes.co.jp/site/self/...a/hiragana.html
http://genki.japantimes.co.jp/site/self/...u/katakana.html

This is a site I used a little bit, for language used in anime and manga. It's not so good for serious learning, but it is quite fun and teaches you about different ways of speaking:
http://anime-manga.jp/index_english.html

This one has videos and various other stuff. We were shown it in class but I've never used it properly. It seemed pretty good though:
https://www.erin.ne.jp/en/

And this is another list, which seems to have loads of stuff on it:
http://www.jpf.org.uk/language/links.php#01a

I hope some of this might be useful to you!

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