The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

...so u mean to say that when their cursing in anime, it's not translated properly? That sucks...but i still love anime anyway haha. My bf got me into it and he watches it cause he likes the stories. Anime is more then just a cartoon because most anime stories are put together in a very clever way, which is my opinion... besides that, we've learned alot of words by watching it...so one could probably see it in both positive and negative ways...and it also helps if you know another language. In that case, i'm half asian and i speak another language, and our words are also translated differently in english, so i could understand that fact. I think it would be easier for me and my bf to catch on with tons of practice...don't get me wrong, it's still a very complicated language to even try to consider perfecting...but i would love to visit japan one day!=)

comment to ekopilosopo. japanese is not 3,000 characters. The goverment has made it only 1,945 characters, but i've heard there is about 50,000 caracters that people just madeup i guess but you only need to know the ones the gov. approved of to read things.

Um hi. I was going to say that the way that I learn Japanese is by my aunt Shia teaching me. She lived in Japan all her life and came to America for collage. She married my uncle Shannon and she taught him how to read, speak, and write japanese. I learn by sitting down about 10 min. a few times during the day. I can learn about 10-20 new characters a day if I really try. I learned all the numbers in a day. I have already learned all the Hiragana and Katakana. Now I'm learning kanji and what the meaning of words are because Shia said if I wanted to learn the whole language I should start by learning to read and write it.

you should sub japanese in english with your videos then it would be a bit easier to learn with you in your video blog btw.. your videos are too short and not enough teaching...

Arg, my only reason for learning Japanese would be... of course, Anime.

Just kidding. I am kind of fascinated by the utterly different culture that Japan represents- yet beeing a totally western county.
But regarding the fact that I already know 3 different languages (and therefore knowing how much work learning one is), I kind of can't make myself get motivated.
Yeah, that's the SuperSaiyajinLevel4 of LAME.
But why learn Japanese? I'd kind of like to hear your opinion on that one. I mean, learning english is a given. German is my native tongue, and half of my family is french, so all these are natural for me.
But Japanese? If I ever were to live in Japan, I'd probably be repelled by the different savoir vivre over there- The very concept of thinking is different, in my opinion at least.
I once saw a whole company sitting through its break and continue working like it was nothing, in Japan. Where this was self-evident.
And I've never seen a culture that pays so much attention to rituals, bearing and status; a friend of my family was actually a succesful scientist (endocrinology, to be exact) in the USA, as the leader of his team, but when he tried to continue working in Japan, having published lots of papers, he actually was treated like a greenhorn, given no responsibility at all.
Because he had no connections and standing over there, as he explained himself.

I can't picture myself beeing successful, thus happy in Japan. And making Japanese acquaintances would be kind of difficult without living there, no?

P.S.: Congratulations to everyone who read the whole roman above ... you've achieved the very first step for learning Japanese! Perseverance! xD

Whats up dude, well I'm super lazy and a little busy with having a job and going to college. I just wanted to say that I decided to learn only how to speak japanese and not read it. Well because like I said earlier, I'm super lazy, so I've been trying to learn japanese seriuosly for a month now and doing pretty well. I'm poor, so I've been watching all these youtube videos on learning japanese, going to language exchange sites, watching japanese movies, japanese shows, japanese music and skyping with japanese people from japan to make sure what I'm saying is right and makes sense. So it's been going good and even people from japan that sometimes I sound native and I was born in houston. Next year I plan to study there through a foreighn exchange program from school. So for people who want to just speak japanese, I would suggest doing what 'm doing and also trying to simply think in japanese instead of translating it in your head.

hi! im eko from the philippines. im really, really interested in learning japanese. ive already taught myself the curvy,sexy Hiragana...and im currently in the process of "mastering" (if that's what even an appropriate word) Katakana. but my problem is Kanji. i just can not seem to find a good resource here on the web on how to learn kanji...and kanji is, well, it intimidates me. i mean, 3,000 characters??! how am i gonna learn that? T_T (from where i am, there are no basic japanese courses... and the ironic thing is, our government teamed up with the japanese govt in that JPEPA thing...wherein part of it involves japan hiring filipinos to work there..and our govt's not exerting any effort in teaching us the language) i havent browsed your site to the smallest detail yet, but can you help me with this? im really looking forward for a reply.. :}
btw, big fan of ur vids in youtube. :D

i want to learn jappanese, but i don't want to got out and ask my jappanese friends if they have any, they may think i'm raceist even though i'm jappanese aswell and black (thats right blackanese)

i want to learn jappanese, but i don't want to got out and ask my jappanese friends if they have any, they may think i'm raceist even though i'm jappanese aswell and black (thats right blackanese)

hi my name is danielle!
im an exchange student from mexico.. living in japan.
And god knows ive tried everything to learn .. i know alot more then when i got here and
ive seen alot of your videos :) i think there great and well i wanted to contact you.
I really intrested in getting to know you or at least talk.
kiotsukete !

How do you really expect to learn Japanese then a baby could in Japan? You people are smarter then a drooling stupid baby that can't even walk. It's not the age that matters it's the exposure you set yourself in. It doesn't matter if that baby can't walk, speak, read, and do anything else. That baby HAS to learn Japanese or 日本語 listening to it for more then 9-18. It doesn't matter how happy or depressed or even stupid that baby is. By law of this world and all who achieve greatness that baby will learn Japanese by living in Japan. The people who say they took 8 years of Japanese are bull crapping themselves. The exposure to real Japanese is laughable compared to that Japanese baby who learned without knowing it to expose itself. Japanese isn't hard you people just make it hard. That baby probaley got over 9 hours of listening exposure compared to that wimpy 2 hours a day maybe not everyday. Don't believe me? Live in Japan , watch their TV, go outside, watch their shows, and expose yourself to that language for a year. Pretend that English is nonexistent in their society. THAT IS THE FASTEST WAY TO LEARN. It's the backround that matters how much did you expose yourself. I gurantee even if you make little or extreme changes to make yourself expose to Japanese you will be Japanese at least in the understanding state.

How do you really expect to learn Japanese then a baby could in Japan? You people are smarter then a drooling stupid baby that can't even walk. It's not the age that matters it's the exposure you set yourself in. It doesn't matter if that baby can't walk, speak, read, and do anything else. That baby HAS to learn Japanese or 日本語 listening to it for more then 9-18. It doesn't matter how happy or depressed or even stupid that baby is. By law of this world and all who achieve greatness that baby will learn Japanese by living in Japan. The people who say they took 8 years of Japanese are bull crapping themselves. The exposure to real Japanese is laughable compared to that Japanese baby who learned without knowing it to expose itself. Japanese isn't hard you people just make it hard. That baby probaley got over 9 hours of listening exposure compared to that wimpy 2 hours a day maybe not everyday. Don't believe me? Live in Japan , watch their TV, go outside, watch their shows, and expose yourself to that language for a year. Pretend that English is nonexistent in their society. THAT IS THE FASTEST WAY TO LEARN. It's the backround that matters how much did you expose yourself. I gurantee even if you make little or extreme changes to make yourself expose to Japanese you will be Japanese at least in the understanding state.

I am a kid who really wants to know japanese cause they are some reasons I want to take classes so I can understand what people are saying and talk too I maybe want to have a private tutor free for almost 30 min each day.

i really want to take up japanese. Im 5th form (year 11, 11th grade) in highschool and have only taken japanese for half a year last year. Id really like to pick it up but im too full on subjects and sport. Any tips on where to go?
Maybe a private tutor??

i have a "learn how to speak japanese, a self-study book" thingy
is that fine? or do i need more than that to learn the japanese language??
my purpose in learning:
to live in japan or at least travel there and work there ^_^

@koichi
hehe gimme your panda hat XD
[just a joke hehe]

Konnichiwa,

Could some kind soul, please, suggest in specific the sites they are using to get information or how to get a nihongo learning partner?

I want to learm nihongo since I want to work as a translator of "japanesse" to spanish.

Arigato gozaimasu

Found that more than funny.
I've been studying for about 2 years...Going on 3??
Actually to the point where dreams are in Japanese -.-
But as you said in the Video ^(Points) I set aside about 30 to 45 minutes a day Practicing Vocabulary and my characters....Naruto Hurts my feelings....-.-

P.S....Never seen your Videos Until now....(You've just gained a Fan lol...Non fan Boy...Those are bad...)

Do you know of a place to obtain text books to study from?

Yo all !!
how its going here :D
am new here .. but i take some Japanese classes and i'm Addict to Anime !
but my problems are Kanji i cant read or writ kanji and i still cant understands words from Japanese ppl :(
am planing to join the japanese languge learning for the Japan-Embassy here :D
but still dont have plan for how am gona study it !! i wish i can find help here :)

damni want to learn japanese from primary 6 but i`m still studying at the moment.i`m now 19 maybe i should take it when i have time?what`s your opinion

Hey! Thanks for this blog!
I just got back from a 6 month working holiday in Tokyo!
I am so eager to finally set in and start hardcore studying Japanese, but I don't know where to start.
I will major In Japanese at my Canadian university in 5 months.
Its a 3 year program, But i want to learn lots and excel so I can do the transfer to Japan in the second or final year.
Where would you advise starting. I start with my Japanese tutor next month!
Thanks,
Chris

Hey Koichi! I just recently stumbled upon your youtube videos, and I think they're great! (No sarcasm intended XD) I was particularly "struck" with your "Japanese people aren't impressed with your Japanese", and it made me reflect a bit. But I also think that people react the same way regardless of cultural background.Anyway, just a quick question, but do you think I'm doing the right thing, 'cos I intended not to speak so much Japanese to Japanese people until I'm an expert at it?

Also thank you very much for waking me up to reality. Yes, I do need to stay away from YouTube (lol) or the computer for a while. XD

...I still don't know English apparently though. Haha, sorry.

I've been learning Japanese for about 10 months now and I'm in Japanese II. I found that the best way to "study" and expose yourself to Japanese is through music and reading it. Just learn hiragana and katakana! Even if you just know these, you can get so much farther! On the internet, whenever I have the option to change the language to Japanese I do, and then I force myself to figure it out and read everything to navigate the site. I also put my iPod in Japanese, after a while you just recognize the letters and kanji, I may not know the exact pronounciation, but I can at least recognize it.
The best way I found to learn to write kanji is to get a dry erase board and just write them over and over and write out sentances and words. Japanese is basically a lot of repetiton and memorization just like any language. It's a lot of hard work, but if you want it enough, it shouldn't seem as hard to learn it.
Watching Japanese television shows can help with listening comprohension, and it's more interesting than just listening to a tape over and over again. There is a really awesome site that has a ton of Japanese shows, (www.mysoju.com) they are all subbed, but you still get to hear actual conversations and everyday language. I have picked up so much by watching these, it's rather ridiculous, and it's really exciting as I get farther in my Japanese how much I can understand without having to read the subtitles.
These are just a few of the things that I found that make learning Japanese easier for me.

learning Japanese language is very interesting

do j-drama count ?
i am starting with anime, but i have gon over to j-dramas and i have just starte out seen som tv show (cartoon kat-tun and so) and most music i hear is all so japanish.
any way try my best but have a hard time because there are not japanish theacher in my home town where i live and i can not read or write Hiragana/Katakana/Kanji
so i guess i am in trouble if i follow my dream of traveling to japan
but thanx for youre time
joan from denmark

Japanesse is easier than it looks!
I taught myself japanesse by listening to people on CDs & it is as boaring!
There is one set back! i can't even write the alphabet

I think that making a plan is a good idea.

For example I weightlift. Just going to the gym and trying is not going to result in me getting stronger/faster. I follow a regimen. I plan my lifts in a scientific order, to get better results. I'm trying to do this with my Japanese. Just sitting and studying can/is a waste of time/effort. Which can result in a lack of enthusiam, as results are like mini goals.

I dunno man, I think we need to make a 21st cent approach to learning.

I study japanese by watching youtube japanese tutor videos...... lol
I know some of the basics, I have them stored on my computer, I read them every day, and slap myself if I don't.

hi there im already 3 months here in japan but still i cant speak or even understand what they say, i can read and write hiraganas katakana and some kanji too but i dont know why i cant learn to speak that sometimes makes me irritated and mad bcoz my husband is japanese we dont understand each other when he speak to me in jpanese.watashiwa atama warui desu ka.

Hajimimashte! Watashi wa smithudes. doozo yorushku

Arigato!

I think the best way to learn Japanese is to study with an actual teacher. That's what I'm doing, and I find when you have a Japanese native there in person to talk to and ask questions, it actually helps a lot. I also go on the internet constantly to try and learn kanji (I did the same for hiragana and katakana). Also, if you watch some Japanese shows (and I don't mean anime, I mean real TV shows e.g. game shows that they air in Japan) you're going to learn how people actually speak, and not end up saying sentences like anime characters do, and eventually discovering that the fansub was wrong and you said some strange phrase to your Japanese friend :)
If you're learning Japanese, even if it's hard, you'll know if you really are interested in learning because you'll want to keep learning (I've been learning French for 10 years of my life, and just because it has gotten hard, I haven't stopped :P)

So , yay Japanese!!!!! and thanks for reading this annoyingly long message that I wrote because I had too much time on my hands :)

hello koichi.
take a look at this site ( http://www.realkana.com/hiragana/ ). it helped me a lot to learn the hiraganas and katakanas.
it's in portuguese but u'll just need the tabs hiragana, katakana and praticar (practice)
all u have to do is write down the "name" of the simbol, like this:
the site shows u this "り" u write down "ri" and press enter if its correct shows you another and if it's wrong a red x appear till u say the write answer!
hope it helps someone lol
c ya

hi my name is Yuri i'm from brazil! (i'm sorry if my english is wrong lol)
i've started to learn japanese 1 weak ago, i've already learn all the hiraganas and started to learn the katakanas and now i need some another way to learn words and thing like this... in my city don't have any japanese school, so i'm learnning on the net... if somebody can help me i'll be glad (bilgo_hyp@hotmail.com)
ありがと

Check out eduFIre - it's where I teach Japanese via live webcam. Or,
check out my recent article "top 10 free resources for learning
Japanese" - those are very helpful as well!

When I first started to learn Japanese, I went the easy way out and just watched anime, but I realized that just watching it won't help my Japanese. I ended up getting software on how to learn, but that didn't work either. Quit, went back to my anime, and then saw a book at my college on how to learn Hiragana. I bought it and I'm still studying the book, and can read some sentences in Hiragana, and know just a little bit of kanji. Not too much though. I also bought a Japanese/English Dictionary in case I read something in Hiragana that I never heard or saw before. Now I'm teaching myself to read manga, and that in turn has helped me when I'm watching anime raw. I don't rely on just anime to learn, but I do use it to fine tune pronounciation for words. Still, it's not the main way I learn Japanese. I doubt I'll ever be fluent, but it's better than what my two sisters are doing, who just watch anime and think they'll learn >>;

I want to learn Japanese and I try to go on webs, also repetition. I like to see results fast and this was not giving me any. So I star studding for a while then stop and star and so o n and on. Japanese is something that I am interested in, because I want to be able to use at work and also in my personal life. There is also the fact that I would love to go to Japan and be able to understand at what I am looking at and at whom I am talking to. So far I can truly say that I have learned nothing at all, may be just arigato and gomenasai. After watching your video I think it open my eyes a bit more. And I can see that there are so many places I can go and learn, practice and do. But most of all thank you for giving me my confidence and drive to want to learn this language that I really love.

I started learning Japanese at High School in year 8 and did it for 2 years there. But for some reason in those two years I could only learn the hiragana for 'no' and two words: 'watashi' and 'nagai'.

Though now I do self study with books and tapes with I borrow from the library.
The best one I have had was one which gives you a few words to learn everyday and then it gives you dialog to read without english translation and maybe a quiz at the end.
But I have come across a problem lately....

I can read (hiragana & katakana) and understand Japanese. But, I find I am not very good at speaking it... =S

How do you improve on something like that?

I just thought I'd randomly throw this out there, I found your videos because I was looking up
"方言"...and I saw your Hawaiian accent video and the "how Americans stereotype Japanese people" and I thought some were quite true (except you forgot to mention how many Americans think Japanese people, or all Asians for that matter eat DOGS...)...but I didn't really understand the one where people think japanese people only say yes... because I never got that stereotype here in Colorado.
But damn, after reading most of these comments I realized a lot of schools teach Japanese, I wish my high school taught Japanese...considering the fact that I was born there I'm half Japanese and I lived there for about 5 years and i visit frequently; my Japanese is shit, like seriously, I probably have the reading and writing level of a third grader and I speak in a heavy Osaka dialect. But regardless, I wanted to ask you if you have any advice on freshening up on my Japanese, because I know only a handful of kanji so reading articles is out of the question, despite my asianness I'm not too much into anime even though you mentioned not watching anime to study Japanese, so maybe if you could recommend like some books you had on learning Japanese that covers more intermediate to advanced Japanese, I would truly appreciate your help, I need to freshen up on my Japanese because I was hoping to move back there once I graduated high school and I'm still thinking about whether I should get a citizenship there (since I have dual citizenship), just in case McCain gets elected (insert Hank Hill gasp).

Hello! My name is Tyler. I have a youtube account, but I don't make videos.

I know this is old, and I can't make videos; so I can't make a video response...because of the lack of technological skill.
But anyways, I wanted to make sort of a response to the video you made way back in December "The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!".

Well, first of all, I'm a sophomore in high school. I've always had an incredibly small group of friends, until my small group of friends mixed with a different group of friends in my freshman year. The group my friends mixed with (and I mixed with, too) were all taking Japanese 1 for their language in freshman year. I was always SO jealous, as it was too late to take Japanese 1 with them. (insert ultra-sadness) But after a while, I decided to take Japanese the next year. I always regretted not taking Japanese 1 my freshman year, but my Japanese 1 class this year gets A LOT of praise from our sensei, Miyazaki-sensei. She is a really nice teacher, and I have a lot of fun in that class! I mean...

Before, I was just taking Japanese to be like my friends, you know? Sort of like a trend, or something more we could do just to be different (something weird like that), but during this last summer, I studied Japanese a lot, and found a passion for it. It really is a beautiful language, and I have an ambition to be fluent in it some day. So, anyways, A CORRECT RESPONSE TO YOUR VIDEO, would be this.

What I do to learn Japanese, at first, take it in high school. I have Japanese every other day, for 1 1/2 hours. Besides that, I take about 30 minutes each day (besides Japanese homework) and write down all of what I learned so far in the course. What I've known for a while, I look up the kanji to the correct words. Other than that, I take about 30 minutes to an hour each day trying to analyze this manga I have. Not too long ago, (here in St. Louis) we had a Japanese festival at the Botanical Gardens, and I bought a Japanese manga at one of the booths. It's called "20th Century Boys", and from what I have figured out, it's really interesting. At first, I got insanely frustrated at my inability to read it, except for the hiragana and katakana. But after a while, I looked up a lot of the words, and the kanji, and it all makes sense! I write down the kanji and words I learned from the manga on that day, and then form sentences with those words (considering my limited Japanese fluency/vocabulary, and the fact I've only been taking Japanese for about two months.)

I hope that answered what you wanted as a response. (even though it was like, nearly seven years ago) "dog" years

Hope to read and comment on more of your blogs!

I just started learning japanese this year at my university. It is hard as heck, and while we meet everyday...the real learning comes with the amount of work you do outside of class. As I'm learning, you can't just "get it" so to speak. You have to study...A LOT.

Japanese is easy to learn, and I've found quite a few ways to do it without paying a dime for textbooks or dictionaries. The problem is no one looks for what it is they really want to find. I copied a ton of Japanese words(using romaji) onto note cards, and am using them as flashcards. It's actually easy if you learn to try and focus on one thing at a time. And also, GAKKOU ASHI DESU!!!

haha i like the piece you say: its not my panda hat

hahahaha - omoshiroi desu ne. Nihongo o benkyoo wa muzukashii desu ne. cho muzukashi desu demo...cho omoshiroi!!

video wa very funny.

hey there koichi, iv recently started to learn japanese and i am learning from berlitzt japanese do you think it is a useful resource for learning the language?, and also the partical ga what does it mean because everytime i hear it it frows me off my learning :S i keep searching for a meaning but cant seem to find 1 :( ty

People say that if you know Japanese its easier to learn Chinese.
Is it truth that Japanese and Chinese are almost the same language?
What do you think?

The only thing that's similar between Japanese and Chinese is the Kanji. Knowing the kanji in one language would definitely make it easier to learn the kanji in another, since all you have to do is apply different sounds.

I personally think Chinese is much more difficult than Japanese, but that's just my opinion

Thanks!
Where were you born in U.S. or Japan?

Hey koichi,
I keep myself "accountable" by actually blogging about my progress. ( http://www.sebbylearnsjapanese.blogspot.com/ )

Knowing that people read on and/or study along keeps me going. Right now I'm just doing some intro self-learning but I'm starting university classes in the fall.

Great tips. I will be sure to learn Japanese without relying too heavily on Anime now.

learning a new language would be nice but im sooo lazy so i watch anime but not to learn jap or anything i just watch for fun! anyways, i learned a few words, but not enough to survive japan =,= so, ill just keep going to jap sites trying to learn... if that's possible... i've got down the basics like I... o.o and numbers from 1-10 but i'm a newbie when it comes to any language.. the language i speak is always a problem for other people for some reason... i tell them what it is, and they ask me wth is that? it's like YOU JUST ASKED ME WHAT LANGUAGE I SPEAK SO WHAT DO YOU THINK IT IS? and i get pissed over that *sigh* i over react too much....

~Cookie(Sherry)

Your video is great, I know some people just like that, who want to learn Japanese from anime, I've never thought about it actually, maybe because I always knew it was kind stupid... "So what the hell were you looking for videos to learn Japanese ??" you say.... well, I study Japanese about one year now, and I'm planning on traveling next year to Japan, so everything that I can find about Japan and Japanese is helping. I'm going to be there 2 months alone without speaking Portuguese at all (I'm Brazilian by the way...) ... so I guess I have to work hard here, taking class, studying by myself, learning the kanjis... I like the challenge, always did, I study French too.... everybody thinks I'm a little bit crazy.... but i like, can't help it...
=) so... would be awesome if you had some more advices to give me :)
o//

i was trying to get in some summer studying so i thought i would type in learning japanese in you tube where i happened to bump into this video and i have to say i thought it was awsome i ended up spending hella long looking for all the videos i could find that you did and they are all great lets see back to the topic i have takin japanese classes for a year and a half (failed the first time threw got a B+ 2nd time ^.^) and what i learned in that class was all hiragana katakana some kanji and we had alot of vocab words that well as much as i memerised them for the test and quizez that we had every week 2 to 3 times after i passed a test i would never look back to theo's words now i realise that is my fault when it comes to learning and the one thing that i stress if u learn words and u think u have them memerized make sher after u learn new words restudy the old ones or u will have a vocabulary of like 15 words and it will change every week

I JUST GO TO:
http://www.seedgenesis.net/index.php?action=lea...
to learn japanese

so am i supposed to remember all the different kinds of writing and reading (hiragana,katakana etc...)?

Hey I just randomly scrolled onto your video's on youtube and I must say that you are quite amusing. About a year ago I did try learning japanese through Anime but I realized that it would take far too long. If only I had seen the video sooner. Well keep it up (Yes nothing bad was said ^.^)

I taught myself Japanese, for about 2 years now since I was 12. At first I just learned basic stuff from anime XD But then when I was 2 I started to get really serious about it, and I'm half Chinese so I could already understand some of the kanji. At first I just bought a dictionary and learned some vocabulary and simples sentences from that. Soon I had a bigger vocabulary (oh but not that impressive XD) and I started watching J-dorama and loved J-rock.

So from the J-rock songs and J-dorama I began to learn how the sentences and words they used made sense, and tried learning what they were saying. And I joined some Japanese community and blog sites to see how Japanese people used Japanese. So after I felt kind of comfortable with Japanese, I started talking to this Japanese transfer student at my school, and I still can't speak as much as I can understand, but I managed! So now I practice whenever I meet with a Japanese person...

On some websites I did notice they said different things about stuff, like anata was impolite or anata was common, but I just avoided that and looked at what people said >>;;

Oh also I suggest TaeKim's website too! It helped me a lot with grammar! It's really good! :D
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/completeguide.ht...

My japanese class used the Minna no Nihongo series. You can buy it from thejapanshop.com. They have fantastic prices. You should buy the Minna no Nihongo 1 textbook( Shokyuu beginner), the Minna no Nihongo 1 English translation and grammatical notes, the grammatical patterns exercise workbook (orange) and the pink workbook(Hyoujun Mondaishu). Also buy the cd if you can't find the audio for it anywhere else.

They also have a kanji series but I liked the book we used in class more.
http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Kanji-Book-Vol-1/dp...

anyways you don't have to take my advice. Good luck!

p.s how did you learn japanese?

Hi.. i want to learn how to read/speak japanese.. i've bought a dictionary but it only has basic"travel" words.. what do you suggest?

Kevinnwhat suggested Tae Kim's website for learning Japanese, but there are so many incorrect examples and explanations scattered among the correct Japanese that I don't think it's very useful. People like it because it's online and has a clickable table of contents (unlike a real, solid, old-fashioned textbook). But the howlers in the example and explanations are presented so nonchalantly that it makes it dangerous. It LOOKS so authoritative, but it's full of the kind basic grammar mistakes that college students in Japanese make on their exams when they don't QUITE nail it down from class.

Get a real textbook and use it. It costs money, but the grammar isn't so wackily far off base as Kim's site.

Oh, also, yes, it is a horrible Idea to learn japanese through anime. I dont say this looking from an outside point of view unfortunately. I too, was once an idiot. Well, not really, but its not even an good idea to EXPAND on what your already know through anime. The first few words I thought I learned were some curse word, A word I thought meant I like actually meant feels good. And a word I thought meant hello, Moshi Moshi, is only supposed to be used on phones. etc.

Agh, I want to learn japanese. ANd Im willing to spend years on it. But can anyone direct me to a decent website for learning the language without any gaps in fluency? Everything I find seems like some sort of...of phrase book, and I dont think anything will give me a fluent understanding of japanese. Especailly that half the times I compare the website, one will tell me the word Anata, then the next website tells me that anata is very impolite and should be avoided.

Im just asking, if anyone is willing to spare the time, could someone please post a website that is safe, and I wont be afraid of getting incorrect information from. Also, A nice website for kanji would realy help. I AM willing to spend a few years learning the first few thousand kanji. Ive only spent a few weeks on japanese. Though I dont think Im making progress, Ive only learned japanese worth about 1 hour of conversation and probably.

Im greenporing on youtube.

I started watching anime in Japanese and that's what interested me in the learning the language. I don't use anime as a learning tool. Having said that, watching anime in Japanese has made my ability to 'listen' way much more better than it ever was when I was learning Spanish. I've also picked up a few colloquialism (sp?) and such from watching FMA and Ranma 1/2. Honestly, though... Until I started doing research online and got into a class at my local JC, I had no concept of grammar or any major convention of the language *other* than that "verb is at end".

I guess what I'm saying is that I agree with you: anime will not teach you to speak Japanese.

Going to a class and doing a lot of research and study online will.

Hello~ I found your blog via Youtube. LOL kawaii boushi desu!

I actually think there is a trick to learning Japanese the fast (and ironically, the hard) way when it comes to speaking. But I guess it only works when you're actually living in Japan. Watch the television everyday and every night until you understand what they're saying. LOL. That's what my husband did to me. We also have a 'Speak Japanese Day' every Thursday and whenever we go around town my husband will have random quiz about the place. I think these methods help a lot.

As a result, I can understand Japanese quite well now, however the downside is that I still can't read Kanji (T_T)

I don't think there's another way around it when it comes to writing or reading, though. I'm slowly learning kanji, and I find that Kanji pictographs work like a charm for me, because its fun and I understand the meaning a lot more. Eventually, I'll enroll in a Japanese language class... one day.

Agh, the Nova Usagi song at the end? Don't you know how painful that song is for some people?

hey nice vid, its kinda sad but true....i kno a whole crap load of ppl who wants to learn japanese and some who think they know just because they watch anime with english sub. and i think your right there isn't a trick or secrete on how to learn. im one of those ppl who doesn't really have so much time to learn japanese but wants to, and i am gonna try to fit it in with me learning spainish, tagalog and just school work...hehehe i like to be multilingual some day. and japanese is one of the main languages i want to learn, heh im not gonna be like my ignorant friends having their head up their asses complaining,"i wanna learn japanese. i can't learn japanese, why can't i learn japanese?" well im gonna be the one who pulls his head out of his ass and actually break the teachings.

I'm learning a lot, and pretty fast as well through the series "Let's Learn Japanese" at youtube. They are just great for those who does not know japense at all.

*PS: I'm from Brazil and I live near a Japanese neighborhood. I love to go there!!

Maybe I should mention that I haven't mastered the "typing Japanese on my computer" because I'm missing some important files/programs/fonts/whatever and so thus I have to go out on to the internets (specifically Jim Breen's site), search for the word in romanji so as to get the hiragana, then search using the hiragana to hunt down the kanji.


That probably helps with the "learning".

I just started reading your blog today, and found the video of you in this particular article (...?) too freaking adorable NOT to comment.

You are cute. Like whoas.

Sorry. As for the "professional and smart human being" sounding part: I've been taking Japanese for three semesters (I'm currently nearing the end of my fourth) and I actually found that in the way of learning vocab/kanji, if I sit down and make digital "flashcards" for the words we learn in class, I actually learn them pretty well.

I make the "flashcards" using GIMP, so they're just 800x600 images with the kanji and the furigana in the image, and then the English meaning as the file name. I set my computer's screensaver to the "Slideshow" option for my Kanji folder, so whenever it goes to the screensaver, I can review just by glancing at the screen. True, it's not particularly efficient, since I never know which words are going to pop up, but it is a good way to keep Kanji on the brain at the very least.

Anyway. I'm done now. Maybe I actually will NOT be lazy and keep up with your blogoricious blog from now on. :D

Hey, I also stumbled onto your video. It came at a very opportune time. I have taken some university courses before... But well, yeah, I was an anime enthusiast first, so perseverance was not my forte. It didn't help that my first teacher was native from Tokyo, and my second teacher was from Osaka. Hugely different accents made it impossible to understand her. I passed both courses, but then I dropped it for a few years (mainly cause I stopped going to university).

I've now gotten my coursework, and the two "complete courses" (aka-Learn Japanese in 6 weeks by listening to this while you drop off your mail for less than 5 seconds a day) that I bought before university together, and I'm completing my new years resolution of listening to the lessons on my way to and from work, and at least a half hour a day otherwise until I've learned it. Even if it takes me years!

Dude
i happened to stumble in your video today...what a blessing, it MADE MY DAY

holy crap...you're so funny.People get inspired after seeing this...i got.

u kinda became my idol today, i hope u keep doing that..what a beautiful art of making people laugh (now i got dramatic)

c ya o/

I think the best way to learn any language is to have motivation. Mine is to understand my favourite music, films, friends etc. I`m able to learn a lot without much effort then.

I meant i had a program

Wow all these comments helped me to find out new ways to learn Japanese.I'm thinking of getting a tutor.I have a learn Japanese problem and some videos,but having a tutor would be a cool experience.

If you guys know any free sites to learn japanese could you please tell me. This is currently the only way I can learn Japanese. If you know any, please email me at

flowerpainter3@yahoo.com

I spend about 30 minutes everyday reading random Japanese articles, and also looking up random slang....It makes my Japanese class more fun and now my teacher gets scared everytime I open my mouth to speak because I once asked if anyone wanted to eat babies for breakfast....>.>
But it makes class more fun and not as boring as it would've been if I didn't know so much funny Japanese tongue twisters (のむならのるな、のるならのむな*)!

*nomu nara noru na, noru nara nomu na. "If you drink don't drive, if you drive don't drink."

Your video is hilarious :) I have been studying japanese in highschool for about 4-5 years, passed my JLPT 2 last year and moving on to JLPT 1 this year. Just wanted to say that once you have grasped the basics, and also an understanding of the different registers of language, watching things like anime, J-drama does help with listening, but with subtitles it's meaningless. I find reading novels (i loved TUMUGI by Yoshimoto Banana) and listening to the news in japanese really helps. The NHK website has downloadable clips with text. Oh, and JWPce is really nice. Helped a lot with kanji.

I really like this one: www.boostyourjapanese.com!

The video made me smile, then made me feel bad that I haven't made cards for this weeks kanji yet. I bookmarked it so when I get lazy it'll make me go study some more.

I have to say though that I enjoy the study of Japanese, I like how new little thinks become clear each week.

I'm currently learning japanese, but this isn't the first time I've studied it...I did a 5 year course in Japanese, but I quit after 2..that was 3 years ago...

Anyway

Basically around the end of last year I decided to learn it again and so far I've learned more in a few months than what I learned in two years. Do you recommend cramming all the Hiragana and Katakana in a week? I managed to learn all the hiragana again in about 4 days, but I've not had such luck with the Katakana...anyway...I'll end this comment with:

Kore wa anata no inkei desuka?

I agree JapanesePod101.com is a good website to study Japanese. I also recommend taking a course on Japanese. I think people are more motivated if they have to pay for it.

Oh, p.s. JapanesePod101.com is the best place EVER to learn Japanese!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will agree it is a lot of hard work but so worth it!!!!
I will say that anime can help you learn Japanese....it helps in that if I hear vocabulary that I'm learning in a show that it stays ingrained in my head better and i also learn when I can use some phrases correctly in the right situation. Anime is a nice tool as long as it's not the main one.....

I learnt hiragana through reading Japanese lyrics and some easy kanji as well. I took the first year Japanese course in uni and love it. I am a big fan of japanese dramas and music so I practice my reading comprehension and listening comprehension by watching raw drama and their talkshows. Sometimes I learn kanji that way too.

There are some drama CD for mangas on youtube that overlays it w/ the manga at the same time. It helps because you're reading the manga and listening to the conversation at the same time, very helpful.

what you need to do is study a few words every day of the week, then test yourself on the words that you learned that week. and studying with friends helps a lot!

even though i've only been taking japanese for a while (about 5 monthes) I honestly don't find it that difficult. What i normally do is listen to music in japanese to help myself reconize the sounds and then study the words from the textbook. I went to http://www.thejapanesepage.com/readarticle.php?...
for lessons in hirgana. It took me about a month to learn hirgana, and I'll be starting katakana soon.

As for textbooks I would recommend people get Adventures in Japanese 1 by Hiromi Person and Naomi Omizo and is illustrated by Michael Muronaka & Emiko Kaylor. The book has probably been one of the most helpful things for me. It has pictures of all the vocab, and has culture notes, maps, hirgana & katakana charts etc.
Good luck to everyone!

i used to get my lessons from animeme.com (the lessons have nothing to do with anime-they're from sushibarnetwork.com), and i would take the lessons one at a time, each lesson twice a day- i got to lesson 4, but after 5 days they closed down and reopened, so i don't have those any more, and sushibarnetwork.com turned into an anime download site D:
so that was how i started learning...
now i don't know where i can find lessons...my parents aren't willing to pay for a teacher or for online lessons (I'm 14), they say it isn't worth learning a language i might never need D: and i can't pay either because i don't have a real allowance, i just ask my parents to buy stuff that i want and lend me money. so that is my sad tale...
now i don't know where to get free lessons from, if you know any sites with free japanese audio lessons, could you please send me the link on my email: animefannumb3r1@hotmail.com
i would really appreciate it, Thanks ^_^

What I can't stand is when I'm trying to find a new place to study, all they use is romaji. I loathe learning Japanese by romaji because it doesn't do anything for my skills. It's lazy. All help sites should force the people to learn hiragana before hand because face it that's where the real Japanese starts. Not by using roman letters.

hahahah funnnnyyyy

I just thought I'd share a little bit of how I study/have been studying Japanese. For several years I attempted to study the language, but like so many others I fell into the category of those who end up studying the language at small increments of time then I'd just kinda give up for a long time. After a while I would go back and try to pick up the language from where I left off. Needless to say, this really wasn't the way to learn. I didn't actually start learning Japanese seriously until I decided to take extended learning Japanese classes at the community college near by a couple years ago. Once I took the classes I sat down every night with my text book and studied as much as I could until I got tired of studying for the night. I took the effort to go through hirgana and katakana at any time I possibly could, even if I wasn't in the mood to learn it at the time. I knew if I just gave up on that I really wouldn't get much out of the classes I was taking. That was probably the first big bump I hit, but once I got it down, it helps sooo much!
Anyway, from then on, I've found a variety of ways in and out of classes that help me improve learning the language. Amongst those, what has really been helping me more than anything, is making myself read journals and interviews of Japanese idols/musicians/etc at any time possible. The best way I've learned from it, is I read what I can and try to look up the kanji that I don't know, and also use the Mozilla Firefox tool "Rikaichan" to help give me hints sometimes on translations and how to read/say the kanji. Anyway, I usually translate the journals and interviews I read all into English and share it with others on a message board. Everyone on this message board have also really helped push me because when they notice something new that needs to be translated, they always ask me to do it, so it pushes me to keep on going even when I'm not in the mood to do it at the time. I honestly believe that if you keep pushing yourself to do more, even when you really don't feel like doing it, you'll progress, because the only way to get better at Japanese is to find all the resources you can to actually help yourself learn and apply yourself. Its difficult at first, but I really find it enjoyable now and I'm amazed when I'm actually able to understand more and more of what I read or listen to.

You're among the very best on YouTube... don't sell yourself short wrt your future as an entertainer, even possibly on Japanese TV！

日本語を学ぶことについて、４.5年前に始まりました。　アメリカの大学で勉強して、関西に住んで、日本の専門学校で勉強しました。　でも、今まであまり分かりません。　ふかのうだと思う。

So after these four years... I wonder why I still can not communicate w/ Nihonjin beyond the most simplest of phrases... I cannot follow even simple sentences in a conversation...

Even though you discount your limited exposure to Japanese as a child, my belief is that experience taught you much. Wait till you try to learn a foreign language when you have gray hair!

It is though for me, an older person, important to realize that the language skills developed in childhood cannot be contained merely in college language-learning texts. And there is no way around that.

Your own Japanese is spoken more slowly than most natives, from my experience. Not a bad thing for teaching Japanese! Indeed, you would probably make an outstanding Japanese teacher and could find gainful employment in that area, if you ever become so inclined.

like the new layout!

if you dont know where to start, tae kim's page is good. http://www.guidetojapanese.org/

What I do to learn Japanese is use my 'Talk Japanese' CD and textbook as well as looking revising some of the Kodasha Kanji learner's Dictionary before I go to school each day. By the way if you need to learn Hiragana/katakana there's this fantastic game you can play at www.realkana.com . It's what I used to learn Hiragana and Katakana and it's worked a treat. One tip. If you're concentration isn't so great(like mine) just try doing whatever you do to learn Japanese for a few minutes each day. Little and often is sometimes the best way foreword.

I took a year of Japanese in high school (tried continuing this year at my university but all the classes got filled up before I could register D: ) and my friend gave me her book "Japanese Step By Step"; she also emails me in japanese quite often. I listen to too much Japanese music and practice reading the lyrics to help me remember kana and kanji.

So, I dont know how easy this is for everyone, but I would recommend trying to find childrens' books and reading them. Also, if you want to watch the TV to learn SOME Japanese I would say try the children shows. This will not only teach you a few words, but also some culture as well. Think about to when you were learning English in elementary school. They made us read a certain number of books a week with your parents. When you didnt understand a word you would ask what it was and you moved on. Also, one of my professors said that keeping a journal/diary in Japanese is another good way of learning. But remember to start slow. They say that reading outloud takes the most amount of brain work, but what if you had to read out loud hiragana, katakana, and kanji? More brain work! I dont know how easy anyone can get a hold of Japanese kids books, but I found a Japanese store that sold books, so I picked a few up and read them to my TAs and the Japanese exchange students. My professor actually commented on how well my reading got! I was pretty proud. Best of luck everyone!

I took Japanese at high school for 3.5 years (the new sensei we got sucked so hard, I dropped at semester) and now I'm in Japanese 202 as a freshmen at university. Next year I plan to study abroad a year at Kansai Gaidai in Hirakata, hopefully I'll be accepted. After that I'm pretty sure my Japanese will be pretty good. I study out of textbooks by myself one in a while too (Nakama, Genki). I'm pretty motivated when I need to be. I listen to a lot of Japanese music and watch anime every now and then, to practice my listening comprehension which sucks but is getting better.

I've been studying this for like 4 months and I know SOME stuff. I'm hoping that in like 4 more more months I can go to the public library, pick up one of those Japanese childrens' books and read it with no problems, but that probably ain't gonna happen 'cause I got issues. I do study by myself. And prettymuch the only thing I do is listen to people talk Japanese on CDs and stuff(and, duh, it doesn't work). So I look through coursebooks and stuff and on the internet, and I end up making stupid songs about Japanese words. and i say it for like a day or two. and i end up memorizing a lot of words in books 'cause it seems interesting.

Having taken two years of Japanese at my university, I found that the course moved too slowly and I spent more time complaining about how bad my teacher was than actually learning (Read: studying). Before that, I had actually done quite well at studying every day. Now it's all gone and I miss it terribly!

Lesson: If you're paying for something, make sure you get the most out of it instead of burning out on it.

カナダ。。。。。ブル

I started with a website called YesJapan (www.yesjapan.com) really good website. And then I got a private teacher. He was really helpful until he had to go back to Japan. Now I'm back to YesJapan and I really need to practice everyday.

Hey Dan,

I usually get my articles from Asahi.com (sometimes it will redirect you to the English version, but you can just click on "japanese" somewhere and it will take you back). Granted, it is a newspaper, but it's not so bad in terms of difficulty (I think). Careful not to copy the grammar points too much though, it's all really stiff, like a newspaper should be :)

Koichi,

What articles do you read every day to practice Japanese? I find newspapers a bit too difficult, but as a third-year student I probably should push myself for that.

Ideas?

I need some help with this, I know that I am not getting anywhere with what I am doing now. I ADMIT IT! But I don't know where to start. I'm not sure where to buy books or lessons, or if I should do lessons at all. I'm a person who needs graphics and interacting, so looking at a black and white textbook would be my worst nightmare. I tried learning Hirigana at one point, but my trial ran out and I lost my study card. :(

So, what should I do where should I start. I would someday like to speak and write Japanese fluently, so I understand that I need to make a commitment.

Thanks,

Unless you're extremely motivated, I recommend taking lessons or classes at college/university or whatever else is around.

Second, is to get the audio CD for whatever book you have. It's essential to help your listening ability, and if you have a good ear, for imitating the tone as close as possible. I realize it's not a tonal language, but that doesn't mean you speak it w/an English accent!

I just take it slow, one chapter at a time, making sure I master all grammar points before moving on. Whenever I have a question, I make sure to ask the sensei to clarify.

It's also a good idea to do all of your homework. Practice listening, reading, and writing.

Another thing that helps is to come up w/sentences on your own, making use of the current chapter's grammar points, w/your classmates, and/or native speakers, if you know of any.

I'm going to have to agree with Tori :)

@Marc

It was bought at some store in Kyoto, off the head of a freeta D:

I guess it can't be emphasized enough how important hard work is, eh?

Regarding "pre-learning" for university, I'd agree with Koichi. Also at my university it's a prerequisite for the Japanese course being able to read and write both, Hiragana and Katakana! (I'm studying in Berlin, Germany) So it's probably a good idea to learn them, which is not very difficult in my opinion, it just takes time and regular repetition.

As for learning Japanese by watching Anime (apart from the fact that the language used in Anime is supposed to be different from normal Japanese language (I can't tell, but was told)), it might work if you are young enough, at least to some extent. I have a friend in denmark, where on TV they often show simply English shows and movies with subtitles. And my friend stated that he could speak and understand English even before having the subject in school, just by watching TV as a child, so to say. Same thing for his friends. Of course I can't know whether this is true or not, but there might be a chance, since as a child (around 3 years of age I think) you have to greatest potential for learning new languages. Also his English is excellent in every aspect, especially pronounciation.

However, that shouldn't encourage you to try learning Japanese by watching Anime for some reasons that Koichi already mentioned in some post I can't find right now, especially since most of the readers of this blog are already older than 6 years. ^^ So, i suppose it will take almost everyone simply plain hard work to achieve their Japanese learning goals.

Good article. :)

... I'm a Dane as well, and I learned both German and English from watching German/English television as a kid. So no, it's not impossible. I'm not as good at German as I was due to lack of use, but I still understand it fully and do speak a great deal German, just not flawless ^^. But well, I think you and Koichi are right - when you say it's impossible to learn Japanese only from watching anime (at least when we're this old)... Ganbatte, ne?

Umm, what I want to know is where you got that spiffy hat.

the balance btwn learning kanji or vocab. is difficult for me. it's kinda like which one is more useful. i wish i had more speaking opportunites though. i think that would most useful.

The real secret to learning Japanese...

I'd have to say being born into a Japanese family in Japan. 6 years of intensive language study have convinced me.

The only thing that kept me learning Japanese in uni was that I knew that when I pasted by the grade school on the way to my campus I could stop anyone of those yellow-hatted little rugrats, challenge them to a kanji showdown, and send them crying to their mommies.

The ego-trip always ended when I remembered that they at least could speak fluent Japanese :(

My kanji is at a high school level now but my speaking still stinks.

oooo and hooray for typos (slap me)

Honestly, mine is probably weird. But as a music fanatic I basically learned how to read hiragana, katana, and kanji all by listening to Japanese music. By going to a site that has the lyrics IN JAPANESE (and I don't mean romanji) you're forced to make connections between what you're hearing and those symbols on the screen if you want to sing along. At first it's kind of daunting but before I knew it, I understood what I was looking at more so than when I sit down and literally "study".

Practically all the Japanese I know came from reading manga (in Japanese), listening to music and translating it, and watching j-dramas...and translating those for my friends. It's not the best way to go about it, and still you actually do have to sit down and do a lot of work...but hey, sometimes it beats the textbook.

Which site? I would love to know because I have some of the lyrics, but I do not know how to match the words to the symbols...

I'm presently taking Nihongo lessons with a private tutor, she's really nice and have been here for about 6 months now I think...She's, no duuh, from Japan...But yeah...the way I do it...it that I got myself this goofy manual with lame instructions...it's rather confusing, because it was made for native English speakers...but nevertheless it kind of helps...it had some stickers that i put on all over my house and i walk around and reapeat the words...when I work or wait in line or walk to some place I try to remember them...I made myself some pretty umm...tables I guess with hiragana and katakana...so it's all neat and clear...well basically, I try to do the "remembering" part on my own at home when I can...and the "understanding" part with my tutor about twice a week...

said all that, I don't feel like I'm progressing XD

oh dang, "eh" would have been funny :(

but since it's about Nihongo, it would be "Ne?".

I was expecting "Eh?" at the end considering it was Canada Dry or whatever that's called. haha. I need to practice more... I haven't seriously since summer. Time to crack open those Japanese textbooks that I never gave back to my school during the break.

If you're going to "pre-learn," the only thing I'd suggest is to learn hiragana (and MAYBE) katakana. Learning hiragana is one of those busy things that will take a while to get down, and if you do some pre-learning on that you'll save yourself a lot of time. Otherwise, if you want to pre-learn, just make sure you do it the right way, and study from a text book (rather than just learning random words, or something).

My friend said I might need to “pre-learn” japanese before I go into basics in post secondary (unsure if its college or university). Should I do it? Because I’m pretty sure the basic Japanese course is for people with no Japanese backround (language as well).