You don't need $500.
My suggestions:
Tae Kim Grammar guide (FREE online Japanese tutorial)
Remembering the Kanji by James Heisig (~$35)
Understanding Basic Japanese Grammar by ALC Press (~$25)
All About Particles (one of my favorite books) (~$20)
Take a class
Jgram.org (online grammar dictionary and discussion forum)
For grammar reference, you can use http://www.jgram.org (it's basically like a forum for every japanese grammar point you can imagine)
The most important thing is to get an idea for how Japanese is structured.
For many peolpe, this means taking a Japanese class for a few semesters.
Once you have a good grasp on how Japanese works, it just becomes an issue
of building up vocab and grammar.
To learn japanese conversation, I use Japanese drama. They have Japanese subtitles at d-addicts with the exact words that the all actors are saying. No need to read a textbook that teaches you how "In theory, Japanese will probably talk to you". If you can understand what Japanese TV actors are saying, you can probably understand most of what everyone is saying. And it's FREE.
If you like manga, you can download lots of raw japanese manga scans
at various sites online. Or you can buy manga at a Japanese bookstore....
For a dictionary, you can start off with WWWJDIC. If you have an iphone or ipod touch, there are many professional japanese dictionaries that you can buy in the app store. Also,
Mac OS X already comes with a built-in Japanese-English, English-Japanese, and Japanese-Japanese dictionaries.
My advice is to only spend money on the essentials in the beginning.
Through experience, you'll find your weakness and work on them.
My suggestions:
Tae Kim Grammar guide (FREE online Japanese tutorial)
Remembering the Kanji by James Heisig (~$35)
Understanding Basic Japanese Grammar by ALC Press (~$25)
All About Particles (one of my favorite books) (~$20)
Take a class
Jgram.org (online grammar dictionary and discussion forum)
For grammar reference, you can use http://www.jgram.org (it's basically like a forum for every japanese grammar point you can imagine)
The most important thing is to get an idea for how Japanese is structured.
For many peolpe, this means taking a Japanese class for a few semesters.
Once you have a good grasp on how Japanese works, it just becomes an issue
of building up vocab and grammar.
To learn japanese conversation, I use Japanese drama. They have Japanese subtitles at d-addicts with the exact words that the all actors are saying. No need to read a textbook that teaches you how "In theory, Japanese will probably talk to you". If you can understand what Japanese TV actors are saying, you can probably understand most of what everyone is saying. And it's FREE.
If you like manga, you can download lots of raw japanese manga scans
at various sites online. Or you can buy manga at a Japanese bookstore....
For a dictionary, you can start off with WWWJDIC. If you have an iphone or ipod touch, there are many professional japanese dictionaries that you can buy in the app store. Also,
Mac OS X already comes with a built-in Japanese-English, English-Japanese, and Japanese-Japanese dictionaries.
My advice is to only spend money on the essentials in the beginning.
Through experience, you'll find your weakness and work on them.
Edited: 2011-01-29, 11:29 am