I want to learn japanese at home. How should I go about it

I read on the internet that some people suggest to use the Assimil method, it comes from 'assimilation', in fact it tries to teachs you the language and only then the grammar of it, like the learning of a child that learns his mother-language.

I've order my english volume and I'm waiting for it.

If you search also in YouTube you can find some videos that talk about it.

Mononoke wrote:I want to learn japanese at home. How should I go about it

Get a Japanese pen pal and write letters.

Mononoke wrote:I want to learn japanese at home. How should I go about it

Well, I would tell you to find someone who can give you lessons. Japanese is not a language you can just learn by yourself that easily, at least at the beginning. You will need to understand the sentence structure, which is totally in reverse from the European languages. For example, in English we say:

The woman wearing red shoes was here.

In japanese you would say:

Here red shoes wearing woman was.

ここに赤い靴を着た女はいました。

[And I am not certain for the verb kiru = wear, because the japanese have different verbs for different clothing. For example, for glasses, it is the verb kakeru. ]

There are a few difficulties with Japanese: counting up to ten, for example. Different types of counters for different things, like hi/bi for small animals, kai for floors, dai for electronics, cars and bicycles, nin (with a couple of variations) for people, etc. etc.

My advice, Mononoke is to find a professor and start learning. Books are difficult to find, there are a few on Amazon, but they are mostly as help for those studying the language.

Darkchilde wrote:[And I am not certain for the verb kiru = wear, because the japanese have different verbs for different clothing. For example, for glasses, it is the verb kakeru. ]

Haku for shoes.

Darkchilde wrote:

Mononoke wrote:I want to learn japanese at home. How should I go about it

Well, I would tell you to find someone who can give you lessons. Japanese is not a language you can just learn by yourself that easily, at least at the beginning. You will need to understand the sentence structure, which is totally in reverse from the European languages. For example, in English we say:

The woman wearing red shoes was here.

In japanese you would say:

Here red shoes wearing woman was.

ここに赤い靴を着た女はいました。

[And I am not certain for the verb kiru = wear, because the japanese have different verbs for different clothing. For example, for glasses, it is the verb kakeru. ]

There are a few difficulties with Japanese: counting up to ten, for example. Different types of counters for different things, like hi/bi for small animals, kai for floors, dai for electronics, cars and bicycles, nin (with a couple of variations) for people, etc. etc.

My advice, Mononoke is to find a professor and start learning. Books are difficult to find, there are a few on Amazon, but they are mostly as help for those studying the language.

Hmm....

The slight problem is that I've left the university scene. And I'm sort of employed at the moment so I can go to a uni and take classes, or maybe I can but I need to figure out how. The alternative is to get a tutor.

Although I have to say the sentence structure is not different from certain form used in my language.

ughaibu wrote:

Darkchilde wrote:[And I am not certain for the verb kiru = wear, because the japanese have different verbs for different clothing. For example, for glasses, it is the verb kakeru. ]

Haku for shoes.

Yeah, you are right shoes, socks is haku! I know them when reading japanese, but when I have to remember it for constructing sentences, I always get them mixed up.

@Mononoke: I am learning with a tutor. I don't think I would be able to learn at least the basics without one. My advice is to try and find a tutor.

I've used Genki and a Japanese coach on my DS. I do know the Kana and I did that with flash cards.
My biggest problem is that I'm a lazy git and not good at applying myself with such things. I let it slip and come back to it months later.

gohan = rice

Google Translate.

Sorry. Bad joke.

Why in God's name do you want to learn Japanese (or Nihongo, to us in the know )?

Make sure you're motivated, whatever the reason, is my advice.

Sityl wrote:gohan = rice

Actually gohan has two meanings: one is for cooked rice and the other one is for food in general.
It is written like this:
ご飯
If found alone the above kanji (the second character), reads as meshi, which again means food.

Mononoke wrote:
Although I have to say the sentence structure is not different from certain form used in my language.

I'm intrigued! What is your native language?

I agree with Darkchilde. As someone who actually studied Japanese, I suggest that you decide if you want to learn conversational Japanese, or both reading, writing, and speaking. Because speaking/listening on a basic level is not too difficult.

But learning to read and write, especially the roughly 1600 or so Chinese characters (Kanji) necessary to read a newspaper, in addition to katakana and hiragana (2 alphabetic languages, one for foreign words the other for Japanese), is extremely difficult.

I recommend meeting with a Japanese teacher or native speaker and discussing your goals. Then you can buy the most appropriate DVDs or books to begin studying.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP2VePiNwg4[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJrdYLMRJGo[/youtube]

Sorry, had to do it Sityl

I tried learning Japanese a few times, but I was always too lazy to see it through. I'm learning lots of worthless phrases from watching Sailor Moon tho

locutus7 wrote:But learning to read and write, especially the roughly 1600 or so Chinese characters (Kanji) necessary to read a newspaper, in addition to katakana and hiragana (2 alphabetic languages, one for foreign words the other for Japanese), is extremely difficult.

Ah, Kana aren't that difficult. But Kanji are a bitch (it's closer to 2000 than 1600, but the highest Kanji Proficienty test goes up to, IIRC, 10,000. I think there are about five times that number in the Japanese language, though. Most, however, are not used outside specialist fields). Perversely, it actually makes Japanese easier to read, due to the amount of homophones in the language.