best way to learn japanese?

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6pack

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any japanese fluent guys here? how did u learn the language and what is the best way to learn it? i googled a bit and seems the no. of books available are too much for me to handle & quite confused as to what to get :S

main aim for me is to watch anime in japanese without turning on subtitles and also to read and write japanese fluently :ohyeah: in a year i hope!!
 
even i had that aim a year back, forgot about it in due course of time :rofl:. Will learn japanese anyways :D Will keep an eye on this thread ;)
 
oh hui gozaimasu...

konnichawa

watachimasu

konbanwa

kutabara

jaa mata

sayonara

these are some of the japanese words i know. My company is full of people who are learning japanese. Nowadays, even the freshers in our company know japanese.

In japanese learning, u have 5 levels. Level 4 is the starting point and level 1 is the end point(the best).
 
There is one dame who has a numerous sets of CDs out for diff language learning packs..

Rosetta Stone maybe .. try her line of product if u intend to learn via interactive CDs...
 
montylee said:
oh hui gozaimasu...
Click to expand...
is it mean same as "oh yes, very much" ??
edit: oops, just found out: OHAYO GOZAIMASU means good morning :ashamed:

montylee said:
konnichawa
watachimasu
konbanwa
kutabara
jaa mata
sayonara

these are some of the japanese words i know. My company is full of people who are learning japanese. Nowadays, even the freshers in our company know japanese.
In japanese learning, u have 5 levels. Level 4 is the starting point and level 1 is the end point(the best).
Click to expand...

why is ur co. full of ppl learning japanese? and even freshers knowing japanese? are job opportunities in japan good? ;)

Spacescreamer said:
There is one dame who has a numerous sets of CDs out for diff language learning packs..
Rosetta Stone maybe .. try her line of product if u intend to learn via interactive CDs...
Click to expand...
those cd's r costly :S and which dame u talking abt? Learn Japanese with Rosetta Stone
 
learn hiragana and katakana (phonetic scripts for japanese)

get yourself a 'teach yourself japanese' book/ebook

Amazon.com: Teach Yourself Japanese Complete Course Package (Book + CD pack) (Teach Yourself . . . Complete Courses): Books: Helen Ballhatchet,Stefan Kaiser

learn off the net like basic words/counting/greeting

for structured learning, download the word lists and stuff for required for JLPT4 exam (about 800 words, 80 kanji) for vocab (spurrymoses.com)

kanji will help for written japanese only

most important part is japanese grammar, for that ul have to use the 'teach yourself' book or from 'minna no nihongo'(considered the bible by noobies)

ive found audio books useless coz you cant control the speed of teaching or content
 
"oh hai gozaimasu" is a greeting message, i forgot the exact meaning. Actually, in our company there are several japan based projects, so they ask the college to teach japanese to students in their final year, so by the time they join the company they already know japanese.
 
^^ would flash cards help in learning katakana / hiragana? saw some volumes of those on amazon.

read something good abt pimsleur audio cd's - but those r way tooooo pricey!!

btw any place such language learning books available here?
 
nukeu666 said:
its 'ohayo gozaimas', not 'oh hai' and the last 'u' is always silent from what ive heard hundreds of times on tv :p

list of expressions you must know for jlpt4

JLPT Level 4Expression List - 日本語能力試験

text is in hiragana, its the first form of text you should learn
Click to expand...

oh, yeah i forgot to mention that the last "u" is always silent. gozaimasu is used in many japanese words.
 
amazon charges for standard shipping are toooooooo much

Here is the equation we use to calculate the total shipping cost:

(Highest Applicable Per-Shipment Cost) + (Number of Items x Per-Item Cost) = Total Shipping Fee

Books, VHS videotapes, Software, Video Games, Jewelry, Clothing Items, Shoes, Baby, Toys $4.99 $4.99

Books - Special Order $4.99 $6.98

CDs, DVDs, Music Cassettes, Vinyl $4.99 $3.99

ny combination of the above items Highest applicable per-shipment charge As above
Click to expand...

i'd end up paying more than the cost of the book if i shop from them!!
 
Spacescreamer said:
There is one dame who has a numerous sets of CDs out for diff language learning packs..
Rosetta Stone maybe .. try her line of product if u intend to learn via interactive CDs...
Click to expand...

Yeah Rosetta Stone is good.. I got it... But havent checked it yet...

I know German at some extent..so just revised whatever i knew :bleh: nothing else...

There were many languages...
 
mMMmmmmm

Damm!

Yaar go get your self a Japanese Wife!!!! or a gurl friend if you want to pay more :P

She will teach you....

Wuzaiku Lai Manchu
 
hmasalia said:
mMMmmmmm
Damm!
Yaar go get your self a Japanese Wife!!!! or a gurl friend if you want to pay more :P
She will teach you....
Wuzaiku Lai Manchu
Click to expand...

:rofl: either of the two would still be costly!!
good idea though ;)
 
6pack said:
main aim for me is to watch anime in japanese without turning on subtitles and also to read and write japanese fluently :ohyeah: in a year i hope!!
Click to expand...
FOr listening comphrehension you need to know more vocabulary than grammar. That's key to picking up the few things. Since the subject is anime there is prolly a fair bit of slang thrown in too for good measure. All in all, an intensive conversational course would help best here. For that you need a teacher who just talks to you in japanese and you learn pretty much like how a child does. Or if you can get language courses with spoken cds, that would be cheaper. By the end of the course which would typicaly take maybe 6 months, you would be able to get around japan without too much trouble, would be interesting if you could find a course tailored specifically to anime :)

a tip here is worry about the grammar later, just get the words and ideally have someone to converse with, this wil give you more motivation than a dry book every could, the simplest way to get this is via a language exchange, a japanese wanting to learn english in exchange for them teaching you spoken japanese, one word of caution here, its imperative you speak with a male if thats what you are since women use different constructions when speaking, so the oft quoted sleeping dictionary method (aka girlfriend/boyfriend) being the best way to learn a language won't work with japanese or you will sound awkward...or even gay

To understand written japanese, will be little bit harder. The japanese have 2 scripts hiragana & katakana, you can mug these two sets up in a month. The harder part is the Kanji, which are Chinese characters mixed in to abbbreviate things. This is harder as you need to learn 1945 ideograms or chinese characters. Its said only jap kids 15 yrs or older know them all. To be able to read a typical newspaper would take you 3-5 yrs learning at least.

Like with most languages the speaking & verbal comphrehension part is waay easier than the reading & writing part. The pronounciation bit is very easy, no funny sounds that an indian would have trouble with.

Japanese would be a lot easier if there was'nt any Kanji thrown in but i guess they saw it was/(still is) actually far more efficient to communicate with pictures (ideograms) than writen alphabets.
 
In school, many years ago, in the days when Japan was spoken about the same way as China is today.

Given the geopolitcal picture today, Japan & India are certainly growing closer to each other. They have funded several infrastructure projects in the country already.
 
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