Day one

[seanenu]

Hi all,
My name is Sean.
I accidentally stumbled upon this forum.
I have watched Japanese shows and Anime all my life but never really got around in learning the language.

Open to any suggestions/advise that will help me start my journey in learning the language.

Thank you

 

[thomas]

Hi Sean, welcome to the forum!

Have you taken a look at our Language section yet?

Learning Japanese

Discuss and post your questions about the Japanese language here. Subforums: 日本語で勉強 - Textbooks, tests and language schools

jref.com

This would also be the subforum to post any questions relating to studying Japanese.

Textbooks, tests and language schools

Looking for advice about Japanese textbooks or language schools in Japan or abroad ? Questions about the JLPT ? Post them here.

jref.com

Japanese Language Learning Resource List

I like many of you want to learn Japanese, but also like many, i had no idea where to begin. This thread is intended to solve that problem of "where do I begin and how do I advance?". I would like to create a running list of all the best resources, textbooks, apps, tools, and everything else...

jref.com

 

[seanenu]

Thank you for sharing the threads Thomas.

No. I have not looked as I still learning how to navigate around this forum.

Cheers

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

Welcome to the forum!

Your local library may have some Japanese textbooks that you can borrow. That's a good cheap way to get started. And then, of course, there's Youtube, and all the resources here at Jref, as @thomas already posted.

Good luck with your studies, and feel free to reach out with questions here at any time!

 

[Buntaro]

Hi Sean and welcome to the forum.

I highly recommend you learn the basic characters for writing Japanese before you do anything else. Here is a thread I made on the Japanese writiing system for beginners. This thread contains 76 videos. Watch one video a day, and this will really help you with your Japanese studies.

Take the time, watch these videos and learn these basic characters first. You'll be glad you did.

Japanese writing system for beginners

There are many people who would like to learn Japanese but don't know where to begin. I know they would like to start by learning simple phrases such as "Hello," "How are you?", "It's a nice day, isn't it?", "What is your name", etc., but I want everyone to put aside the learning of such phrases...

jref.com

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

"What textbook should I use?"

"Genki" and "Minna no Nihongo" are the most popular book series because they are
pretty good. Because they are so popular, you can get the answer to just about
any line you have a question about by googling and it will already have been answered.

Genki is heavily preferred by native English speakers.

Minna no Nihongo has its "Translation and Grammatical Notes" volume translated
into a number of other languages, and is also preferred by students who want
to learn Japanese in Japanese as much as possible.

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar is a good companion to any textbook, or even the whole Basic/Intermediate/Advanced set.



"How can I learn Japanese for free?"

Tae Kim and Imabi are effectively textbook replacements, at least as far as
providing grammar lessons. They lack the extent of dialogues and exercises in
typical textbooks, so you will need to find additional practice elsewhere.

• Learn Japanese – Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese (Tae Kim's grammar)
• IMABI 今日 – Guided Japanese Mastery ("Guided Japanese Mastery")

Erin's Challenge and NHK lessons teach lessons with audio.

They are not IMO enough to learn from by themselves, but you should have some exposure to the spoken language.

• WEB版「エリンが挑戦！にほんごできます。」サイト閉鎖と新サイトのご案内 | WEB版 エリンが挑戦！にほんごできます。 (Erin's challenge - online audio-visual course, many skits)
• Easy Japanese 2015, free audio & text lessons | NHK WORLD RADIO JAPAN (NHK lessons - online audio-visual course

Anki and Memrise both replace flashcards, and are general purpose.
Koohii is a special-purpose flashcard site learning Kanji the RTK way.

• Anki - powerful, intelligent flashcards (SRS 'flashcard' program; look for 'core 10k' as the most popular Japanese vocab deck).
• https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/japanese
• Learn a language. Memrise is authentic, useful & personalised. (another SRS 'flashcard' app).
• Learn Japanese Language with Memrise
• Kanji Koohii (RTK style kanji only srs 'flashcard' web app)

Dictionaries

• Jisho.org: Japanese Dictionary (Online Japanese-English Dictionary; romaji input)
• goo辞書 - 国語・英語・四字熟語のオンライン辞書 (Online Japanese/J-E/E-J Dictionary )
• 辞典・百科事典の検索サービス - Weblio辞書 (Online Japanese/J-E/E-J Dictionary ; many example sentences )

 

[Majestic]

Wonder how @seanenu is doing.