Hi, I'm new around here and relatively new to learning Japanese as well. Its something I've wanted to do for a long time and I finally find myself with the motivation and free time to get started.

First I'd like to say forgive me because I'm sure this has been discussed in length many times before, and I honestly do plan to read the forums and other places to help optimize my studying. But right now I have one important question that involves my personal goal and I'd be grateful for any help.

My question is, what's the best way to get started with listening and understanding Japanese. I ask this because so much focus is on reading around here and everywhere else, but I can't seem to find where anyone explains how to actually get started listening and understanding when you don't know anything to begin with?

Can someone maybe explain this to me like I'm an idiot? While I see learning to read as vitally important and fun, being able to watch and listen to Japanese media (movies, TV, anime) is actually my main goal and I'd like to focus a majority of my study time on that, and just leave a smaller but sufficient amount of time afterwards for my daily Kanji studies.

Right now the only thing I'm sure of is that learning Kana is a must, and learning Kanji is very helpful with being fluent in listening. But surely I can get started with listening without knowing the Kanji, right?

Any threads or sitelinks that discuss this subject would be of great interest to me as well. But more than that I'd love a personal answer to my question, knowing full well that everyone has there own methods that work best.

Hi there. ;-)

Firstly, if you are aiming at real decent comprehension, you are going to need to learn a lot of words. At least ten thousand words to get you rolling. Twenty thousand or so to be able to get by. Kanji and reading are pretty essential for helping you to notice words that you can then hear in conversation. So I would encourage you to think of reading and listening as two sides of the same coin.

That said, and while I am not really a reader or fan of Benny's site, there is a guest poster who I think is quite interesting. http://www.fluentin3months.com/sound-rehab/

This guy really puts a lot of emphasis on the importance of training your ear, arguing that it is under utilized by most foreign language learners. Worth a read.


OK... so my own recommendations would be to head on over to places like iKnow.com, or Japanesepod101.com, or if you are more adventurous and are learning your Kanji, lingq.com, and just throw yourself in. Bumble around for a few weeks and then come back and ask whatever questions you have on this thread. ;-)

By the way, it is really important, I find, to believe in the power of that brain of yours. It can do it. Just give it time. Relax and try to "notice" things without feeling any strong need to memorize the heck out of them. So long as you keep noticing, and do it often enough, things will stick. Like many people I recommend using an SRS like at ankisrs.net for learning things. But the trick with this tool I think is to facilitate this "noticing" of words in a fairly relaxed way. You see something ten, twenty times, and suddenly you realize you just "know" it. Make each bit of effort bite sized and manageable.

In case it wasn't clear from Danchan's post, you don't need to postpone your engagement in listening and speaking and engaging with speakers (via Skype or whatever means you have) until you know 10k words, which might even be a bit much before you reach a point where you can start to figure out meanings from context (and even then it's kinda rare to just get it from context + knowing certain on-yomi). So yeah start speaking and enjoying and engaging right away, that's important, and equally important is exposure. So much exposure. Listen to as much as you can. The more the level of your listening material is comprehensible to you (as in Krashen's i+1, i.e. slightly above your level) the better input it will be. Chances are there is not much input at your level now, and that is why you might scaffold your own input by learning all the words used in the source with a tool such as Subs2SrS (which you can find in a search of this forum/on sourceforge). Patience and diligence help.

I'd count watching stuff in Japanese as listening practice. It might be more efficient when you know more words, but I've definitely improved in part because I watch a fair bit of stuff in Japanese. Subtitles are definitely helpful at the beginning (although I think they can be a bit of a crutch later on). I remember learning a number of elements from watching things like Naruto and Bleach.

I'd also recommend learning Hiragana as soon as you can. It can definitely help you see how sounds work in Japanese, as well as being one of the ways Japanese is actually written. If you have friends that speak in Japanese that can also be helpful to, especially if they are willing to stop and answer questions about things they just said. Generally with listening I like the philosophy of more is better, although it's more beneficial in my opinion if that more is understandable

Yeah good point about not having to hold back from enjoying conversations. In fact, don't hold back from anything that seems like fun. There is no "point" you need to be at until you are "allowed" to do anything in the language, especially if it interests you. Do what you want.

The reason why people often say that you need to enjoy the journey, is because to be honest, it is a freaking long journey. If you have serious external motivation (like in China, to learn English in order to get into a good university, or land a good job), then enjoyment doesn't necessarily need to be priority number one. But if you are learning the language as a hobby, or for fun, yeah, enjoy yourself.

Everything "counts" if it is contact with the language. Think of it as "getting used to" the language. It is the acquiring of a skill. Hence the importance of training your ear. A bit like lifting weights. You just don't have the muscle to handle heavy weights at first, but with training you can gain it. Same thing with your ear. You will get faster and faster with that ear of yours till there is barely a difference between listening to Japanese or listening to English. Over a few years you may hope to spend thousands of enjoyable hours listening. This, maybe more than anything else, will help your speaking a great deal.

Here's my two cents: even to be able to speak/understand spoken Japanese, you need to start with a grammar textbook and work through some basic grammar in writing.

I would go so far as to state that for a total beginner, you should use romaji (the roman alphabetized version) to learn basic elementary grammar.

This is because it is information overload for a total beginner to attempt to learn grammar, vocabulary and use kana all at once.

I know, I know, its the current fashion trend among language teachers to INSIST that nothing but kana be used even in the very first stages but I think this is a mistake. In my own case I found it simply too distracting. The kana were preventing me from seeing the structures of the language in a way I could readily absorb. When I switched to a romaji textbook I could finally relax, sit back and actually focus on learning the basic structures of the language along with vocabulary. Later on, I learned kana and kanji.

It is absolutely NOT true (contrary to what the zealots would have you believe) that if you start with romaji you'll somehow be permanently crippled and unable to later on cope with kana and kanji.

john555 Wrote:Here's my two cents: even to be able to speak/understand spoken Japanese, you need to start with a grammar textbook and work through some basic grammar in writing.

I would go so far as to state that for a total beginner, you should use romaji (the roman alphabetized version) to learn basic elementary grammar.

This is because it is information overload for a total beginner to attempt to learn grammar, vocabulary and use kana all at once.

I know, I know, its the current fashion trend among language teachers to INSIST that nothing but kana be used even in the very first stages but I think this is a mistake. In my own case I found it simply too distracting. The kana were preventing me from seeing the structures of the languages in a way I could readily absorb. When I switched to a romaji textbook I could finally relax, sit back and actually focus on learning the basic structures of the language along with vocabulary. Later on, I learned kana and kanji.

It is absolutely NOT true (contrary to what the zealots would have you believe) that if you start with romaji you'll somehow be permanently crippled and unable to later on cope with kana and kanji.

I beg to disagree with the grammar. Starting with a grammar textbook is not only boring, but it will start to feel overwhelming fairly quickly for very little benefits. At best, you'll end up with a little declarative knowledge that'll be more confusing than anything.

In my opinion and experience with learning languages, grammar is best used in little increments while actually learning to speak / read the language. Look up grammar points as you go to understand what you learn, but I'd strongly advise against plowing through a whole grammar without some actual language learning on the side. Grammar learning is best used in parallel.

As for the Romajis, it's true they won't cripple your japanese, but they are a very much unnecessary crutch that's best discarded early on. Kanas are extremely easy to learn with a little Srs-ing (or even without). You'll have a much easier time transitioning to the language itself without romaji.

Bottom line being, again, in my opinion, it's much better to go straight into the real language as fast as possible. If you feel overwhelmed at first, that's perfectly normal. After all, Japanese is very alien when you start. It's much better to get used to it quickly. With romaji grammar off the bat, you'll basically have the impression that you're learning japanese, when in fact, you'll be learning about japanese... and the reality check might be brutal and very discouraging.

Linval Wrote:Bottom line being, again, in my opinion, it's much better to go straight into the real language as fast as possible. If you feel overwhelmed at first, that's perfectly normal. After all, Japanese is very alien when you start. It's much better to get used to it quickly. With romaji grammar off the bat, you'll basically have the impression that you're learning japanese, when in fact, you'll be learning about japanese... and the reality check might be brutal and very discouraging.

I have to say I find the concept of "romaji grammar" amusing.
I don't like romaji too much because kana are easy to learn and you get reading practice, plus you learn to recognise some kanji. However, my first contact with Japanese was the Assimil book and by the time it starts teaching you how to write the kana I had somehow become familiar with most hiragana and a few basic kanji.

I think for people who have started with kanji, kana are a hinderance but it's not such a big deal. For example I don't quite see the point of a furigana dictionary over a romaji one.

Grammar is a must. There is a logic behind all languages, and with Japanese I've found studying grammar properly makes things easier. Actually in my opinion, "the reality check" comes when you realise the actual structure of the things you've been taught.

Now, the problem is how to pace the study of grammar, what kind of material to use, and how to combine it with the study of conversation.

Here's what I do. It's giving good results, but I know it's not optimal.

- Do RTK using this site's SRS.
- Do Assimil. I think the audio is essential, and I pay close attention to intonation.
- For every new word or grammar point I come across, I create a new card in Anki
containing the sentence it appears in and its adjacent sentences if needed. The front
is the English and the back the Japanese.
- I look all new grammar points up on the Basic Dictionary of Japanese Grammar and
on a descriptive grammar.
- I do a lesson of Basic Kanji Book (about 10 kanji) a week. I load all new vocabulary into
Anki.
- I take classes with a tutor two days a week.

Once I'm done with that, I plan on checking books on usage and cultural aspects out before I go on - for example Nihongo Notes or some of those neat Kodansha books.
For that matter, I think it's helpful to read Jay Rubin's article on "wa and ga", from the book "Making Sense of Japanese", as soon as you get doubts about them (but not before!)

In my opinion, learning Japanese, spoken or written, without learning kanji is difficult. Japanese is full of compound words, many of which have homophones, and kanji makes learning and retaining them easier.

Keep in mind that I'm a beginner, though, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

"Here's my two cents: even to be able to speak/understand spoken Japanese, you need to start with a grammar textbook and work through some basic grammar in writing."

This is not correct. You might argue that it is a good idea. Or even the best way. I'm not of the opinion that grammar is the devil. But it is not necessary, and arguing that you -need- to do it is wrong. Proof enough of that are all the people who learn without doing so, of which there are numerous enough examples in this day and age. Myself I am learning Mandarin without any formal grammar study at all. Just lots of exposure to sentences, at this stage through the SRS mostly. You learn the rules through experience, just like with your own language. This is fairly straight forward. You see it argued at Antimoon.com, spanish-only, lingq.com, and of course by He Who Shall Not Be Named.

I guess it has swung so far that among certain circles online, being anti grammar is the new orthodoxy. In which case being pro-grammar is now kind of "unorthodox" maybe. But comprehensible input shows results, and yet most of the non-internet based language learning/teaching world has still simply pro-grammar in the old orthodox sense of not even being aware that there is any other way about it.

Hi Scopedog, welcome to the forum.

Here's a few tips and some random waffle based on my own experience. Having just re-read your OP I'm not sure it's all entirely relevant but I'm going to post it anyway

- When I finally gave up on trying to find an 'easy way' and got on with RTK and the Core6k, I immediately wished I had done so a lot sooner.

- The time spent reading about Japanese grammar as an absolute beginner was 90% wasted. I re-read Tae Kim after about 1500 sentences in Core6k and got a lot more out of it. The hope of understanding the grammar beyond the absolute basics in advance of any significant exposure was wishful thinking. I'm now at ~12k sentences and still don't fully understand all of it - what chance was there before?

- I wasted a lot of time trying to comprehend stuff (grammar, sentences, etc) that would have been 10x easier if I had just left it for a few weeks and got on with the basics.

- Reviewing RTK from keyword to kanji was 90% useless for reading. Thanks Heisig!

- The goal of being able to watch drama/anime with near-100% comprehension based on the audio alone is absurdly optimistic. That will take many years. Reading along with j-subs (with frequent pauses) is easily doable for me right now, however.

- Understanding ordinary speech about everyday things is a lot easier than expected. When I hear Japanese people speaking normally I sometimes wonder why I bothered with the Core6k at all.

- Watching anime (~2 eps/day over dinner) provided a huge help with sentence-ending grammar which I didn't fully appreciate until I started reading in earnest. For example, the contractions in Yotsuba& presented no difficulty at all despite the limited examples in Core6k - that must have come from the anime watching. Learned approx 0 words from it though.

- I still can't comment on speech production at this juncture because I haven't got into it yet. Speaking is not something I do terribly well in English, let alone Japanese. I'm still wondering if starting with textbook exercises would be the way to go, rather than taking the plunge Benny Lewis style. I plan to do more reading first.

- The goal of being able to read with near-100% comprehension at a flowing speed is eminently achievable in a reasonable amount of time. <brag>For example, I read an entire manga volume yesterday in <5 hours and looked up maybe 30 words (having started RTK approx from scratch on 19th December 2012).</brag>

- Any approach that doesn't involve SRS (e.g. Anki) is going to waste a lot of time.

- It is not possible to develop comprehension skills using (only) SRS. After finishing the Core6k I started reading stuff in earnest and discovered to my dismay that my comprehension of novel sentences was still at near-absolute beginner level, contrary to expectations. Turns out that it's possible to know the meaning of 6000 sentences (and more) without knowing how to work it out.

- I have done all my Anki reviews for today except the dreaded Core10k, which I have been procrastinating over while writing this.

HTH!

Danchan Wrote:"Here's my two cents: even to be able to speak/understand spoken Japanese, you need to start with a grammar textbook and work through some basic grammar in writing."

This is not correct. You might argue that it is a good idea. Or even the best way. I'm not of the opinion that grammar is the devil. But it is not necessary, and arguing that you -need- to do it is wrong.

I'll give you an example of why I say you need to study grammar in order to yap with your buddies at the bar.

When I was learning Greek I learned that "γεια σου" (pronounced YASOO - like a sneeze) means "hello".

Now, I could have simply run around yelling YASOO! YASOO! like a trained parrot; but I wanted to know the logic behind what I was saying.

It turns out that "γεια σου" literally means "health to you" and that "γεια" means "health" and "σου" is the genitive case of "εσείς" ("you"), the genitive presumably used for the now extinct dative case.

Knowing the grammar behind "YASOO" helped with my understanding of the Greek language in general, and also helped me remember the expression YASOO and what it means.

Similar principle with Japanese.

Wow first off thanks for the helpful replies everyone.

So I've basically just started studying Japanese but the first thing I did after a bit of research was to get Anki and a RTK deck to play with. To be clear, I do realize that reading is a vital part of being able to listen to Japanese fluently. Ultimately I'd like to be able to both read and listen at 100%. So I do have a healthy respect for studying kanji. But what I'm saying is that listening is a bit more important to me and if possible I'd like to be able to make progress with that without having to wait a long time for my kanji studies to advance, if that makes sense. And actually learning to listen is something that isn't discussed as often. It seems a bit more random and chaotic as opposed to the orderly and structured way we learn to read.

I've been doing a lot more research around the forums and internet, and here's my study plan so far -

I'd like to use 3/4 of my study time to focus on listening, and 1/4 on reading. And if possible I'll find ways to combine the two. Also with the amount of free time I have even 1 quarter of my study time will be pretty significant.

So far what I've figured out, in part thanks to you guys, is that I can use JapanesePod to help with listening studies. I also have access to Pimsleur which I think will be quite useful at the beginning, and in addition to that I have plenty of material for passive listening. In fact, I've actually been watching anime for around 10 years now. So while I might not understand what's being said most of the time, I can hear the words they are saying and I'm relatively comfortable with the spoken Japanese language.

Also, this subs2srs thing sounds like an incredibly useful tool. I imagine being able to listen to something I already comprehend will make things 100x easier. But isn't that something that I can only do once my reading level has advanced sufficiently, or am I misunderstanding how this tool works?

Lastly, I'll play around with things like grammar and romaji perhaps as side hobbies and see what I think of it. But as of right now I don't intend to make those a part of my main studying routine. I expect learning the grammar will happen eventually as I advance in my studies.

Thanks for the help, everyone. Always open to more suggestions and tips if ya got 'em. Constructive discussions really help me feel more grounded and organized. Seems the toughest part of learning a language is the very beginning when we have to learn how to learn, basically.

If you don't want to focus your studies on grammar, I might still recommend skimming over something that covers grammar just to give you an idea of how some things are structured or meant grammatically. Something like Tae Kim's Grammar Guide or, a little less formal, Japanese the Manga Way. I feel like it can definitely give you a leg up by at least informing you how sentences are structured. You might forget most of it, but I can say from experience that reading about grammar can definitely add that boost sometimes. As an example, the way I started learning Japanese uses the -masu form of verbs (more polite, like tabemasu, wakarimasu, ikimasu, etc.) since I started learning in classes. However the anime I tend to watch is rarely this polite, often using the shorter forms of verbs that I hadn't learned yet. It took me a while to realize this until I skimmed Tae Kim's Grammar Guide and came across that particular verb conjugation section where everything clicked into place and I was able to get a lot more. Granted, the flaw in this case was a bit more with how the class I took was taught but the basic idea is the same. Just skimming some grammar can do wonders. Although you might want to wait a bit until you get a certain amount of key vocab under your belt; whenever you choose to do what is up to you

scopedog Wrote:Hi, I'm new around here and relatively new to learning Japanese as well. Its something I've wanted to do for a long time and I finally find myself with the motivation and free time to get started.

First I'd like to say forgive me because I'm sure this has been discussed in length many times before, and I honestly do plan to read the forums and other places to help optimize my studying. But right now I have one important question that involves my personal goal and I'd be grateful for any help.

My question is, what's the best way to get started with listening and understanding Japanese. I ask this because so much focus is on reading around here and everywhere else, but I can't seem to find where anyone explains how to actually get started listening and understanding when you don't know anything to begin with?

Can someone maybe explain this to me like I'm an idiot? While I see learning to read as vitally important and fun, being able to watch and listen to Japanese media (movies, TV, anime) is actually my main goal and I'd like to focus a majority of my study time on that, and just leave a smaller but sufficient amount of time afterwards for my daily Kanji studies.

Right now the only thing I'm sure of is that learning Kana is a must, and learning Kanji is very helpful with being fluent in listening. But surely I can get started with listening without knowing the Kanji, right?

Any threads or sitelinks that discuss this subject would be of great interest to me as well. But more than that I'd love a personal answer to my question, knowing full well that everyone has there own methods that work best.

While some people might find an issue with it, passively listening to anything in Japanese for as often as you can, can have great results. The ideal number to reach imo is 10,000 hours of consistent daily listening, which can be more than a chore to achieve.

But if you have an ipod or mp3 player and a job that allows you to wear it while you work, you can pretty much sleep, eat, and breathe listening to the Japanese language.

Pair that with initially learning kana and getting accustomed to all of the syllables, and then later learning vocabulary words and grammar words for actual recognition of solid words when you come across them through your time spent listening, and it should potentially greatly improve your ability to listen and understand the language, at least from my own personal experience.

It can be extremely difficult to discern a spoken language when it seems like it's being spoken by an auctioneer and through a lot of different accents and voice ranges as well. It's almost really not worth the investment of time unless you really have a reason for learning Japanese.

Aside from that, speaking with a native Japanese speaker would greatly help as well.

There's a blog somewhere that details someone's experience with listening comprehension where the guy obtained a list of the most common words in an anime, learned them, and then watched the anime. That's basically where I got some of my idea for pairing vocab study with consistent listening exposure.

john555 Wrote:Here's my two cents: even to be able to speak/understand spoken Japanese, you need to start with a grammar textbook and work through some basic grammar in writing.

I would go so far as to state that for a total beginner, you should use romaji (the roman alphabetized version) to learn basic elementary grammar.

This is because it is information overload for a total beginner to attempt to learn grammar, vocabulary and use kana all at once.

I know, I know, its the current fashion trend among language teachers to INSIST that nothing but kana be used even in the very first stages but I think this is a mistake. In my own case I found it simply too distracting. The kana were preventing me from seeing the structures of the language in a way I could readily absorb. When I switched to a romaji textbook I could finally relax, sit back and actually focus on learning the basic structures of the language along with vocabulary. Later on, I learned kana and kanji.

It is absolutely NOT true (contrary to what the zealots would have you believe) that if you start with romaji you'll somehow be permanently crippled and unable to later on cope with kana and kanji.

There is no value in using romaji, for anything. The first thing any adult should do, for any language, is learn the writing system. Trying to hack the language by writing it with another writing system just makes things unnecessarily difficult.

Stansfield123 Wrote:

john555 Wrote:Here's my two cents: even to be able to speak/understand spoken Japanese, you need to start with a grammar textbook and work through some basic grammar in writing.

I would go so far as to state that for a total beginner, you should use romaji (the roman alphabetized version) to learn basic elementary grammar.

This is because it is information overload for a total beginner to attempt to learn grammar, vocabulary and use kana all at once.

I know, I know, its the current fashion trend among language teachers to INSIST that nothing but kana be used even in the very first stages but I think this is a mistake. In my own case I found it simply too distracting. The kana were preventing me from seeing the structures of the language in a way I could readily absorb. When I switched to a romaji textbook I could finally relax, sit back and actually focus on learning the basic structures of the language along with vocabulary. Later on, I learned kana and kanji.

It is absolutely NOT true (contrary to what the zealots would have you believe) that if you start with romaji you'll somehow be permanently crippled and unable to later on cope with kana and kanji.

There is no value in using romaji, for anything. The first thing any adult should do, for any language, is learn the writing system. Trying to hack the language by writing it with another writing system just makes things unnecessarily difficult.

I don't entirely agree. Although I don't consider it hacking, using romaji while learning the kana can help with identifying a more accurate "interpretation" of a corresponding syllable to a kana.

After that, lightly using romaji when beginning with learning vocab and basic grammar/sentence structure can have its benefits as well, like using it as an English version of furigana.

Aside from that, romaji's worth becomes limited and can be a bit of a crutch/hindrance, particularly since I agree that a person should learn kana and basic pronunciation prior to jumping into learning vocab and listening comprehension.

But if someone intends to avoid learning kana for whatever reason, romaji is the only method they can use to understand the pronunciation of a Japanese vocab word since they neglected the basic writing system.

Scopedog, I think you're right that out of the four language skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking) listening is the most neglected. Your OP asked how to get started with listening and understanding, so these are my suggestions.

The barriers to understanding what you hear are: distinguishing the sounds, recognizing the words, and understanding what the words represent in context. Overcoming these barriers requires practice, vocabulary, and grammar, respectively.

A good way for you to get started with all of those at the same time might be a textbook with audio. It'll combine reading and listening, and you'll learn basic (I emphasize basic) grammar and vocabulary in a coherent way while you're at it. I'm not an ardent fan of textbooks, but they have their place, and the very beginning of language learning is it. You'll end up with a basic grasp of the structure of the language that your ongoing studies with other sources can then build on.

Learn the kana first thing. It's easy and fast, and it's your entry into reading. You won't need kanji right away, so wait to study it until you feel you do. (Don't be afraid of romaji if you run into it in the very beginning. Most textbooks drop it early on, and it'll be a thing of the past before you know it.)

Don't blow off grammar. It's the structure of the language, and it differs significantly from English. You'll need it to make sense of what you're hearing.

Personally, I've found that reading along with what I'm hearing, and having visuals for context, have been very helpful. I used to read along (in kana) with the audio that comes with textbooks. Now I watch subtitled (in English) TV and movies almost every day, and while doing Core2K with Anki I read sentences (in kana and kanji) while I hear them being spoken. Also, NHK TV's website has easy written and audio versions of their full news articles. The full versions might have audio, too, but I've only used the easy site.

NHK Easy Web News

Good luck and have fun!

codex Wrote:Scopedog, I think you're right that out of the four language skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking) listening is the most neglected. Your OP asked how to get started with listening and understanding, so these are my suggestions.

The barriers to understanding what you hear are: distinguishing the sounds, recognizing the words, and understanding what the words represent in context. Overcoming these barriers requires practice, vocabulary, and grammar, respectively.

A good way for you to get started with all of those at the same time might be a textbook with audio. It'll combine reading and listening, and you'll learn basic (I emphasize basic) grammar and vocabulary in a coherent way while you're at it. I'm not an ardent fan of textbooks, but they have their place, and the very beginning of language learning is it. You'll end up with a basic grasp of the structure of the language that your ongoing studies with other sources can then build on.

Learn the kana first thing. It's easy and fast, and it's your entry into reading. You won't need kanji right away, so wait to study it until you feel you do. (Don't be afraid of romaji if you run into it in the very beginning. Most textbooks drop it early on, and it'll be a thing of the past before you know it.)

Don't blow off grammar. It's the structure of the language, and it differs significantly from English. You'll need it to make sense of what you're hearing.

Personally, I've found that reading along with what I'm hearing, and having visuals for context, have been very helpful. I used to read along (in kana) with the audio that comes with textbooks. Now I watch subtitled (in English) TV and movies almost every day, and while doing Core2K with Anki I read sentences (in kana and kanji) while I hear them being spoken. Also, NHK TV's website has easy written and audio versions of their full news articles. The full versions might have audio, too, but I've only used the easy site.

NHK Easy Web News

Good luck and have fun!

The issue I've found with NHK news and say anime and other Japanese television shows like variety Shows, manzai stand up routines, and talk shows where a lot of people are gathered and talking, sometimes talking over each other, is that the news shows tend to have some of the most crisp and clear accents that a Japanese speaker can have.

For me, it's almost like listening to a different language when trying to watch a Japanese game show, variety show or talk show where you have people with a slew of different accents, voice ranges, and different rates of talking speed.

If you want a textbook that starts out with romaji and phases that out into kana after a few chapters check out the Genki series. It's not a perfect textbook series (sometimes I wish they gave certain lessons earlier), but it's a good way to get your toes wet in a variety of different areas; kana, grammar, vocab, and even kanji if you want to start doing that

Okay thanks for the advice guys. I've definitely been focusing on Kana, in fact that's pretty much all I've made progress on so far. It's pretty easy compared to everything else after all. I'll check out Genji and others textbooks if I can. In fact I have a small budget but I'm looking for a decent Japanese learning book or 2, and definitely a good suitable E-J dictionary.

If you're going for price, start out with Tae kim ( free )

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar

If you are looking for more past there, on a budget I'd recommend Japanese for Everyone.

While Genki tends to get better views and is more widely used, I've seen many people have success with JFE, and overall the price versus what you get is a better value.

Duly noted, Dustin_Calgary.

So I've been thinking about something and have another question to ask. It seems to me that the most efficient way to start learning how to listen fast and efficiently (aside from already having a large vocabulary base to work with), would be to listen to things you can comprehend over and over and over again.

Now it seems the best way to do this is without already having a huge amount of acquired vocab is by using subs2srs to make anki decks. So what I'd like to do is maybe find 20 minutes of a jdrama with japanese subtitles, and then enter each kanji and sentence into an anki deck and drill these until I can understand more and more of that 20 minutes of audio.

Does that seem like a plan that could work even at my very low level of vocab at the moment?

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And while I'm on the subject, wouldn't it also be possible for us to make and share anki decks with each other that are based on certain bits of audio that we all have access too? If a group were to get together and do this, then we could all have a much more organized form of listening study without having to spend the time finding material and assembling tons of decks manually for this sort of thing... Just a random thought I had.

You could also use music as audio. I had about 30 or so Japanese songs that I listened to over and over again to and from work all summer because I didn't like anything else on my Ipod. After first dozen or so times I definitely got better at picking stuff out, from words to entire phrases.
As far as helping you learn the actual language, music might be a bit iffy because, as you might know from music that you do understand, it doesnt always make sense even then. But, the way I look at at, if you can comprehend music (even if just bits and pieces), then your skills are definitely improving. And listening to music isnt really that hard or stressful to do with songs you like. All I really do is just write down new vocab that I noticed for future dictionary lookups and occasionally call out in joy when I finally understand a new phrase. But overall it's yet another way to improve on listening.

Scopedog, depending on your level, it might be better to start with something like japanesepod101. It would be a heck of a lot easier listening practice than jumping straight into music and tv.

They have transcripts of all their audio, will progress the lessons in each unit so that they're defining words and grammar points along the way.

A while back I think I caught a sale, got a basic account for a month for like 3 bucks and downloaded the entire podcast backlog which is broken up into several beginner and intermediate "seasons" or courses.

JapanesePOD, LingQ, VNs, as long as you have the written word with the audio in a format so you can listen to the same thing repeatedly and improve, you'll be fine. It won't take long to learn to parse word boundaries, and from there on it's not really listening comprehension studies anymore, but vocabulary.