how to study japanese

[xXNovaxX]

Hi
Just wondering, having NO JAPANESE LANGUAGE knowledge, where (websites) or any oher resources people have is the best place to start to get an idea of japanese. I was thinking, if i can try  and understand/self teach (this is where the usefulness of the resources comes in) the language before next year, i can see if i really want to study japanese.

So let me know please

[IntoTheNewWorld]

First of all, I would like to say that Japanese is awesome, and as soon as you start studying it you will love it and want to pursue it at University, and beyond~

If you want to just get a feel for Japanese, I recommend http://www.japanesepod101.com/. You get download access for 10 days, just download EVERYTHING from the newbie/beginner series within those 10 days =]. These are podcasts, presented in a pretty entertaining way. I wouldn't use it as a sole source of learning though >_>

If you find that you like it, I suggest you start learning hiragana (a japanese writing system) straight away. There are many many many sites teaching hiragana. Learning Japanese romanized just isn't cool.

Otherwise just watch anime D:

[Fyrefly]

There are PLENTY of websites you can learn things from! ^_^
Make sure you're interactive with people though!
It gets a little bit boring if you do it just by yourself... I tried it when I intermitted semester 1 last year and I fizzled out a bit.
If you don't know anyone in RL you can practice/learn with, there are enough people on VN doing Jap to help you with beginner stuff.

It's probably good to start off with some basic phrases, and by learning hiragana and katakana.
Check out this website and pick some of the things that capture your interest:

http://www.learn-hiragana-katakana.com/review-play-hiragana-game/

You'll feel really cool once you've learned katakana because you'll pretty much be able to understand the meaning of anything written in it, lol.
Eg. コンピュータ・サイエンス　reads kompyuuta saiensu (computer science!)

Good beginner dictionaries:
http://www.jisho.org (Good for single words and/or example sentences to help a bit with grammar)
http://www.rikai.com/ (Good for translating chucks of text - I think it'll only do the kanji though)

And anime is always a fun way to practice listening and picking up a few words here and there.
A friend of mine though, all he managed to get out of it were swear words and　うるさい XD

[xXNovaxX]

LOLLLLL @ the anime, that was a thoguht at the bak of my mind the stuff u could learn in some of them.

Thanks so much Fyrefly and SmRandmAzn. +1 Karma. I really think my interest in it, and those great sites will help me succeed .

@ SmRandmAzn= i subscribed to the site, it seems great!!! So many tools
@Fyrefly= im looking at the sites now, and one of them has games on it to help, so seems good!!!

[IntoTheNewWorld]

がんばって～

For Hiragana/Katakan I think it's good to learn it really really quickly, or you will give up D: I remember trying to learn hiragana in year 8 before starting Japanese, I failed miserably >_< But after you start being able to read stuff it's very satisfying

[TrueTears]

lol i dont even learn jap but from watching countless animes i start to know phrases here and there lol

[sonnypls]

www.sharedtalk.com = chat and talk to japanese natives.

[IntoTheNewWorld]

www.sharedtalk.com = chat and talk to japanese natives.

Have you had experience with other languageexchange thingys too? or is that the best one?

[xXNovaxX]

hi again, i found this piece of info on a site

LEARNING JAPANESE: Fairly Hard: No cases, no genders, no tenses, no verb changes, short words, very easy grammar, however, writing is hard. But to speak it is very easy.

Dies anybody who has learned the language agree/disagree with that statement? I think it should be pretty easy since there's no gender, and verb changes!!!

And could anybody please maybe provide a course structure of how they learn it at TAFE/Uni, for example, what you do first few weeks, or each semester.....ujust so i can get an idea of what i should look at.

One more thing, whats the DIFFERENCE between learning jap, at TAFE or Uni? I know a few people on this board have done it at TAFE.

[xXNovaxX]

anyone?

[kat148]

And could anybody please maybe provide a course structure of how they learn it at TAFE/Uni, for example, what you do first few weeks, or each semester.....ujust so i cna get an idea of what i should look at.

see Champorado's post here

[xXNovaxX]

thanks Kat148, it pretty much answers my questions

though id still welcome comments if any

[xXNovaxX]

thats what i thought :S

and just anotehr question, um, if u failed it at Uni,, does that really affect anything....like are u allowed to "drop it" before u fail or soemtihng, if u feel its too hard? does that mean u need anotehr subject to replace it, and does it affect ur marks

[mystikal]

it depends if u do a double degree with arts/sumthing else ive heard people who have dropped the arts(language) within that year to take up only the single degree because they found it too difficult, it just means you might have an extra year if u drop it. But im not sure if you take the arts degree alone and then you drop it is kinda out of my understanding but other might be able to help with that.