How to learn Japanese!?

Hello Eleanor, Japanese is not too difficult to learn but It does take a lot of motivation and practice to successfully learn the language. The best way to learn Japanese is by taking a class, enrolling in a course or investing in a good textbook. If you can't take classes then the self-study method with the correct resources is a good way.

The key to learning Japanese effectively is to work on your grammar, listening, speaking, reading and writing. Its best to think of these as separate categories and focus on each specific category as these require different methods and techniques.

Start by learning the basics through grammar. These books really helped me.

• Shin Nihongo no Kiso I & II
http://japan-australia.blogspot.com/2011/06/shin-nihongo-no-kiso.html

• An Introduction to Modern Japanese by Osamu Mizutani & Nobuko Mizutani
http://japan-australia.blogspot.com/2011/04/introduction-to-modern-japanese.html

• Japanese Demystified by Eriko Sato a self-teaching guide
http://japan-australia.blogspot.com/2011/05/japanese-demystified.html

These books cover both polite Japanese, which is extremely important to learn in order to speak Japanese effectively and causal Japanese, which is great for everyday conversations.

I also recommend trying to learn a certain amount of vocab or kanji each day as this helps you build up your vocab and kanji ability. I tried to learn 5 kanji per day or about 20 a week and did the same with vocab.

Watching Japanese anime or any Japanese TV program is a good idea for improving your listening skills and also your vocabulary. Keep a notebook and jot down any new words you hear. Then look them up and find out the meaning.

Websites are not always the best way to learn Japanese. Most websites are run by people with no teaching credentials and are not even native speakers of Japanese. Some of them are just interested in making money and not in helping you in what you need to be successful in learning Japanese.

How to Learn Japanese
http://japan-australia.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/how-to-learn-japanese.html

Study hard and watch anime

I would advise you to start off by learning Hiragana and Katakana the two japanese alphabets. Then try to read some books for children to get used to seeing it written and get used to reading it. Then learn some Kanji (Chinese characters used in Japanese.) Of course try and memorize as much vocabulary as you can and get used to speaking. If you are shy try speaking to yourself in Japanese when you are home alone.

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Rosetta Stone

こんにちは、Hello! Thank you for your interest in japan. Japanese is a very hard language to accomplish. Even for the natives, it takes up to 8 years to master. The most difficult part is that there are more then 3000 Kanjis （漢字）which you have to remember along with Hiragana　（ひらがな） and Katakana　（カタカナ）。

Also, there are a lot of homonyms in the language and some have 7 or 8 meanings within the same words.

There needs to be alot of efforts to do those!!

Taking Japanese Class and make Japanese friends are good to learn Japanese^^ But I want you to know Japanese culture also!!! I think you will like Japan more and more^^ Then I recommend you to watch "Japanagos" on Youtube!!!! The Japanese bilingual woman helps you<3 god luck^^

1. Have interest.
2. Don't take it too serious, Do not need 100% correct answer.
4. You must able to recognize all the Hiragana (no romaji) at the beginning, able to response just like alphabet. (You can use flash card to do this.

Good learning materials for Japanese : http://www.omniglot.com/books/language/japanese.htm (I particularly like the "Colloquial " series)

For a good free online course, check out http://japanese.about.com/ by Namiko Abe.

Move to Japan, the best way to learn a language is complete immersion