[godwine]

Hi John,

This is how I sarted. But do keep in mind that, I am of Chinese origin, so I had some advantage when it comes to the Kanji

I first took a basic Japanese course to learn the writing system - Hiragana, in most cases the first course will cover the fundamental of the language, some vocabulary, and grammar. Once you learn Hiragana, Katakana will come as long as you are willing to read and practice

Get a really good Japanese to English (and vice versa) dictionary

The next step is to use my limited knowledge to start reading Japanese articles and try to translate them. What I did was I bough magazine/comics to do this. I also use asahi.com to help.

I would photocopy or print what I have. Then I would start writing in the Romaji version of it, and eventually a translated text. Since, just like in MOST language, we could have same or similar prononuciation for several things, you will probably have to do this a couple of times to get the best/closest translation

Again, I gain some advantage because of the Kanji vs Chinese similarities, but I think this can be a good way for you to start as well