Where on the computer can I learn to write and pronounce Japanese characters?

Question

For example:
愛(pronounced AI)- love
The only reason why I knew that one was because I watch Naruto....

Answer 1

Ichi, ni, san, yon, go, roku, nana, hashi, kyuu, juu.

There are a couple of programs out there that let you use there software for a trial period.

The trial of "Before You Know It" was pretty good actually.

Here is a list of websites that I am sure can help you on your quest.


http://www.freedict.com/onldict/jap.html
http://japanpersonals.meta4-group.com
http://www.japanese-online.com/
http://japanese.about.com/library/blhiraganalesson.htm
http://www.japan-guide.com/local/
http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au

(If you have a high speed connection)
Il tell you what, il turn my email option on. If you would like to email me I will give you instructions on how one could obtain:

The Rosetta Stone With Japanese 1 & 2.
As well as a 1980's video called "Lets Learn Japanese!" and text that was meant to promote the Japanese language. It is directed by Japanese so its accurate, and is actually really good at explaining the grammar structure of Japanese. (Something the Rosetta stone lacks) There are 52, 30 minute videos' and three text books (in the for of .Avi files, and .pdf files)

Also about 60 mp3 tracks of the Pimsleur Japanese CD's

(Not that I am telling you To do this, these are copyrighted works. I will just tell you how one would go about downloading these items)
Email me, still it is a very hard language to grasp.

After you have mastered these, then you can invest money on advanced books and tutors.

Its a lot of memorization, if you were to want to read a japanese news paper, I believe you need to know something like 3,000 kanji charcters to be able to read the kanji you will find. However the Japanese use a mix of hiragana, katakana, and kanji.

Hiragana are used for words for which there are no kanji, including particles such as kara から "from," and suffixes such as ~san さん "Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms." Hiragana are also used in words for which the kanji form is not known to the writer, is not expected to be known to the readers or is too formal for the writing purpose.

Katakana is used for transcription of words from foreign languages, they are also used to onomatopoeia.

(This is a lot to get into!)

Answer 2

You can't learn Japanese that way. Your mind would only associate Japanese as sometime on the computer and you would have an impossible time reading anything handwritten or writing anything for yourself.
Japanese is a very difficult language and, as such, requires that you put in a lot of time, effort, and money to grasp even the basics. You can't expect to learn it on your own. You need a teacher, workbooks, and a way to practice Japanese using kana and kanji, never romaji.

Answer 3

The best thing to do is buy a language DVD. You can pop it into your computer and learn at your own pace. Some of these newer DVDs even have language games built in which make it more fun than taking a regular class.

Answer 4

Here is a site that may help you.

http://members.aol.com/writejapan/

Hope it helps...