Best way to learn Japanese Language

[Freyja177]

Hello guys~
i'm new member here.
in this first thread i want to discuss about, what's the best way to learn japanese language.
i've been learning japanese since i'm at high-school, and until now, i still think that the best way to learn japanese is by talking or chatting with native people... but it's hard to find japanese people to talk to especially online.
what do you think?

 

[diligentcircle]

I'll tell you what I do:

1. I learn my vocabulary and vocabulary from the GENKI textbooks (currently still at GENKI I; I'm slow). This is a great beginner textbook. Usually what I do is do the little practice exercises and post my work on this forum.

2. I learn kanji from genetickanji.com, a resource that orders kanji the same way as Japanese school children, but also teaches each of the components before a kanji containing multiple components and explains etymologies. I put all new kanji on flash cards and put those flash cards into six piles: 今, 明日, 来週, 再来週, 来月, 再来月, 来年. I study cards from 今 by looking at the side showing the meaning, then writing the kanji from memory, using it in a sentence. Then I put it back in 今 if I failed to remember it correctly, or otherwise I put it in 明日, 再来週, 再来月, or 来年 depending on how confident I am in it. Every day, week, month, and year, I add (respectively) the 明日, 来週, 来月, and 来年 decks back into 今 and study them again the same way, and when I pull 来週 and 来月, I also move 再来週 / 再来月 to the respective deck. A more simple way to achieve what I'm achieving here is to use Anki or some other flashcard program that does this sort of thing automatically (I just don't do this because I find handwritten cards to be more convenient).

3. I use a game I wrote called Tangomon to study vocabulary (basically like Pokemon with vocabulary, hence the name). Actually the as-yet unreleased Tangomon 2, because that runs on the OpenPandora (a small computer I carry around in my purse). It works well for me because I can just pop open my OpenPandora and play it any time I have nothing to do, and it handles the whole "study less often over time" gig that helps you remember things. You can achieve the same effect with a flash card program like Anki as well (though it's not quite as fun).

On the side, there's a Japanese conversation group that meets in the library of a nearby town, so I go there too. I don't tend to learn very much from that, I just go there because it's fun and keeps me engaged.

Hope that helps a little.

 

[diligentcircle]

Whoops. I noticed some typos in my post long after I posted it:

- "vocabulary and vocabulary" should be "grammar and vocabulary".
- That's seven piles, not six.