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Beginners Japanese

  • 27-08-2005 5:06am
    #1
    Laguna
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,639 ✭✭✭


    Can anyone recommend what I should do to learn Japanese at a beginners level? What's a good book for it? Preferably with a cd-rom! Thanks in advance!


Comments

  • #2
    Cake Fiend
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,335 ✭✭✭Cake Fiend


    For a start, check out the links in the 'useful sites' sticky. This way you can get an introduction to the language for free. Next you'll have to decide whether you're determined to make a proper go at learning the language (i.e. learn to read and write, beginning with the kana) or just take it easy for a bit (learn romanized Japanese, or 'rōmaji'). Either way, it's best to go through some of the free online resources before you commit to a particular book or course. Plus, you can actually learn quite a lot for free from the many websites around (although you'd want at least a reference book or two handy).


  • #3
    Laguna
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,639 ✭✭✭Laguna


    Thanks for your help. I'll probably go with learning the romanised version of Japanese so can get some conversational skilla before I even attempt learn to read and write the language!


  • #4
    Cake Fiend
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,335 ✭✭✭Cake Fiend


    If you're serious about learning the language long-term, I'd highly recommend starting with the kana as soon as possible (see the 'Learning the Kana' sticky for info). It can help with your pronunciation, as well as getting you a bit more ready to learn kanji. Learning Kanji is daunting enough even with the kana under your belt; if you try to do it all at once (kana and kanji) it could be so disheartening that it would be very difficult to keep up.

    You could learn the kana in a matter of hours if you really needed to (especially if you were going to be using them regularly), they're not as hard as they look! Once you have that hurdle overcome, you'll feel a lot more confident about learning Kanji and Japanese in general. Also, the longer you spend learning romanized Japanese, the harder it might be to give it up and go the (slightly) harder route!

    At very least, IMO, you should learn the kana as you go along with learning Japanese through rōmaji (maybe one new character per day) - that way you won't feel like you have to start the whole lot all at once from the beginning - you'll be halfway through before you even know it! Plus, it's encouraging to see the odd character on websites, books, whatever that you now recognize that previously looked alien to you.


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