Learning Japanese

Hi there. I have learning materials for nihongo,the basic one, for starter. The modules are for kindergarten to grade school. I had it because my little brother is studying in Japanese school. There are two types of Japanese language, the Katakana and Hiragana and i think Hiragana is much easier than the other one. Characters are hard to write and the meaning varies on how you pronounce it(just like your language,Chinese). I suggest you should use a book that will teach you from scratch( the ABC's of Japanese). Usually my brother's manual has pictures,characters and how you pronounce it. Now, grade 3 brother is my mentor. He teach me how to read, write and pronounce it right. You'll learn easily if you have someone who will guide you and someone to converse with.

I have been trying to learn Japanese for 11 years now but not through classes. I intermittently study during vacations between schoolyears by reading the Japanese basics book my aunt gave me. It's helpful to try and practice creating sentences once you've learned a certain topic. If you are learning Japanese with an English instruction/lesson, try to understand the lessons and translate them into your own language first because it will be much easier. Also, it's easier for you to memorize the Kanji characters because you are Chinese. The characters may be read very different from Chinese that most basically mean the same thing. Use those as clues to remember them. And if you like, you could also try romanizing and translating Japanese songs.

Try taking a Japanese class instead of trying to learn alone. It's easier to learn when you have classmates to practice with, and instructors who can correct you or explain stuff. Apart from that, it's mostly just practicing a lot.

Hi,historydog! I once tried to learn Japanese,too.You know,as a Chinese,there are something in common between our language and Japanese.But then I found it none too easy to learn.Memorizing all the pronunciation is just too difficult.So I gave up.I'm not really interested in it,so I am trying to learn Spanish and French now.Sorry that I can't give you any advice.But good luck.I always believe that practice makes perfect.And learning a language is an enduring process.Just spend more time on it.I believe you can speak it very fluently one day. Have a nice week!

i love anime so much that i want to learn japanese. i actually learned the common greetings because of watching so much anime like "ohayou!" (good morning / hi) and "kawaii" (cute). so my suggestion is to watch english subbed anime (japanese dubbed/ original dub). it would be a double purpose activity - to learn japanese and enjoy watching anime. arigato gozaimasu!

I would love to learn Japanese because i watch a lot of animes. I don't really know much about Japanese but watching anime helped me notice that pronouncing it is definitely hard. I would advise that you try to listen to japanese frequently and try to repeat what they say. Practice makes perfect.