Need advice, or rather suggestions

[SortOf]

Ok well ill start out getting straight to the point without any beating around the bush, im trying to learn Japanese at home.

This is what I have:

Pimsleur Japanese Audio Cds
Eurotalk/World Talk Japanese (Japanese computer games)
Japanese for Dummies (book)
Japanese in 30 Hours (book)
A Guide To Learning Hiragana & Katakana (book)
A Guide to Reading and Writing Japanese (book)

Pre- Ordered - Drive Time Japanese Cds (learn japanese in the car)

This is why im not in a normal Japanese class:

Once again, to be blunt, I narrowly graduated High School and was next to dead last in my class, right now im struggling through some low level computer certification classes at a local college, and my GPA is complete garbage. Japanese classes tend to only be offered by universities and ive had 4 of 4 aps completely rejected, im devising alternative strategies as of now.

This is what im doing:

Right now ive been forcing myself to hours of repeated hours of audio cd listening, and reading through my "Japanese for Dummies" book to grasp the basics of the Japanese language, and its structures of sentences. Ive been told by some people (not experts, because I dont know any) that getting down the basics of speech is good before diving into elements of reading and writing, so thats what im doing. (even though i have some writing books already)

So, I want to know primarily if there is anything im missing, anything else I need to buy, and am I doing this in the correct order more or less? Or is it completely wrong? If it is wrong what do I need to fix this issue?

kthx!

 

[Buntaro]

Have you mastered hiragana? In my opinion, this is the FIRST step. Put everything aside, and master hiragana first.

 

[SortOf]

No, I havent as I was told that basic speech was the first step.

 

[Buntaro]

However, if you learn to say something, you will need to write it down (in order to remember it). You must NEVER write Japanese in ABC's. Take my advice. You will thank me loads down the road.

 

[SortOf]

Alright well, as soon as I finish my Japanese for Dummies book to get down all the basics of the language ill start in my Kana work book.

I also just ordered:

Type & Learn - Katakana



Since you seem to think that Kana is so important.

Does anyone else have any suggestions for improving my learning methods?

 

[Takaryo]

Learning by (story)books with furigana (kanji with those little katakana/hiragana next or on top of them)

Furigana helps me in remembering kanji and my vocabulary. Normally, manga has the furigana but i dunno about storybooks.

 

[Mycernius]

I started by getting the Kana done and learning some of the basic expressions. The book I used for the Kana is 'Kana Pict-o-graphix' by Michael Rowley. It uses Mnemonics for remembering the various Kana. I am better a hiragana as it is the one I either read or use the most, but it helps when coming to pronunciation instead of using romaji.

 

[SortOf]

So if you spell out a word in kana with the romanji pronunciation would that be consitered proper grammar? (i know its not very advanced but ya gotta start somewhere)

 

[Luthien Rogue]

So if you spell out a word in kana with the romanji pronunciation would that be consitered proper grammar?

That doesn't make any sense. I can't understand what you mean.

 

[Chabichou]

I believe you need to master reading hiragana first before anything else. Understanding hiragana will make the grammar make more sense to you. If it's too difficult to remember what all the hiragana characters look like right away, you can resort to romanji, but you need to understand the basics of HOW japanese is read. You need to be able to derive hiragana from romanji (if you don't remember what the hiragana looks like, simply use a chart for reference).

Once you have a basic understanding of how japanese is read, I think then you can start with basic grammar. Then focus on making sure you know hiragana and katakana, and then a bit more grammar. You can start adding kanji gradually to your lessons as you learn more and more grammar and vocabulary.

It's unfortunate that you bought all these books, because the textbook I HIGHLY recommend is Genki.

 

[Buntaro]

SortOf,
Learn hiragana before you learn katakana. (That is a katakana workbook.)
You asked about spelling out a word in kana with the romanji pronunciation. Writing in kana is a spelling-issue not a grammar-issue.

Spell out a word in kana with the romanji pronunciation? I am not sure what you mean, but you should spell out a word in kana with the kana pronunciation. Use flash cards. Listen to words and write them in kana. Get rid of ABC's as soon as possible.

 

[SortOf]

Thats why my Japanese for Dummies book is, it explains Romanji and the basics of Japanese sentence structure, but im kind of an idiot and get confused on some things... I guess ill read it twice.

What I meant when I said kana spelled from romanji, is like using the same sounds in the romanji, for the Kana symbols and turning it into a word.

like wa-ta-shi would be the kana symbols for each sound put together into one word? right? or am i just being dumb again

And yeah ill look into that genki thing, i just dont absorb and process information to well (otherwise i wouldnt be using a dummies book). I have to read and study things over and over again, in extreme excess for it to sink in, which is why I buy so much junk.

 

[KrazyKat]

Hi sortof,
It seems that you are really enthusiastic about learning Japanese. Good Luck.

I have to agree with everyone else that the first step you need to take is to learn Hiragana. Try as much as you can to avoid writing anything in roumaji. Hiragana is a set of phonetic characters used to write in Japanese.
Watashi would be written in hiragana as わたし, although in Japanese it will actually be written as 私 (in Kanji), although the hiragana may be written on the side for spelling. わたし is still proper japanese though, and its what you should write yourself.

Roumaji is not used by Japanese and not necessarily phonetic as there are many systems using hiragana as soon as possible will save you a lot of worry. Have you worked out how to use teh Japanese IME in your language bar on your computer? To learn hiragana just practice writing out words by hand, looking up the kana when you forget them.

I also agree with absolutely everything Chabichou says, although I didn't use Genki myself.

 

[SortOf]

Hi sortof,
It seems that you are really enthusiastic about learning Japanese. Good Luck.

I have to agree with everyone else that the first step you need to take is to learn Hiragana. Try as much as you can to avoid writing anything in roumaji. Hiragana is a set of phonetic characters used to write in Japanese.
Watashi would be written in hiragana as わたし, although in Japanese it will actually be written as 私 (in Kanji), although the hiragana may be written on the side for spelling. わたし is still proper japanese though, and its what you should write yourself.

Roumaji is not used by Japanese and not necessarily phonetic as there are many systems using hiragana as soon as possible will save you a lot of worry. Have you worked out how to use the Japanese IME in your language bar on your computer? To learn hiragana just practice writing out words by hand, looking up the kana when you forget them.

I also agree with absolutely everything Chabichou says, although I didn't use Genki myself.

I downloaded a pack to allow the basic support of viewing Japanese characters on this computer but actually couldn't figure out how to enable the typing them. So I bought a second computer with Japanese Windows xp and a Japanese/English keyboard so I could practice typing on it.

but alright then, hiragana it is

 

[Buntaro]

This is a great hiragana page. Click on each character, and copy them down, using the exact stroke order shown.

Hiragana home

 

[SortOf]

Cool I think that will be helpful, thx.

 

[KrazyKat]

I downloaded a pack to allow the basic support of vieweing Japanese characters on this computer but actually couldnt figure out how to enable the typing them. So I bought a second computer with Japanese Windows xp and a Japanese/English keyboard so I could practice typing on it.
but alright then, hiragana it is

You should be able to type Japanese on Just a normal PC running XP. Do you have a language bar on the bottom of your screen, saying ENG or something like that? If not use help to try and find it. Someone else can probably tell you how to do it better than me though I'm not so good with computers.