What To Do Now?

[Rabby]

Ah, so im new here ^^ and im also pretty new to japanese, just started a week ago <3
And my passion to learn, read, speak, and understand japanese is as strong as ever
Im currently studying Hiragana/kana (since its the easiest), and I just finished memorizing the "alphabet" chart


However, what do I do now? Do I have to memorize the other charts (roman-ji, kanji, etc) or alphabet ﾃ?ﾃ? Or do I go on memorizing and writing hiragana words (eg. Cat, leash, gun, party, video games, etc)? Or everything at once ? I know about the particles and such but...im extremely confused @.@

To add, I have 0% (well, maybe 0.01?) of japanese grammar....and I have absolutely no guidance. Even many other sites and apps I read, confuses me....a lot.

And wut do I have to do?! Please help :3

Arigato <3

 

[Aiviet]

Do you live in Japan now? If so, why dont you make Japanese friends?

 

[Rabby]

Do you live in Japan now? If so, why dont you make Japanese friends?

Um :/
Im pretty sure I didnt say I lived in japan (and in plain sight, theres a canada flag right below my avatar )
Sorry ^_^

 

[Angel Valis]

I'd say that the first thing you should do is get a textbook (suggestions below). If you can take a class, that would probably help quite a bit too.

Regardless, the first things you should study are memorizing hiragana and katakana as soon as possible; I've found that it's much more effective to quickly get away from romaji and thinking in the English alphabet.

Genki I Textbook:Amazon product ASIN 4789014401Genki I Workbook:Amazon product ASIN 478901441X

 

[nekojita]

It's not a linear process. Yes, you should start learning words in hiragana. Yes, you should start learning kanji. Yes, you should start working on your grammar. No, you shouldn't try to do any one of these things 'first', because frankly you'll never be "done" with any of them.

If cost is a concern, check out local libraries which may have a small range of textbooks available, or look at Ebay or similar for second hand books.

There is a lot available online, and a lot of it is sadly, quite bad. I know I spam the Erin's Challenge link a lot, but that's because I genuinely think it's the best of the free stuff. (Plus it's run by the Japan Foundation so quite trustworthy).

 

[Aiviet]

＞私の日本語が間違っていたら、直して下さい。


どの日本語ですか？

 

[Toritoribe]

それはAngel ValisさんのSignatureなので、各スレッドに投稿された彼の最初の投稿の末尾に、日本語を使っているかいないかにかかわらず必ず表示されるものです。要は署名ですね。よく見るとその文章の上部に薄いグレーの線が引かれているのと、フォントサイズが本文に比べて微妙に小さいのが確認できると思います。

例えばご自身でも書き込みをされているこのスレッドを再読してみてください。Glennさん最初の投稿には「文字化けを避ける！」という一連のリンクが見えますが、二つ目にはありません。Settingsを開けばご自分のSignatureを作ることができます。

@The OP, sorry for being out of the topic.

 

[Rabby]

Um....
Lol, thx everyone for the advice ^_^. Altho, Kanji is....a bit too tough for me (if i have to learn chinese characters to learn kanji, its...overload for me , so i will stick with kana ) but I have a slight prob I still dont get....

Hiragana and katakana seem to have the same system of alpha, sounds, and grammar, but there's a problem I dont get. Since they r both the same, why use different? What makes it so special to be seperate with each other and when do I know which to use during times ?

I know dat katakana is for foreign languages (for eg. James ---> ???), but is dat all? Its only used for foregin languages, and hiragana is used for all the others?

Im extremely confused here xD

 

[Angel Valis]

Katakana is used for foreign names and words of foreign origin like you said. It's also used as emphasis, like italics in English. Sometimes, it's used to evoke a certain feeling (e.g. a robot in a book/manga might have their speech written almost entirely in katakana). Onomatopoeia is often written with katakana as well.

 

[nekojita]

Why do you use capital and small letters to write English?

Katakana isn't just used for foreign words (although it is used for a lot of them). It can also be used for emphasis, for sound words (onomatopoeia, which there is a lot of in Japanese), in some contexts for names of animals (instead of writing them in kanji), and a few other things. Even Toyota use トヨタ although their name originally comes from a Japanese family name.

For a beginner, when you learn a word just learn how it is normally written, but be aware that you may see it written a different way (some words can easily be written in hiragana/katakana/kanji depending on writer's preference).

If you seriously want to learn (written) Japanese you will have to tackle kanji at some point. It's okay to take it slow, you don't need to learn 1000 in the next week or anything, but very little is only written in kana, and most resources for more advanced grammar will assume a certain amount of kanji knowledge.

 

[Tamayo]

It's good that you've got some enthusiasm for learning Japanese! Let me tell you, one of the most important things you could possibly do for yourself is to try and maintain that enthusiasm no matter what. You need to really ask yourself if you're patient and willing enough for as huge an undertaking as learning a new language, because it's going to be incredibly lengthy and frustrating, no matter how good of an attitude you have.

As nekojita said, learning a new language isn't something you can ever really be "done" with. After all, even your vocabulary and understanding of grammar rules in English can be expanded upon at this stage, even though (I assume) it's your native language.

It's definitely not linear, and there isn't really any "correct" way to go about picking up a language, so just about any place you go to find some sort of guidance is going to be a help. For that reason, I encourage you to look around, and never stick to just any one method or system of learning. There are many different language-learning resources out there, but most of them will focus on different aspects of the language. Some might focus on grammar while others might focus on teaching you open-ended words which will be easy to use in a lot of situations.

Personally, what I did (and strongly recommend you try) is getting the iStart Japanese (Might just be called Japanese now) app from Mirai Languages on the iOS, if you have any iOS devices. It isn't super useful for gaining a big vocabulary or learning about grammar rules in-depth, but it teaches you a tiny bit about a lot of different aspects of the language, so I think that it'll give you a general idea about what Japanese is like and how it works. I never got past lesson 25 (out of 50 for the paid version of the app), but just the first few lessons really helped to kickstart my learning.

The next thing I'd REALLY recommend is Pimsleur's Japanese lessons. Basically, it's just a bunch of audio recordings you listen to, and they'll teach you Japanese. I've never tried any audio system other than Pimsleur (unless you count iStart Japanese), but I feel like it's a very detailed and nuanced system. My Japanese vocabulary is over 500 words, mostly because of Pimsleur. It helps you to understand the grammar and language as a whole by teaching you a small handful of words, how to string them together in a sentence, and then teaches you MANY grammar rules by building on what you've already learned. All in all, it's a pretty painless experience, considering how much you're getting out of it.

I hope this helps! My Japanese isn't very good at all (I wouldn't call myself more than just a beginner) and I don't know about all of the best resources out there, but feel free to message me if you ever want any personal help. At the very least, I can tell you how I've gone about learning what I've learned since it's still very fresh and new in my mind.

 

[Rabby]

Ah, I see...thanks ^^

Although btw... (sorry for the constant attack of questions , but I need to know)...how is kanji used? When I look at japanese, its a mixture of kanji, kata, and hira, but...how could u tell wut to write and wut to not :/? Why not just use kana instead of writing kanji?
What I rly mean, is dat why do u use kanji when u can just use kana, and how/when do u use it. Every word is basically the same thing anyways...
This is so hard to explain ._.

And also, do anyone know a site or app that covers up ALL grammar rules and guides for KANA? I cant find any good ones, since they r all a bit confusing. And I dont want kanji just yet. I will get there soon, but not now

Arigatou ^^

 

[Toritoribe]

See the following theread. They are talking about the topic you want to know.

Where to start? Learning Japanese | Japan Forum

Here's a quite well-known example. The last line seems definitely easier to read, right?

Uraniwa niwa niwa, niwa niwa niwa niwatori ga iru.
うらにわにはにわ、にわにはにわにわとりがいる。
裏庭には二羽、庭には二羽鶏がいる。

And also, do anyone know a site or app that covers up ALL grammar rules and guides for KANA?

Japanese writing system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arigatou ^^

In Japanese, "arigatou" can't be used in advance. "yoroshiku onegaishimasu" is equivalent to "thanks in advance".

 

[Rabby]

See the following theread. They are talking about the topic you want to know.
Where to start? Learning Japanese

Here's a quite well-known example. The last line seems definitely easier to read, right?

Uraniwa niwa niwa, niwa niwa niwa niwatori ga iru.
窶堋､窶堙ｧ窶堙俄?堙ｭ窶堙俄?堙坂?堙俄?堙ｭﾂ、窶堙俄?堙ｭ窶堙俄?堙坂?堙俄?堙ｭ窶堙俄?堙ｭ窶堙??堙ｨ窶堋ｪ窶堋｢窶堙ｩﾂ。
窶板?窶凖ｫ窶堙俄?堙坂?愿ｱ窶ｰHﾂ、窶凖ｫ窶堙俄?堙坂?愿ｱ窶ｰHﾅ畜窶堋ｪ窶堋｢窶堙ｩﾂ。


Japanese writing system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


In Japanese, "arigatou" can't be used in advance. "yoroshiku onegaishimasu" is equivalent to "thanks in advance".

Ah...thx for the tips ^_^