Learning Japanese!

So, you want to learn Japanese, but your school doesn't offer it and you don't know any Japanese people... so... What to do...

I've compiled a list of books and other things that when they are completed will give you the best possible basic and functional knowledge you can get short of getting a formal class, going to Japan, getting someone who speaks it to teach you, etc. This will allow you to read any newspaper you want, converse with confidence, etc...

1. Watch a lot of Japanese media - You'll get an idea of the rhythm of the language, pick up simple grammar, get some vocab, etc. You know...

2. Learn Japanese the Fast and Fun Way - DO NOT do this series the way they tell you to. Learn each sentence. It comes with a book and 4 tapes. Learn this and you will know how to ask and give directions, how to interact with hotel staff, heck, you'll even be able to describe your ideal haircut, explain exactly what symptoms you have if you get sick, and talk intelligently about what is wrong with your car. It is the book for the person who wants to know a little bit of everything. The book has bad reviews on Amazon. Ignore them. You won't learn much more than simple polite past, present, and gerund as far as grammar is concerned, but you'll have a vocab that spans farther than a lot of people studying Japanese IF you study each sentence rather than just what the program tells you to focus on. Grammar will come in later books listed here.

3. Remembering the Kana - To do the other books, you need to learn hiragana and katagana. Don't even bother picking up any of the other books on this list without learning them. They advertise you can learn the kana in 6 hours.

4. Either the Genki or Japanese for College Students series. Both have excellent reviews. Both are used in colleges with great success and by individuals seeking self-study. I personally use JCS and #3 is so important because it is impossible to read the first page of lesson 1 of that series if you don't know hiragana at least. You technically CAN learn katagana as you go through this series, but you need to know hiragana. This series does have a few hundred kanji in it, so learning 2,000+ kanji with the next set of books seems less daunting.

5. The Remembering the Kanji series. There are 3 books in this series. The first book teaches you by elements of the kanji how to remember the meaning of around 2,000 kanji. Book 2 teaches you how to read those kanji. The last book teaches you how to understand and read 1,000 more advanced kanji.

6. Finally, the last step is to get into a program like www.mylanguageexchange.com where you can post a profile and meet Japanese people who want to practice their English with you. Yeah, you probably won't find someone who will teach you the WHOLE language, but there is literally always someone online to practice with live over the internet. There are many sites like this. Rosetta Stone even has one that I believe is free.

After this, why don't you go pick up a Japanese novel? You'll be pleasantly surprised. :)

Oh! And for those of us with iPhones, you can text in Japanese!

This list is in this order because each builds off of the last to make it seem less daunting. Learn Japanese is all in romanji, so it is a gentle way to ease into learning Japanese. The JCS and Genki series use hiragana more in the beginning and move on slowly into using more and more kanji. The vocabulary found here may be largely familiar from media or from Learn Japanese. The new additions here are the grammar, some vocab, and the viewing of many common words in Japanese. A total of 3,000+ kanji is a daunting task, but not as daunting if you've already knocked out a few hundred. I don't know about Genki, but JCS teaches different ways to read certain kanji and frequent combinations anyway. So, Remembering the Kanji becomes less intimidating.

And one more note: I am not saying I've done all this! But I'm working through it slowly. I made this list through a lot of research on school programs, reviews on Japanese books by people who have learned on their own, and by buying and using Japanese learning texts and computer learning/audio programs. I also have a degree in another language, so this is also by comparing learning techniques found in the books. (I have not used Rosetta Stone. It has great reviews, but I don't have that kind of money to spend. Occasionally though, people do sell it for cheap on Craigs List if you're interested.)

Naturally, there is no substitute for a teacher, but I think this is the next best thing!