I'm about to take a Japanese class - any suggestions?

I'm an American and I don't have a lot of experience with other languages besides English. I took a couple Spanish classes in high-school, but I have never attempted to learn a language as foreign-feeling as Japanese. I have wanted to learn Japenese for a while, but this is going to be my first real stab at it. (I'll admit, part of the reason for doing this is so that I can watch anime without the subtitles )

Does anyone have any pointers for learning the language? Any learning materials I should use? Any that I should avoid? Any interesting niche careers that require knowing Japanese that I wouldn't think of?

a reply to: hololeap

A mate of mine decided he wanted to learn Japanese about ten years ago now , what I know is it's a difficult language to learn with its two alphabets , he went to night classes which he found very useful , I would suggest you try to find a language class and be prepared for a lot of hard work.

Today he lives in Japan and works as an English teacher , he loves it over there and has no intention of coming back to the UK except for visits.

If you decide to take it up I wish you well and applaud you for it.

You would do better to learn korean.

It has done wonders for Dennis Rodman anyways.

a reply to: hololeap
Don't go.

Learning something new is never a bad thing, but I have heard japanese is very hard to learn. Unless you have a reason for that specific language maybe try one that is easier like Spanish. Think of it like putting together a puzzle. You don't start with the hardest one you can find. You start with Garfield and then move on to popcorn.

For practicality and expanding your horizons in business and commerce for the future. I always instruct my students to learn Chinese. Specifically.... Putonghua, a form of the Mandarin dialect.

In the very near future it will be invaluable!

a reply to: olaru12

I agree, Chinese is the better way to go if learning for business reasons, also Japanese uses Chinese characters in their writing so leaning it first would give you an aid in Japanese.

a reply to: hololeap

I'll admit, part of the reason for doing this is so that I can watch anime without the subtitles.

I knew it. Before I even started reading it I knew it.



I tried learning Japanese but I was like 17 and haven't tried again since. I still think it would be cool but its not really a very popular language so there really wouldn't be much use for it unless you just move to Japan.

Thanks for the replies. I did take some Spanish in high school and wasn't anywhere close to fluent, but I had the structure of the language and the grammar down. It was just the memorization of vocabulary and learning to use the language comfortably that I never mastered because I stopped taking those classes. So, while I'm not fluent in any languages other than English, this wouldn't quite be my first experience with a foreign language, although it is far more foreign-feeling to me than Spanish was.

My school unfortunately doesn't offer a Chinese class as far as I'm aware.

CraftBuilder, that was an excellent video and it's making me think that I might try Rosetta Stone as a supplement to my learning. I tried it out with Japanese once before and I was making some progress even in the few hours that I tried it. Finding a language parent might be tough, but those ideas are really rock solid. Thanks!

As far as the practicality of learning Japanese, I just want to say that I am learning the language mainly out of curiosity and that I would learn it even if it gave me no career benefit in the long run. That said, I appreciate everyone taking the time to respond and at the very least if I am successful with learning the language I could consider taking a teaching position.

Remember subject, object, then verb. Practice writing your characters properly. Random house has a good dictionary. A good line to remember is sumimasen, watashiwa wakarimasen; sorry, I don't understand. Hiragana are native words, katakana are taken from other languages mostly English. Kanji is very difficult but it can be done. Good luck!

I think I saw a website that pairs up people from different countries to teach each other their language. So a Japanese person in Japan who wants to learn English with English speaking person and have live meetings online or something like that.

To learn and understand Japanese, you also have to understand the culture.

I have to admit, watching anime in Japanese is a different experience, sometimes better, sometimes worse, but I think in any case much of the humor and happenings are lost (not understood) unless one is familiar with the culture. You can try watching NHK (Japanese television) in English, which is broadcast on many cable networks around the world.

a reply to: hololeap

Syntax is very important. In English we say "I drink water" ; in Japanese it's " (I) water drink".



Learn the particles ga, wa, ni, de, wo and it will help you understand how Japanese sentences work better.