Learning program accuracy "101 Languages of the World"

[protheus]

Hello,

My name is Catalin, from Romania. I'm a nonstop learner, and now I reached the point on my list Japanesse language (culture comes later on, 'cause once you know the language, you understand at another level everything related). I have a program called Languages of the World, which has the spoken basics of conversation level in japanesse, but before i get into it, if someone used it, can tell me if its any bit correct?
I don't want to start with a wrong sense of the right language, because after you catch a habbit its hard to escape of it, same applies to learning (from what i saw until now).
I found a topic here, where there was a link to the written "letters" (if i can call them that) used, i will learn that, but at the spoken, besides watching (listening) some anime series, I don't have a refference point to compare the programs real "value".

Thank you in advance.

PS: Until now I just learned some easy languages Deutsch (german), francais, english so I'm not especting to be easy to learn this language, but something is making me turn in this direction and i can't help it.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by protheus

Hello,

My name is Catalin, from Romania. I'm a nonstop learner, and now I reached the point on my list Japanesse language (culture comes later on, 'cause once you know the language, you understand at another level everything related). I have a program called Languages of the World, which has the spoken basics of conversation level in japanesse, but before i get into it, if someone used it, can tell me if its any bit correct?
I don't want to start with a wrong sense of the right language, because after you catch a habbit its hard to escape of it, same applies to learning (from what i saw until now).
I found a topic here, where there was a link to the written "letters" (if i can call them that) used, i will learn that, but at the spoken, besides watching (listening) some anime series, I don't have a refference point to compare the programs real "value".

Thank you in advance.

PS: Until now I just learned some easy languages Deutsch (german), francais, english so I'm not especting to be easy to learn this language, but something is making me turn in this direction and i can't help it.

Why don't you share a bit with us about what the book says? I can't imagine I'm going to go buy a book just to tell you it's (likely) not very useful.

You'd be better served by getting a kanji book, a school textbook (Yookoso! and Minna no Nihongo are two popular ones), and flashcarding a lot of vocabulary. It's more of an investment, but it's more of a return.

Memorizing "konnichiwa" and "douzo yoroshiku itashimasu" will not get you anywhere without further materials.

I suggest you first read Tae Kim's guide to Japanese grammar. It's free online. Once you've learned everything there, you will be able to speak Japanese conversationally.

[BakaTensei]

michel thomas does a good audio course that helps build up a bit of your vocab but sadly its just an audio course so if you want to learn kana and kanji you'd need additional material like *points to the above post*

[protheus]

The program I'm talking about is this:
101 Languages of the World Review 2009 - TopTenREVIEWS
It's mainly a english to other language learning helper program. However, the fact that it is a 101 language pack, I'm a bit in doubt about the quantity to quality.
I attached 3 separate windows from the program, the one that helps reading, the other a conversation example one, and the last is activities (some play to gain type learners).
What I'm interested the most is the audio part of it. If that's wrong it doesn't help. I will try to find one audio file, or try to record one conversation example, to send it to someone as a sample. If it says it's ok, I'll continue.
The type of learning is based on sound to written fonetic match.

Anyway, thanks for the advices, I already bookmarked and looked up the sugestions, I've printed the "letters" and if I'm not disturbing too much, can someone guide me to some hand writting examples of the exact symbols used by nihongo (i assume thats how it's called the j. language from what i saw on another topic here).

Thank you,

C.C.

[protheus]

It spoils the window of the forum if there's more than one attachment per post, so i post the other photos one by one.

[protheus]

The last photo.

[MMM]

It is not in Japanese.

And regarding your comment "culture comes later". Japanese language and culture are essentially inseparable. The language will make a LOT more sense if you understand the culture (i.e. culture of relationships) in Japan as you are learning.

And Japanese generally don't shake hands.

[BakaTensei]

Originally Posted by MMM

It is not in Japanese.

And regarding your comment "culture comes later". Japanese language and culture are essentially inseparable. The language will make a LOT more sense if you understand the culture (i.e. culture of relationships) in Japan as you are learning.

And Japanese generally don't shake hands.

Agreed, even found myself learning a bit of a japanese history so far just to understand silly phrases

[protheus]

Any method of self teaching involves making mystakes, better ask before proceeding. That was mainly why I opened this topic, not to make a mystake with the program i choose, the methods I aply.
The starting point of what I was thinking, seems it was alot off track. So I'm gathering all your advices and changing the way I will learn.

Already donwloaded the Japanese grammar guide in PDF format to print it, for easier reading, and checking in the same time the link from where i got it for audible examples and other essentials.

Thank you, it already helped me to avoid some lost time for nothing. Other advices are highly welcomed.

Best regards,

C.C.

[protheus]

I'm sorry for disturbing again, I am a bit confused about something. The 2 forms of writting (katakana, hiragana), can be or are they used in general in the same "sentence"?