How to Learn Japanese

Learning any foreign language can be difficult for many people out there. However, there are a number of resources available for learning Japanese.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer and internet would be helpful.
• Library Card
• Capacity to play audio on computer or CD player.
• Erasable Marker and Marker board

1. Listen to the language. Listen to an audio CD, Japanese shows or anime, or pod casts. Just getting used to hearing the language makes a world of difference.

2. Sign up for a free Account at a Japanese pod location, either Japanesepod, or Japanesepod101 are great sites for learning the language.
   The good thing about Japanesepod101 is in most lessons for newbie and Beginner they have English, Romaji, Kana, and Kanji transcriptions of the lessons in PDF format. However, this is a limit to how many you can download per day on a free account.

3. Or buy or check out at your local library, Japanese Language Audio CD. Make sure you when you listen to the Audio you repeat it as often as possible

4. Once you get used to hearing the language learn Kana, which includes Hiragana and Katakana. Hiragana is the script for native words and Katakana is the script for foreign words like Kohi, coffee

5. Watch Japanese shows and animation, listen to the music in opening and closing. Often songs will have English, Romaji and Kanji words and this will help you make the connections and learn new words and reinforce the words you already know. Otakucenter.com, Animeseason.com are some better sites out there. You can also hit up Megavideo or Veoh or Myspace.

6. Start practicing Kanji. You can read it online there are many flashcard programs. A tactic I used was to check out a Japanese Kanji book and just practice making the strokes in a journal or a marker and Marker board is a great cheap way to practice.

7. Increase you vocab skills using this site, http://smart.fm/. Its a great site for all skill levels. They have user submitted vocab lists in several languages and audio versions of most words and flashcards. You can also use the iKnow program to practice in Romaji, Kana, Kanji.

8. Once you feel your skills are progressing sufficiently you can enter Japanese chat rooms or sign up for language exchange programs online. There are many sites out there like MyLanguageexchange.com or languageexchange.org

9. Practice more and read Japanese Manga, then move onto Japanese light novels, many are found online or at your local library. Check out Mangafox.com or onemanga.com

10. Visit Japanese Sites and continue to practice and perfect you skills. If you are visiting an English site try changing the site to Japanese and see home much you understand.

Tips & Warnings

• iknow also has stuff for other languages and other subjects too.
• Depending on your goals or
• Once you've signed up to Japanesepod101 for a free trial, you will only be able to access premium features for seven days on that email.

[hmt86]

on 8/11/2009 Good tips! Watching Japanese shows is a good idea. 5*

[spongie84]

on 8/2/2009 Good information

[gahazeleyes]

on 5/20/2009 Very informative. Thanks

[bizzyliz]

on 5/9/2009 Wow! Learning Japanese would be a serious project. I'm impressed with anyone who would attempt to learn the Japanese language. Thanks for this good info.