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How to start learning Japanese?

 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages Post Reply
Dash___
Triglot
Newbie
Singapore
Joined 5194 days ago

4 posts - 4 votes
Speaks: Mandarin, Hokkien, English*
Studies: Japanese

 
 Message 1 of 8
28 September 2010 at 4:50pm | IP Logged 
Hi everyone, I've been learning Japanese for a few weeks now. I was using Rosetta Stone, but my progress has been really slow and I don't even know much about Japanese grammar. Having given up on RS, I decided to try out other sources.

I have already learnt the kana and kanji shouldn't pose much of a problem since I already know chinese. However, other aspects of my Japanese are still at a very very basic level.

After doing some research, I have these possible materials for my study, but really don't know how and where to start:

-assimil japanese with ease
-FSI
-RTK to learn kanji
-Pimsleur
-Free websites like japanesepod101, www.freejapaneselessons.com etc

Please do help me out, as I want to start learning ASAP! Thanks a lot!

Edited by Dash___ on 28 September 2010 at 4:52pm

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budonoseito
Pro Member
United States
budobeyondtechnRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5806 days ago

261 posts - 344 votes 
Studies: French, Japanese
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 2 of 8
28 September 2010 at 6:29pm | IP Logged 
I switched to Assimil for Japanese and French. I just finished lesson 44 in Japanese with
Ease. Highly recommended by me and most members here.

Japanesepod101 is good. I would also search for Tae Kim's Grammar Guide. very extensive
website and PDF version.
2 persons have voted this message useful



Arekkusu
Hexaglot
Senior Member
Canada
bit.ly/qc_10_lec
Joined 5382 days ago

3971 posts - 7747 votes 
Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto
Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian

 
 Message 3 of 8
28 September 2010 at 6:53pm | IP Logged 
See if you like Assimil. Personally, I can't stand it.

I really enjoyed jpod101, but I was already a few months into my studies when I started with them. I certainly recommend you give it a try.
1 person has voted this message useful



genini1
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5469 days ago

114 posts - 161 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 4 of 8
29 September 2010 at 1:59am | IP Logged 
Tae Kim is an excellent way to learn basic grammar and is used quite often and I really benefited from it. Pimsleur goes very slow and if you got tired of RS you'll tire of Pimsleur fast as it's essentially an audio version of it (imo). RTK is only of slight use if you already know Chinese as RTK only teaches you keywords to associate the Kanji to and how to draw them. If you already know Chinese your way better off just learning the Kanji as they appear in words rather then waste the rather large amount of time with RTK. I found the best way to start being a combination of Tae Kim's guide and Smart.fm's core 2k course. It's free and teaches the 2,000 most common words along with example sentences and audio. They also have a 6k one that you can go on to after the 2k.
1 person has voted this message useful



ericspinelli
Diglot
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 5784 days ago

249 posts - 493 votes 
Speaks: English*, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Italian

 
 Message 5 of 8
29 September 2010 at 3:22am | IP Logged 
Of all the resources listed in this thread, the only one I can recommend is Tae Kim's Guide. I dislike RTK, JapanesePod101*, smartfm, and Pimsleur and have no experience to comment on the rest (I'm using Assimil Italian, but have never used the Japanese version).

* If JapanesePod101 now offers target language only, dialog only recordings (like their partner site KoreanClass101) I would recommend using those. The lessons themselves are a waste of time. Just read the PDFs.

NihongoResources recently released its new grammar book which can be read for free as a PDF or online as well as purchased in book form. I haven't read most of it, but it seems like its excellent precursor which was quite in depth but also quite technical. The main site also has a few actual lessons to go through as well.

I would also suggest doing some searches for materials in Chinese. There are lots of materials for studying East Asian languages in East Asian languages. This is certainly true for Korean and, though the disparity between these and English resources is not likely as great, quite likely true for Japanese.
1 person has voted this message useful



global_gizzy
Senior Member
United States
maxcollege.blogspot.
Joined 5704 days ago

275 posts - 310 votes 
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 6 of 8
29 September 2010 at 8:16pm | IP Logged 
If you can obtain a transcript for Pimsleur Japanese, I recommend that you give it a shot, especially if you can get Pims Japanese for cheap or free like from a library.

I find it useful, but boring. If I were to spend money on a program, I'd go with Assimil based on all the wonderful reviews I've read about it on here.

There is also a book, Japanese: The Spoken Language <-- I think that is what it is called. Its non-conventional, but said to be very good. Check it out.

Also, AJATT is like...a mecca for Japanese and Language learners in general. There are alot of useful articles there and I enjoy reading them when I feel down.
1 person has voted this message useful



Dash___
Triglot
Newbie
Singapore
Joined 5194 days ago

4 posts - 4 votes
Speaks: Mandarin, Hokkien, English*
Studies: Japanese

 
 Message 7 of 8
01 October 2010 at 2:13pm | IP Logged 
Well I'm actually in favour of using assimil but it's hard to get a copy in my country.. Guess I'll have to turn to other sources!
1 person has voted this message useful





newyorkeric
Diglot
Moderator
Singapore
Joined 6380 days ago

1598 posts - 2174 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian
Studies: Mandarin, Malay
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 8 of 8
01 October 2010 at 3:41pm | IP Logged 
Including shipping you can get Japanese With Ease Volume I for US$46 from Amazon.


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