My Determination to Learn Japanese

[xleeque]

Greetings fellow Japanese enthusiast! This is my first day on the forum since January 1st, when I made learning Japanese one of the resolutions for year 2009! So here I am trying to pick things up.

To really push myself to learn Japanese, I have (paid and) created a small site to take down notes as I go through learning the language. You know, to think and write down notes is one of the ways to learn it better, too!

My friend who is very proficient in Japanese language has helped review my site content and she brought a great deal of improvements to the site! I figure with the help from many other people on the forum, I can even make this a lot better than it is right now.

My friend thought the sentences on it are too “informal” and learning Japanese should start with formal sentences. I am just two weeks into Japanese language and there is no way for me to “fine tune” the sentences on the page to a “more formal” version. I am sure you folks are the best persons to help me on this.

Here is the page address: Particles in Japanese Language

(I know starting it off with particles is not a good idea, oh well...)

Thanks in advance!!

[chryuop]

I think as first thing you should start by learning the writing system. The earlier you learn the Japanese the sooner you will abandon the western alphabet and that is the way you want to study.

[ThirdSight]

Like chryuop said, learn Kana. Just Hiragana and Katakana at first; roll slowly into Kanji with both of those well under your belt.

Your friend's right, start learning the formal way to say sentences. Once you can do that, just remove a few formal words and you'll be speaking informally (not so cut and dry, but it's easier than learning informal to formal).

I always recommend Berlitz for those self teaching themselves the language, it's a great computer program. Look into it.

Those are just some tips to get you off in the right direction, the rest is up to you!

[xleeque]

Chryuop, thanks. I had problem remembering Hiragana and Katakana, but I guess that was because I did not determine enough. This time I am going to remember all of them!

ThirdSight, I was having quite a tough time remembering those verb forms and how to conjugate them! Well, everything is difficult at first, so I'll sure to learn harder. As for the "Berlitz" software, may I know where can I get it? The site seems to offer services rather than a computer program. Thanks anyway for letting me know.

I have got people written to me with improvements that I can make on my page. I incorporated those suggestions and it now looks better than how it was yesterday. If you see how it can be further improved (or found mistakes I made), please let me know!

Here's the link: Particles in Japanese Language


Thanks again for all your guidance.

[chryuop]

Learning how to conjugate verbs will be a piece of cake once you learn hiragana. Remember that the roman letters (or romaji how they are called in Japanese) are not part of the Japanese language or writing system. All their grammar is built thinking in hiragana, thus it is easier learning hiragana first (you will see what I mean when you will encounter the godan and ichidan verbs).
I used to write to a Japanese guy using the roman letters when I had to write things like USA or other very short foreigner things. I noticed that he never used roman letters at all, so I got used to never using roman letters when writing in Japanese at all. Now I write to him 100% hiragana...I write even numbers only with kanji (thing that I know Japanese people sometimes use our numbers or at least they do in the Toukyou newspaper).

[xleeque]

Thanks again for your advice, chryuop.

I tend to agree with you where Hiragana is a lot more accurate as compared to romaji, afterall it is the native written language. Because of that I am making a web game (which I will be posting on my site soon) for learning Hiragana and Katakana

I will let you know when that is ready to be tested, and you may help me to test it out too!

[ThirdSight]

Berlitz is a major language company that teaches different languages to many different people, companies, you name it. Their software is what you should snag; you can find it in any store that sells software, though you may have better luck buying it online or trying Fry's Electronics if there's one nearby.

[xleeque]

Yeah, so I thought. After browsing through their site and that's what I discovered too. I'm not living in the States, so the nearest Fry's Electronic is about 9.5 thousands miles away

My web game is almost in place, at that time I'll post the link here again!

[xleeque]

There you go guys, my web game is here, click here --> Stackana, hope you'll like it!