Well, recently, I’ve been more and more interested in learning Japanese (both written and spoken). I got some basic study materials, like kanas textbooks and such, but I don’t have a study plan (like what you should learn first, how should you study and etc.). Any suggestions would be great.
(of course, since i don’t have a vast selection os study materials, any link with some of it would be awesome. 
). Thanks.
Take classes at a local community college. They are usually affordable. I found a private instructor and am making much more progress than I usually would with something like this.
If you seriously dedicate at least 1 hour a day - 5 days a week - on learning Japanese from textbook material, you can see results in a year.
Just one year. No kidding.
Now you won’t be 100% fluent, but you will have gained so much self confidence in learning more than just saying “hi” and “bye” within that time frame.
I must stress that “cram learning” - doing like 3+ hours a day to learn Japanese or any language - is a bad idea and will make you less energetic for it on the long run. 1 to 2 hours a day is good enough… but 1 hours seems most reasonable and easy to fit into one’s routine: I used to do 30 min. for lunch and 30 before going to bed.
Lastly… when you watch anime, try to watch it in the original Japanese with the subtitles on. This will help you pick up on the tempo and sentence structure (desu/masu/masen/ka/etc). Sometimes try watching it with the subtitles off - especially when you know what they say via subtitle. You can easily remember a phrase or two. Yes, it might not be normal Japanese - i.e. a curse word or some “cool saying” of some sort - but it’s a word or sentence nonetheless.
Learning one new Japanese word/phrase a day helps mega… and doing 1 hour of Japanese a day helps with that.
You could even cheat a little, read a learn Japanese text book for 30 minutes - then watch a subtitled anime for 30 minutes. If your using part of that anime watching to at least catch a saying to remember, then it works to your benefit. 
EDIT
Oh! And on the anime to learn sentence structure: be aware that some series have characters that use a dialect of Japanese (Kansai for example) or who use weird endings. Wikipedia will usually quickly note if a character does this.
You don’t wanna sound like Suiseiseki desu. Or then again, maybe you do desu. 
(I think she once said “desu desu” even. :eek: )
[ 08-10-2007, 05:07 PM: Message edited by: Nargrakhan ]
Thanks for the tips and “cheer up” on the matter, Nargrakhan. I finally saw one person say “1 hours a day, in a year”. Everyone is all “OMFG! TEH HAX HARD! LATEX UP MY ASS TO LEARN IN 20 YEARS!!!11ONEONELEVEN!”
No, it’s definitely not that hard.
When I started learning Japanese, I got myself a course in two books, 45 lessons each and that course tought me everything necessary about grammar, th ewriting of hiragana and katakana as well as a nice vocabular.
So, with that course it was basically possible to learn japanese in 90 days - though it really helped me to repeat that course a second time.
However, after that course I had to tackle one big problem - that I imagine is usually the worst problem for learners of the japanese language: the kanji!
But for that I also found a really good book - that helped me to learn the about 200 Kanjis in about 60 lessons - thus another 60days.
Another repetition of that course - more 52 days. So basically I learned from books-courses for 90+90+60+60 days - but not all of that in one stretch. I took a break of a year before I repeated the first course, then started with the first go of the Kanji-course - and repeated that a year or so later too. Meanwhile I did the not-formal learning-things people already suggested here:
For the latter, it is particulary helpful having a japanese word-processor with a dictinary (like JWPce) open and trying to look up the unknown words there.
I am currently learning japanese in that manner for about 7 years - and am currently able to play games like “Gore Screaming Show” almost fluently.
[ 08-13-2007, 05:33 AM: Message edited by: Unicorn ]
Seconded. I actually signed up for Japanese 101 and I’m about to start 102 (well, assuming the plan doesn’t change).
Taking Japanese course is most important.
You should also have at least once or twice a week get-together interaction with native Japanese speaker(s). If you can’t practice the Japanese, you will lose it, and you have to recall it from memory at a moment’s notice when you’re in conversations. Usually cities or towns with large Japanese ex-patriat communities have these little get togethers, whether it be luncheons, theater-outings, museum attendings etc.
Talking frequently with my Japanese friends over the phone has helped to maintain and improve my proficiency in Japanese.
I live in Japan and am still working on my Japanese.
I agree, at least 1 hour a day every day and none of this “5 days a week” thing. Study every day! The more you study/use it the better it will get.
And be prepared to reach a “learning plateau” after you have learned the basics and are getting into the more complex parts of the language. At this point it will seem like your progress is nil but you are learning albeit much more slowly.
If you are near a university or college that has an ESL program you may be able to meet a Japanese speaker and swap language learning.
Written Japanese is a nightmare of scripts. There are four forms to remember and all four can appear in a sentence. Romaji, English letters, is around and is used in a lot of places but there are two types of Romaji styles and one can be confusing to the learner. Katakana, a simplified form of Hiragana, is used mostly for foreign words that have become popular in the Japanese language, pronunciation of these words can be markedly different.
Hiragana, I was informed that this is a simplified form of Kanji, is fairly easy to learn with a few exceptions. It is used extensively where Kanji isn’t.
Kanji, chinese characters, is one of the most difficult things to master. My high school students tell me they have to know about 3000 Kanji for their final exam and for the university entry exam. The average Japanese uses about 2500 characters or less. There are many more and it really requires a great deal of practice and memorization to learn enough to be a proficient writer of Japanese.
I studied Kanji every day for two years and I would be lucky to know 50. I may have about 25 I know sufficiently enough to be able to read them, some I can write, and another 10 or so I recognize but continually forget them. All this after living here for 9 of the last 13 years.
My advice, move here, take an intensive Japanese course here, meet a Japanese person and have them coach you through this. You can do it if you want it bad enough. There are many foreigners here who can speak Japanese extremely well.
Good luck.
After 9 years IN Japan you only know 50 Kanjis by heart?
Maybe you will find this helpful. At least I certainly did - and thus recommend it.
After 9 years IN Japan you only know 50 Kanjis by heart?
Maybe you will find this helpful. At least I certainly did - and thus recommend it. [/QB][/QUOTE]
Yep, but I spend my days working and my nights are taken up with other things. I spent two years studying Kanji and the old brain just does not retain them like it might have a number of years ago.
I have several books I have used and have even looked at CD-ROMs but I am not that great at memorization. If I used them to write I would probably have a bigger Kanji vocabulary but I speak Japanese far more than I read or write it.