First off, I've been lurking on the forums for a while, feeding off discussions =D

But my question, about dialects. I'm using a variety of methods to learn Japanese, a mixture of AJATT and resolves methods with some modifications of my own, and therefore doing RevTK. I've ordered some Japanese books and manga for input practice, and finally received them today. Though I seemed to have run into a snag with the manga (I just randomly chose some shoujo manga). The tital is 春行き（はるゆき）バス。 I believe the dialect is different than regular Tokyo, or "standard"(?), Japanese and possible from the Kansai region. Ex. しんじられへん。 I think it is equivalent to しんじられない? Since I didn't see any "-nai" anywhere else, and alot of "-hen".

Now my question is, for those who are doing the AJATT method or variations of, or using Anki and input etc, will trying to learn a new dialect screw me up? I'm not a beginner, but not quite intermediate. If a beginner were 1 and JLPT level 1 person were a 5, I would be a 2 or so haha. I'm familiar with basic/intermediate grammer structures, but not advanced stuff. Should I attempt to read this? Or pass it over until I have a better "regular Japanese" base and come back to it? Or is there a handy guide to the differences somewhere on the net (I'll probably research it on the weekend).

I started off learning standard Japanese and have been living for the past two years in a place where a dialect is spoken, and I don't have much trouble using either the dialect or standard Japanese. I believe that my intonation is probably much closer to the local dialect (to be honest, I can't tell).

So I would say, no, reading something in a dialect shouldn't be too much of a problem.

The -へん suffix is typical of Kansai Japanese, and you are correct in your astute observation that it expresses the negative form.

I lived in Osaka, where you hear that kind of thing all day. There are a couple of good Kansai-ben phrasebooks out there that walk you through the basics (including the Hanshin Tigers theme song).

I find too that, if you have some experience with the spoken language, you can get an idea of meaning from context and especially feel. Sometimes it makes sense after you say it out loud.