Learning the Japanese language?

Question

I'm going to be visiting some relatives in Japan next year and I want to get fluent in Japanese. The only language I currently speak is English. I'd rather learn by book/online resources than a tutor.

I have a few questions...

Would it be possible for me to understand and speak in the Japanese language without learning their writing system?

Could you recommend me some online Japanese language learning websites that are effective and professional?

Thank you

Answer 1

You wanna get fluent in a year?
*pauses while waiting for laughter to subside*
First off, forget about getting "fluent" in a year. Maybe, just maybe, if you really work at it, and i mean REALLY work at it, for a year you can get conversational, but just forget about getitng fluent. Especially if this is going to be your first foreign language. Especially if you're not in Japan right now.
As for your questions;
- Yup, it's definitely POSSIBLE to understand and speak a language without learning the writing system. After all, how did you learn English? But at your age, it's a lot more challenging. It's just plain sensible and helpful to learn the writing system as well, especially since Japanese is made up of kanji, rather than letters. Kanji are SYMBOLS that represent specific definitions, so they are very helpful in understanding new vocabulary.
I'm not familiar with online sites, as I don't use them, so I hope someone else can help you out with that.
頑張って。

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

I learned by a combination of the books for a visual, and the Cd's for the audio, The ones that they have in your local bookstore are more than adequate.

I find that it is much harder to learn to write and read than it is to speak...and if trying to do both, one does tend to take away from the absorption of the other.

Concentrate on learning the sounds and inflections first then learn the signs and names of important things in writing while there and actually looking at them. They have some places in Japan with the signs written in English, but not all...

Train stations
Parks
Toilet signs
Vending machines
Directional signs
police stations

All important to know how to ask for say and read and write...

Things like that you're going to have to know because almost everyone use's public transport.

The best book is Barrons
The best Cd system is Pimslurs.
and get yourself a dictionary that contains Kanji.

Answer 4

1. You cannot even remotely hope to reach even partial fluency in Japanese by a year. Especially given fluency = being able to read and write as well as speak.

2. It *could* be possible, but you would have a hard time doing anything on your own in Japan without even a basic reading ability and finding material that caters to only romaji instead of kana and kanji is rare past baby-level Japanese.

3. http://www.guidetojapanese.org/
http://www.thejapanesepage.com/
http://www.jgram.org/
However, do be aware that it is impossible to learn any language online. Especially for free and without a tutor.

Answer 5

it is possible to speak japanese without being able to read and write. however, you will not become fluent in 1 year and you DEFINITLY will not learn without AT LEAST a tutor, you may think you are learning a lot but will get to japan and realize you do not know remotely what you think you know.

Answer 6

There is really no way to become fluent in Japanese in a year. Japanese is so distinctly different from English in terms of its structure and grammar, that you should learn from a textbook that gives you grammar and structure practice. Your best option is to take formal classes if you truly want to become fluent.

That is how I myself learned Japanese. I started off by taking classes at a community college on the weekends to see if I was cut out for Japanese, then the following year I declared Japanese as my minor.

I am now fluent in all forms of Japanese and work as a technical translator for a semiconductor company.

Reaching verbal fluency in speech took me about 1 year in Japan after 2 years of classroom instruction. To be honest, getting fluent in 1 year is not possible.

Regarding your second question, you could learn Japanese without learning the writing system, but you could never become fluent. If your goal is fluency, you really need to read and write the language as well. Reading the language will actually make it easier for you to retain it. Since Japanese has so many syllables, writing Japanese in Romaji will actually be a hinderance to you since you will be trying to remember so many letters, and maybe even the "spelling" of the Japanese words. Using the Japanese writing system (at least hiragana and katakana) will compress it down for you somewhat, but nothing compresses it down like kanji.

Example: I wanted to take the train to Tokyo yesterday, but I missed it.
Kinou, Tokyo yuki no ressha ni noritakattan dakedo, noriokureta.
きのう、とうきょうゆきのれっしゃにのりたかったんだけど、のりおくれた。
昨日、東京行きの列車に乗りたかったんだけど、乗り遅れた。
In this case, when trying to remember the phrase, when you see the word "yuki", you will think that this is a homonym: yuki = snow, or destination. In Japanese, you will see that ゆき（雪）is snow and ゆき（行き）is destination...

As I stated above, speaking from my personal experience of more than 25 years with the Japanese language, if you really want to become fluent in Japanese, nothing beats formal classroom instruction.

Answer 7

yeah its possible to learn to speak japanese without ever learning to write it.