What is the best way to learn Japanese?
98669
You can download some free teaching software from the internet to learn basics. But to learn it for good, you do need to go to Japan and actually speak it.\n\nIf you are serious...Here you can get one of the best software to learn a foreight language...\n\nhttp://www2.rosettastone.com/en/general/ppc/overture/jpn\n\nHave fun!
365276
There are two main ways of writing japanese, hiragana and katakana not including the hiroglyphics/picture words. It is a pretty complex language unless you only wish to speak it but I would advise you order a book and CD or take a course somewhere.
479784
My personal experience:\nI went to Japan knowing the bare basics - greetings, and things related to my current state of being, such as "I`m hungry" "I`m thirsty" etc. I was in an environment where I had the option of speaking Japanese or not speaking at all. There was no English to fall back on.\n\nWithin a month, I could stumble through conversation (With hand movements and drawings) enough to make friends. Two months, and I could sort of manage to understand most of what was going on around me without too much difficulty. Three months and I was able to call and talk to my friends over the phone (basic conversation without any expression/drawing help.)\nEverything from then on was just slowly improving and polishing what I knew. I would say true fluency in *speaking* took around 8 months? Although by around 5 months or so, I could make myself look fluent. (You know, when you understand enough of the conversation to understand what they mean without *really* understanding the words?) After close to a year, I was able to fool anyone I spoke to into thinking that I had been born in Japan. (ie, no accent, no mistakes, etc.)\nWritten language took a bit longer. I could read quite well after about a year, and I considered myself fluent after around a year and a half. It`s hard to learn a written language if you don`t know what the words you are reading mean, so I didn`t read much until after I was pretty much speaking fluently. \n\nMind you though, I was in Japan, in a situation without the option of English interaction available to me. I was also 17 when I came to Japan - as you age it takes longer to pick up new languages. If you go to Japan to teach English or with a school program, your actual exposure to Japanese will be drastically less. And if you have the option to fall back on a language that is easier for you, 9 times out of 10, you probably will. Make sure you NEED to speak the language to survive. It`s the best way.
25801
honestly I don't know why you would want to do this, but the best way to learn a language is to go live in the country. If you can't afford that, take some classes, listen to tapes in your car, and above all, watch as many movies in the language as possible...that's a great way to hear the language spoken colloquially and get as close to the real experience as is possible in the confines of your living room
1042194
I don't know japanese, but try out this site.  It's got lessons with phrases phonetically spelled and written in Japanese.  Good luck!
464645
You should first know your learning style: can you learn from a language CD, person, book, etc.\n\nFocus on how you learn best.  If you can pick up differences in speech from a CD, Barnes and Noble/ Borders etc sell some really good tutorials.  Pimsleur is a set I have had success with.\n\nNext find a person or circumstance you can practice the verbal skills you are picking up.  Asian Societies/Japanese societies, etc.  practice. practice and practice some more.\n\nAs far as the written.  Pick up a set of books that teach written Japanese.  Start with Hiragana, then katagana, and finally Kanji.
471743
The easiest way to learn any language bar non is by making a friend who is fluent in the language you want to learn and knows very little of your language (or will agree to speak mostly in their native tongue). I know of this from experience. I was fluent is Italian and had moderate French knowledge when I moved to Japan 5 years ago due to my husband being in the military. I knew not ONE word of Japanese. I bought books, Cd's, DVDs, PC programs etc and  learned close to nothing as Japanese is an EXTREMELY difficult language to learn. Then, once I made a Japanese friend who spoke close to NO English, I started picking up so fast it was unbelievable. I am now FLUENT in Japanese and it took all of 6 months. I could get myself around in about 1 month. Many people had recommended this to me and now tried and true I recommend it to you. There are a couple of ways to find friends for such as well. Finding language exchange partners on-line is easy or visiting local colleges culture clubs which most members are second language English generation. Good Luck on your endeavor!!
667
Find you a copy of "Genki - An integrated course in Elementary Japanese" published by The Japan Times.  It's the best introduction to the language that I've found.  You may be able to find one at your local library.  If not, take a look at TheJapanShop.net or Amazon.com or JList.com
475480
try http://www.yourdictionary.com/ there should be a Finish learning program there. I have used thet site to get to a japanesse learning program...
299940
Total Immersion!\n\nThe best way to learn a foreign language, as most people will tell you is to live in the country where the language is primarily spoken.\n\nIf that's not possible then you just need to be creative and find other ways to immerse yourself in the language. For example:\n\n - Get a subscription to a foreign news publication.\n\n - Use yahoo's foreign language search engines instead of the English ones. (e.g. http://www.yahoo.fr or http://www.yahoo.es)\n\n - Buy a pack of Post-It-Notes, write a foreign word on it and stick it to the object to which it refers (e.g. das fenster on the window)\n\n - Invade foreign chat rooms - if only to see how natives chat to each other, you can join in when you start to feel confident.\n\n - Listen to foreign radio stations. This is even easier now, with many radio stations broadcasting on the internet. (Check out http://www.radiotower.com/)\n\n - Watch DVD's in different languages (Lot's of your favourite DVD's will have the option to watch the movie dubbed in a variety languages.) I recommend watching 'Die Hard' in Spanish!\n\n - Watch foreign TV broadcasts. Again, this is readily available on the internet (Try http://wwitv.com/portal.htm)\n\nOf couse you still need to learn the basics. I recommend buying language software, and books to get you started. However, lessons are also readily available on the internet for free if you know where to look. Check out http://www.about.com and http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/ Both of which are very good for beginners!\n\nGood Luck!
1118102
go to your county library and ask if there is a Japanese consulate in your area and they can find someone willing to tutor you.
473750
http://www.yesjapan.com/ is the best, cheapest place to learn a lot, quickly. It's almost as good as taking a real class.
45634
Japanese for Dummies... great book. Otherwise, I'd suggest getting a human teacher. I take Japanese in school... and I find it easier than Spanish. Imagine, no future tenses. Easy words. Easy sentence-structures. It's... awesome. I suggest you go and find a living-person to be your teacher. ^_^ Or take a trip to Japan for a month, you'll pick up Japanese really fast, then!\n\nHiragana has 46 characters\nKatakana has 45 characters\nKanji has too many characters
729974
Guide or teacher it is best to have the help of a person who has gone before.  To start you should learn hiragana as you can write everything in it.  But, you should not neglect katakana.  And, you should start in using kanji as soon as you've hiragana down.  Japanese is a mix of all three.  While you are learning hiragana you can learn to pronounce Japanese.  That part is very simple. To learn by yourself you will need some books on grammar.  I think grasping the grammar and learning to read and write kanji are what makes Japanese seem difficult.  Kanji just takes time. You can learn about 100 a year.  You just write them CORRECTLY over and over.  and it gets easier and begins to make sense.  When you write them also you learn the pronunciations (the Chinese and Japanese readings called onyomi and kunyomi.)  Japanese syntax is SubjectObjectVerb.and is aided by postpositionals called particles or joshi in Japanese.  A good book on grammar should have ample examples of this.  And, the other difficulty is verbs and their conjugations.  Learning hiragana will help you with this, you will see.  Just realise that you are going to have to put some time in to learn it.\nI found that teachers can help with the kinds of things that we learn in school.  Reading and writing kanji would be one of the things that I found classes helpful with.  But, it was a college class on Japanese overall.   And, also friends in particular native speakers will inform you of your shortcommings.  They are teachers.\nI taught Japanese in college here and basically you need to know hiragana.  Katakana is used like we use italics for foreign words and for emphasis.  It is the same syllables as hiragana over again. Learn hiragana first.\nI basically taught Japanese grammar as I thought that the most important  to learn and yes there are various levels of politeness but you only need to learn one to start and the verbs and endings that go along with that.  You will learn the others almost automatically.  As Japanese is frought with polite expressions.\nI repeat  you need to learn the postpositionals (particles) and the verb conjugations... knowing hiragana will help you with this.
529067
♡For learning Japanese, try these sites. Hope they help and good luck learning Japanese!♡\nhttp://www.freejapaneselessons.com/\nhttp://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/wwwjdic.html\nhttp://www.learn-japanese.info/\nhttp://genki.yousei-ziploc.com/main.php\nhttp://www.learn-japanese.net/webpages/1/\nhttp://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/nihongo/contents.html\nhttp://www.japanippon.com/japanese/classroom.htm\nhttp://www.kanachart.com/\nhttp://www.kanjisite.com/\nhttp://www.sharedtalk.com/\nhttp://www.japaneselearning.com/index.php?option\n*Lessons with free soundfiles for Japanese:\nhttp://japanese.about.com/blpod.htm\nhttp://japanese.about.com/blsoundfile.htm\nAudio phrases in Japanese: \nhttp://japanese.about.com/blphrase.htm
779382
http://japanese.about.com/\n\nClicking the Introductory Lessons link may be a good place to start\n\nOr you could find a few more usefull things here\nhttp://japanese.about.com/blbeginner.htm
175028
The best way is to talk with someone who speaks that language.\n\nOther things you can do:\n\nWatch a language DVD/video.  The ones we like are the Muzzy series and also the Standard Deviants series.  For French, there is a great series of videos called "French in Action."\n\nYou can also try listening to the Berlitz audio tapes.  We have used those in both German and Italian.  You can listen while driving/riding in the car or while relaxing or whatever.  they really are great for learning pronunciation.\n\nYou can also enroll in a language class but that would be the most expensive.\n\nIf you are on a low budget, try getting audio and video tapes at your local library.\n\nOr ask friends or family who have taken a language class. Most likely they have materials collecting dust that they will give you.