Advice on Learning Japanese

The best and quickest way to learn an new language is to immerse yourself in that culture.

If you know anyone Japanese then spend time around them, let them speak the native tongue and ask the basics. You will pick things up pretty quickly, with Rosetta Stone you're allowed to be lazy. I have a Rosetta Stone Spanish and think for the price they're appalling.

If you search online there are people who purposely exchange on camera etc speaking different languages. You could perhaps find someone Japanese who intends to learn English? Therefore you both can learn at the same level and avoid any kind of awkwardness.

Remember that it will be difficult though, but if you persist it will be like riding a bike. Stabilisers at first, but sooner than you think you'll be popping wheelies.

Good stuff.
 
The best and quickest way to learn an new language is to immerse yourself in that culture.

If you know anyone Japanese then spend time around them, let them speak the native tongue and ask the basics. You will pick things up pretty quickly, with Rosetta Stone you're allowed to be lazy. I have a Rosetta Stone Spanish and think for the price they're appalling.

If you search online there are people who purposely exchange on camera etc speaking different languages. You could perhaps find someone Japanese who intends to learn English? Therefore you both can learn at the same level and avoid any kind of awkwardness.

Remember that it will be difficult though, but if you persist it will be like riding a bike. Stabilisers at first, but sooner than you think you'll be popping wheelies.

Good stuff.

I guess I could just meet a really cute Japanese girl. =P
 
Let me restart on a positive note.... This made me laugh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDP_LbUxdns

Update: I'm still not "survivable" in the language but I am super surprised (and excited!) about how far I have come. I'm not learning vocabulary, but I'm really starting to catch those grammatical phrases and am able to separate words. I can listen to a show on Youtube and pick out certain phrases and really know what they mean. This is amazing! I spent 3 years in Spanish (2 in high school, 1 in college) and I still know nothing except basic vocabulary. I've learned more about Japanese in DAYS than I learned about Spanish in years. So of course, I attribute that to me being interested in the language.

I wanted to say, for those learning a language, I recommend listening and watching candid conversation. Believe it or not, I have not touched Rosetta Stone the past week. Everything I've learned has come from studying the Kana (letters/alphabet) and watching/listening to podcasts/videos (lessons, references to culture, history of Japan, etc.).

I do plan on using Rosetta Stone and it is very helpful but I really wanted to get the Kana down first. Rosetta Stone is really good. But it's not a sole source for knowledge.
 
So it has been 1 month since I started. Eh... It's rough. I ended up taking a week off and I'm not advancing as much as I would like. I am learning but I'm nowhere close to understanding any sort of Japanese content. I can form basic sentences and use phrases but otherwise, it's incredibly slow.

Rosetta Stone really sucks sometimes because they throw in curve balls with no explanation for why something has changed. And given tbat Japanese isn't easily searched in Google, I can spend a long time trying to figure out why a grammatical change took place.
 
I would reccomend doing things you enjoy in Japanese for example, playing video games, listening to music, watching movies, reading, and using the internet in Japanese. Maybe start yourself up doing 1 hour a day and slowly do more and more.

There are also a lot of vloggers on youtube who give great tips on learning Japanese. Gimmeabreakman owns his own school in Japan and uploads videos are those who are interested in Japan(ese). He'll usually do translations from news articles or anything that's appearing in the news. With the translation, important vocabulary will be pointed out.

I'm also still brushing up on my Japanese seeing that it's been years since I've used it. So I wouldn't mind doing some edits. By the way, I believe jishodensi is probably one of the better English to Japanese and vice versa for online dictionaries.
 
I have been thinking about Japan for a long time. I am facinated by the culture and pretty much everything I enjoy originates in Japan. So why not learn the language?

I have a 3-year subscribtion to Rosetta stone and I have unlimited acess to Japanese podcasts through iTunes. I listen to the podcasts all day and I spend about 2 hours on the lessons per day. And I also spend time with writing Kana and Kanji each day.

Does anybody have any advice on the subject? I'll admit that I'm frustrated that I cannot understand anything on the podcasts. I know that it takes time but I'm so inpatient.

First step: learn to apologize profusely while feeling maximum amounts of shame.
 
What's Romaji?

Rosetta Stone uses Hiragana and Katakana so I really need to learn those. Kanji is definitely too difficult for now though.

If you haven't learned hiragana or katakana, I would highly advise you do the basics and learn them first. Most of the time if you are typing out the hiragana, the kanji will pop up although you'd have to recognize the correct kanji to use.

I hear there are some good apps for learning kanji which usually have 2 readings being the kun yomi and on yomi.
 
First step: learn to apologize profusely while feeling maximum amounts of shame.

Hahahaha Yeah I have a lot of awkward social tendencies which seem to be normal in Japan. That's one of the reasons I love it

Sumimasen. Sumimasen. (Actually, I've heard complaints from the Japanese that foreingers say that multiple times when it's only needed once.)
 
If you haven't learned hiragana or katakana, I would highly advise you do the basics and learn them first. Most of the time if you are typing out the hiragana, the kanji will pop up although you'd have to recognize the correct kanji to use.

I hear there are some good apps for learning kanji which usually have 2 readings being the kun yomi and on yomi.

I know most Hiragana except for the J, Z, and B. It's not that they're hard to remember. I just forget which standard (K, S, H) they match up to. And I'm good with some Katakana but I haven't really needed it so I didn't focus on it. Now in Rosetta Stone, I'm going over clothing items and I can't read anymore. So I'm going to have to put the brakes on RS to learn Katakana.

I bought a book callee Remembering the Kanji. It's kinda fun actually. I like thinking of the characters as stories.
 
Also learn to say "Hai, wakarimashita" and then just do what the hell you want.

Mm... ne.

Can guys do that? Just use ne? Or is that a girl-only thing? I heard girls in the southern region of Japan use "ne" at the end of everything to make the sentence softer.

I like dogs ne.
I'm cold ne.
I'm drinking soda ne.

Ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne.
 
I know most Hiragana except for the J, Z, and B. It's not that they're hard to remember. I just forget which standard (K, S, H) they match up to. And I'm good with some Katakana but I haven't really needed it so I didn't focus on it. Now in Rosetta Stone, I'm going over clothing items and I can't read anymore. So I'm going to have to put the brakes on RS to learn Katakana.

I bought a book callee Remembering the Kanji. It's kinda fun actually. I like thinking of the characters as stories.

The trick to learning your J's is to know your Y hiraganas. The general composition for writing the J's is something like:

shi + " + your little y hiragana

" <---is most also known as ten ten.

You probably won't need katakana much considering it is used for foreign words. Some examples would be ice cream (AISUKURIMU), part time job (ARUBAITO), and Cambodia (KANBOJIA). In one of my old text books the katakana for an apartment as MANSHON. Some of the English to katakana won't correlate but most of the time they do.

OH MY WORD! Kanji stories always make me laugh. There's one kanji in particular that talks about whipping the student over a desk. That one still amuses me.
 
Mm... ne.

Can guys do that? Just use ne? Or is that a girl-only thing? I heard girls in the southern region of Japan use "ne" at the end of everything to make the sentence softer.

I like dogs ne.
I'm cold ne.
I'm drinking soda ne.

Ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne.

Generally, ne can be used at the end to look for agreement.

paati wa tanoshikata ne.
The party was fun. (Perhaps you could literally translate ne as don't you agree but it wouldn't quite fit the syntax).
 
Generally, ne can be used at the end to look for agreement.

paati wa tanoshikata ne.
The party was fun. (Perhaps you could literally translate ne as don't you agree but it wouldn't quite fit the syntax).

Also learn to say "Hai, wakarimashita" and then just do what the hell you want.

You should also throw a peace sign after you say that and wear a shirt that reads "sugokute dabo na gaijin."

There was actually foreigner who was banned from the country and even now many people are still petitioning to have this man locked out of other countries because he thinks it's okay to do what the hell he wants.
 
OH MY WORD! Kanji stories always make me laugh. There's one kanji in particular that talks about whipping the student over a desk. That one still amuses me.

In other news today, 50-year-old+ male Literotica members are now flocking to learn Japanese. They only care to learn one character and are advertising that they need their "barely 18 *cough* schoolgirl" to whip over a desk.
 
Generally, ne can be used at the end to look for agreement.

paati wa tanoshikata ne.
The party was fun. (Perhaps you could literally translate ne as don't you agree but it wouldn't quite fit the syntax).

In casual, I know people just use "ne" by itself to agree. It's super casual (almost slang) and impolite in formal settings. And I know there are conversations where people will say

Person 1: "So desu ne."
Person 2: "Ne."
Person 1: "Mm ne."
Person 2: "Ne."

They'll just go back and forth agreeing with each other using "ne." Ne can be used by any gender but since women use it more as a sentence softener, I was wondering if saying ne by itself was more of a feminine thing or if any gender could do it.
 
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Patience is a virtue it sounds like.

I learned a lot of random japanese from watching anime. My japanese friends are amazed at what I can pick up sometimes. When I hear something that is said a lot, I start to make the connections in my brain.

Ganbatte!
 
Former English teacher in Japan here. The language is a real joy to learn. If you're just starting out I'd pick up a Japanese textbook. If you look hard enough I'm sure you could find some of the big ones like, Genki online. Personally I do not find Rosetta's Japanese software to be very good, but thats just me. There's tons of podcasts and youtube channels out there, including one notoriously foul mouthed sensei, that are really good. As for kanji you might want to check out Heisig's Remembering Kanji. The mnemonic method he lays out is not the traditional way to go about learning kanji, but there are lots of people that use it.
 
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