Learning Japanese

[SeekingStudent]

Hey everyone. I know this has probably been asked several times, but I am going to ask again (sorry). I would like to learn Japanese, spoken and both written forms, and I need some good books to start from. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance everyone.

-TJ

[renfield_kuroda]

First, find a school, then use the texts they recommend.

Regards,

r e n

[SeekingStudent]

Well, I am currently a student of Harvey Mudd College, but the beginning Japanese courses conflict with my major schedule. SO I just want to get a start and do some basics until I can take some courses next school year. Thanks for the advice.

-TJ

[allan]

I agree with Ren.

But... I am teaching myself too, so, for what it's worth:

a)learn hiragana (you can do this by yourself with, f.e., flash cards and by writing them out over and over again.

b) learn katakana (same advice applies as with hiragana)

c) find old copies of easier to read Japanese comics (manga) (the easy ones have lots of hiragana/katakana and also have small hiragana beside the kanji (Chinese style characters) to help you in reading them. YOU WILL NEED A GOOD DICTIONARY BY THIS STAGE.

Regards,

[renfield_kuroda]

Originally posted by SeekingStudent
Well, I am currently a student of Harvey Mudd College, but the beginning Japanese courses conflict with my major schedule. SO I just want to get a start and do some basics until I can take some courses next school year. Thanks for the advice.

-TJ

Well that makes it easy then! Buy the texts that they're using in the class and study on your own. Any decent campus Japanese text will get you learning hiragana, katakana, some kanji, and basic vocab the first year.
You can probably use the school language lab, too, if there is one. Also find someone in the class and ask for copies of homework assignments, notes, etc.

And get yerself a Japanese exchange student girlfriend.

Regards,

r e n

[Rennis]

I'd agree that proper instruction is you best bet, but studying the langauge on your own like a mad man (i.e. not just in class) is the only way to surely learn the langauge so self study can be and is very valuable (especially if you aren't in Japan at the moment). While everyone learns differently, in my personal experience the Pimsleur series audio tapes/cds are very good. Before I went back to college (in Japan no less) and took proper classes in Japanese, I spent alot of time working with these tapes as well as working through an unrelated textbook, and pretty much everything I learned with the Pimsleur series I was able to use right away when I got to Japan. The complete sets are expensive but worth it in my opinion.

Best,
Rennis Buchner

[Marc Renouf]

All the vocabulary and writing in the world won't help you actually understand and speak the language if your pronunciation sucks. Part of the importance of learning the language in a class is that you get used to hearing the instructor speak, and by doing so get used to how words are pronounced properly. But if you can't take the class, do the next best thing - watch lots of anime, preferably anime that's not directed at young kids. We're talking Grave of the Fireflies, not Dragonball Z, here.

Be warned, however. Different sexes and age groups have different modes of speaking, even different vocabularies. If you watch shojo anime (like Sailor Moon), you will pick up the speech patterns of a young schoolgirl. Which is fine if you are a young schoolgirl, but not so hot if you're a fully adult male. For what it's worth, you may get the same problems picking up speech or slang from a Japanese girlfriend. The first time you refer to yourself using "atashi wa..." to a native speaker, they will chuckle at you and you'll have no idea why.

And even if you get the hang of pronunciation, there is the much more difficult concept of intonation and timbre. This one still kills me. It's really hard to get used to, especially if your are a native speaker of a language that allows more "singsong" or lilting emphases to words or phrases.