Rosetta Stone: Japanese?

[Maxful]

Why don't you enrol for Japanese language classes? I will be heading back to school later this year.

Regarding the books, you can find them on Amazon.com. There are reviews by people who had bought the books.

Amazon.com: Japanese grammar

[godwine]

Rosetta is not totally useless, for most, a second (or third+) language is learn by visual relation, and then the rest is just practice reading, writing and hearing. I think you need to take several path to start

1. Get a really good book, as suggested previously, scools here uses Japanese for Busy people. I find that an extremely easy book to follow

2. Wikipedia has a complete Hirgana and Katakana table, study that

3. Do a search on google for Japanese grammars and particles. Read up on a couple of articles, that will help you understand the basic form

4. get a phrase book to start learning simple sentences, if you took my suggestion for point 1, it will already have plenty of sentences exercise.

5. Get some Japanese magazine, have a good dictionary handy and start reading the magazine, again, I find automotive magazine fairly heplfu. Fashion magazine as well

6. Take up on maxful's suggestion of taking a beginners class

Think of how immigrants learn English, most of us are only beginners in English when we first landed (Yes English is not my first language, and yes I am in a country that uses English), and we mostly learn by "forced exposure"

[Carano]

Thanks alot guys!

The reason I'm having second thoughts over these programs are because, I fear that over time, they will turn me into a robot, repeating their 'automatic and conveniently' constructed phrases, to the point where I'll forget what each word means, and only remember what the full sentence means. In return, expecting to hear the exact reply what the audio gives me. Where as, hypothetically speaking, if I was in Japan, they're not always going to reply with the same phrase that I'm used to hearing, in response to what I'm saying... But I guess I'll stick with them, I've got nothing to lose, I suppose.

Then again, I've been learning for a week, I can't really expect much else, bar a few basic phrases in that amount of time.

I understand it's going to take alot of time. Time that I'm willing to spend. Which is why I wanted as many resources as I can get, without having to stroll through constant websites telling me 'learn Japanese in 8 weeks!'


I've tried looking for language classes in my area. But there's absolutely nothing. There's not alot of anything where I live, unfortunately... If life was that convenient, I would have left this country atleast 5 years ago.


But I'll pick up Japanese for Busy People, for sure. Then take it from there.

Thanks.

[Carano]

I've been reading quite a lot today. And all of the particles are starting to make alot of sense.

It appears listening to audio programs has been a waste, to be honest. I mean the audio was telling to to say such like, anata wa amerikajin desu ka. I know what it means, but it didn't give me any explanation that the 'wa' is a subject marker, etc. I had no clue about these particles until today.

I've learnt alot more in a few hours from reading stuff, as opposed to 5 days of audio BS. Repeating 'automatic' phrases and trying to remember daft things that I wouldn't even ask in Japanese.

So I guess reading is the way forward. I've learnt a bit about verbs, too. I believe Kyle has blocked me, despite my opinion of him being slightly arrogant towards 'newbies'. I'd appreciate if somebody could message him and tell him I apologize for the last remark I made. Afterall, he was right about books being better. So I thank him for that. I'd hope that he'd unblock me.

I learnt Hiragana in 2 hours 15 mins thanks to Remembering the Kana.

Thanks also Godwine. I haven't picked up JfBP at the moment, but I did check out Wikipedia, and got alot of great info from it!

[OHayou]

Hi everyone,

I have Rosetta Stone - Japanese all 3 levels.
There are 3 levels with 4 units per level with a end lesson at each unit.

It is currently $379.00 for all 3 levels.

You have Romaji, Kanji, Furigana, and Kana options to display text.
You also have 4 speaking exercises per unit which relies entirely on speech (as opposed to typing or clicking the mouse on photos.)

There are also audio CDs for each unit that you can play in your car to reinforce the lessons.

Additionally, there is a new online world where you can play games (single or multiplayer) and schedule 1 hour sessions with native speakers (who you see and hear but they can only hear you) and other participants. You play games and communicate but they can speak only Japanese and encourage only Japanese. This is a monthly fee of $20 dollars or so. The price escapes me.

I have heard they added the online sessions because they found people "graduated" all 3 levels but still were unable to speak fluently. This is because regardless of how much you know on paper putting into actual use is a very different thing.

Is it worth it?

The first question is: Is $379.00 a lot of money? This is up to the individual.

The second question is: Will it work?

This is like saying "is a college degree good?" For some people it worked out well but other people spent a lot of money receiving a college degree and are unemployed or work at jobs which do not require college degrees.

There are a lot of resources out there and I think they all work if you are diligent and immerse yourself in the culture and language.