Hi I've never actually studied Japanese before and I was wondering if any-one could give me any tips? I've not actually got any tutor helping me I've only got one good friend who knows quiet a bit but hasn't been able to get me going. Does any-one have any lessons and or some quizes a newbie can start with?
Well to use this site, I would recommend at least first studying the hiragana and katakana character sets. I used various web sites on the net to help me with that. Then you can slowly dip into the vocab and kanji (Chinese characters) as you go along. Having done a few intro books, I would highly recommend the Genki series to study. I can say I'm quite envious that you have found this site so early on, I wish I had been able to do the same. Good luck!
Thanks so much I've been doing some of the Hiragana already but haven't yet got onto words. Thanks for the advice and I'll definatly been keeping an eye out for those books (Malay post service is absolutly rubbish XD)
I started out with kana flash cards and Japanese for Busy People before finding this site. The former were great, got the kana down pretty quick - but would recommend avoiding the latter as far as text books go.
I haven't used Genki personally though I've heard good things - I worked through the Minna no Nihongo books (with a tutor, mind you, might be more difficult on your own). Of course you've found this site - I'd recommend picking a set of materials to start with (some of the beginning Genki lists are probably a good bet) and creating a vocabulary schedule to go along with studying the textbook itself. If you also create a kanji schedule and set your settings to only show you kanji that you've studied, you can start slowly introducing those into your studies as well once you feel you've got a good grip on the kana.
Other than that, the absolute best thing you can do is find someone to speak with in Japanese!
I came across this site a while back and thought it looked like a fun way to learn hiragana & katakana - [url=http://learnjapanesepod.com/kana-invaders/]http://learnjapanesepod.com/kana-invaders/[/url] Actually, it kinda made me wish I didn't already know kana ... I'm a sucker for classic video games though ;D
Haha that invaders game is great. I wish I had known about that 3 years ago!
As for Minna no Nihongo, I did the first two books by myself and didn't find it too difficult, but I found the Genki books much more enjoyable (I only did the second one but...). Minna seems to use the same pattern over and over again, at least the Genki stories and activities are interesting and seem made a bit more towards common usage.
ダニエル thanks for the advise I'll definatly be trying to find some-one to speak with (I've heard a rumor some of the people in my school are Japanese so I might get lucky) 多美子 thanks for the site it's great for revision (I've tried it out and I've found a variation a site that showed me how to write Ka had a different form it was like a cross if that just a glitch?) Thanks again to Fareastfurfaro I think I'll just be lucky if I find one of those sets considering my current Malay skills but I'll keep an eye out for them if I go back to England.
am I the only one who never used Genki on here? :-P Like ダニエル I started with Japanese for Busy People (and likewise, I say STAY AWAY and you can read my review/rant on it in the 'study resources' page ;)) then worked with Nakama, An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese, and then whatever got thrown at me (special exclusive-to-Keio-Uni textbooks, random news articles, etc)... and then the big ol' LIFE in Japan! but like the others have said, there are a bunch of places for learning kana (there's also a facebook app, called Kanji Box, that also lets you study kana - one warning though, they also have old kana not in common use anymore, like ゑ[that's 'we' - it's totally my favorite kana ever!]), and then start picking some vocab lessons to start studying on here, and gradually add in kanji along with it! Good luck!
The cross-shaped "ka" was in the invaders game or another site? Hiragana "ka" should look like this- か and in katakana like this- カ with some slight variation for typeface. Maybe it was a katakana "na" (ナ)? Come to think of it, this site might be useful too [url=http://realkana.com]http://realkana.com[/url] since you can quiz the characters in a variety of fonts ...
mysticfive I'll definatly check out your "rant" lol the facebook app would defiantly be very useful is there any way to tell if it is "old kana"? Or is it some-thing I will just pick up? 多美子 The person who made the site has just fixed it lol seems she was trying to write some-thing else. The site will definatly help me for reading some of the more exotic fonts :P
the 'old kana' are anything representing ye, yi, we, wi, and wu - if you look at a chart of the kana (like this one [url=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_pxlPar03Lr0/RebOT7_tETI/AAAAAAAAAAY/Nj-byBC1Ldo/s400/Japanese+-+Basic+Kana+Chart.gif]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_pxlPar03Lr0/RebOT7_tETI/AAAAAAAAAAY/Nj-byBC1Ldo/s400/Japanese+-+Basic+Kana+Chart.gif[/url]), you'll notice that there are gaps there. That's because in the past there were characters for those sounds, but they've gone into disuse, and are only seen rarely in a couple company names (like Yebisu Beer) or in the names of some older people.
Ah I see so only really used in old words ok. How do you type in japanese? Do you like type it all in normal letters then use some kind of program to change it to the symbols?
Also when is a good idea to begin learning the words because at the moment I am only learning what the symbols mean rather than how they link together to make words is this ok? Or should I like make an attempt at trying to learn the words as well?
Use the IME to pull up the list. If you type we using Japanese setting, the IME will give you a list うぇ ウェ [font=andale mono][glow=red,2,300]ヱ ゑ[/glow][/font]
Writing words comes in handy as a less annoying way to practice writing the kana. Try fairly basic sentences like (M line) うみでめまがももをかむ。 A mare in the sea munches a peach. (or Mares in the sea munch peaches.) まみむめも are all in the sentence.
the IME thing that Garyuuchin is referring to is on your computer - if you've got Windows, you should be able to get it from the 'international' or 'regional' settings in the control panel. Install the Japanese IME (really easy to do but instructions vary based on your version of Windows - if you get confused, just search for it in your own computer's Help/support pages), and then it'll let you type in Japanese on your keyboard ^.^
