I want to learn Japanese, where do I start?

Question

I understand that Japanese is a very hard language, but I'm willing to learn. Can anyone give me some guidelines?

Is there any way that doesn't involve a teacher?

OK, I'm confused, should I learn Katakana or Hiragana first?

Answer 1

Guide or teacher it is best to have the help of a person who has gone before. To start you should learn hiragana as you can write everything in it. But, you should not neglect katakana. And, you should start in using kanji as soon as you've hiragana down. Japanese is a mix of all three. While you are learning hiragana you can learn to pronounce Japanese. That part is very simple. To learn by yourself you will need some books on grammar. I think grasping the grammar and learning to read and write kanji are what makes Japanese seem difficult. Kanji just takes time. You can learn about 100 a year. You just write them CORRECTLY over and over. and it gets easier and begins to make sense. When you write them also you learn the pronunciations (the Chinese and Japanese readings called onyomi and kunyomi.) Japanese syntax is SubjectObjectVerb.and is aided by postpositionals called particles or joshi in Japanese. A good book on grammar should have ample examples of this. And, the other difficulty is verbs and their conjugations. Learning hiragana will help you with this, you will see. Just realise that you are going to have to put some time in to learn it.
I found that teachers can help with the kinds of things that we learn in school. Reading and writing kanji would be one of the things that I found classes helpful with. But, it was a college class on Japanese overall. And, also friends in particular native speakers will inform you of your shortcommings. They are teachers.
I taught Japanese in college here and basically you need to know hiragana. Katakana is used like we use italics for foreign words and for emphasis. It is the same syllables as hiragana over again. Learn hiragana first.
I basically taught Japanese grammar as I thought that the most important to learn and yes there are various levels of politeness but you only need to learn one to start and the verbs and endings that go along with that. You will learn the others almost automatically. As Japanese is frought with polite expressions.
I repeat you need to learn the postpositionals (particles) and the verb conjugations... knowing hiragana will help you with this.

Answer 2

If you're not too bothered about learning the social etiquette of the language, books such as Teach Yourself Japanese and Colloquial Japanese are a good place to start. Each also takes you through learning the 2 kana scripts (hiragana and katakana) and even introduce some kanji. They're good for learning 'holiday' Japanese - if you want to take your learning further, you will need to attend a class or learn from a native speaker. There are so many different 'levels' of formal to colloquial speaking, it's hard to learn without some guidance.

Answer 3

Learn Katakana first. Because most of the menus at Japanese western restaurants are written in Katakana.
Then learn Hiragana

Answer 4

Start with learning hiragana and katakana, the alphabets, you can probably find them online. Then start with a basic word list of say a thousand words, make sure you can read and write them, then start learning the kanji that go with them and the grammar.
Very difficult without a teacher, but best of luck.

Answer 5

Check this site:
http://www.japanesepod101.com
It is actually the best language podcast I've heard.
About katakana and hiragana, they are not that difficult. Maybe two week each and you'll be ready with that.

Answer 6

extremely, studying Romaji(no 'n') first is a catch 22 situation in studying jap with the aid of fact of its grammatical shape, that's punctiliously opposite to English. the superb thank you to learn jap is to learn the Hiragana and Katakana setsand pronunciation first, which will enable you to place in writing those sounds in Romaji. on the comparable time you will possibly desire to learn approx. one hundred Kanji. There are actually not any 'connectors' contained in the jap language. Kanji are pictographs that have been derived from the chinese language, yet have been simplified. once you recognize those, you may write them in Hiragana and Romaji. that's possible to establish your workstation for Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana characters, yet you will possibly desire to have it put in. Then, you will possibly form in Romaji and the jap characters will seem. you will nevertheless might desire to be waiting to make your recommendations up on the main appropriate characters, nonetheless. My suggestion is to take a language course at a college close to you, then pass on your library and seek for practise books.

Answer 7

Start with learning to write the easy alphabet

Answer 8

Japan

Answer 9

I used an internet program called BYKI, you just choose Japanese and download the free course

Answer 10

i live in Japan and that where you should go if you want to learn japanese(^_^)