What are some good ways that I can self teach myself Japanese?

Question

and how long will it usually take?

Answer 1

Move to Japan.

Coach

Answer 2

I really think you should take Japanese luggage courses. Some college offers but you should check your local college. Length for you to understand Japanese really varies to people. You might be able to converse sooner than writing and reading.... You can also make lots of Japanese friends! They will be more than willing to help you learn! You can also choose a option of moving to Japan....A person I know moved to Japan for her work purpose and learned read, write (little) and converse Japanese in 6 month! Good luck!

Answer 3

To learn true Japanese you have to take classes. You can't magically teach yourself any language unless you move to that country and are extremely well at adapting.

You might be able to teach you hiragana and katakana, maybe some kanji, but without a teacher you're screwed and may as well just give up now.

Answer 4

Good Luck with that i dont really know ask a friend that knows japanese

Answer 5

Move to Japan. It varies. We all move at different paces.

Answer 6

Have you try unilang.org?

http://home.unilang.org/main/resources.php?lng=ja&l=en§ion=bylanguage&showlinks=1

It's a good start for the basics at least.

Answer 7

www.bablefish.altavista.com free translation of any text

Answer 8

Learning any language is a long-term process especially so if it is the Japanese language and if you are not a Chinese. This is because you have to learn the kanjis which are actually Chinese characters. If you are Chinese, then good news because you will have it easier.

Articles/blogs on self-study:
http://www.epochrypha.com/japanese/methodology.html
http://www.peterpayne.net/2003/03/japanese-language-overview-final.html
http://blogs.chinesepod.com/2006/07/23/one-mans-story-of-learning-japanese-in-china/

One really bad method to learn the language is by exposing yourself to romanji which is really learning the phonetics by alphabets as in :

食べます(tabemasu) - to eat

The word tabemasu is romanji. Always start learning the language by learning the hiragana and the katakana and subsequently the pronounciation for the kanji.

Hiragana - http://www.tokyowithkids.com/fyi/hiragana_chart.html
Katakana - http://www.learn-japanese.info/katakana.html.

Japanese grammar can be really difficult and it will really slow down your learning unless you preservere. Some really good texts for learning Japanese grammar:

Japanese: A Comprehensive Grammar (Routledge Grammars) by Yasuko Ichikawa
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Japanese-Comprehensive-Grammar-Routledge-Grammars/dp/041509920X

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar and A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanes Grammar by Seiichi Makino and Michio Tsutsui
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dictionary-Basic-Japanese-Grammar/dp/4789004546/sr=1-2/qid=1164514553/ref=sr_1_2/202-3962048-7461460?ie=UTF8&s=books
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dictionary-Intermediate-Japanese-Grammar-Seiichi/dp/4789007758/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b/202-3962048-7461460

The Japanese for Busy People series is frequently recommended but I did not think that it is a good choice as it relies heavily on romanji and takes you off the proper path of learning as you would find it hard to adapt to the hiragana and katakana. I've yet to find a really good text.

Recommended dictionaries:
The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary
http://www.amazon.com/New-Nelson-Japanese-English-Character-Dictionary/dp/0804820368

Shogakukan Progressive Japanese-English Dictionary
http://www.amazon.com/Shogakukan-Progressive-English-Japanese-Dictionary/dp/B000KDQSKI/sr=1-1/qid=1164517050/ref=sr_1_1/103-1929929-4391018?ie=UTF8&s=books

If you do not want to spend too much on books, there are several internet resources which are really good:

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/columns/0002/ (highly recommended)
http://www.kanji-a-day.com/index.php (kanji - highly recommended)
http://www.nuthatch.com/kanji/
http://www.manythings.org/japanese/
http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/japanese/cover.html
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/ (grammar - highly recommended)
http://www.kanjisite.com/ (kanji)
http://www.hiraganatimes.com/ (e-zine)
http://www.his.atr.jp/~ray/stories/ (stories - highly recommended)
http://www.learn-japanese.info/indexv.html (vocabulary)
http://homepage3.nifty.com/jgrammar/index.htm#contents (grammar)
http://www.languageguide.org/nihongo/index.jsp (vocabulary)
http://www.isc.toyama-u.ac.jp/~raicho/self/top.html (Quiz - highly recommended)
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~kanji/ (kanji - highly recommended)
http://japanese.about.com/About_Japanese_Language.htm (recommended)
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/wwwjdic.html (dictionary - highly recommended)
http://www.japanesepod101.com/index.php (podcast - highly recommended)

Recommended resources :
http://www.j-talk.com/nihongo/
http://www.popjisyo.com/WebHint/Portal_e.aspx
http://kanjidict.stc.cx/dict
http://www.rikai.com/perl/Home.pl
http://sp.cis.iwate-u.ac.jp/sp/lesson/j/doc/furigana.html

Learning will be easier if you have someone to speak to but if that is not a privilege try making up a simple conversation in your head. Not the best choice but we try to learn with the minimal resources available.

One excellent method is to watch japanese dramas. I'm learning the Korean language now and I find that it is a lot easier to understand the language as I watch lots of korean drama in the original language. Generally speaking, you have to cloak yourself around the language as much as possible to get a 'feel' of it.

Finally, you have to find a motivating reason to do this. If not, you will find it really difficult to continue the learning journey considering that you will have no teacher to answer any of your questions.

However there is a Yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/ which is highly recommended for learning and interacting about the language. It is nihongo101.

As a beginner, learn in order:

- memorizing and writing hiragana and katakana
- compile a vocabulary notebook
- revise new words everyday
- make simple sentences with the new words that you have learnt.
- learn the japanese grammar and use them as often as possible when making sentences.
- try to translate simple articles
- listen to japanese audio to perfect your pronounciation

Online News:
http://news.tbs.co.jp/
http://www.nhk.or.jp/news/2006/11/26/k20061126000039.html
http://www.fnn-news.com/index.html

A personal experience I have about learning languages is that it is always more relaxed and easier if you visit the entertainment websites because they are interesting and contain less jargon and official terms.

http://www.fujitv.co.jp/index.html
http://www.tbs.co.jp/drama/
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/toppage/navi/drama.html

Hope this helps and good luck in your learning.