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Japanese - where to start? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Alptraum Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5505 days ago 19 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French, Mandarin, Japanese, Greek | Message 1 of 36 25 May 2010 at 5:28pm | IP Logged |
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Hi,
As I now have a lot of free time, I have begun studying Japanese. I decided to learn the kana first, and I finished learning the hiragana yesterday. I'll now move on to the katakana, but after there, what do I do? Is it a good idea to launch into grammar only, or into grammar interspersed with kana vocab, or should I do the latter and shove a bit of James Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji" in there from time to time? What's the best approach? Also, any recommendations on a good, comprehensive Grammar book and a useful vocab book would be much appreciated. Thanks. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5347 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes  Speaks: Spanish* | Message 2 of 36 25 May 2010 at 6:34pm | IP Logged |
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My recommendation would be to pursue two tracks simultaneously: learn the language (initially through kana) while at the same time studying the kanji, so that when you reach an intermediate level in the language you do not become hobbled by not knowing any (or many) kanji and having to shift your time to learning them while your Japanese withers away.
Also, if I may say, unless you already know you like Heisig, take a look at Essential Kanji: 2,000 Basic Japanese Characters Systematically Arranged for Learning and Reference by P. G. O'Neill, which in my opinion is incomparably better. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| maaku Senior Member United States Joined 5576 days ago 359 posts - 562 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 36 25 May 2010 at 6:35pm | IP Logged |
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I would highly recommend "Remembering the Kanji" Assimil's course, and Tae Kim's guide to Japanese.
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| Derian Triglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5310 days ago 227 posts - 464 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Czech, French, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 4 of 36 25 May 2010 at 10:28pm | IP Logged |
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I wouldn't really focus on learning kanji too much, when you don't even know the basics of the language yet.
If you already know katakana and hiragana, you're good to go! Most teaching books are in katakana, most language courses on the internet are in hiragana. What I can recommend you for grammar are online sources which I use: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar http://maktos.jimmyseal.net/jip.php And don't forget your daily fix of Japanese videos on YouTube! Edited by Derian on 25 May 2010 at 10:30pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| furrykef Senior Member United States furrykef.com/ Joined 6474 days ago 681 posts - 862 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Latin, Italian | Message 5 of 36 26 May 2010 at 2:27pm | IP Logged |
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If you decide to use Remembering the Kanji, I strongly recommend using it together with kanji.koohii.com. It makes the book much easier to use.
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| kidshomestunner Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6407 days ago 239 posts - 285 votes Speaks: Japanese | Message 6 of 36 26 May 2010 at 2:42pm | IP Logged |
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The biggest mistake I made when learning Japanese was not learning grammar as somebody told me it was 'easy'.
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| Alptraum Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5505 days ago 19 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French, Mandarin, Japanese, Greek | Message 7 of 36 27 May 2010 at 1:19am | IP Logged |
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Thanks very much for your help, I've been looking for websites like those for months!
How did you manage to interpret 'the grammar is easy' as 'there is no grammar'?! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| furrykef Senior Member United States furrykef.com/ Joined 6474 days ago 681 posts - 862 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Latin, Italian | Message 8 of 36 27 May 2010 at 4:50am | IP Logged |
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How did you interpret "I didn't study grammar" as "I thought there was no grammar"? ;)
I don't think there's a language where studying grammar isn't at least a little necessary, though. I did quite badly with Spanish, supposedly the easiest language for an English speaker to learn, until I studied its grammar a bit. Well, I dunno. Since I already know Spanish (and some Latin), I could probably get away with learning Italian without explicitly studying its grammar, since I pretty much already know what to expect. But I like studying grammar anyway and I'd like to make sure I'll get Italian's peculiarities nailed down. Edited by furrykef on 27 May 2010 at 4:52am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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