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How would you learn japanese?

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B1rd
2,974 posts
Joined December 2013
B1rd
Well, first you can probably learn the katakana and hirigana along with the spoken language, the kana are pretty much the same as the English alphabet and are easy to learn.

the kanji however... you have to learn 2000 complicated characters to even have a very basic understanding, and they each can have multiple meanings and applicable situations where you use them.. it takes a long time.
[_TetsuyaKuro_]
242 posts
Joined December 2013
[_TetsuyaKuro_]
katakana is used for stuff that is not originally from japan like coffee. hiragana is quite easy to get a grip on. kanji is like Chinese characters which is extremely hard to memorize.
piruchan
753 posts
Joined October 2013
piruchan
Take classes Nah, OP said he wants to teach himself.

This is what school did to me :
  1. Start with hiragana and some basic vocabulary like konichiwa, konbanwa, oyasuminasai, etc.
  2. Learn the basic grammar
  3. More vocabulary and more grammar
  4. Katakana and Japanese version of English words, like terebi, herikoputa, and the likes. This should be pretty easy if you know English, they sound similar.
  5. More grammar and vocabulary
This is what I think about my three years learning Japanese at school, note that I have Japanese as side subject (80 minutes/week), so I'm not good at it and I can't even watch raw anime. (Spoilerboxes to avoid wall of text)
About the characters
Hiragana is pretty simple. There are some characters that look similar to each other, such as ね(ne) and れ(re). But practice will get you trough that in no time. Katakana is where it gets hard for me, and I still can't remember all katakana now. I find it really hard to associate the characters with the sounds. As for kanji, I think it might help if you understand Chinese because some (or probably many) kanji characters are basically traditional Chinese characters. I personally think of kanji as Chinese characters with different meaning and usage. I didn't get much kanji, so I can't say much about it.
About the grammar
Japanese grammar is one of the hardest thing to learn for me, mainly because verbs have suffix change that depends on the condition. There is also present-past difference in Japanese, and the suffix change is different as well. My word of advice is to master these suffix changes, even yes or no is done with a suffix change to the verb. Japanese also have types of verb, but they are not the same as English. The type of a verb determines the suffix change it will get. So yeah, you're going to deal with a lot of suffix change.

I think that understanding Chinese will help a little bit because I found the logic of の(no) and 的(de) are very identical. But probably that's just me. The easy thing for me during my time learning Japanese is I don't have to worry about sounds (I don't think that's the correct word). Japanese have a fixed amount of sounds. So as long as you understand hiragana and katakana and the text you read have hiragana on the kanji, you can pretty much read everything.

Sorry if this sounds more like a rant rather than a suggestion.

Oh, and remember this, ピルちゃん it's the name of a great person.
/me runs
Last edited by piruchan , edited 2 times in total.
[_TetsuyaKuro_]
242 posts
Joined December 2013
[_TetsuyaKuro_]
I got the hang of it so~~ yea it takes time but with dedication and hard work, I think it you will get the hang of it!(Tho kanji is still hard for me, but it's ok) ;)
B1rd
2,974 posts
Joined December 2013
B1rd

piruchan wrote:

Oh, and remember this, ピルちゃん it's the name of a great person.
/me runs
biruchan?
[_TetsuyaKuro_]
242 posts
Joined December 2013
[_TetsuyaKuro_]
b1rd not biru but piru.
B1rd
2,974 posts
Joined December 2013
B1rd
unless I'm mistaken is says biru
TheNekoNextDoor
446 posts
Joined March 2014
TheNekoNextDoor
初めまして！私わ猫です。

Yeah. I'm trying to teach myself Japanese. c:
I found downloading an app on my phone useful. If you search in an app store 'learning japanese' or something like that, you might find a good one. Some are paid and some are free.
I have this one for my Android phone. It's pretty good, but you have to pay for the pro version if you want more phrases. (I haven't.) It's still a nice app, though: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.codegent.apps.learn.japanese&hl=en

piruchan wrote:

Oh, and remember this, ピルちゃん it's the name of a great person.
Yes. Yes it is. ;)
And Aurani is right. ピル is 'piru'.
Last edited by TheNekoNextDoor , edited 3 times in total.
Aurani
762 posts
Joined January 2013
Aurani

B1rd wrote:

unless I'm mistaken is says biru
ピ = pi (hi with a maru)
ル = ru
B1rd
2,974 posts
Joined December 2013
B1rd
http://www.freejapaneselessons.com/Less ... -Alphabet/
Aurani
762 posts
Joined January 2013
Aurani
You misunderstood it. You thought of the sign he wrote (ピ) as a Hi with 2 small strokes, instead of a circle... the Hi with two strokes is a dakuon, while the one with a circle (the thing he actually wrote) is a handakuon. They're essentially two different things.

Edit: Posted image to help you explain and realise the mistake you made (look on the far right, under Katakana, and you'll find the difference between Bi and Pi).
<3
Orihara-
2 posts
Joined May 2014
Orihara-
watching animes often and you will be a master BTW I love izaya too !!!! best love !!!_(:3J∠)_
[_TetsuyaKuro_]
242 posts
Joined December 2013
[_TetsuyaKuro_]

TheNekoNextDoor wrote:

初めまして！私ーわ猫です。
It's 私は猫です instead of ^
FrzR
2,237 posts
Joined October 2012
FrzR
When the inner weaboo intensifies within me. I study some kanji characters on my psp. And go barebones on some untranslated VNs owo)v
piruchan
753 posts
Joined October 2013
piruchan
To not derail this thread, it's piru (why would I write someone else's name?). The maru is very small, but if you look closely, it's a circle, not 2 small strokes. I personally think they look the same the first time I typed it, that's why I use large text size. And it still look similar. Makes me wonder how the Japanese manage to read it.

Okay, problem solved. Back to answering OP's question.
Last edited by piruchan , edited 1 time in total.
B1rd
2,974 posts
Joined December 2013
B1rd
Nihongo wa totemo~ muzukashi desu :(
[_TetsuyaKuro_]
242 posts
Joined December 2013
[_TetsuyaKuro_]

B1rd wrote:

Nihongo wa totemo~ muzukashi desu :(
hhaha　大変ですね．
TheNekoNextDoor
446 posts
Joined March 2014
TheNekoNextDoor

[_TetsuyaKuro_] wrote:

TheNekoNextDoor wrote:

初めまして！私ーわ猫です。
It's 私は猫です instead of ^
Thanks, I'll edit it now.
Sorry, I'm still learning... ^^;
Cylencer
63 posts
Joined July 2011
Cylencer
Don't use romaji to learn, unless you only want conversational fluency. Teach yourself hiragana and katakana first. Then, go through some grammar rules and learn vocab via anime, manga, etc. This is a great site to start: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar

Jot down new words everyday on a flashcard program. I recommend Anki: http://ankisrs.net/

Useful sites:

Kanji: http://kanji.koohii.com/
Dictionary: http://jisho.org/

If you're interested in learning via Visual Novels, http://visualnovelaer.fuwanovel.org/201 ... -or-anime/
Cocaine dog
147 posts
Joined August 2013
Topic Starter
Cocaine dog
Thank you all very much! I'll probably be looking into all of these links and see what suits me best :)
hinamizawan
868 posts
Joined May 2010
hinamizawan
I used to teach Kanji myself browsing some nice sites that no longer exist. Got stuck at mid JLPT N1, any recommendations on good resources to study Kanji? I heard about Kanzen Master N1 JLPT Kanji, but I will not take the exam since I'm only teaching myself, anyone knows if it is worth to waste money on these books? Btw, I never studied any kind of japanese grammar at all.
[_TetsuyaKuro_]
242 posts
Joined December 2013
[_TetsuyaKuro_]

Cocaine dog wrote:

Thank you all very much! I'll probably be looking into all of these links and see what suits me best :)
good luck and try your best!:)
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