Tips on learning Japanese?

The best way to learn/improve any language is to throw yourself into an environment that forces you to speak, use and rely on it every day.

I am Japanese.
Let's memorize regularity, when memorizing hiragana and katakana (Japanese alphabet)
Japanese alphabet is an array obtained by multiplying the nine consonants to vowels of five.

http://www.linguanaut.com/japanese_alphabet.htm

Vowels of Japanese is a-i-u-e-o.
This is a phonetic equivalent, actual pronunciation is different.
Please try to check the pronunciation of Japanese, such as Google Translate.

a-i-u-e-o = あ-い-う-え-お (hiragana) = ア-イ-ウ-エ-オ (katakana)
(press both "play" button)
http://translate.google.com/#en/ja/aiueo

Japanese consonant also differs from English pronunciation.

e.g.

ka-ki-ku-ke-ko = か-き-く-け-こ = カ-キ-ク-ケ-コ
http://translate.google.com/#en/ja/kakikukeko

sa-si-su-se-so = さ-し-す-せ-そ = サ-シ-ス-セ-ソ
http://translate.google.com/#en/ja/sasisuseso


Since Japanese alphabet is a phonogram, let's pronounce each character clearly.
Since google translation is a machine sound, it can be hard to be heard.
I think that it can be easily heard since the Japanese male has pronounced here.

http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Pronunciation_of_Japanese

It is the same as English that an accent changes with a word.

After Japanese alphabet must memorize the Chinese character used in Japanese.
Let's keep in mind that almost all the Japanese Chinese character differs from the Chinese character used in present age China or Taiwan.

Japanese people are also very difficult for memorizing a Chinese character.
(Japanese people continue studying a Chinese character in all the courses including a university)

However, since Chinese character is an ideographic character, it comes to understand a word only by trying to differ from Japanese alphabet.

I am looking forward to the day when you can master Japanese. :)

I had good luck with Pimsleur, but that is just for speaking the language. Not reading or writing.

Rukantos has it down. Its a simple format when you break it down. Learn how the letters evolve from one form to another. Some are only different by one stroke of the brush.

I was lucky that my step-mother, from Osaka, spoke fluent Japanese. She and my father spoke it to each other all the time, and then with my baby sister coming into the picture, she would speak to her in Japanese to bring her up bi-lingual. Just being around it helped more than anything.

I studied it for around a year on my own time. Spent a lot of time in work-books practicing Hiragana and Katakana, basic Kanji, and also general conversation. Used audio tapes that followed a workbook to hear correct pronunciation(I didn't want to sound American... takes a lot of dedication to the details of the annunciation and timing.. having my stepmom was an invaluable resource).

It helps to be passionate about it too. As with anything. Make it fun. It will be hard if you don't have a way to use it everyday. Maybe get a loved one or friend to join you. Write a note to them and then translate it ;)

You made this thread asking for the same advice? Is there something you didn't get from that one which you hope to get out of this?

A better place for tips to learn how to learn Japanese is probably a Japanese learning forum. I always recommend Reviewing the Kanji forums sense many of the users are advanced, have a variety of backgrounds (lots of programmers), and are not overwhelmed by the "anime junkies", bored spouses and lost souls that plague 1st semester Japanese classes in colleges.

"TheArcheaon" wrote:
I've been learning japanese for about a year now (how ever I'm still having trouble with stories, and movies) how ever I can understand normal conversations.

I'm trying to get into japanese (I really am because I love their culture)

I'm somewhat ok at memorizing letters (but I occasionally mess them up) "but that's usually any beginners case right?"

Here's a couple of tips.

I myself learned the katakana first as they are more useful at first. (most of the time katakana is english) then hiragana and then kanji.

I learned the first 2 "alphabets" by playing games (it was a cheap bingo game, but it really did work for me)

Kanji are great as you don\t really need to know how to say it at first, just knowing the meaning helps. that said there are 2000+ of them and they sometimes change meaning when you add another kanji next to it so it's really hard.

Be careful with "si" and "tu" and some other romaji that are written differently then they are pronounced (it's "shi" and "tsu" btw)

Here's my last tip. Pronounce the japanese "R" as "L" as the english R sound nothing like the Japanese one.

Good luck with Japanese and it's dozens of way to just say "I" (sessha, watashi, ore, washi, etc...) fun language lol :lol:

I used flash cards to memorize hiragana and katakana in about a week. It's important to use them forwards and backwards. Ie see the hiragana recall the romaji but then flip them over and see the romaji force your mind to visualize the hiragana. You can then use the same methods to build up your kanji skills.

I also spent many hours reading shonen jump to see how spoken Japanese was written as it's very different to the desu masu forms of polite academic Japanese.

Source: I have a bachelors degree in Asian languages and lived in Asia for several years.

Japanese illiterate here, but I can hold conversations (and have, with visitors from Japan in my days at Best Buy / GeekSquad).

How I learned, well.. I dont watch American TV. All I watch is Japanese TV.

And.. that's it. I was told by almost all of my Japanese customers that it was actually quiet good, and some asked me how long I lived in Japan for (never have been there unfortunately).

Of course, I'm a wierdo, since linguistics is actually one of my many hobbies. English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese so far... I want to learn how to speak Korean (learning), then Chinese. Eventually I want to get into Farsi, but we'll see.

For any language, my recommendation is to immerse yourself. Don't think in English, and then speak in XYZ language. Think in the language, speak the language. Many people fail at conversation since they do 2 translations while trying to hold a conversation. That leads to "this is a stupid foreigner" syndrome.

Speaking of which, its interesting when I get drunk - which is seldom, but once or twice a year; I can't hold a conversation since my brain starts mis-firing and I start mingling languages. :|

Again though, more on topic.. I can't read/write any except for English, soo.. there is that.

I lova Japanese culture and the language as well.

I got Rosetta Stone for Japanese, but sadly I haven't really dedicated much time to using it yet.