I want to learn to read and speak Japanese, but there are no Japanese language
classes at my school. Any suggestions on how to learn it on my own? I've tried a
few websites, but they only confused me even more.
This is one of the best online sources that I have found to teach yourself
Japanese. (stumbled upon it after spending 1.5 years+ tuition taking the courses
in college ) You can also check out the Japanese Language Groups here at MT or . There are also a lot of really great textbooks that
you can purchase. The GENKI series is especially well done because it's not
terribly confusing. There is also an optional CD (or it might actually come with
the book now...) that has all of the oral practice exercises on it. You can find
it for purchase on Amazon.com. (Just checked. )
Another thing that would also be helpful would be a Kanji dictionary. Hope
that helps!
But for the actual process itself, my suggestion is to go out and buy a Japanese
dictionary and actually read it... I
know. Sounds boring
But that's what I did.
I suggest the "Berlitz" dictionary called "japanese reference
dictionary" (Japanese/ English English/ Japanese).
It's excellent because it's all in romaji (so it's not in scary kanji ie.
chinese characters and japanese characters).
When you get the dictionary, there's the hiragana and katakana charts at the
beginning - I suggest you learn those off by heart, so you can read it.
After that's done, skim through the dictionary and jot down all the phrases you
think are handy for use.
Then I'll suggest heading off to a textbook, and that'll teach you particles and
sentence structures.
In no time, you'll be able to return to those phrases you jotted down and be
able to break them up
after you get the hang of that, forming your own sentences is easy peasy
But yeah, whether or not that's the strategy you want to take is up to you. But
I strongly recommend buying a dictionary.
The best dictionary out there is Kodansha's Furigana dictionary (it's a green
hard cover with Japanese/ English English/ Japanese), but I suggest it's not a
good dictionary for a beginner
Ooo! Thank you for the link fireflywishes! I am
currently taking a Japanese class at college and this is a big help! I'll
pass this link on to my classmates!
Now, here is another link that may prove to be helpful.
.......*sees that someone else posted while he was posting*
Hmmm, yeah, a dictionary would be good too. I would also recommend purchasing or
downloading audio files so that you may hear how the words are pronounced.
Rosetta Stone, is a software/cd based learning for Japanese, and they have
various other language learning materials as well. (Spanish, French, Italian
etc)
I've read reviews of it and people really seem to like it. I've been considering
getting it myself as well.
I've tried the one DarkSerge2000 suggested. It's great for beginners, but once
you get into grammar and kanji, it's kinda confusing. I personally bought the Oxford Beginner's Japanese dictionary. It has an
English-to-japanese section, and a Hiragana-to-English section. (Hiragana is
just the basic script used in japanese.) I also bought "All about
particles" by Naoko Chino. You should be able to find these at your local
bookstore. I bought mine at Chapters.
P.S. And if anyone knows somewhere, or a book that can help me learn Kanji
easily enough, could someone let me know? Thankies!
what I've used in the past is normally programs that I've ran across, try book
stores and any site that you might order things from...other than that just
watch foreign and anime in their original format, that would be subbed, and
learn it that way as well...also some anime these days have the translations of
songs subbed at the bottom of the screen
Lots of books and ummm, lots of practice...also it helps if you learn Kana
first, then Kanji before learning Roomaji, ne? It helps to know how to write it
first...^-^
try getting a penpal =0.... you can find them online snail mail or emails...
i had one for a while but we lost touch xP.... my fault though
i kepted forgetting to mail LOL she prob hates me now xP
I want to learn to read and speak Japanese, but there are no Japanese language classes at my school. Any suggestions on how to learn it on my own? I've tried a few websites, but they only confused me even more.
http://www.japaneselearning.com/index.php?option=content&task=category§ionid=2&id=8&Itemid=27
This is one of the best online sources that I have found to teach yourself Japanese. (stumbled upon it after spending 1.5 years+ tuition taking the courses in college
) You can also check out the Japanese Language Groups here at MT 
or 
. There are also a lot of really great textbooks that
you can purchase. The GENKI series is especially well done because it's not
terribly confusing. There is also an optional CD (or it might actually come with
the book now...) that has all of the oral practice exercises on it. You can find
it for purchase on Amazon.com. (Just checked. 
)
Another thing that would also be helpful would be a Kanji dictionary. 
Hope
that helps!
Ganbatte ne!
I agree with firefly.
But for the actual process itself, my suggestion is to go out and buy a Japanese dictionary and actually read it... I know. Sounds boring
But that's what I did.
I suggest the "Berlitz" dictionary called "japanese reference dictionary" (Japanese/ English English/ Japanese).
It's excellent because it's all in romaji (so it's not in scary kanji ie. chinese characters and japanese characters).
When you get the dictionary, there's the hiragana and katakana charts at the beginning - I suggest you learn those off by heart, so you can read it.
After that's done, skim through the dictionary and jot down all the phrases you think are handy for use.
Then I'll suggest heading off to a textbook, and that'll teach you particles and sentence structures.
In no time, you'll be able to return to those phrases you jotted down and be able to break them up
after you get the hang of that, forming your own sentences is easy peasy 
But yeah, whether or not that's the strategy you want to take is up to you. But I strongly recommend buying a dictionary.
The best dictionary out there is Kodansha's Furigana dictionary (it's a green hard cover with Japanese/ English English/ Japanese), but I suggest it's not a good dictionary for a beginner
Ooo!
Thank you for the link fireflywishes! 
I am
currently taking a Japanese class at college and this is a big help! 
I'll
pass this link on to my classmates!
Now, here is another link that may prove to be helpful.
http://japanese.about.com/
ja ne!
-DS2000
merged: 01-28-2008 ~ 12:47pm
.......*sees that someone else posted while he was posting*
Hmmm, yeah, a dictionary would be good too. I would also recommend purchasing or downloading audio files so that you may hear how the words are pronounced.
Ah! This website is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you... er, domo arigato... (I think that's thank you...
)
Rosetta Stone, is a software/cd based learning for Japanese, and they have various other language learning materials as well. (Spanish, French, Italian etc)
I've read reviews of it and people really seem to like it. I've been considering getting it myself as well.
I've tried the one DarkSerge2000 suggested. It's great for beginners, but once you get into grammar and kanji, it's kinda confusing.
I personally bought the Oxford Beginner's Japanese dictionary. It has an
English-to-japanese section, and a Hiragana-to-English section. (Hiragana is
just the basic script used in japanese.) I also bought "All about
particles" by Naoko Chino. You should be able to find these at your local
bookstore. I bought mine at Chapters.
P.S. And if anyone knows somewhere, or a book that can help me learn Kanji easily enough, could someone let me know? Thankies!
what I've used in the past is normally programs that I've ran across, try book stores and any site that you might order things from...other than that just watch foreign and anime in their original format, that would be subbed, and learn it that way as well...also some anime these days have the translations of songs subbed at the bottom of the screen
Rosetta Stone.
Lots of books and ummm, lots of practice...also it helps if you learn Kana first, then Kanji before learning Roomaji, ne? It helps to know how to write it first...^-^
try getting a penpal =0.... you can find them online snail mail or emails...
i kepted forgetting to mail LOL she prob hates me now xP
i had one for a while but we lost touch xP.... my fault though
wikibooks have some good stuff too. for example:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Japanese/Vocabulary
this site is helpful too:
http://maktos.jimmyseal.net/jip.html
MIT's open courseware is a good resource too:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Foreign-Languages-and-Literatures/21F-501Beginning-Japanese-IFall2004/CourseHome/index.htm
and lastly, http://www.japanesepod101.com/ is a good site if you don't mind spending money
hope that helps!