need help with japanese
 

i just started selfstudying japanese and i need help i dont know where to start though can any one help me

I started by learning the Kana. You want to avoid Romaji as much as possible. This way, as you study grammar you're reinforcing your reading skills.

I taught myself all of Genki I and working on Genki II. It's great if you have a penpal, friend, or lover who will help you when the textbook can't. Get a trial membership at Japanesepod101.com, download everything, and just listen to the lessons while you play games or do whatever.

I also made a ton of flashcards with Anki and I review those every day.

I also start with Katakana and then Hiragana !!

Me too! fist hiragana then katakana!

what kind of stuff do u have on the flash cards?

Usualy flashcards are usefull to study kanji, u put a kanji on one side and the readings on the back and the meaning. Some have 1 or 2 examples too to help memorise.

I have Books !!!!! and a online teacher ^^;

U'r lucky, i have only the internet, can find books on japanese learning here!

Learning Japanese
 

The best advice I can give you is to start with the following areas:

1. Wrote (EDIT: Sorry, "rote") phrases (greetings, thank-you, other simple phrases)

Arigatou gozaimasu = thank you
O-yasumi nasai = good night/ rest well
Dou itashimashite = you're welcome
etc.

2. Nouns and "is/was/is not/ was not" or "is this?" sentences
(e.g. hon = book
hon desu = it is a book)
hon dewa arimasen = is not a book
hon desu ka = is this a book?
hon dewa arimasen deshita = was not a book)

3. Ko/So/A/Do formations
Kore = this
Sore = that
Are = that over there
Dore = which?

koko = here
soko = there
asoko = over there
doko = where

kono [noun] = this [noun]
sono = that [noun]
ano = that [noun] over there
dono = which/what [noun]?


4. Adjectives/ describing sentences (pick a ko/so/a beginning, add a noun, add an adjective, end with "desu")
(e.g. kono hana ga kirei desu = this flower is pretty
sono tsukue wa furui desu = that desk is old
ano hon wa taikutsu desu = that book is boring
etc.)

That should get you going relatively quickly with your Japanese. Then you'll move on to verbs, verb conjugations and grammar rules.

Biggest Learning Tip:
Use flashcards, but not in a "pack". Attach them to the actual physical objects they represent around your house, repeat the Japanese word associated with the object (e.g. reizouko = refigerator). As you become more experienced, incorporate more complex sentences (e.g. reizouko desu = this is a refrigerator). After a while, remove the cards, but still use the Japanese word associated with the object.

This moves you away from translating in your head, and toward associating the word directly with the object, which is where fluency begins. Obviously, this doesn't work for every word, but use your creativity to do as much as possible.

Believe it or not, spoken Japanese is rather easy to learn.

Practice, practice, practice

Roomaji vs. not? I actually learned with roomaji almost exclusively at first, which really helped with building vocabulary and learning to pronounce Japanese correctly. Didn't seem to hurt me...actually, better than that. It helped me get to a level of fluency very quickly.

I tell most learners that roomaji (romanized Japanese, or Japanese spelled out using the English alphabet) is the quickest way to get started. Learning hiragana and katakana is fine, but in the end you need to understand that to really read and write Japanese, you'll have to learn about 2,000 kanji characters. OK, about 1400 to be able to read most written material you'll encounter, but that's still a lot.

Get fluent in spoken Japanese first, then worry about the writing. That's actually a very natural language acquisition pattern (think about your own language acquisition in your native language...simple phrases (mainly nouns), more complex phrases, initial fluency, and then reading/writing.

I guess what I'm saying is...don't try to read and write until you get to a pretty good level of fluency first, otherwise you'll impede your progress in learning, and you'll get frustrated.

With roomaji, anyone can "read" and "write" Japanese even from day 1.

HTH.

wow thats really a huge help thank you

Particles
 

Oops, another "bad" of mine. You'll also want to learn how to use the particles "wa" and "ga" at this stage, which indicate subject and topic, respectively. In the sentence pattern above, you can bet that about 80% of the time, you'll use "ga" before an adjective.

I'm serious, though, when I say spoken Japanese is pretty easy to pick up. Just don't let it intimidate you.

I learned hairagana then katakana, I used the pimsleur Japanese language program (I am on lessen 80 of 90) I also use Amazon.com: Remembering the Kanji: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters (Manoa): Books: James W. Heisig, and Amazon.com: Kanji Study Cards: Books: James W. Heisig boxed set of 2,042 flash cards contains full information on kanji including Chinese and Japanese readings, English equivalents, and hints for vocabulary building. other then that i have hundred's of imported manga, most of then are in kana with some kanji, the kanji have kana beside them. heres a list of web sites I use. hope you find it helpful

Japanese Stories
KA: Japanese Vocabulary
crunchyroll.com - Anime
Japanese/English Flashcard Generator - Study Japanese for Free!
Japanese Kana Quizzes (Hiragana & Katakana) [Flash 6]
Japanese Lessons
Teaching English in Japan...
Flashcards: The world's largest library of printable flash cards

I need help with japanese too.

You are all so good ;__; i'm not started study katakana or hiragana...but i'm going to open college to learn some japanese..asian characters too<3

thanks guys I learn nihonngo first bcoz of interest & appreciation sometimes its complicated I learned by reading, writing & listening :rolleyes: without worry :vsign: