What comes first?

The kana ARE sounds! You can't learn kana without learning the right sounds, otherwise I don't know what you are going to end up with... but it isn't going to be Japanese.

Remember, romaji only tries to IMITATE the sound of the Japanese kana in letters. It is NOT the exact sound used in Japanese.

Shi is NOT し. It is only the closest sound we can get, some are much closer than others. Be glad you aren't learning Chinese, whew! No way you'd learn that with just a book and a CD.

Again though, get the first Genki book at the very least. You can probably find it for $30 somewhere. That's damn cheap for starting to learn a language, and it is the best book you can find, you won't get better. Also remember one of the things I said above, if you try to go about this the cheap and easy way, you won't learn it. There is a VERY good reason I am focusing entirely on the Genki series, and I have used other books. None come close. If you can't afford a class, or the workbook with CD then just get the first book and use websites for the sounds and practice.

oops guys, i meant to post how i am sorry and thanks for putting up with my whining on this thread. so thanks a lot guys.

one last question, this should be the last. does the genki series have answers with it? if not can i post my questions and answers on here?

BamaFan2989 said:

are there any other books, that are easier to find and a little less expensive. and i know you said it is the best, and that finding an easy way out won't help, but with is being overseas, hard to find, and expensive, it's hard for a sophomore in high school to get it.

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When I was in high school, unemployed, and wanted to buy something, I used to skip lunch and hoard my lunch money until I had amassed the necessary amount.

mikecash said:

When I was in high school, unemployed, and wanted to buy something, I used to skip lunch and hoard my lunch money until I had amassed the necessary amount.

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Ditto, me + books.

You remind me of this heart warming tale of how a certain man became a millionaire. When he was young he used to scrape together a little money each day which he used to buy apples, carefully selected from among the cheap & dirty apples on sale in the market. Then he would wash and polish each apple and sell them on elsewhere for just a little bit more. This way as the weeks went by he slowly built up a small stock of cash.

Then one day his great uncle Maxwell died and left him several million pounds.

That reminds me of an old kook who used to wander the streets of my town when I was a widdle-biddy fellow. He used to accost people on the sidewalk and sell them books of matches for 5 or 10 cents....or whatever he could get for them. Now, lots of towns have kooks who wander the streets doing stuff like that, but his twist was in the source of the matches. A quick look at the cover told you that he had been lifting them in bulk from bank branches.

We always wondered why the banks never complained about him helping himself to their advertising matches in wholesale quantities. But when the old fellow died, the mystery stood revealed. It turns out he had just absolutle buttloads of money on deposit in the banks. I've never known where it came from, but I've always wondered what portion of it came from retailing the banks' matches for them.

No, the genki book doesn't contain the answers. However, it gives you enough explaination that if you study hard enough you will know if you are doing it correctly.