so it been about a month sinse Ive started self learning japanese, and Ive learned hiragana/katakana. I have been reading japanese demystified(which uses alot of kanji, so I have to look up words alot), and im about halfway through it. I think i have a fair grasp on the grammar that I have learned thus far, but how exactly would i go about doing anything else like vocab and the like. Should i have started learning vocab/kanji 1st before reading grammar books?

Ive read some of the study methods here, and ill be straight and say that I dont get most of them. Idk think im just looking for abit more guidance on the subject.

I would recommend picking up a basic textbook series and working through it chapter by chapter. I personally recommend the "Genki" textbook series but there are plenty of other series that are great.

http://genki.japantimes.co.jp/index_en

I also recommend learning kanji using the Remembering the Kanji books, the ones this website is named after.

Lastly, look into using anki for reviewing what you learned in your studies.

Try that plan out for a few months and if you want to really up the intensity of your Japanese studies, come back and ask us about Core 2000-10,000.

I second the Genki series, it's a good place to start and introduce you to vocab, grammar, and kanji.

You could probably start Core now if you wanted, maybe keep the new cards to no more than 10 per day. You might have trouble with the sentences that you are given, but you also get a translation, and you can still just memorize the word meaning off the card

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=5110
^^This is a good general guide, and should have a link to the Core Words deck in there as well
You can also track down Tae Kim's free grammar guide, it approches the order of grammar points introduced a bit differently than Genki and there are some useful ones it introduces first.


Just watching a lot of stuff/listening to music will also help a lot with listening and comprehending what you hear.

And of course, try and have fun/stay motivated. If you feel like you are burning out then take things down to a simpler level and do something else for a bit.

Genki is great. So is JFE and a few others.

I went with JFE primarily for the significant cost difference, and partially to get away from the "classroom" oriented lessons.

Here is a good comparison of textbooks put together: http://rtkwiki.koohii.com/wiki/Compariso...ooks_Table

The core anki deck is pretty awesome, and fairly standard in this community for learning vocab in context with the kanji, how it's read, translation, audio etc.

ill try out genki and the anki decks. how are the workbooks?

The Genki workbook? It's...a workbook. Basically it's a way to practice what you learned in the chapter. Not strictly necessary, but I found that most of the pages (aside from the conjugation chart exercises) were useful enough