Beginners - Start from here

realdemigod
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Beginners - Start from here

Postby realdemigod » 2011-02-08, 17:56

Hi everyone,
I have taken the liberty to create a one stop place for all the beginners in Japanese language. Mods and experienced Japanese speakers, please feel free to edit the post or suggest how one should start learning this language. I personally started with 'Yan and the Japanese People' and I find it very easy way to start learning the language. If anybody feels a better way to approach this language please suggest - the sequence of books to be followed to increase the level of proficiency.

Thanks a lot in advance

Regards,
realdemigod

realdemigod
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Re: Beginners - Start from here

Postby realdemigod » 2011-02-17, 12:28

I have realised though learning from videos is fun and easy.. unless you are strong in basics..you won't be confident while you make the progress.. so I have started learning from 'Japanese in Mangaland'. It's very detailed and easy to learn.. a way through manga.. :)

Śrāmaṇera

Re: Beginners - Start from here

Postby Śrāmaṇera » 2011-02-18, 1:34

I am not very good at providing useful advice because I've been studying for five years using a ton of different materials.

According to many beginners and teachers of Japanese, the most efficient textbook used in classrooms is usually Minna no nihongo (皆の日本語), available in many languages.

The collection Japanese for busy people is very good too, but I suggest you try the kana edition (all of the others use rômaji far too much).

For kanji, some people swear by the Heisig method, some hate it. There are many ways to study kanji depending on the time you are ready to spend for it.

Any more specific questions ?

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Re: Beginners - Start from here

Postby Ceresz » 2011-02-18, 1:45

I have never really used a textbook when studying before, but I've had Genki I lying around for a while and it's apparently very good, so I'm going to give it a go.
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realdemigod
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Re: Beginners - Start from here

Postby realdemigod » 2011-02-19, 8:20

Thanks for your suggestions

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Re: Beginners - Start from here

Postby alois » 2011-03-21, 2:07

Books by Kodansha like "Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication", "Dictionary of Japanese Grammar", "Handbook of Adjectives and Adverbs", "All About Particles" and so on. These are highest quality materials available, not only for beginning and intermediate, but also for advanced ("How to Sound Intelligent in Japanese", "Building Word Power in Japanese", etc). Go to their site and have a look at everything they have.

Assimil's "Japanese with Ease" (or the original, le Japonais sans Peine) for vocabulary building (the grammar is poorly explained, but... it is Assimil, needless to say anymore. You can acquire a good grounding in grammar with the ones above and use this to get direct to the "real thing")

Cortina's "Conversational Japanese" is also advised. It uses romaji only, but it is also a very helpful resource for beginners. It has a very complete grammatical appendix and a glossary with useful words for daily conversation.
That which I can gain from another soul is never instruction, but only provocation. Ralph W. Emerson

"....was die Welt im Innersten zusammenhält...."

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Re: Beginners - Start from here

Postby oly » 2011-06-13, 10:01

my text book is minna no nihongo :)
it's useful :D

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Re: Beginners - Start from here

Postby IMABI » 2011-06-26, 23:10

Beginners please visit here. It will change your experience with Japanese for the better ten fold.
www.imabijapaneselearningcenter.com
Consider media in learning Japanese by utilizing youtube, google.co.jp, nhk.or.jp, asahi news, kyodo news, magazines such as corocoro.
Consider looking up pages to translate in online internet libraries, wikipedia pages, and japanese articles.
There are many good dictionaries out there that are much more worth it than spending money. Consider jisho.org and google's and yahoo's dictionary for Japanese.
Although not at the caliber as the first site listed above, you can search google for
jgram
Tae Kim
Takamatsu

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Re: Beginners - Start from here

Postby kman1 » 2011-07-03, 11:20

IMABI, as you know, I am going through your entire site lesson by lesson but in regards to the texts that alois posted, what is your opinion about those books in comparison to your website? Your site is extremely detailed and I know you wrote on your site that you intend(ed) to turn it into an actual published text itself. Do you feel that after a student (such as myself) has done your entire site, do you still feel that they would need to read the texts that alois posted? I assume that you have already read them all yourself if they are worth their weight...

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Re: Beginners - Start from here

Postby ceid donn » 2011-07-03, 16:17

I'll check out the IMABI site. It looks promising.

I'm learning Japanese very informally and a bit haphazardly. I've used the Human Japanese software and the Let's Learn Hiragana workbook to learn Hiragana quite painlessly. I'm slowly starting to use Katakana and I've started learning Kanji--I learned 25 in the first month. Most of them are First Grade Kanji, with some other common ones I've seen. But I'm doing this without using any method or text. I just find one I want to learn and look it up on the internet. :P I keep a diary (in MS Word) of the ones I'm learning.

I am also using Teach Yourself Japanese Conversation, which only has kana in the glossary. The dialogues are all in romanji, which I actually find helpful. it's easier for me at this stage to learn how to say something using romanji, and then learn the kana for it. I find this quite useful in getting comfortable speaking simple phrases and common words, but TYJC's pronunciation guide is not helpful. I had to use the better pronunciation guide in Human Japanese.
Last edited by ceid donn on 2011-07-03, 16:20, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Beginners - Start from here

Postby IMABI » 2011-07-03, 16:19

The online sources I give are completely necessary for exposure. I and no one else can provide definitions for every word of the Japanese language and thank God that people have developed such engines. News and media are the best ways to feel the society and a natural vocabulary , especially if you aren't near a body of speakers. However, I have to lower down the rhetoric in relationship to my work.If you have the ability, try finding the works of Haruo Shirane. A lot of my work has been greatly influenced by him. There are also DS resources for many things that are cheap and powerful for anyone's studies. Now as for texts, I am confident you wouldn't have to supplementary reading unless if you want to hear the same thing more than once. Again, grammar and structure is the language and if you know how to really use it, those things come naturally. I know a lot of beginners struggle with misinformation--the idiot guides are great examples. Sadly, too much information about Japanese is in Japanese. That I am trying to combat.
Last edited by IMABI on 2012-03-14, 17:20, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Beginners - Start from here

Postby realdemigod » 2011-07-28, 15:56

IMABI...the site looks very enticing to read ;)

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Re: Beginners - Start from here

Postby IMABI » 2011-07-30, 14:57

Lol, どうも


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