Someone help me learn Japanese D:

Lycan911

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If you're into anime, there's an easy way to learn Japanese. Watch one episode subbed, then one raw, one subbed, one raw. It may sound weird, but at some point you won't even notice the subs aren't there and you'll realize that you understand most of the conversations. That's at least what I did before I started some serious learning with youtube tutorials and stuff. Now I can watch most anime raw, and it won't make much difference haha. As for the letters, I suggest you to (obviously) start with hiragana and katakana. Don't even think about kanji until you master the first two. The easiest way to learn the letters is to try writing them everyday. I suggest getting a notebook and write, say, 4-5 rows of each letter, together with the romanized version of that letter/syllable as a guide. I'm not the best at explaining things, but I hope you understand what I mean.
 

BurningDesire

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If you're into anime, there's an easy way to learn Japanese. Watch one episode subbed, then one raw, one subbed, one raw. It may sound weird, but at some point you won't even notice the subs aren't there and you'll realize that you understand most of the conversations. That's at least what I did before I started some serious learning with youtube tutorials and stuff. Now I can watch most anime raw, and it won't make much difference haha. As for the letters, I suggest you to (obviously) start with hiragana and katakana. Don't even think about kanji until you master the first two. The easiest way to learn the letters is to try writing them everyday. I suggest getting a notebook and write, say, 4-5 rows of each letter, together with the romanized version of that letter/syllable as a guide. I'm not the best at explaining things, but I hope you understand what I mean.
I have this great app on my iphone called Japanese! It has hiragana and katakan groupings and verbs and sentence. Best of all it was free to start. Everything else. There was so much - only 99 cents. It's not the same though as talking to someone in Japanese. Yes I do watch a shit tone of anime as well to help me learn.
 

BORTZ

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Um, rosetta stone?
From Japanese teachers and others who have walked that path, I have been told that Rosetta Stone actually isnt the best way to go for pictorial languages. RS relies on teaching you the way your brain forms as a child and reinforcing those reactionary thoughts, but with a way that resonates with the language you already know. So RS is the way to go for Latin languages, but not Eastern ones, at least as far as I know.

OP, you might want to take a look at this thread. And once you have a decent handle on things, if your angle is gaming then check this FAQ contest winning thread for Japanese gaming tips.
 

BurningDesire

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From Japanese teachers and others who have walked that path, I have been told that Rosetta Stone actually isnt the best way to go for pictorial languages. RS relies on teaching you the way your brain forms as a child and reinforcing those reactionary thoughts, but with a way that resonates with the language you already know. So RS is the way to go for Latin languages, but not Eastern ones, at least as far as I know.

OP, you might want to take a look at this thread. And once you have a decent handle on things, if your angle is gaming then check this FAQ contest winning thread for Japanese gaming tips.
I agree. I might use http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/ However there is always a risk with meeting people on the internet so Idk. I feel like a have a pretty decent base. However that is mainly anime and free iphone apps

Oh. @Bortz I was being influenced by 12yr olds please forgive me
 
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BORTZ

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I agree. I might use http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/ However there is always a risk with meeting people on the internet so Idk. I feel like a have a pretty decent base. However that is mainly anime and free iphone apps
I highly suggest that if you want to make any real progress, you will want to use real japanese text books to learn the language like you would in school. Apps and anime might fill some gaps, but you arent going to learn the language or retain it by just osmosis.
 
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WeedZ

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From Japanese teachers and others who have walked that path, I have been told that Rosetta Stone actually isnt the best way to go for pictorial languages. RS relies on teaching you the way your brain forms as a child and reinforcing those reactionary thoughts, but with a way that resonates with the language you already know. So RS is the way to go for Latin languages, but not Eastern ones, at least as far as I know.

OP, you might want to take a look at this thread. And once you have a decent handle on things, if your angle is gaming then check this FAQ contest winning thread for Japanese gaming tips.
Eastern languages seem pretty difficult. I've used rosetta stone as an entry to frence and have noticed the similarities with western latin derived languages.
 

VinsCool

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Eastern languages seem pretty difficult. I've used rosetta stone as an entry to frence and have noticed the similarities with western latin derived languages.
Those are all latin derivatives.
Spanish, portuguese, italian, french, romanian.
You will see a lot of similarities.

Also, fun fact: Almost 70% of modern english grammar comes from french.
 

VinsCool

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I wish it was as phonetic as english
Well, it isn't hahaha.
That's why French is hard to native English speakers: French has different pronounciation, various homophones, A LOT of exceptions, and a specific grammar.
Also, sounds aren't the same. So basically a native English (or French) speaker has to "force" themselves to pronounce the words differently. This leads to funny accents :P

Fun fact, It's easier to French people (like me) to learn English. The opposite is much harder :lol:
Why? Because English/French grammar has A LOT of similarities.

Here is a translation here of the text above:

"Et bien, ça ne l'est pas hahaha.
C'est pourquoi le Français est dur pour ceux qui parlent Anglais à la naissance: Le Français a une différente prononciation, divers homophones, BEAUCOUP d'exceptions, et une grammaire spécifique.
Aussi, Les sons ne sont pas les mêmes. Ainsi quelqu'un qui parle Anglais (ou Français) à la naissance aura à se "forcer" de prononcer les mots différemment. Ceci mène à de drôles d'accents :P

Fait amusant, c'est plus facile pour quelqu'un qui parle Français (comme moi) d'apprendre l'Anglais. L'opposé est bien plus dur :lol:
Pourquoi? Parce que la grammaire Anglaise/Française a BEAUCOUP de similaritées."

Now, Try to find all similarities between these two texts :rofl2: Have fun to not understand what I wrote here. I promise I didn't use Google for that XDDD
 
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WeedZ

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Well, it isn't hahaha.
That's why French is hard to native English speakers: French has different pronounciation, various homophones, A LOT of exceptions, and a specific grammar.
Also, sounds aren't the same. So basically a native English (or French) speaker has to "force" themselves to pronounce the words differently. This leads to funny accents :P

Fun fact, It's easier to French people (like me) to learn English. The opposite is much harder :lol:
Why? Because English/French grammar has A LOT of similarities.

Here is a translation here of the text above:

"Et bien, ça ne l'est pas hahaha.
C'est pourquoi le Français est dur pour ceux qui parlent Anglais à la naissance: Le Français a une différente prononciation, divers homophones, BEAUCOUP d'exceptions, et une grammaire spécifique.
Aussi, Les sons ne sont pas les mêmes. Ainsi quelqu'un qui parle Anglais (ou Français) à la naissance aura à se "forcer" de prononcer les mots différemment. Ceci mène à de drôles d'accents :P

Fait amusant, c'est plus facile pour quelqu'un qui parle Français (comme moi) d'apprendre l'Anglais. L'opposé est bien plus dur :lol:
Pourquoi? Parce que la grammaire Anglaise/Française a BEAUCOUP de similaritées."

Now, Try to find all similarities between these two texts :rofl2: Have fun to not understand what I wrote here. I promise I didn't use Google for that XDDD
Hey, I actually recognized quite a bit of that. I wouldn't have understood if I hadn't read the first part though :/

Most of the world speaks english, I feel somewhat irresponsible not being bilingual. But french is hard, and you know what they say if something is too hard.
 
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VinsCool

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Hey, I actually recognized quite a bit of that. I wouldn't have understood if I hadn't read the first part though :/

Most of the world speaks english, I feel somewhat irresponsible not being bilingual. But french is hard, and you know what they say if something is too hard.
"it's a boner"?
 

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