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Chiara C asked in Society & CultureLanguages · 1 decade ago

need help with Japanese!?

I just started to study Japanese on my own, I got a book with the grammar and another about the hiragana writing system. Does anybody know what else should I get? Should I also get a book to learn Kanji? Whatever suggestion is very well appreciated since it's a very different language from the ones that I've studied so far and I want to do it right :-)

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Exposure to the sound of Japanese is important. I found a podcast at http://www.japanesepod101.com/ to be very useful and entertaining. It is targeted to various levels, so I'm sure you can find something there that will be helpful.

    Kanji is essential to learning Japanese. With that said, if you're starting from square one, you may want to focus more on kana and some basic vocabulary and grammar first. If you just dive into kanji first, they may seem a bit abstract. Native Japanese speakers spend 8 years in school learning 2000 kanji, after spending the first 5 years of their lives building a vocabulary and grammar base. I won't hurt you to spend 6 months focused on vocabulary and grammar.

    There are a lot of online tools for learning Japanese. http://www.yomuze.com/ will quiz you on hiragana and katakana.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Yes, you should start on kanji soon because it takes a long time to learn kanji. You could know some even before you have learned the kana (hiragana and katakana) completely. There is a book that has the kanji that the children learn in school. It starts with the basic ones that the later one use as radicals. Something like that would be good.

    You need other experiences as well. The best is face to face meeting with native speakers. The chance to use what you are learning. And, to get a feel for the language. Lacking that then there are plenty of programs on line. Japanese movies, anime, songs. sites that teach Japanese, in fact. You shouldn't overlook this help.

    After a good book on grammar, and getting started with kana and kanji then you need some good dictionaries. I like paper ones; but, there are also good dictionaries online. I use the one I am including in tsources box. Most of the cheap dictionaries aren't much good. But, they still help a lot. I haven't seen a good Japanese-English/English-Japanese dictionary. I guess that a good one would be pretty impractical to carry around. So I have a lot of dictionaries. And I use the on line ones too.

    Source(s): http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic... A Guide to Reading & Writing Japanese by Florence Sakade.. revised edition Tuttle Language Library. This book lacks a lot that you need; but, it is a good place to start. Talk to native speakers on line: Sharedtalk.com
  • 5 years ago

    Hi, I am seeking to established a organization for individuals who're concerned with studying Japanese. Not so much good fortune to this point. I talk just a little. But, to a few individuals it appears like plenty. But, it's not. I taught it at university after which I taught English to Japanese. I have a organization website online already however I have not performed whatever there but so... I want individuals to gain knowledge of Japanese.

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