I'm in the midst of starting to learn japanese, and I'm finding it fairly tricky. Is anyone else in the same boat? Unfortunately, I've only got books and audio cds to learn from.

Some sites for reference:

http://japanese.about.com/ <-- good for looking things up and getting started a little.
http://www.jref.com/ <-- a very good japanese reference community :)


Also, if you can get ahold of it, I've heard Pimsleurs Japanese is quite good, but only heard a few of them. They're audio based speech aids. Could be found on suprnova.org, but that's gone down :(

well i wish i had the guts to take on such a hard language. but i cant help you with any japenese language helping sites

sorry

well u can learn of animes that are subbed the one that i mostly use is oneesan which means big bro and urasai which means shut up. actually i learn a lot cause i have japanese homestays in my house to learn english. thy also teach me jap = ) well this info probly doesn't help but how about asking your parents for japanese homestays??

I'm not so much looking for sites, as people to try and converse with, help and be helped by with regards to it. If anyones up for this, post here :)

I know some japanese I stayed in japan for 5 years of my life kinda boring!

i heard japanese and korea are so close that some of the words are same like promise yahksoak and etc. im korean so if i learned japanese from one of the sites daisuke put im sure i'll be the next subber :D

Well to tell you the truth they are Kinda close and most of the words in Korea are the same as the Japanese languages words oneesan is brother and onneesan is brother over there and Baka means the same and so does shinay.

I've been trying to learn japanese for a while now aswell...it's not going to well thgouh. =\

It's a hard language to teach yourself, especially if you don't know the grammar system, which is what I'm trying to sort out now. If anyone does find any helpful sites, please list them. Also, if you know any helpful hints, share ;)

There's a cd thing for your computer at Best Buy...I was going to buy it yesterday but I bought a movie instead. XP

Could you be a bit more specific? I've got a book/cd set called "Take off in japanese" which runs you through the basics, and teaches you bits about the grammar, but I've only done one chapter so far. And I've learnt a lot from fan subs :D

yay i learned a few things! i wanna take jap. at school but my school dosent have the classes...crap

I have used the about.com one and it is really helpful.

Im learning japanese, at nightschool... try to find one... im through half my year already...and yeah..we have exams coming soon (IM GONNA FAIL!!!!!! T_T) and yeah.... you get a credit for HS if you finish it and pass...!!!! YAY!!!! and it goes onto your records! and it can raise your avg(if you do well on it at least T_T)
Yeah...i recommend finding a nightschooling that offers japanese classes(since most of the schools dont offer it in their program)...
oh well... good luck daisuke!
.Porky

hmm i would try that 'cept im in memphis tenessee......hick and redneck central of the WORLD! the only launage they speak is " American " ...... thats really sad

night schools for adults are quite expensive, although I've found one I might be able to take next year, if I live closer, but this year I couldn't make the classes due to timing and cost. We'll see next year :)

unfortunately I dont know any sites,but I am taking it in school I can ell you a few phrases
good night: oyasumi nasai
see ya later: jya matta ne!
good bye (for use when you will leave for a long time) :sayoonara
what's your name?: anata o namae wa?
merry christmas: kurisumasu omedetou (u after o is long o sound)
good morning: ohaio (more respectful) ohaio gozaimasu (sient u )
good afternoon: konnichiwa
good evening:kon ban wa
YOU STUPID ASSHOLE!!!: ANATA O BAKAKA!!!!
I hope that I was of some help to you ^^;

i just learn of the animes like naruto

i very badly want to learn japanese but haven't had the time for it.i hope to learn it in the near future

cool sites and thanks for the sites haha

Yeah I just usually learn with the animes ^-^' so a few phrases..PLUS...my friends, along with PorkyDragon up there, all go to the same place for jap(-.- they always tend to correct the rest of us now but I'm too lazy to type the whole thing~ Sorry but too bad) classes and then they teach me...some stuff.

Daisuke, thanks for those sites, I also wanted to begin learning japanese. I wish my school tought japanese!

Cool to c so many ppl trying to learn Jap. I myself learn it by watching the anime's. My sister on the other hand studies Japanese at the University. Seems to be very time-consuming and very hard tho but she still likes it... exept for literature, she said that is a pain in the arse.

I can't really comprehend this. You learnt japanese by watching anime, can you now speak it and understand it fluently? I'd like to be able to do that, got any tips?

~ XiRo

lol I didnt say I learnt it. I just learn some sentences every now and then. nothing special. Chobits is a good anime to learn some basic words sentences:D but it aint much

I suggest to try these:

-http://travlang.com/wordofday/

-http://www.anime-axess.com/?aa=anime101/japanese_dictionary

-http://www.anime-axess.com/?aa=anime101/terminology

Hope they help

Thanks for the sites. I've got a program called Wakan which I use to look up kanji and such, it's a very difficult program to figure out how to use, but once you've got it, its not that bad :)

As for learning from Animes... I get a couple of words, which I look up in my dictionary every so often, but other than that, it's not really a very good way to learn. Although one that teaches you some stuff quite well is Bottle Fairy. I still need to watch the rest of thatbecause it's damned funny :D

well you cant really learn a language from anime but you do pick up a few words

Good morning: Ohayo(said before 10) or Ohayo Gozaimasu.
How are you: Hajimemashite [Boku wa(for males)][Watashi wa(for females)] (Insert name here) desu, Dozo Yoreshiku.

Some random stuff:
Gatsu: Months
Yobi: Days of teh week.
Nichi: Days of the month
Kyo: Today
Ashita: Tomorrow
Asatte: Day after Tomorrow(not the movie -_-)
Kino: Yesterday
Ototoi- Day before Ysterday
Nan Yobi: Which day?
Nan Nichi- Which day of the month?
Nan Ji: What time?
..totally random eh?
...
ill post more later...when im not doing my math..yeah
.Porky