Newbie at Japanese

[ShinJon]

I am new to Japanese, the cool language.

I have done several researches on the language. I have realized that there are 3 or 4 systems that Japanese have. They are hiragana, kanji, katakana and romanji. I may be wrong but correct me if you must.

As of the fact, I just wanted to ask that which system is the first thing to study and memorize from Japanese? Let me know, thanks!

[diego187]

Forget about romanji.

Learn first Hiragana, then Katakana and then Kanji.

[ShinJon]

Alright, I'm on to do that

Which system is used the most?

[BakaTensei]

they are all used together but lucky beside most kanji there is hiragana for readers who are unfamiliar with it

[ShinJon]

Originally Posted by BakaTensei

they are all used together but lucky beside most kanji there is hiragana for readers who are unfamiliar with it

So like, in a phrase, all these systems are blended together to make a sentence?

[evanny]

i suggest you get genki and genki work book first level. and then just go through it. since its self studying for you it should take a year to finish.
but most likely youll just drop it.
its starts with basic hirigana,katakana. youll learn phrases, numbers, basic grammar which could be rather difficult. first book also includes some 150 kanji.
to read an avarage newspaper youll need to know some 600.

edit: hirigana is for japanese words. in katakana they write down foreign people names and a lot of names taken from english - koffe, computer etc...kanji simply represents japanese words. you can write them down in hirigana or kanji. most of the times sentences consist of both + katakana.

[ShinJon]

I appreciate your advice and I have understand better more about Japanese now. Thanks (:

Genki book should be on online obviously I have to go look for it.

[BakaTensei]

I've also seen katakana used to make words stand out...like if someone was shouting yatta they'd write it in katakana instead of hiragana

but not 100% sure about this so until someone who knows better confirms this please dont take it to be "fact"

[steven]

Originally Posted by ShinJon

As of the fact, I just wanted to ask that which system is the first thing to study and memorize from Japanese? Let me know, thanks!

Every text book on Japanese that I've seen (about 4-5), they start you off with romaji. Then hiragana. Then katakana. Then kanji.

Japanese people learn in this order: hiragana, katakana, kanji (with kanji actually being taught a little bit starting with hiragana), then romaji.

A lot of people here are anti-romaji, and I think that's justified. I think learning katakana before hiragana is an interesting approach, but I'm not sure what the more experienced would have to say about that. If you're hell-bent on focusing your studies on writing, then you might as well learn kanji as early as possible. I personally think that it helps to have a decent handle on the language before tackling kanji, though. To get a decent handle of the language, you'll have to be immersed, or semi-immersed (living in Japan or living near a lot of Japanese people).

Don't get a textbook just to learn hiragana/katakana by the way. Just look up some charts on the internet and you'll find plenty of resources.

Note: We had a conversation on stroke order here recently-- it focused mainly on the importance of "stroke order" for kanji. Most people felt that it is important. I think that the stroke orders of kanji becomes a lot easier to understand if you know the stroke order of hiragana/katakana... so you might want to take the extra time to find a resource that shows you the proper stroke orders before you practice writing them the wrong way a thousand times (which if you're going to practice writing them, you might as well learn the stroke orders).

[BakaTensei]

Japanese Grammar Guide | Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese

brilliant website tbh tae kims guide has all hiragana and katakana stroke order, just scroll down a bit on that page and its in the table of contents ^___^ hope that helps