Learning Japanese? Tips and advice?

Hi. :) I'm a fifteen year old girl and am fascinated by Japan and it's culture. I want to have japanese lesson but where I live it's not a Very common language to learn so there are no courses (I live in England).





So I've decided to learn it myself. I've bought some work books on how to learn the katakana and hiragana symbols and that is going quite well, I think I've just about mastered Hiragana. :)





What else can i do to learn Japanese? I hosted a Japanese student with my school (they have a link with two Japanese high schools but we don't go there) and that was brilliant! The Japanese people are so nice!





Does anyone have any advice or help they can give me? Experience or from living in Japan?





Thank you very much. :)Learning Japanese? Tips and advice?
Dear Japanophile,


You cannot learn a Language by yourself, you need classes with real people to interact with and not some internet buddy who claims to be Japanese or a book or a website to guide you through, you need professional help (a teacher who has experience in teaching) maybe a Japanese friend to help you through, but don't expect your Japanese friend in school to teach you from the beginning, I do believe she/he has her/his own homework, activities to do too. So don't just depend on a friend to learn the ';whole'; language, that's what teachers are for.. so get a teacher!


And don't go thinking that living in Japan is the only way to learn Japanese, sure it will improve but taking a course in school in your own country will do just about the same, all you need is real motivation because it does get tougher as you level up, patience and motivation is the key to success.


I'm currently in my 2nd year in learning Japanese in school and I speak from experience, I've been to up and downs while taking the course but that's how it is.. you cannot expect it to be all easy, there will be times where you think ';I cannot take it anymore, this is too much'; but think about the end results and how the hardship will pay off in the end.


Oh get your search right, I'm sure theres a Japanese school/a class in a school in your area, you're just lazy to do a research or just don't want to spend a penny on it.


Even third countries like Brazil has it, so its really ignorant of you to say that Japanese is not a common language to learn in England and England is not even a third country, I'm sure you have foreign language as a part of your school program and I'm sure there's a Asian language as a choice maybe not Japanese but did you try to check out other schools? NO. I'm sure there's Japanese all over. So how could you say you love the culture if you don't know anything? Sushi? Anime? is that about it? You need to do a better research about Japan because you say that you're fascinated by Japan, but to me it seems like you don't know much.





Good luckLearning Japanese? Tips and advice?
try


http://www.JapaneseClass.jp





the idea of the website is to enrich your japanese vocabularies and kanji by answering repeated questions





by answering repeated questions you will earn EXP to measure your level and ranking among others





it is quite fun and challenging! and also effective! :D
I know that there is a college in Central Manchester, MANCAT, where you can take evening courses for the equivalent of a GCSE level in Japanese, but obviously this depends on where you live. Search for evening courses at nearby colleges?
http://traveljapanblog.com/wordpress/200鈥?/a>
Read this whole website: http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/
i know the r is pronounced with a d
My recommendation right now is to start with the basics, there are many free websites on the internet that can help you. Start with the basics, learn some basic kanji, and as time goes by the time you get to college/university more formal lessons will be available. The best thing is you will have a head start.





One book I recommend you buy is ';JAPANESE FOR BUSY PEOPLE'; it is a good book and it will teach you basic Japanese vocab, and sentence structure. You can get the ROMAJI version, instead of the Japanese script version when learning the basics.





Also check out youtube.com for japanese lessons:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVUKFF8BL鈥?/a>
I don't agree with Curious that its impossible to learn without a class because I reached the same level Curious is without a class in about half the time as the average college class (in America). But it takes a LOT of work and making the best use of your time. Also I did not do any listening practice and I am still suffering 2 years later from it so make sure you start getting listening practice by the time your done with your first textbook.





Despite this, a class will definetly help a lot if you use it as a tool and don't rely on it to do the learning for you. If you only study what you learn in class, it will take you 4 times longer to become fluent in Japanese. You need to study from a textbook at your own pace (with or without a class), surround yourself with things that interest you and that are in Japanese (use these as motivation and extra learning, NOT a substitute). Song titles and choruses are a great and listening to music gets you used to the pronunciation (which is not the hard part of Japanese). Friends help too but don't treat time with them as studying. Make sure you always use a textbook, I can vouch for Genki 1 and 2. Don't buy anything that says 'Easy' 'simple' or 'in 10 minutes' or that costs more than $100...that should be what... 80 euros? And stay away from any book that uses romaji (english letters instead of kana and kanji). Make the most of the internet. You don't need a book to learn hiragana and katakana, there are plenty of resources on the web. I used www.learn-japanese.info for my first month of study and it really made jumping into a textbook much easier.





Japanese is something like the number 6 or 7 foreign language to learn among English speakers so try looking a little harder. Good luck and feel free to ask any questions.
I totally understand your situation because I had the exact same problem when I was fourteen and wanted to learn Japanese (I'm also from England!!!)





I taught myself the Japanese GCSE and A Level in the end so I know it is possible to teach yourself and get somewhere!





First up, this was a really helpful website: http://thejapanesepage.com/


I couldn't live without it! It has everything from kanji to vocabulary and grammar.





But after you've mastered hiragana and katakana, you might want to start learning the language. The language course I'd recommend is 'Teach Yourself Beginner's Japanese' by Helen Gilhooly. This is an amazing book! It was reason I got an A* in GCSE Japanese so I can't sing it's praises enough!





Other things that are helpful are Japanese penpals. I met someone doing a homestay in England and when after she went back to Japan, we used to write letters to each other in Japanese. It was a really helpful exercise because I could practise writing Japanese and also, I could see how a native Japanese person structured the sentence.





Also, listen to lots of Japanese songs or watch lots of Japanese programmes - as many as possible. They are really good for picking up new vocuabulary and Japanese ways of speaking that aren't in textbooks. They also help you improve your accent. I've also found that when you listen to a foreign language a lot, it helps you remember what you're studying in the textbook a lot easier. You can find dramas etc on sites like Crunchyroll or Mysoju. I'm about to graduate from my degree in Japanese and I still find dramas helpful for picking up new words!





And lastly, enjoy learning and always remember what motivated you to learn Japanese! If anything got difficult, I wouldn't want to give up because learning Japanese was my hobby and I really wanted to go and live in Japan! So keeping your goal in mind is very important!





Good luck! (^_^)