Beginner Level Japanese learning

This forum is my own personal attempt to learn Japanese with other beginners. So the deal is I'll give a list of words in Romanji and hirigana. (I'll break down the hirigana). I'm learning this along with all of you, so I'm sorry in advance if there are any mistakes. We can talk on here using the words and what not until we can manage to speak mostly Japanese. Sound fun? Okay Here's list 1.
Greetings

Konnichiwa- Hello- こ(ko)んに(ni)ち(chi)は(technically ha, but is used in this case as wa.)
O genkidesu ka-. お(oh)元気(assuming these two characters are Kanji...not much I know to do with that)で(de)す(tsu) か (ka).
Watashi wa genkida arigato- I'm fine thank you- 私 (this is Kanji for Watashi also translated as 'I') は(again here is wa being writen as 'ha' but said as wa. I wonder why this happens. I'll find out for you guys also the 'wa' serves as the 'm in I'm) 元気 (kanji for genki) だ(da) あ(A) り (ri) が (ga) と (t) う (o).
Anata wa doko no shusshindesu ka- Where are you from?- あ (a) な (na) た (ta) は (wa, even now it is translated as ha) ど (do) こ (ko as seen in the beginning of Konnichiwa) の (no) 出身 (Kanji for Shusshin-come from)で (de) す(tsu) か (ka, shows you are asking a questions is personally my favorite character.)
Watashi wa shusshin...- I am from....- 私 (the kanji for watashi meaning I) は (wa/ha) 出身 (kanji for shussin)
-Nippon (Japan) -Amerika (America) -Kankoku (Korea) -Yoroppa (Europe)
Desu, just so everyone knows, is a politeness modifier. It's the casual form of de goziamasu which is commonly seen in formal situations such as arigato gozaimasu v just arigato.
Shite kudasai- please - し (shi) て (te) く (ku) だ (da) さ (sa) い (I)
Domo Arigato (gozaimasu) - Thanks you (very much)- {ど (du noise) う (o) も (mo)} あ(a) り (ri) が (ga) と (t) う (o) [ご (go) ざ (za) い (I) ま (ma) す(tsu)
Konbanwa- good evening- こ (ko) ん ば (ba) ん は (wa/ha)
Oyasuminasai- Good night- お (O) や (ya) す (tsu) み (mi) な (na) さ (sa) い (I)
Sayonara- Bye- サ (sa) ヨ (yo) ナ (na) ラ (ra)


*Apparently when wa is written as a particle such as it has been it is translated to wa.

What learning tools are you using to study? A beginners study guide that throws in kanji without furigana while they're teaching you hiragana seems a little silly.

Of course it's silly, it's Japanese! It's a make shift study guide I admit. ^^ I combined Google translations with things from my old tutor. I could try to translate the kanji areas to hirigana, but as I'm sure you know...some noises phonemes in Japanese don't have characters to represent them.

If a mod could remove this post or tell me how to delete it, I would appreciate it. I re-posted it below because it wasn't appearing for a few hours.

Machine translators are a very bad tool for learning. You should stick with books if you're going to teach yourself. There are also a number of good websites that you can use for free. Whatever you do, try to make sure what you are using to practice with other beginners is correct. There are quite a few things wrong here and I almost feel like I'm being trolled! First, learn hiragana correctly. It is useless trying to learn by yourself if you can't understand what you are reading.

I would suggest not to use romaji at all while you're learning. If you write in all hiragana, just make a graph of what their sounds are and it will probably speed up your memorization.

RavenPhoniex said:

but as I'm sure you know...some noises phonemes in Japanese don't have characters to represent them.

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Some "noises" can't be accurately represented with characters (just as in English), but every proper Japanese word can be written out phonetically in hiragana or katakana, even if it is conventionally written in kanji.

We're learning together miss Foocha. Tell me what I've gotten wrong. Like I said, a few I got from my old tutor. (he lived in Japan as apart of the military).

Just forget that Google Translate even exists.

As far as learning materials go, with the exception of Rosetta Stone (which is overpriced and sucks), you largely get what you pay for.

There are always exceptions, of course, but by and large American military in Japan have atrocious pronunciation and speak "pidgin" Japanese at best.

You're going to need top quality materials, top quality instruction, and a few hours a day of dedicated study if you hope to achieve JLPT1 in two years from outside Japan.

A couple of the bigger things I would point out to help are these:

今日は（こんにちは） is not just hello, but it is "good afternoon." In the morning you would say お早う（ございます）（おはよう（ございます）） and in the evening you use 今晩は（こんばんは） like you continued with later in your post.

お元気ですか。（おげんきですか。） You are correct that this would be "How are you?" in English. Usually when I reply to this sentence, I say お元気です。あなたは？ though I have heard somewhere that "あなたは" by itself may be a little less polite. Something I want to point out is that in your reply "私は元気だ" is that だ is the informal form of です. In some situations you may be asking a question using formal speech and receive an informal answer, but it is important to know when this is appropriate. I'm only pointing this out so you are aware that this is something you may want to read up on in case you haven't had the opportunity yet.

Usually, when I'm trying to tell someone where I'm from, I would say 私はアメリカから来ました／来た。（わたしはアメリカからきました／きた。） "I came from America." or アメリカに住んでいます／住んでいる。（アメリカにすんでいます／すんでいる。） "I live in America." I haven't really heard anyone use the word 出身（しゅっしん） in an everyday conversation, so it sounds a little odd to me, but it's probably still acceptable. I think どちらの出身ですか。（どちらのしゅっしんですか。） is the correct way to ask where someone is from in this case. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong!

です is not just a politeness modifier. It is normally treated as the verb "to be" in English, although it is not quite that simple. I would suggest to attempt to get a good understanding of this word and all of it's forms early on.

下さい（ください） is a word either used to make a direct request for something (like その本を下さい（そのほんをください） "Please give me that book") or it is placed after the te-form of a verb to make a request. 英語で話してください（えいごではなしてください） "Please speak in English." Learning verb stems and bases are tricky and take some time, but it is a big and important part of the language.
して is the te-form of する, usually translated as "to do" in English. It's usually paired with specific words to form verbs, etc. By itself, I always think of dirty slang, so you might not want to ask people to してください Please do "it!" If you know what I mean, haha.

す is 'su,' not tsu. Tsu is written as つ.
と and ど are pronounced 'to' (Like the English word "toe") and do (Like the word "dough")
Japanese has long 'o's, a little like English. When you have a syllable that ends with an 'o' and you add う to the end of it, it becomes an elongated 'o' sound. So ありがとう becomes a-ri-ga-to-o. Other examples which you are familiar with are さようなら and おはよう

As for は, you are correct that used as a particle, it is pronounced "wa." Instead of it being like the 'm in I'm, like you asked, it's used to indicate the subject of a sentence.
私はアメリカ人です。（わたしはアメリカじんです。） 私は meaning that 'I am the subject of this sentence' です being the verb 'am' in this case.
本は椅子にある。（ほんはいすにある。） The book is on the chair. Again, 本は the book is the subject, indicated by は.
I hope that makes sense. Particles are tough, since we do not use them like this in English, but it is essential to learn them to speak properly.

And don't think that I'm trying to discourage you, I just don't want you to get off on a bad start in your self studies. That's why I highly suggest using reliable reading materials.

I checked up on a few blogs about the wa/ha conspiracy and while I also would rather use the わ version the blogs I read said that because it was a participle it was written as は I'm not entirely sure why and since my ability to read kana is VERY limited, I didn't notice any actual changes in vocabulary.

Touche monsieur...I can't afford most of that stuff so I take what I can get. XD I'll look for more reliable sources regardless. Oh how I'm dreading grammar.

Foocha said:

Usually, when I'm trying to tell someone where I'm from, I would say 私はアメリカから来ました／来た。（わたしはアメリカ からきました／きた。） "I came from America." or アメリカに住んでいます／住んでいる。（アメリカにす んでいます／すんでいる。） "I live in America." I haven't really heard anyone use the word 出身（しゅっしん） in an everyday conversation, so it sounds a little odd to me, but it's probably still acceptable. I think どちらの出身ですか。（どちらのしゅっしんですか。） is the correct way to ask where someone is from in this case. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong!

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Everyone uses 出身. Usually they ask どこの出身. And for an answer, (country) です, is fine (if I remember correctly). I am asked it much more than I ever ask myself.

Japanese can understand the meaning of what you wrote, but it's not how they would phrase it.

Finally my post from earlier appeared! I rewrote as much of it as I could because it seemed like it wasn't being accepted for a long time.

nahadef said:

Everyone uses 出身. Usually they ask どこの出身. And for an answer, (country) です, is fine (if I remember correctly). I am asked it much more than I ever ask myself.
Japanese can understand the meaning of what you wrote, but it's not how they would phrase it.

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I see, thank you for the information! Every time I've written to people, like pen pals, they haven't used that word that I can remember, so I assumed it was correct, but uncommon.