Learning Japanese

[Nanashi_1337]

So I'm trying to improve my japanese level. Any recommended good websites? I want to start from the lowest level again, aka learning Hiragana/Katakana, even if I already know that.

[LM_MAVERIK]

To be honest you are better getting an instructor or going to a class because I have seen multiple sites that claim to teach japanese teaching grade A bullshit.
but this site seems to be decent--> http://japanese.about.com/ 

[Nanashi_1337]

I don't have the time to go to Japanese classes, and besides, some academies are too expensive. That's why I would prefer that you guys recommend me websites that do a good job at teaching you. If they also give excercises to practice, then much better.

Also, I don't mind either English or Spanish websites to learn Japanese. I can understand both perfectly.

[Jesuszilla]

http://www.youtube.com/user/bumnumba1
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=232671

日本語のスレで書いて下さい。さびしいですよ。

[FeckFace]

First one feels like it could lose the humour, after a while.
But hey, It makes a damn impact! That's a keeper.

[Speedy9199]

http://www.kanachart.com/

that's the website I use.

[Nanashi_1337]

Thanks for the links. I hope I reach a good level with them, enough to have a conversation in the Japanese thread.

[XGargoyle]

Whatever you do, don't get the Pimsleur lessons. They claim to reach master level but are plain simple and basically, they are canned conversations

[LM_MAVERIK]

Thanks for the links. I hope I reach a good level with them, enough to have a conversation in the Japanese thread.

if you need help with checking and correcting sentences,  I'm your guy.

[Bastard Mami]

Whatever you do, don't get the Pimsleur lessons. They claim to reach master level but are plain simple and basically, they are canned conversations

Fuck, really ?

[XGargoyle]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pimsleur_language_learning_system#Criticism

Core vocabulary

    The Pimsleur method focuses on teaching commonly used words in order to build up understanding of a "core vocabulary". In the typical Simon & Schuster 60 cassette/CD course (four modules of 15 cassette/CDs each) this does not provide a large breadth of vocabulary. Word-frequency text analyses indicate that a relatively small core vocabulary accounts for the majority of words spoken in a particular language. For example, in English, a set of 2000 words composes about 80% of the total printed words.[5][6] In other words, an understanding of these 2000 words would lead to approximately an 80% word comprehension rate. Even the most advanced Pimsleur courses fall well short of this, with an average of around 500 words per level (most popular languages have 3 levels, some only one).
    The Pimsleur method never teaches grammar explicitly, instead leaving the student to infer the grammar through common patterns and phrases repeated over and over. Pimsleur claimed this inductive method is precisely how native speakers learn grammar when they are children; only in schools is it "taught" on the blackboard.

Criticism

Some criticisms are that Anticipation and Graduated-interval recall are not scientific methods. The current vocabulary of the implementations (courses) are too small, and that auditory only 'organic learning' is different from the multisensoral learning used when a first language is learned.

In other words, paying $700 (http://www.pimsleur.com/Learn-Japanese) for a collection of canned sentences that you have to keep parroting to yourself, and no basic explanation on basic grammar rules is not worth my money.

And even if you obtain this material by other means, it's not worth the time spent on them. You can learn more and better Japanese by acquiring one of these "teach yourself Japanese in 30 days", at last they give you a basic explanation on grammar and sentence building, and the vocabulary you'll get at the end will be on level with the Pimsleur Japanese 3rd level.

[Bastard Mami]

thanks, I will skip that one and will try random "learn a language and/or become a god in 30 days".

[OZ]

i personally have been waiting to be hit by a linguistic meteorite or be abducted by the government to be used in some sort of language learning experiment

[Bastard Mami]

I hate kanji, if the gooks used a different writing system i would already knew japanese.

[Nanashi_1337]

i personally have been waiting to be hit by a linguistic meteorite or be abducted by the government to be used in some sort of language learning experiment

Or something like Matrix. That would be great. Unfortunately, there's no luck here.

But I have to say, from all the links I got, the best was the one about the videos of a guy called Namasensei. I'm finding it easy to learn from him.

[Speedy9199]

About the Japanese writing system and what I know of it so far, it's like the most messed up/confusing writing system in the world. Does anyone else think this way too about it? I mean there are four types of writing Kanji, and modified chinese(why do they even use chinese anyway?) Hiragana, a phonetic japanese writing system, katakana which is for imported words from other languages(why do they even have imported words anyway?) and romanji the english alphabet which they rarely use. Not only they have four types of writing, when writing paragraphs in Japanese WHY do you have to combine all the writings into one? Can someone give me link or brief description why the japanese writing is like this?

[Foobs]

why do they even have imported words anyway?

Every language does.

[Speedy9199]

But not all languages have their own seperate writing for that type of thing like the Japanese do.

[Nanashi_1337]

Not really, Japanese is easy to learn in some parts. You don't need to learn every different form the verb can take depending if it's plural or singular, or if it's 1st, 2nd 3rd person. I really appreciated that, because I really hated having to learn that for Spanish. And since I'm Catalan too, that's double the amount

The same goes for adjectives, for example. There's no different male and female forms. It's the context that says that. Which I really appreciate, seriously. For example, "きれい" -> Kirei aka "pretty", in Spanish we have "guapo/a/os/as", however Kirei works for every single type.

And romanji? I thought we occidentals invented and used that, not Japanese. Though I agree that sometimes I wish they made the Kanji system more simplified. Hiragana and Katakana are easy to learn, fortunately.

[Byakko]

Romaji, not romanji.