Wats the best method to learn JAPANESE

[Hiryonin]

Well, im my country (The Netherlands that is) you can lern Japanese at home with a course that you take thrue the internet and such. You can lern things at your own speed and wont have any presure. But you can e-mail or call with teachers for questions or so. very handy way to lern Japanese. but maybe a little to expensive for most...

[MistressPookyChan]

If you have that info, can you post the website in the links sticky? it may be helpful for some.

[jRinoA]

Huaaaahhh! I wanna learn japanese too -____________-

Can't learn it here as well, since no japanese classes take place here, and also, I'm in a middle-eastern country where they don't really give much attention to the south-east asian culture...I think T___T..Eh~ I know the basics though :P

[Stryyder]

both of ur answer sound good but i live in california ...and its really hard to find a japanese person here ...and i really doubt there will be any japanese classes here cmon live in LA god!!!!to many crazy ppl

....... How long have you lived in L.A.? I live in Oxnard (just 60 min. from L.A.) Just about any Community college will have a "Japanese Writing" and "Conversational Japanese" course. As well, you live in a city with 2 MAJOR asian subculture areas. One is Chinatown down on broadway and the other is Little Tokyo around 1st street. That's about as asian as you can get right there.

[King_Shadow89]

Huaaaahhh! I wanna learn japanese too -____________-

Can't learn it here as well, since no japanese classes take place here, and also, I'm in a middle-eastern country where they don't really give much attention to the south-east asian culture...I think T___T..Eh~ I know the basics though :P

I am still learning japanese over the net. Just go to any search enging and type in how to speak and write in japanese. That will help with some parts. I want to go to a college that haves a japanese course but I live in palestine tx and they don't have it.

[Light Buster]

Take a college class. Learning on your own will not help your pronunciation or listening comprehension much. Also, being in a classroom setting will help motivate you (as you're being graded) and will help retain more of the language because you'll be using it ALL THE TIME.

If they ever had any. Oh, to answer the thread, just say what they are saying and then try to keep it in your head.

[ieie]

[COLOR=#000000]Mastering a foreign language today is very important. Many people are studying some other language except their mother tongue. I also want to learn foreign language very much. Especially want to learn English, Sprachaufenthalte or Italian. But I have no idea which to learn easily or convenient. So I hope someone can give me some suggestions. Any help would be much appreciated![/COLOR]

[Eskar]

To listen to audio-lessons in your player, I think...
Or to watch movies with overvoice - that was comfortable for me to learn English that way.

[Ertai87]

Oh, to answer the thread, just say what they are saying and then try to keep it in your head.

This is sometimes very dangerous, especially with certain Shounen anime (Naruto, Bleach come quickly to mind). In Japanese, because there are a million and one ways to say anything, you want to make sure you use the right vocabulary in a given situation so you don't, for example, call the CEO of the company you work for "omae" (my understanding, although I'm not Japanese, is that this would probably constitute reason for firing on the spot).

(for those learning, "omae" is one of the many, many, MANY second-person singular pronouns, i.e. "you", except it's very rude to say to someone in a higher class than you...usually, or so I understand, it's safe to use "anata" almost always and "kimi" amongst your peers, but "omae" is usually reserved for people you don't like very much)

[Exquiro]

:O Lucky lucky gets taught by Capernicus. I'm jealous >.< I've been thinking about getting Japanese lessons for a while... Problem: I'm poor. So then my sister goes and gets them. Why is it that life has this funny way of biting me in the backside?

[LavaBug]

never use omae for persons you don't know...and unless you are sure it's ok...
can use it to be rude, you might also use it when you are very close friend with someone (as is my understanding)...
Anyway anata is the best way to talk to persons that are completely strangers...
If you know the name or the postition of a person (like chief, sektion chief, teacher senior/junior) you address them with their title and not with their name or with anata...
Also using grammar from certain anime will get you a "d" or worse in most classes...

[dragon_nataku]

*rubs temples*

What I keep seeing in this thread: "Learn from anime! hurr hurr!"

DO NOT DO THIS!

Most anime uses incredibly casual Japanese language, sometimes rude language, and lots and lots of slang. NOT the best way to learn, especially if you have any inkling of the "hierarchy" in Japanese society (i.e., you use different language depending on whom you are speaking to).

Let me give you an example, the different "levels" of how to say "___ is reading a book," from most formal to least formal and rude:

hon wo oyomi ni natte irasshaimasu (most formal and polite)
dokusho wo nasatte irasshaimasu (next level down)
dokusho wo shite irasshaimasu (next level)
dokusho wo shite imasu OR hon wo yonde imasu (neutral and formal)
dokusho wo shite iru OR hon wo yonde iru (informal)
hon wo yondeagaru (super-informal and rude)

As you can see, there are maaaaany many levels of politeness in the Japanese language, and anime usually only ever uses the last two or three levels (yes, there are some characters who use super-polite speech, but they are rare and far in between). So unless you want someone thinking you're pretty rude, DO NOT copy anime. <-- people who say "learn Japanese from anime" make me want to do this. ^-__-^;;

Your best bet (after you *ahem* learn how to speak English properly *ahem ahem*) is to take a class. And if you have "all F's" as you have previously stated, then I honestly don't think you have the dedication it takes to learn any non-native (to you) language, let alone one as complex as Japanese.

People give me headaches...

[Ertai87]

*rubs temples*

What I keep seeing in this thread: "Learn from anime! hurr hurr!"

DO NOT DO THIS!

Most anime uses incredibly casual Japanese language, sometimes rude language, and lots and lots of slang. NOT the best way to learn, especially if you have any inkling of the "hierarchy" in Japanese society (i.e., you use different language depending on whom you are speaking to).

Let me give you an example, the different "levels" of how to say "___ is reading a book," from most formal to least formal and rude:

hon wo oyomi ni natte irasshaimasu (most formal and polite)
dokusho wo nasatte irasshaimasu (next level down)
dokusho wo shite irasshaimasu (next level)
dokusho wo shite imasu OR hon wo yonde imasu (neutral and formal)
dokusho wo shite iru OR hon wo yonde iru (informal)
hon wo yondeagaru (super-informal and rude)

As you can see, there are maaaaany many levels of politeness in the Japanese language, and anime usually only ever uses the last two or three levels (yes, there are some characters who use super-polite speech, but they are rare and far in between). So unless you want someone thinking you're pretty rude, DO NOT copy anime. <-- people who say "learn Japanese from anime" make me want to do this. ^-__-^;;

Your best bet (after you *ahem* learn how to speak English properly *ahem ahem*) is to take a class. And if you have "all F's" as you have previously stated, then I honestly don't think you have the dedication it takes to learn any non-native (to you) language, let alone one as complex as Japanese.

People give me headaches...

Now now, play nice. Anime is useful for some things. For example, I have either directly or indirectly learned a good half of my Japanese vocabulary from anime (from rude words like "urusai" and "omae" to neutral words like "kotoba" and "imi" and nicer words like "suki" and "ai"), so you can't say that it's 100% useless for learning the language. However, you are right in that you should not use it as your *only* means of learning the language, because you can get yourself in a lot of trouble that way.

[ameterasu_sunny]

My friend and I are trying to learn on our own, but it seems that we don't have the right motivation (we also have other schoolwork to do- keeping up an A average in an AP class is hard) our university has a Japanese course, so we're going to take the classes and do our best.

[MistressPookyChan]

I agree that anime isn't always the best when learning Japanese for the first time, but after you have the basics down, it is actually a good learning tool. The problem that people get into is that when they start learning Japanese by using anime, they pick up too-casual language and odd intonation. If you want to use entertainment, I suggest going with manga first.

[Stryyder]

True enough. I'm about as "american-white-boy" as you get, but even I shuddered at a high school Spanish class. I can give you the biggest problem english speaking people have learning a foreign language: speaking English. It's hard to imagine but the English language is one of the hardest languages to learn and poisons those who speak it as their main language when they are trying to be bilingual. There is no other country where you can have so many different ways of pronouncing 26 simple little letters. In spanish, italian, german or any other latin based language each specific letter has one sound, that's it. None of this "Bomb", "Tomb", "Comb" stuff where 3 seemingly similar words are pronounced TOTALLY different. Same in Hiragana and Katakana. Each syllable is pronounced one way, that's it. Granted you have glottal speaking and diallect intonation in some words, but that is the equivalent of english "accents", such as how an American, British or Australian person would each pronounce the word "Right" slightly differently.

Anyway, stepping down from that soapbox, check your local community colleges, especially the summer courses, and you just might find a good Japanese class. Though it will most likely be either Written Japanese or Spoken Japanese, it is extremely hard to do both in one class.

[kate100]

For me the best way is: www.hesjapanese.com

The course layout is very nice. Subscribers receive one-to-one attentions. The annual fee of $23 is more than reasonable for the care subscribers seem to receive. There is many mp3 file and flash games.
And there is free kana lessons.
Very recommendable.

[MistressPookyChan]

Don't just post a random ad in the forum and run away.

[kate100]

I thought, that subject this topic is: "Wats the best method to learn JAPANESE".
What do You mean "run away". It wasn't nice dear Moderator.

Best Regards

[iloveyoux]

if you would really like to learn japanese seriously, i suggest maybe getting a friend (fluent in japanese of course :3 ) to help you. D

[Datenshi]

I'm far from qualified, but if I were to offer my opinion the following are probably pretty important.

Mastering your native tongue. (This is actually harder than it sounds *coughwat=whatcough*.) If you are an English speaker, chances are you will learn Japanese though English, yes? A firm knowledge of grammatical terms and a good vocabulary in your native tongue can be very helpful tools in tackling a foreign language.

Building a strong background in the basics. Deviation from the norm is witty only when it's a purposeful deviation. When the deviation is the norm I think that's only being inappropriate.

As for the "Learning Japanese from Anime" debate, I have a question. Why only anime?

I know more often than not a lot of people's first (if not only) contact with Japanese was through anime, but keep in mind that anime targets a very small and distinctive audience, even in Japan (where I live, anime only airs after midnight or early morning, and even that's only a few times a week), so restricting yourself to that particular media will definitely result in a warped knowledge of the language and the culture. It's like if I learned English through Snoop Dogg (did I get that right?). I think the idea would get a lot less cooler once I step out of Japan and into an American classroom.

Although as I said above I'm a firm believer in mastering the basics before learning more relaxed language, I can't quite deny the merits of learning from what you love. I think I learned more of my English vocabulary through stuff like Bailey School Kids, Goosebumps, and Calvin and Hobbes than any English class ("mom, what does 'cooties' mean?").

So what I meant to say was, it's great if you can open your world a bit more. As no few amount of people in this thread have suggested, acquire a penpal. Or even read a book with pictures, watch a movie or some soap opera (I assure you there's not lack of those and the target audience is much wider, and at least the adults in it talk like real people), listen to some music other than J-pop and read the lyric sheets. This is the 21st century, for Godssakes, and there's always Amazon, is there not?

[Orca]

both of ur answer sound good but i live in california and everybody speaks spanish and english and its really hard to find a japanese person here theres only philipeens,laocian(laos), and vietnamese(veitnam)....sry i really dont know how to spell it but u get the message and almost every azn here is a gangbanger or crack head sum of them r cool but even they dont know anyone japanese and i really doubt there will be any japanese classes here cmon live in LA god!!!!to many crazy ppl

isnt that the truth. =o no japanese here inless there mixed with either white or filipino. haha. its funny really. and most likely being in California gives you the worst chances to learn japanese mostly due to being poopulated with mexicans so spanish would be heard more often than anything else.. y'know what i mean?

[Ertai87]

I know more often than not a lot of people's first (if not only) contact with Japanese was through anime, but keep in mind that anime targets a very small and distinctive audience, even in Japan (where I live, anime only airs after midnight or early morning, and even that's only a few times a week), so restricting yourself to that particular media will definitely result in a warped knowledge of the language and the culture. It's like if I learned English through Snoop Dogg (did I get that right?). I think the idea would get a lot less cooler once I step out of Japan and into an American classroom.

That made me think of this

NOTE: NOT WORKSAFE!!!!

And yes, even after reading the first year or so of Gaijin Smash from beginning to end, I do still want to do JET. In fact, that's what made me want to do JET. I'm weird...

@Stryyder: My dad's learning Italian...as far as characters with different sounds in context go (e.g. "bomb", "tomb", etc.), Italian is *much* worse than English. I think my dad said the letter "c" alone has about 8 different pronunciations depending on context.

[-Hikari-]

I agree that anime is certainly not the best way to learn Japanese. I take private Japanese lessons, and I think that if you want to learn to write Japanese, the Internet is an ok source, while professional books from book stores are much more reliable and useful. If you want to speak Japanese, although learning from anime isn't entirely incorrect, you'll make quite a lot of errors, and in Japan, those errors might just cause you lots of embarrasement.
Japanese has lots of respectful/nonrespectful words, and many of the words are said based on the rank of the person you're talking to. So although you can learn basic vocab from anime, it's not at all reliable. And you should check with someone to make sure it's right to say something in a certain situation before you start saying it to everyone. Sometimes making rank-based errors in Japan can greatly and seriously offend someone.

[Knuffle Bunny]

Just by watching animes with english subtitles can be helpful, but it won't do you much good if you don't put your heart into learning the language.

I learned Japanese on my own, starting with numbers and romanji. And then my friend subscribed to a variety of different Japanese chick magazines which helped me learn Kanji, and that was definately a tremendous help. Always learn by something you enjoy. I normally don't read chick mgas, but japanese chick mags are so much more interesting.

As long as you maintain in interest in learning the language, you could probably succeed. Also, use the language as often as you can. If you've every tried to expand your vocabulary for the SAT x3, many of the books suggest you learn a few words a day and use them where ever and whenever you can.

Living in an english society and trying to learn a language tha no one speaks and be very difficult. having someone to compete against, is also very helpful. This way, you're not alone.