Hello. My apologies if this has been asked, but a recent search did not bring up any relevant threads.
I would like to learned basic tourist-level Japanese for an upcoming trip, hopefully within the next 6 months to one year. I would like to be able to speak as well as read signs, menus, common phrases, etc. Enough for travel to the more remote locations in the countryside and avoid cultural gaffes and misunderstandings, as well as carry basic conversations with locals.
When I visited China for one year, I used a tourist level phonetic speaking book. It contained pictures of the relevant objects, actions, or situations in each lesson, which I found helpful. I had no problems grasping the tonal nature of the language (per a native speaker), so am hoping it will be easier to learn to speak Japanese than Mandarin.
Can anyone recommend a good program, website, podcast or book? Free would be good, but of course not required.
Thanks!
I would like to learned basic tourist-level Japanese for an upcoming trip, hopefully within the next 6 months to one year. I would like to be able to speak as well as read signs, menus, common phrases, etc. Enough for travel to the more remote locations in the countryside and avoid cultural gaffes and misunderstandings, as well as carry basic conversations with locals.
When I visited China for one year, I used a tourist level phonetic speaking book. It contained pictures of the relevant objects, actions, or situations in each lesson, which I found helpful. I had no problems grasping the tonal nature of the language (per a native speaker), so am hoping it will be easier to learn to speak Japanese than Mandarin.
Can anyone recommend a good program, website, podcast or book? Free would be good, but of course not required.
Thanks!