Is "Japanese" hard to learn? I heard it has over 3,000 characters!?

Hey there. I know how you feel...however, there's hiragana you can learn which is the kids alphabet and work up to kanji once you feel comfortable enough to start kanji.

I'm studying it and have been for a year. Here are some things I've done:

Rosetta Stone- bootleg. It's good and helps you build vocab, but you'll have to search up the te form which is important and learn about RU and U verbs.

Japanese anime- I have it English subtitled. I have Angel Beats, Sailor Moon, and Full Moon wo Sagashite. They help build vocab once you've been studying for awhile. Also, just watch them to make your listening skills better.

Japanese music- I have music from anime and listen to it for my listening skills.

Grammar books- I have grammar books explaining basic grammar that everyone needs.

Japanese Demyisifed- Perfect for begginers. Just learn hiragana first.

Apps- as you said they're good.

Youtube- of course! Go to RanAbvideo. She's my teacher and helpful!

The Internet- in general.

Twitter- I have favorite Japanese voice actresses like Megumi Ogata and use her messages as reading material which you will need. I have even got replies from her ^^

Writing sheets- to learn how to write hiragana and katakana ^^

The kanji's only 2,000. As I said, don't worry about it yet. I'm learning kanji at the moment and know how to write some symbols and recognize others on a computer screen.

This site is good for once you learn the te form and other fun things to do with Japanese verbs:

http://www.japaneseverbconjugator.com/JVerbList.as...

It will get easier, it just takes practice.

Once you talk to RanAbvideo a bit more, she's my teacher of course, she'll help you. She's helped me out a lot and I'm grateful I found her channel.

Now, good luck!

Lang-8- after you build up vocab and learn more, join this site. You can write in the language you're studying ands

you're not challenged. some people can learn certain things easier than others. I for one think Japanese is very easy to learn. that's because I'm naturally a quick learner, I enjoy it, and there's not as many grammar rules as there are in French (grammar is my weak point).

anyway, learning a language takes a lot of repetition. you just have to keep practicing. just like an artist needs to be continuously drawing to become better and better and an actor needs to memorize lines by reading the script over and over. think about how babies learn their first language. their parents say to their babies things like, "can you say mama/dada?" they do this repeatedly even after they've finally learned it.

a tutor in Japanese would be very helpful but you can learn on your own. I suggest listening to Japanese music, watching Japanese tv shows and movies, continue practicing with those apps, and their are plenty of free sites to help you learn Japanese

http://genkijapan.net/

http://www.animeyume.com/site_features/liljapanese...

http://youtube.com/genkijapannet

http://entropy.tmok.com/~tumble/amfaqs/101glos.htm...

http://www.learn-japanese.info/

there are a lot of characters. but you don't need to know all of them. the ones you need to know are hiragana, katakana, and only common kanji. I believe the amount of kanji you need to know to be able to read a newspaper is 400, I could be wrong. I don't remember the exact number.. but you'll definitely find out during your studies. good luck! and if you can afford to go to japan to learn the language, I say go for it. (I'd be totally jealous)

btw Japanese is the correct thing to say

Not if you have the right tools!

I'd get Japanese from zero!

And Human Japanese.

If you determined in finding out to communicate Chinese then you must now that the ideal alternative is a Course for Mandarin.

Very I'd get a tutor.