How did you learn Japanese?

[sugoi-san]

Well I could teach you, Erisa.

[aishiteru333]

At first it was little words like kawaii and baka but then you start making sentences.
Eventually, I learned particles and I'm able to do greetings and compliments but I haven't been focusing too much.
There's a website that teaches you. PM me if you want to know it.

[Tsundere Works]

At first it was little words like kawaii and baka but then you start making sentences.
Eventually, I learned particles and I'm able to do greetings and compliments but I haven't been focusing too much.

Oh gawd, the dreaded kawaii and baka...
/facepalm

But now you know more than the average person who tries "to learn Japanese," right?

There's a website that teaches you. PM me if you want to know it.

Just edit your post and paste the URL.

I will be going to college after I graduate from high school so maybe I can take some classes there, but I don't want to spend too much obviously though...

On another note: Learning a language takes time and dedication.

If you don't have enough of either of the two, you're best not wasting your time. I'm probably guessing I'll take around four years to get used to the language a good bit.

If you're trying to look for the "fastest" way to learn it, that won't work either. Everyone learns at their own pace, find yours and stick to it.

Now if you're looking for the most effective way to learn it, that's something else.

I'm surprised nobody put this website up yet: http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/about

It's a blog about a guy who learned Japanese using his own method. Keep in mind everybody's different, but this person may provide more insight with respect to what helps when learning Japanese.

[parallelines]

I learn japanese when i got a friend who speaks Japanese. And we're both trying to teach Language. She taught me Japanese and i taught her English. That's how i learn Japanese. :P

Cirno.

[Tsundere Works]

I learn japanese when i got a friend who speaks Japanese. And we're both trying to teach Language. She taught me Japanese and i taught her English. That's how i learn Japanese. :P

Cirno.

I love Cirno, she's so awesome! [All Hail the ⑨]

Hey, is your username from the song: Parallel Lines from Kagamine Len/Rin? That song is also awesome.

You're lucky to have a friend that actually wants to learn. I have a friend who is 1/4 Japanese, we took Japanese together, but he failed it because he never studies. He ended up being useless.

I have nobody to talk in Japanese with.

[Akito0o]

I Took it in college, and I really picked a lot up living there for a year. (studied over seas)

[Anuket]

Wow, never thought that there are actually a lot of people into languages.

Japanese:
I started studying Japanese in high school, it was an elective in school. It wasn't so hard for me because I speak/read/write fluent Mandarin Chinese. I've lived in China for the past ten years of my life, great huh? Yeah, helped me a lot with studying Asian languages. But now, me being a lazy arse and whatnot my Japanese isn't going anywhere, not upgrading myself at all.

Chinese:
It is pretty difficult for anyone who wants to study it, especially for westerners. Chinese as many people know is hard when it comes to pronunciation, I had major difficulties when I was starting. But I was 7 back then, so like any other kid it wouldn't take long till I get use to the whole pronunciation thing.

I personally think, the best way to really study a language is to have the enviroment. Like me, studying Chinese was easy because everyone around me were Chinese. >.< And back in high school when I was studying Japanese I had a Japanese teacher, which is pretty cool.

[ParaParaJMo]

My high school had it and it was just there for me to take it. Got the highest grade, went to Hiroshima between Jr. and Sr. year, and took it in college.

[noobee]

I am learning it in college

[Lord Fluff]

I took Japanese this past school year in high school, and I signed up to take the second year next year. I found that the class challenged me more than any other class I had taken up to that point (until AP's kicked into high gear). Because of the challenge when I did well it was much more rewarding. A A- for me in that class was better than A+ in most other classes.

Hiragana and Katakans were pretty easy learn, but kanji killed my grade both semsters. Reading and writing to are easier for me than speaking and listening just because the sounds are so foreing to me. I speak Englsih, Spanish, and a little French, none of which sound anything like Japanese. For some reason I really like languages, I also hope to learn Italian, Mandarin, and German.

Amyway, in the end I did manage to get an A on both semseter finals, and B+ in the class. After High school I'm hoping to continue to take Japanese classes in community college.

P.S. I'm so checking out the kanji websites people have posted, anything to help me with that.

[zeldamaster2009]

I'm in grade eight and am currently studying Japanese. I think it's fun, and I can learn a lot of new things as well. It's easier than English so far, that's all i can say. But if there's someone on this site that can help me a little more, that would be great.

[Barcode.]

In eighth grade, my school had the student exchange program and I signed up for Japan.
A few weeks prior to the trip, the guide taught us the basics of their language and culture. It wasn't much but I managed to get by.

[HarukaShou]

At first, I started learning it by watching anime in Japanese, now I'm studying it.

[deathdaycake]

I went to a Japanese school called the Melbourne International School of Japanese for seven years. It's a school that on every Saturday (it made my weekends one-day, for that long )

[Zodiac_Hart]

First off... Chinese is harder than Japanese... both reading, writing, and if you have a hard time hearing (not trying to put down here, I am slow/mistake people sometimes if they talk fast and in Chinese, they talk fast. Not to mention the "same-sounding" words can have different meanings depending on the voice frequency/pitch you use.)

If you want a fun and easy way to earn choppy, slang, and very situational japanese that only most young generations will be impressed by, go ahead and watch anime. It only takes you so far until you realise some people think you're just a anime junkie/someone inspired in japanese pop-culture/entertainment.

If you are serious and want to be cool like that supposed Italian chick from Kill Bill Vol. 1 and speak very fluent japanese, and learn to read and write basically being able to get around japan on your own, go take courses at college/universities that offer it, read manga and anime but understand those are situational. Although if you're serious, you should be able to read literature and novels just fine, and watch japanese television programs and enjoy things like "owarai bangumi"s.

Like others have mentioned, constantly immersing yourself in the culture and language is ***key*** to becoming very good at not only speaking japanese, but any language at all.

Whatever you choose to do, I wish you the best.

[Inuyashalover23]

First I picked up some words and expressions from anime,then I found some online sites and tried to understand the grammar,then(lucky me) I found out my city is giving free lessons in 5 or 6 languages,including Japanese,I studied it for 15 days 2 hours per day.My teacher Emi Kusumoto was great,we learned to write and read hiragana,some decent vocabulary,verbs,particles and simple sentences...Now I'll wait another year to go again to level 2
I got used to Japanese in less than a year,now I don't even think about where should I put the verb etc.

[Balance]

１年高校学校から、日本語のクラスで毎日べんきょうした。でも、俺はべつに上手じゃない。・ﾟ・(つД｀) ・ﾟ・

I haven't been using my Japanese lately so I might be losing my edge.

[Gero50]

Hey, I was just curious as to how some of you learned Japanese?
I have always been interested in learning it, but at my high school, they do not offer it, but they do offer Chinese, however, not enough people ever join to make the class happen. Is their any similarity between the two? I mean, I noticed that they look the same but as far as learning them, are they kind of the same?... Anyways I was just curious because I hope to learn it as well. I will be going to college after I graduate from high school so maybe I can take some classes there, but I don't want to spend too much obviously though...

Well Chinese may look like Japanese but trust me when I say it is nothing like it. I thought that to once until I tried both and found myself kicking and screeming to figure it out. Chinese is the hardest langidge to learn as rated a level 4 langidge by the US Military School of Linguistics. Where is Japanese is much easier but still consider a level 3 language. But if you want a jump start you can do what most anime fans do including myself, and watch subbed anime. It may sound like being lazy and like it won't get you anyware but it dose work at least to et you the basics you need to even enter a Japanese course. I would shot a little online for a audio cd of english and Japanese words and phrases they even make ones that say English first and then the direct traslation into Japanese. Though be extra careful on which one you buy because Japanese can be translated into English many different ways so make sure to get the right one. Good luck and I hope this helps.

[appztetra]

from internet and only it takes time though....

[Unrested]

over the past three years it has been a hell of a struggle, and I hear it everyday. Personally for me I find its really easy for my to learn and memorize loads of words and kanji symbols so I work with this strength. On the other hand I am crap with grammar, and still after 3 years, as soon as I get out of simple conversations - my grammar begins to quickly detoriate and I begin to stumble even more as I know the sentences coming out of my mouth sound childish if not utterly ignorant.

still, you will find your strengths with any language and I say focus on that as hard as you can. Also remember that books only help so much. You are not truly adapting to a new langauge until you are actually speaking it, listening to it, and responding to other native speakers. If you are not living in japan or do not have native speaking friends try to skype with a native speaker if you can. you will find loads of language exchange friends if you really search!

also realize when people speak at normal speed you are probably only going to be able to pick out a few words. still to this day I have alot of trouble following japanese television as keigo (which is most common in text study) is rarely used on air, and the volume of slang and idioms is brutally mind boggling.

Lastly, the best advice I can give, never never stop studying even if you think you are making zero progress. There have been so many times where I felt I was not only not getting better, but getting worse. Still, today while reading junior high school level manga i forget one kanji and want to punch myself in the face its so simple...BUT you are always improving no matter what you think!!

[OtakuInu!!!]

I learned from anime, my friends, and other reference materials. I'm not fluent though.

[Ryusui]

By the seat of my pants and the skin of my teeth. :3

Kana came first...an attempt to work out the kana, anyway. I had an old Pokemon Collector magazine that had a card list for the latest Japanese set and I realized I knew most of the Japanese 'mon names, so I tried my hand at figuring out what all those little symbols meant.

Shortly thereafter, I got Japanese The Easy Way, and my war on the language began. The New Nelson Japanese/English Character Dictionary helped immensely; I once relied on a (pretty crappy) Random House J/E dictionary, but I later upgraded to Sanseido's and nowadays I use the one built into JWPce. Everything in between has been ad hoc, a piecemeal sink-or-swim approach based entirely on live combat...I mean, frequent contact with the language. ^_^;

Today, several years later...well, I'm still far from perfect, but I pride in my ability to use my Japanese knowledge to hack and slash my way through the dumbassity that has accumulated around various fandoms. (I wish I could put my foot through the face of the guy who translates for TV-Nihon. Or at least the guy who thinks they're good enough to actually use.) Oh, and I was good enough to retranslate Breath of Fire 2, so it's all been good for something, right?

[Unrested]

Well Chinese may look like Japanese but trust me when I say it is nothing like it. I thought that to once until I tried both and found myself kicking and screeming to figure it out. Chinese is the hardest langidge to learn as rated a level 4 langidge by the US Military School of Linguistics. Where is Japanese is much easier but still consider a level 3 language. But if you want a jump start you can do what most anime fans do including myself, and watch subbed anime. It may sound like being lazy and like it won't get you anyware but it dose work at least to et you the basics you need to even enter a Japanese course. I would shot a little online for a audio cd of english and Japanese words and phrases they even make ones that say English first and then the direct traslation into Japanese. Though be extra careful on which one you buy because Japanese can be translated into English many different ways so make sure to get the right one. Good luck and I hope this helps.

well i dont know if i would say chinese is COMPLETELY different. i mean they use alot of the same kanji that mean the same thing. they even share some of the same sounds. like kanpai etc. Also most chinese people I know here in japan, although they cannot speak japanese, can read most of it because they know the meaning of the kanji.

Now i will agree with you that it is far harder than japanese. even japanese people tell me learning english is way easier than learning chinese even though they share the some of the same kanji and english uses the roman alphabet and has way more sound combinations than japanese. also chinese use kanji for EVERYTHING even when adapting foreign words.

At this point i have memorized a little over 1,000 kanji but can you imagine kanji for everything and remembering the stroke order? I honestly dont know how they do it!!

[midori-no-ink]

To me Japanese gets tricky when you get into formal registers (keigo) and kanji.

I started in sixth grade by teaching myself - basic words, katakana and hiragana from a Mario Paint guide. I started once-weekly lessons the next year working out of "Japanese for Busy People" to gain basic grammar and conversational skills, then the next year added on another course that worked out of ICU's "Japanese for College Students" and helped to improve my kanji and writing in general. This continued throughout my high school career.

My summer vacations consisted of Japan-themed camps, including a US-based "culture exchange" and a Japanese immersion camp, as well as a trip or two to Japan (including a month-long "immersion" program).

My college career has consisted of a Japanese class every semester, plus a year abroad. My summer job is working at Japanese immersion camp (and I love every minute of it)!

Silly as it sounds, I test my listening comprehension through subbed anime (so I can check if I've misunderstood something) and enjoy using text-based Japanese chat programs.

When I graduate in the spring I intend to properly prepare for the JLPT 2. I'm about halfway there on kanji, and my keigo could use some brushing up...

...but ultimately my strength lies in translation. Long live the dictionary!!

[Capitán]

Self taught and then took classes in college (currently) About to take JPN 2 in the summer or fall next year depends on my circumstances. I keep in touch with my old teacher and ask her questions about sentence structure and writing if I got a problem with any of it. My main concerns as of now is sentence structure. To me, its harder than kanji.