Hi, right now I am not really sure where to start, when it comes to trying to learn Japanese. I found this site when I was trying to find some views on AJATT, which someone I met told me about. As I was reading the stuff there I was getting the idea that if I was to truly follow what he says 100%, that to do so I would have to give up any type of social life to do All Japanese all the time and that if I didn’t then I would never get anywhere with Japanese, which is not what I am looking for.

So I found this site and from the little I have read I like what I have seen. Now I am not looking for what is the best method because I will never find it, but more so just some ideas on where to start for someone that only knows a few dirty words that I learned from my friends :-P So like I said I am not looking for the best, but I also don’t want to be wasting my time.

So even any help on some ideas of trying to find out where to start? Like I said I am for the most part just completely confused and lost on where to go and where to start.
Thanks

You could just replace AJATT with the as much Japanese as possible method (AMJAP).

No seriously, pick up a textbook and go to work. Use anki and make some flashcards.

When the Japanese starts rolling in you can adjust your specific study method to whatever you want. You just have to make that first baby step.

-Hiragana/Katakana? Know it? If not, learn this first.
-Tae Kim is a good place to learn a lot of your grammar from. I learned using a textbook called Genki, and going back and comparing it to Tae Kim, I would say Tae Kim is more efficient in how it teaches you.
-Get Anki of course.
-Remembering the Kanji 1.

All good things to do, but Hiragana and Katakana should come first! After that, maybe concurrently attempt Remembering the Kanji, and a bit of Tae Kim every day. It's up to you. Just some ideas.

Seriously, if you haven't learned hiragana and katakana yet, do it. Yes, others said it... But until it's been said about 20 more times, it hasn't had enough weight put behind it.

Do it first. Why are you still here, instead of learning kana!?

After that, have fun. If that means studying vocab on Smart.fm and grammar on Tae Kim's site, do it. If it means jumping into an easy manga and looking up every word, do that. If it means listening to podcasts, do that. JDramas? Light novels? Blogs? Lang-8? Children's books? Classes? Do it, do it, do it!.

At every stage, when you start to think 'this isn't working for me any more', it's probably time to change things up. Revisit the list above for ideas on where to go. Also, just because something has stopped working in the past doesn't mean it'll never work again in the future. You may just have needed some time away from it.

かきくけこ
カキクケコ
1000 漢字

Oh sorry, I guess I should have noted that I already know hiragana and katakana And other then that it's just random bits that I got from Japanese 101 and 102, but I mean very little. So other then hiragana and katakana I would really say I know nothing

But thank you all for the ideas so far, but keep them coming if you got them :-P

So i guess maybe my plan for now is to just start off getting the basics by doing Anki/Remembering the Kanji 1, Tae Kim and something like smartfm.com for vocab just to start out. But would plan on trying to do things like books, dramas and podcast later on when I get to a point where I feel I can maybe get something from it.

Still up for any other ideas of things to do, right now I am just trying to get a lot of different ideas that has worked for other people, that way I can pick and choose what sounds right for me.

I think when you are starting out in Japanese you should concentrate on a beginners textbook like genki. At least until you get comfortable with the language. Jumping straight into Tae Kim and core6000 might be too overwhelming for a beginner.

This may be a silly suggestion but one that kept me going from start to where I am now.
Get some Japanese language manga, I found this motivated me to work hard and push intill I could just read 1 more page! Its also great for learning vocab, its never to early to start reading in my opnion.

Also if you have a ds a vital tool is "kanji sonomama rakubiki jiten" this is a dictionary that allows you to draw in the kanji and get the definition for it. So when ever you see a single kanji alone, try and draw it in and see what it means. You may remember it, you may not but it all adds up.

@Babyrat
Today i was reading the bleach manga and i could seriously blaze through pages! So it's motivating to start with things you like.

@Womacks23

Well I still have my genki from the Japanese class I took, so are you saying that I should master that before moving on? For the vocab and kanji I can use things like Anki and smartfm.com, but is there anything that can help me with grammar or any good ways to go about it?

@IceCream

Well I am not really a fan of manga, but with drama at my level I am not really sure how I would go about it. Right now with my level being so low most of what I hear is just noise so it's hard to watch a drama and try to pick out words and make sure it's the right word. Any tips on how to learn using a drama?

Thanks

@Ghoro
I'd recommended getting basic sentences+grammer down first. It will save you so much time later on. To be honest, just starting listening+watching. Sure you probably wouldn't understand much. But you should train you're ears to the sounds of japanese.Since you know kana, you should be able to distinguish those sounds. Yea i hear ya, i remeber when i first watched japanese shows, it was all nonsense noise. Now i can distinguish those sounds, and understand the words easily now. It takes time, but i'd say a week or two. If you keep listening, you should be able to hear the sounds.

Hey there, Ghoro. Definitely don't worry if you're feeling lost or confused, lots of people here will help you.

Ghoro Wrote:Any tips on how to learn using a drama?

If you're into Japanese drama, IceCream posted a really good explanation of how she'd suggest beginners get into using them here: (BROKEN LINK) http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?pid=84427#p84427

Personally, I'd recommend mining native material from the beginning. This doesn't mean that you can't mine things like Smart.fm and textbooks like Genki, too, but I've found that seeing things used in stuff that is actually intended for native Japanese speakers really makes things make a lot more sense than only going off of materials that are solely intended as learning resources.

Oh and also, I'm with ta12121. If you want to improve your listening comprehension, there's really nothing better you can do than to just listen to a lot more Japanese. One thing I find helps a lot is to watch something first with English subtitles, and then after that, watch it with either Japanese subtitles or no subtitles at all. This way, I find that I really pay a lot more attention to the actual spoken Japanese.

Thanks for the help guys

I guess the only thing I am not sure about now is grammar. Any good methods, programs, tips and so on for learning grammar?

Also while I don't think I will do 100% All Japanese all the time like what AJATT talks about, I am still wondering what you guys think about his idea to do sentences in something like Anki like he talks about?

Also with my other question what are some good places to watch or download some dramas that doesn't use bit torrent? Right now I am at college so I can't use bit torrent here.

Hey, I know this is an old thread, but I'm still lost. From the last time I posted to now I haven't been doing any Japanese :-P So I haven't gotten any where yet, but now I know I am ready to put in the work and time.

So again I am still not completely sure how to go about all this, just to start off. From reading the forums and this thread, for grammar the one that seem to be the most recommended is Tae Kim and one other book which I forgot the name of it now lol, but to use those with SRSing sentences and the grammar I learn in those books, but I am not really sure what they mean or how to go about doing that. So what do people mean by SRSing sentences and grammar? Also does this seem like a good way to start off or could something like Tae Kim be too much for me, like someone else said?

For vocab I feel like trying to pull words from a drama may just be too much at this point when the most vocab I know is just dirty words :-P So for vocab I have been reading about starting off with core2000 and KO 2001, just to try and get a foundation so that then later I can try to use things like dramas. So is just doing core2000 or KO 2001 a good way to start off or do I need more than that?

And then just any other ideas or insight you guys may have

Thanks

The best beginner guide would be to go to alljapaneseallthetime.com

Then get it to the index (might be the front page, it might not) and you will see the steps pretty much spelled out for you. Now just read the corresponding articles and you're good to go.

I think Nukemarine's thread is probably a pretty good starting place.

AJATT is an OK guide, as long as you don't use it like a bible. He's got good ideas, he's got not-so-good ideas. Regardless, the way it's set up, it is pretty decent overall.