Japanese Grammar and Kanji?

[Hansuke]

みなさんこんたちわ!
So I'm new to the Japanese language, and I'm almost done with the Hiragana. I'm so confused about where to start studying the Japanese grammar online. I'm having hard times finding a decent website that could teach Grammar well. I only found TextFugu, which I believe a bit expensive I won't be able to find textbooks in bookstores here as because they don't sell language textbooks. Any suggestions for good online Japanese lessons?

And regarding Kanji, I know my question is somehow general, but do we have to memorize all of the pronunciations for a Kanji (On and Kun)?

I would really appreciate some help

[tsurezure]

Originally Posted by Hansuke

みなさんこんたちわ!

みなさん、こんにちは!

[Hansuke]

Oops sorry. I typed the characters using the Japanese Palette on my Mac, and the ta looks somehow similar to the ni XD Thanks for correcting

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by Hansuke

Oops sorry. I typed the characters using the Japanese Palette on my Mac, and the ta looks somehow similar to the ni XD Thanks for correcting

You can set up your Mac to where you can just type k o n ' n i t i h a and it will display こんにちは. It's in System Preferences->International->Input Menu. Enable kotoeri. Then look at the bottom for what the "select next input source in menu" is. Whatever it is, you use this key combination to switch between English input and Japanese (Kotoeri) input.

[Kusanagi666]

Hi, I like Kim's Guide; why don't ya try?

[Hansuke]

Originally Posted by Kusanagi666

Hi, I like Kim's Guide; why don't ya try?

Oh okay. Thanks for the suggestion

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by Kusanagi666

Hi, I like Kim's Guide; why don't ya try?

Tae Kim's Guide.

[YuriTokoro]

Originally Posted by Hansuke

And regarding Kanji, I know my question is somehow general, but do we have to memorize all of the pronunciations for a Kanji (On and Kun)?

Yes.
You need to memorize both on and kun. If you don’t, you can’t read Japanese sentences.

Good luck!

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by YuriTokoro

Yes.
You need to memorize both on and kun. If you don’t, you can’t read Japanese sentences.

Good luck!

This is correct. However, OP should know it's not going to be productive to sit down and just memorize the readings for each kanji alone. Instead, it works better, to learn a ton of words that use the ON and KUN readings. (I know you know this already, Yuri, seeing how it's probably how you learned the kanji as a kid!)

For example, OP could either learn 学：学（ぶ）、ガク or he could learn 学ぶ (to learn), 数学（すうがく） (mathematics), 科学（かがく）(chemistry), 物理学（ぶつりがく） (biology), 学期（がっき） (semester), etc.

The first looks easier at first, but it becomes harder after a while. By learning vocab instead, you are able to often learn one kanji's reading while reinforcing your knowledge of another kanji's reading.

For example, if I learn all those words above, I will have a bigger vocabulary and I will also partially learn 数 is すう, 科 is か, 物 is ぶつ, 理 is り, etc. Then when it comes time to learn 生物, I may already recognize ぶつ, so I just need to learn 生 (せい、じょう、なま、etc.)

I've tried both routes. After about 100–200 kanji at 20 per week, method 1 (just learn the kanji) got pretty hard. However, It wasn't until around 800–1000 kanji at 100/week with method 2 that things became hard. (Keep in mind I am not a newbie, though, so my rate of learning would be higher than yours, OP.)

The effectiveness of method 2 is precisely why I champion Anki and Kanji in Context. I've grown my vocabulary by 5000 words and can read so much more at will than I could in, say, March 2010.