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AnimeEyes
03-31-2008, 03:45 AM
Heyy Guyzz!

I'd like to know how to speak Japanese, I just love eastern Asian languages, I can speak English and Arabic fluently, so can someone tell me if Japanese language is easy?:D

kizuna_Zero
03-31-2008, 06:27 AM
Well...
Is it easy?
as far as I am concerned I will say yes.

But apparently the difficulty of learning a language felt by someone is usually varied by the person, so I can't tell you the same. You will have to try studying it for at least a few months to determine for yourself.

AzureDark
03-31-2008, 01:33 PM
It took years of dedication in my part just to be where I am...

Ertai87
03-31-2008, 11:17 PM
It's very formulaic, I've found. In English you have as many exceptions to all the grammar rules as you have words that follow the rules, so there really are no rules. In Japanese, if you know the rules, 99/100 times you'll be right.

But you have to learn the rules. That's the hard part.

CroSsplay!
03-31-2008, 11:25 PM
Im doing TEE japanese at university here in perth and then i plan to go to japan to do my IT Grad Course. so i have to learn Alot of Japanese in a short amount of time and im finding it relitivley easy but everone learns at a different pase

Datenshi
03-31-2008, 11:25 PM
It's very formulaic, I've found. In English you have as many exceptions to all the grammar rules as you have words that follow the rules, so there really are no rules. In Japanese, if you know the rules, 99/100 times you'll be right.
(百歩譲って) that could possibly be true, but I'll warn that the cultural nuances of Japanese (like different degrees of politeness, social context, etc) are so abundant that a textbook approach to the language simply won't work.

CroSsplay!
03-31-2008, 11:31 PM
(百歩譲って) that could possibly be true, but I'll warn that the cultural nuances of Japanese (like different degrees of politeness, social context, etc) are so abundant that a textbook approach to the language simply won't work.
thats when you need experiance talking casualy to someone. there's about 50 levels of politeness and is really difficult to choose the correct words.

VraieEsprit
04-01-2008, 05:35 AM
Ive found it much easier than I expected despite the script. I've picked it up more quickly than any other language I've studied. But the best way to get a grasp of the social conventions is just to watch and listen to a lot of Japanese speaking - not just anime but interviews, live events, etc...and also to read stuff, also. Which requires a certain amount of knowledge.

No language is "easy" per se. They all require a certain amount of dedication. And yes, there are a lot of rules Japanese sticks to but its worth remembering that a lot of these rules do not tally directly to English grammar rules and so must all be learnt and recognised...

You can't after all take English and translate it word for word to Japanese or vice versa.

Vraie

Vagrere
04-02-2008, 03:19 PM
I think Japanese is one of the easiest non-Indo-European languages I've learned (am learning), but then, that might have something to do with most of the others I've learned being dialects of Chinese. I mean, at least Japanese has definitive grammar. >>;

In any case, I've picked up the degree I have with little to no actual work on my part. I've had no formal instruction, and I've only ever bought a tiny romaji dictionary, a very basic grammar, and a good kanji dictionary. Granted, I started nearly some seven years ago, and I haven't gotten to even a conversational level, but that's primarily because the majority of the vocabulary I know is from haphazard attempts at reading/translating doujinshi and music lyrics, and watching anime. It was only just over a year ago that I actually got to the point where I understood sentence structure well enough to pick up on what was going on in dialogue without resorting to a dictionary for every other word. I've spoken with lots of Japanese people (in English), and I always feel like I want to try speaking Japanese with them, but I get too nervous to do so because my language is probably nowhere near polite enough. xD

MoroDashi
04-19-2008, 12:01 AM
Heyy Guyzz!

I'd like to know how to speak Japanese, I just love eastern Asian languages, I can speak English and Arabic fluently, so can someone tell me if Japanese language is easy?:D

I can speak Arabic too. Im learning :) Umm i would say that japanese
is easy. Im from Japan. But when I learnt it was really easy!
But a little confusing. If you need help PM me and i can give you
lessons :)

MistressPookyChan
04-19-2008, 06:48 AM
There are a few places that seem to hold up learners of Japanese. First, would be writing the characters. Then, I would say it is the verb forms (te form, etc etc). Next, being able to understand up to a certain number of kanji (some seem to plateau after a few hundred, when they stop looking like pictures. depends on how the students were taught, though).

What was/is your stumbling block in your Japanese studies?

Wio
04-23-2008, 08:35 PM
I'm surprised you didn't mention counters.

Being as you know English and Arabic, rather than another Asian language, I would say it's tough.

Hyuga NejiSabaku no Gaara
05-17-2008, 05:14 PM
Does anyone here know how to say 'theif' in Japanese??? :(
There's this guy on a show, who's name means theif in Japanese.
But me + my friend haven't ever heard his name! He's my FAVE character!
Me + my friend are searching every where we can think of, but all
we've dug up is that his name means theif! :banghead:
Plz help...

aishiteru333
05-17-2008, 05:41 PM
I've found that Japanese, as much as it is compared to Chinese, is much easier. This may be due to the fact that you have named symbols instead of a bunch of Kanji.

vally
05-18-2008, 05:47 AM
Japanese isn't really that difficult. I'm not saying it's easy though coz the grammar can be quite tricky at times U_U
But it's really fun to learn it coz it's a very interesting language.

TeresaFaintSmile
06-17-2008, 02:55 AM
there are quite many sites in google that offers nihongo lessons just search for it.

Hanamaru Kunikida
06-25-2008, 02:29 PM
I would like to learn Japanese too.

Sorry for off-topic but does anyone knows how to sing in Japanese?

I mean like have the ability to sing and speaks Japanese?

Rizuchan
06-25-2008, 05:03 PM
Sorry for off-topic but does anyone knows how to sing in Japanese?

I mean like have the ability to sing and speaks Japanese?

I still don't quite understand what you mean. Certainly, I can sing in Japanese, but whether or not you would say I have a decent singing ability might be questionable. :laugh:

I find singing things in Japanese to but much easier than speaking it. I could sing anime and Jpop songs when I was 10 years old, because learning to pronounce things from Romaji is pretty easy, plus Japanese in music is usually a lot slower sung than said.

mississippibaby
06-25-2008, 06:13 PM
i want to learn how to speak Japanese too and others right now im learning french and chinese

Hanamaru Kunikida
06-25-2008, 07:44 PM
I still don't quite understand what you mean. Certainly, I can sing in Japanese, but whether or not you would say I have a decent singing ability might be questionable. :laugh:

I find singing things in Japanese to but much easier than speaking it. I could sing anime and Jpop songs when I was 10 years old, because learning to pronounce things from Romaji is pretty easy, plus Japanese in music is usually a lot slower sung than said.

I didn't want to sound harsh... but I guess I have to.

Does anyone have a pretty good at voice singing? You know because I'm gonna make an anime and I need a theme song, so I was asking if someone had a pretty good voice to actually sing a something in Japanese. I don't want a crappy voice as a theme song. ;)

Capernicus
06-25-2008, 08:46 PM
Heyy Guyzz!

I'd like to know how to speak Japanese, I just love eastern Asian languages, I can speak English and Arabic fluently, so can someone tell me if Japanese language is easy?:D
1) If it's not easy, will you still be willing to do it? I think not, from your post.

2) You should be strong in one language before you learn Jap, and looking at the title of this you aren't very strong in English.

3) The people I have tried to teach quickly lose interest, how will you be any different?

Anyaaa
06-26-2008, 02:15 PM
1) If it's not easy, will you still be willing to do it? I think not, from your post.

2) You should be strong in one language before you learn Jap, and looking at the title of this you aren't very strong in English.

3) The people I have tried to teach quickly lose interest, how will you be any different?

Hmm... if Arabic is her first language, then I'd say presumably she is quite talented in languages. Though there are a few mistakes in her English, she seems to have a good grasp of the language.

I just felt the need to say that since it seemed to me as if your post was unnecessarily harsh, although I mean to cause you no offense.

As for Japanese being easy...
I'd say as long as you enjoy it enough, the feeling of accomplishment you get from it easily outweighs any difficulties you might have :D

Rizuchan
06-26-2008, 06:30 PM
I didn't want to sound harsh... but I guess I have to.

Does anyone have a pretty good at voice singing? You know because I'm gonna make an anime and I need a theme song, so I was asking if someone had a pretty good voice to actually sing a something in Japanese. I don't want a crappy voice as a theme song. ;)

Not to sound harsh (Er, not meaning to mimic you, sorry.) But you really shouldn't be worrying about who's going to sing your anime's theme song until you actually have a show finished. It sounds fun to plan it all out like that but if you're honestly serious about making your own anime, finding a singer for the opening theme isn't a place to start. I'm not going to lecture you about the impossibility of doing something like that on your own because this isn't the place for it, but just to give you some friendly advice.

Anyway, I assume that you are a native English speaker, so even if you were to get some sort of animated show together I would advise you have the theme song for it in your native language. Who would you even get to write you a song in Japanese?

Hanamaru Kunikida
06-27-2008, 05:45 PM
Actually, I already found some voice actors and wrote the plot with a few friends on mines, and yes, I also found some artist and I currently looking for more. I'm not working by myself, if you actually click this link(YouTube Profile) (http://www.youtube.com/user/BlueStoneProductions), you will see that there's people actually helping us. I would actually follow your advices for the exception of "using my native language" because my native language happens to be Spanish and I'm the only one that speaks Spanish between all of us the are working in this anime. For the theme song's lyric, one of my friends and I are gonna write the lyric in English, and we will gonna try to find someone who will translate the lyric in Japanese (even thought it mind sound weird or horrible)

If you want to continue this conversation, send me a PM, that way we don't spam up this thread. :)

We were working on this over a month, I didn't just started looking for a singer.

Lights_Kira
06-29-2008, 01:09 PM
To be quite honest, I dont think learning ANY language is easy... (to the point of fluency, I mean).

English is my first language. I can also speak some Spanish and French. When it comes to how much/how well I can speak, Japanese is 2nd.

Ive been studying Japanese for a while and though it's been fun, I would never consider it "easy". Especially if you want to go more in depth with the language (writing it as well.)

Its really different from English. Even with my good memory, I still have problems remembering sentence order, and etc... and OMG! Dont even let me get started on KANJI DX <--Major Kill right there! LOL

So yeah, it's a difficult language. Alot of memorizing, studying and breaking down. Its even harder if you dont live in an area where you can constantly practice and apply what you learn on a daily basis...

But if you are really interested in learning, and you dont mind the hard work and time spent on it... I say go for it!

Because it can be soo rewarding when you finally learn something and can apply to it! That, and I love studying the language. I started out learning so that I would be able to translate manga and watch [understand] Raw anime... (>_<")... but after studying it for a while, I really came to love the language itself.

I cant speak for everyone, of course.

crunchy
07-02-2008, 07:23 PM
Its really not that hard of a language, its kind of hard, it takes alot of dedication, but you get the hang of it, Im in my first year so far, I cant speak much, but I can make sentences so I guess thats an improvement. Also, if you wanna learn Japanese, I recommend this site -> www.thejapanesepage.com. Its a great site.

Diocletian
07-02-2008, 07:35 PM
It's all in motivation.I learned the basics.So I'd say yes.If you want hiragana and Kanji yes yes it is easy.

crunchy
07-02-2008, 07:40 PM
Kanji isnt that easy though, there are 2,036 to learn. o-O

Blixium
07-03-2008, 02:01 PM
I just noticed this topic title has an apostrophe in "want" There isn't a word in the English language that is "wan" therefore it doesn't need an apostrophe. I thought I'd point that out for future mistakes. ;)

kurukuru
07-03-2008, 05:52 PM
It goes without saying that lerning foreign language is quite difficult.
I'm learning French, but even though it is similar to English, it is so tough!!

Especially Japanese is quite strange language for leaners.
There first language are totaly different from japanese, for instance letter, grammer and how to use dialects.

But speaking itself isn't so difficult coz there are only about 80 sounds.
First of all, you should distinguish every Japanese sounds.

And I wanna say you'd better not to refer to lyrics.
They are seldom used in ordinary conversation.
It is almost no use to memorize them...

Shindii
07-04-2008, 09:28 PM
I have tried to learn Japanese with just lyrics but I think I won't try doing that again.

Thirteenth
07-08-2008, 11:07 AM
。。。まってください



Well, like any language, it's not going to stick within a couple of months. It takes time, dedication and a good memory. It's a little harder since it's not as popular as other languages you may be used to being around. It's a LOT better when you have a tutor/someone to practice with. Learning on your own is an alright way, but you don't have anyone to practice what you've learned.
Learning a new language is a very good idea anyways, with our expanding economies, improving transportation and world-wide events.



まってください。。。

amluckyangel101
07-08-2008, 11:11 AM
well....itz kinda hard.my friend tried teaching me but it was really hard.i know some words but other then that..itz kinda hard.nut youll enjoy learning a new launguge.=]:D

HeartlessViper
07-13-2008, 01:47 PM
こんにちは、あなたはどのようにすべてのですか?私は東京に数回です。

Chocobo
07-13-2008, 03:05 PM
Well, here's some of my pointers. If you're studying on your own, and not taking formal lessons or lessons from a book, then you most definately want to start off with the basics. With me, I didn't know where to start because I wasn't smart in Japanese, then my school took in a Japanese teacher [Yes, actual Japanese native] and that was so much easier. I'll base this off of how I learnt the language, and it might vary with others.

1. Learn the Hiragana chart. Don't say "okay I know it" and never test yourself again. Test yourself regularly to recognize the characters, and also test yourself on writing them. For some strange reason, since I rarely write "E" in hiragana, I'm a little slow writing it now, for some strange reason.
2. Learn the basics such as the main particles [ones I use most..] and the introductory words, etc. Then you learn commands in a classroom, which can be used at business sometimes or at ceremonies. For the particles, I recommend learning WA, WO, DE, TO, YA, NI, NO (topic, object, tool/place, and, and again, place/event/time, description of object (mom's cat)(my orange))
3. Stick to one speech type. I can't think of how to word this. In school, we're being taught the formal type. Always desu, masu, dewaarimasen, mashita, etc, etc. I think on the 4th year or maybe 3rd you start to learn the casual speech.
4. If you learn kanji, take in a few at a time. When you move on to more difficult kanji, I'd learn what radicals mean. When you get to the kanji that looks like others, the radicals will really really help.
5. When you learn the katakana chart, always test yourself on both hiragana and katakana. Know the "extended" katakana as well like (vu, wi, wo(sound)).

That's really all I can give you. In the first year of Japanese here, you're really only supposed to learn basic numbers 1~10+100, month, day, day names, which is only 20, but the teacher ended up teaching us somewhere around 180~230 kanji. That's really not alot compared to the actual number of kanji there really is.

Evockzi
07-14-2008, 04:18 PM
Ive only been studing Japanese for couple months now, all Self study. I have Hiragana Memorized going to work on Katakana next.

Im using 2 Programs Rocket japanese and Rosetta Stone, which is actually working out pretty smooth, but even with my small vocabulary as it is, picking up the words that I know from anime's is easier then ever.

Thing Im still trying to pick up is getting Sentence structure's down pat, like which work would be subject, and how to phrase everything but I guess that all comes naturally in time.

aishiteru333
07-14-2008, 04:25 PM
Try learning Spanish first. Japanese is a whole lot easier learning that language.
Well, if you speak Arabic it might be easy as well. I'm just suggesting Spanish cause its so closely related to Japanese. (oddly)

~Wish you luck in learning this awesome language!

Bloodiedcrescent666
07-15-2008, 04:52 AM
Its not bad. I am still learning on my own.
Konnichiwa, O-Genki desu ka? Hajimashite.
Hello how are you? nice to meet you.
Ja matta-See you later.

ELR
07-29-2008, 11:35 AM
in my experience, learning japanesse has been hard, my main language is english, but if you pronounce anything wrong or if you write one symbol wrong, it could mean something else all together, and i too am self taught.

Sakurablue
07-29-2008, 12:11 PM
Or you could ask me... I'm Japanese

Rafear
07-30-2008, 03:22 AM
Heyy Guyzz!

I'd like to know how to speak Japanese, I just love eastern Asian languages, I can speak English and Arabic fluently, so can someone tell me if Japanese language is easy?:D

It certainly isn't easy, but if you already know two languages fluently, I think you'll be just fine.


Try learning Spanish first. Japanese is a whole lot easier learning that language.
Well, if you speak Arabic it might be easy as well. I'm just suggesting Spanish cause its so closely related to Japanese. (oddly)

~Wish you luck in learning this awesome language!


Don't make me laugh, Spanish isn't much -if any- more related to Japanese then English, lets start by comparing vocab.

Spanish : más = More.

Japanese : もっと (Motto) = More.

Spanish : Puella = Girl. EDIT = correction it's niña, thank you for correcting me pengin-san.

Japanese : 女の子 (Onna no ko) = Girl.

Now for sentence structure.

What they share : Sentence structure can be jumbled up and still work, however, unlike Spanish, Japanese requires the verb to come last in order to be grammatically correct. (I'm studying Japanese myself, and I looked Spanish sentence structure up here (http://spanish.about.com/od/sentencestructure/a/sentenceorder.htm))

What's different : The aforementioned subtle difference in sentence structure.

Now for written form, need I even bother?

Aaaaaaaaaanyways, on to regions, lets see here... hello Wikipedia!

Spanish map:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Map-Hispano.png

The red is areas that have it as the official language, the red is co-oficial.


As for Japanese, it is hardly ever officially spoken off of the Japanese Islands.


So no they are not related.

Rizuchan
07-30-2008, 09:47 AM
Try learning Spanish first. Japanese is a whole lot easier learning that language.
Well, if you speak Arabic it might be easy as well. I'm just suggesting Spanish cause its so closely related to Japanese. (oddly)

~Wish you luck in learning this awesome language!

I'm curious as to what similarities you mean. I 'studied' Spanish many years ago and I can't say I ever used anything of what I learned when it came to Japanese. Actually, I found Japanese easier than Spanish, but that probably has less to do with the complexities of the languages and more to do with how little I cared. :rolleyes:

Spanish is a good base for French or Italian, but from what I'm aware the only language really similar to Japanese is Korean. (So I've heard, as I don't know a word of Korean) The only similarity I'm aware of between Spanish and Japanese is they use the same word for bread, "pan", and that actually comes from Portuguese, not Spanish.

Akihiko Yamamoto Hozagaki
07-30-2008, 05:41 PM
As for Japanese, it is hardly ever officially spoken off of the Japanese Islands.


So no they are not related.

What aishiteru meant, is that it's common knowledge that the pronunciation is almost exactly the same.

Just for the lolz, there is a word that is the same in Spanish.

パン and pan, they both mean bread :3.

Also, puella? I have never heard that term. There's mujer, muchacha, chica, and niña. I can assure you that Spanish speakers do not use "puella". Where did you even get that from? /totally offtopic

Rafear
07-30-2008, 06:34 PM
What aishiteru meant, is that it's common knowledge that the pronunciation is almost exactly the same.

Just for the lolz, there is a word that is the same in Spanish.

パン and pan, they both mean bread :3.

Also, puella? I have never heard that term. There's mujer, muchacha, chica, and niña. I can assure you that Spanish speakers do not use "puella". Where did you even get that from? /totally offtopic

I'm sorry for the "Puella" mix-up, typed the wrong word.

I'm going to have to ask for examples on the pronunciation bit though, I just don't see the similarities.

And by the way, even if you're right about pronunciation, she said "Closely related" not similarly pronounced.

Akihiko Yamamoto Hozagaki
07-30-2008, 07:29 PM
I'm sorry for the "Puella" mix-up, typed the wrong word.

I'm going to have to ask for examples on the pronunciation bit though, I just don't see the similarities.

And by the way, even if you're right about pronunciation, she said "Closely related" not similarly pronounced.

Totally fine, I'm not trying to be a smart-a** XDD! -Completely came off as one-

Well, in Spanish (I'm near fluent with this language) many of the sounds are quite similar. Like in English, we want to pronounce "chico" like "chih-ko". However, the Japanese and Spanish pronounce it "chee-ko". There really isn't "a" as in "cat" in Spanish or Japanese, it's more like "ah" as in "tako" or "gato". There is no "o" as in "box", there's "oh" as in "yomu" or "hijo". Also, there are no silent letters like our "e" in "else". They pronouce it all, like "nombre" or "matte". You see what I'm trying to say? It's much easier for someone who takes a romance language for pronunciation.

Rafear
07-30-2008, 09:42 PM
First I would like to apologize to Aishiteru for the tone I initially took with her, I'm sorry.


Totally fine, I'm not trying to be a smart-a** XDD! -Completely came off as one-

Well, in Spanish (I'm near fluent with this language) many of the sounds are quite similar. Like in English, we want to pronounce "chico" like "chih-ko". However, the Japanese and Spanish pronounce it "chee-ko". There really isn't "a" as in "cat" in Spanish or Japanese, it's more like "ah" as in "tako" or "gato". There is no "o" as in "box", there's "oh" as in "yomu" or "hijo". Also, there are no silent letters like our "e" in "else". They pronouce it all, like "nombre" or "matte". You see what I'm trying to say? It's much easier for someone who takes a romance language for pronunciation.


Well now it makes a little more sense, but I still don't see "Almost exactly the same", nor "Common knowledge" considering Google results on a search for similarities turns up nothing, -within my lazy one-page-each-wording search anyway- and it doesn't strike me as efficient to study an entire language for pronunciation in another anyway.

Akihiko Yamamoto Hozagaki
07-30-2008, 11:29 PM
Well now it makes a little more sense, but I still don't see "Almost exactly the same", nor "Common knowledge" considering Google results on a search for similarities turns up nothing, -within my lazy one-page-each-wording search anyway- and it doesn't strike me as efficient to study an entire language for pronunciation in another anyway.

I didn't learn that on Google though. I learned it from studying different languages. Nor did I say I studied Spanish just to learn Japanese. This is what I said:


You see what I'm trying to say? It's much easier for someone who takes a romance language for pronunciation.

I never said you needed to study Spanish to speak Japanese, it just helps if you happened to take it. Of course you can make it without knowing Spanish. As you progress in Japanese, you will see the resemblance, or at least understand it. You're just thinking too hard about it.

Rafear
08-01-2008, 12:10 AM
I didn't learn that on Google though. I learned it from studying different languages. Nor did I say I studied Spanish just to learn Japanese. This is what I said:



I never said you needed to study Spanish to speak Japanese, it just helps if you happened to take it. Of course you can make it without knowing Spanish. As you progress in Japanese, you will see the resemblance, or at least understand it. You're just thinking too hard about it.

If it's "Common knowledge" I'd like to think I'd find more than a few people saying so, and I should have clarified, the comment about learning an entire language to learn Japanese easier not being efficient was targeted at Aishiteru, who recommended it, my bad.

I would like to get some audio files of natives speaking the to languages for discussions sake, but I seem to be coming up short on the Japanese end. (At least when restricted to forum rules about links.)

And by the way Rizuchan said this.


I'm curious as to what similarities you mean. I 'studied' Spanish many years ago and I can't say I ever used anything of what I learned when it came to Japanese. Actually, I found Japanese easier than Spanish, but that probably has less to do with the complexities of the languages and more to do with how little I cared. :rolleyes:

Spanish is a good base for French or Italian, but from what I'm aware the only language really similar to Japanese is Korean. (So I've heard, as I don't know a word of Korean) The only similarity I'm aware of between Spanish and Japanese is they use the same word for bread, "pan", and that actually comes from Portuguese, not Spanish.

And my cousin studied Spanish in high school and has made on and off attempts at Japanese (including a healthy focus on pronunciation.), and when I told him about this conversation, he went "What the?...".

Maybe I am thinking too hard about this, but if I am, then why is it that even when I relax and hardly think about it, I never think "hey that sounds like Japanese!" when I hear something in Spanish, and vice versa.

I will concede that in a very abstract sense of certain letters/syllables there is a similarity, but when I hear natives, I don't see any past that.

Though this has gotten quite off-topic, I'll give you the last point if you want it, but I'm getting back on topic before I provoke the admins' wrath.


Animeeyes, here's some suggestions:

1. Whatever you do, don't rely on romanji.

2. Get as much exposure to it as possible.

3. I recommend the following books (If you're going to learn using books instead of/in addition to the internet.):
-Japanese Verbs At a Glance by Naoko Chino.
-The handbook of Japanese Adjectives And Adverbs by Taeko Kamiya.
-A Dictionary of Japanese Particles by Sue A. Kawashima.
-Kodansha's Furigana Dictionary by [self-explanatory]. (Assuming you don't use/want a supplement to a computerized dictionary.)
-Remembering the Kana. (Don't quite remember the author right now, and my cousin is currently borrowing my copy.)

4. I also recommend the computer program JWPCE found here (http://www.physics.ucla.edu/%7Egrosenth/jwpce.html).

5. The above lists are restricted to ones I've used, as for ones I have no personal experience with, I have heard good things about the "Japanese for Busy People" series, and of course, check the lists on these forums.

Good luck. :)

Akihiko Yamamoto Hozagaki
08-01-2008, 12:32 PM
If it's "Common knowledge" I'd like to think I'd find more than a few people saying so, and I should have clarified, the comment about learning an entire language to learn Japanese easier not being efficient was targeted at Aishiteru, who recommended it, my bad.

I would like to get some audio files of natives speaking the to languages for discussions sake, but I seem to be coming up short on the Japanese end. (At least when restricted to forum rules about links.)

Why are you persistent on trying to make me look like a fool? I'm not trying to make you look stupid. All I said was that the pronunciation was similar. I'm nearly fluent in Spanish, and I've been taking Japanese for four years. I've had several teachers in both Spanish and Japanese tell me this. And I'm finding that you're looking this up on Google. You really don't need to sit here and tell me how utterly wrong I am.

Here's your link:
http://learnjapanese.elanguageschool.net/mod/resource/view.php?id=1

Yes, the languages are very different, but the pronunciation is similar. Stop focusing on how one's from Asia and one's from Europe, and their grammar. In the end, ALL languages have something in common with each other. Something you can learn later on if you take a linguistics class.

If you still don't believe this, good for you. I could care less. You're really making a big deal out of something so small. I was simply making a comment.

Rafear
08-01-2008, 03:58 PM
Why are you persistent on trying to make me look like a fool? I'm not trying to make you look stupid. All I said was that the pronunciation was similar. I'm nearly fluent in Spanish, and I've been taking Japanese for four years. I've had several teachers in both Spanish and Japanese tell me this. And I'm finding that you're looking this up on Google. You really don't need to sit here and tell me how utterly wrong I am.

Here's your link:
http://learnjapanese.elanguageschool.net/mod/resource/view.php?id=1

Yes, the languages are very different, but the pronunciation is similar. Stop focusing on how one's from Asia and one's from Europe, and their grammar. In the end, ALL languages have something in common with each other. Something you can learn later on if you take a linguistics class.

If you still don't believe this, good for you. I could care less. You're really making a big deal out of something so small. I was simply making a comment.

I'm very sorry if it sounded like I was trying to make you look like a fool I wasn't I just don't debate much, and tend to go overboard when I do, sorry, if anything, I made myself look like a fool here. :(

FuryCraze
08-02-2008, 12:56 AM
Well, I just started learning Japanese about 5 - 6 days ago, and I know the whole Hiragana syllabary. I don't know many words or anything tho. I got a program called "Human Japanese". Its basically a text book on a computer. I'm on chapter 10 out of 40 right now, and its been pretty easy. As long as I dedicate myself to it, I get a lot of it pretty fast.

I'm not fluent by any meaning of the word in Hiragana, but i know all of them, and can read(without understanding any words, of coarse)/write it. Slowly, but really, what can i expect from less than a week of studying... of coarse, i have nothing at all to do all day, except work for 5 or six hours, so i have lots of time... lol, spent like 4 or 5 hours today, learning the first few series of Katakana, how to say the days of the week, months, words for things around the house, a few adjectives, and other words, and how to put them into simple sentences. Also learned the numbers system today. A little confusing because it was a little different than in english, but meh i got it somewhat down.

I'm up to the h-series in Katakana, but i still need to study for a while before i get them to the point i am in Hiragana. I write out the Hiragana syllabary a bunch of times a day too.

In some ways Japanese is a lot easier than English(my first language), but yet in some ways its harder for me, because I don't know any other languages except very little of french(and I mean very.. lol).

If you put your mind to it, I'm sure you could learn it.


http://www.davidhallgren.se/nihon/default.asp (http://www.davidhallgren.se/nihon/default.asp)

This site also has a very useful took to help learn Hiragana and Katakana. I think theres something for Kanji there too. It randomly takes Hiragana or Katakana characters from the different series(that you pick, so you would only have to practice the ones you've learned, instead of being asked for a series you haven't even seen yet.), like the k-series, or n-series. And shows what it looks like, and you have to guess what it is in Romaji(roman letters, or in other words what i'm typing in right now.) like it would show ま or わ and you would put in "ma" or "wa", respectively.

Hopfully the post helped..? lol I pretty much just rambled.. lol anyways good luck!

はじめまして!
hajimemashite!
(Nice to meet you!)

Ryuske
08-02-2008, 04:13 PM
For me speaking is easy... So I thought. But writting maybe harder. Hiragana & Katakana are easy enough, but Kanji is hard... I can only seem to remember 30 or so but I haven't been studying that long..
Try kids web for the basics.. also ebay hiragana and katakana pratice books. The ones for Japanese school children are best.