Zgarbas wrote:

It sounds like all you need is a basic phrasebook. A lonely planet guide, or any other phrasebook really, should suffice.

This is really is the best advice.  The Lonely Planet phrase books contain pronunciation guides and some basic grammar patterns.

Apply the tips and tricks from The Quick and Dirty Guide to Learning Languages Fast would also be useful but maybe not worth the $12 price.  The gist of the method is to focus on extremely important nouns and verbs because you can generally get by just by using one of each.  As a Japanese example if you know the word eki and the word ikitai then you can generally get help finding the (nearest) station just by saying those two words.

Last edited by tokyostyle (2013 April 14, 12:04 am)

pauro02 wrote:

にほんっごのかんじうべんきょうしてください、それだけだ。ね?

Er . . . Google translate says, "Please get the feeling of your studying Tsu Japan, but that's it. Right?"

I wasn't joking when I said I'm just beginning to learn Japanese! :-D

Last edited by KBurchfiel (2013 April 14, 4:11 pm)

It's fine, he/she is probably just practicing. I completed the hiragana lessons for Remembering the Kana today -- katakana for tomorrow/the next few days. But then the question is, well, how do I use it? Would a lonely planet guide have hiragana so I could practice reading and writing as the Japanese would, or is there something a little more advanced (while still geared towards beginners of course)?

Thanks for your help everyone, it's nice to post on such a lively and helpful forum!

Well, I made it through the hiragana and katakana -- probably rushed it and didn't let it soak in. But I couldn't wait!

I ended up ordering "Japanese at a Glance" off Amazon. It has really good reviews and I'm hoping a brisk read-through will give me a good foundation. As I learned with Chinese characters, it can be frustrating to know how to write a given symbol but not know how to use it in a sentence, let alone in a word. Thanks again for all your advice.

I went to Japan last year with my family and it was awesome. Unfortunately, my kanji knowledge was not super useful because they have English on pretty much all of the subway/train signs, and other places where we really needed it. My parents were still impressed that I knew the Japanese parts though :-).

This would be more for speaking (which I think would also be useful): I used Michel Thomas Japanese (Beginners) before we traveled. It had about 9 hours of "class time" in the audio. You learn the structure of basic grammar and get a decent amount of practice built-in. If you pair that with some essential basic vocab, you would be able to ask where things are, and form some useful sentences.

I think Michel Thomas has changed their format, so it may be called something slightly different now. But the beginners version was enough to string some sentences together for people to understand me.

Like others have suggested, I also agree that it would be good to learn some kana before leaving.

Otherwise, maybe just try to learn the kanji/kana associated with some basic vocab?

It's pretty easy to get around in Tokyo even if you don't know Japanese, especially if you are just visiting for a little while. So don't stress about it and just have fun!

まあ、間違いだらけだと言ってもこのサイトの利用者の大多数と違ってちゃんと日本語で書いているから評価できますね。これからも頑張ってくださいね、パウロさん。

jishera wrote:

This would be more for speaking (which I think would also be useful): I used Michel Thomas Japanese (Beginners) before we traveled. It had about 9 hours of "class time" in the audio. You learn the structure of basic grammar and get a decent amount of practice built-in. If you pair that with some essential basic vocab, you would be able to ask where things are, and form some useful sentences.

I had no idea there was a Michel Thomas for Japanese. Especially since he didn't speak himself, I guess they are just slapping his name on the box to help sales? =/

Michel Thomas is excellent for both French and Spanish though! But I have my doubts about the Japanese one, I don't think his method would translate as well.

(sorry for being slightly O/T)

NightSky wrote:

I had no idea there was a Michel Thomas for Japanese. Especially since he didn't speak himself, I guess they are just slapping his name on the box to help sales? =/

Michel Thomas is excellent for both French and Spanish though! But I have my doubts about the Japanese one, I don't think his method would translate as well.

It's the same method, just done by Helen Gilhooly (she does some other Japanese learning CDs). Starts of with things like 'I drink coffee' and slowly moves on 'I want to drink coffee', 'Will you drink coffee with me', 'Tomorrow I will go to Tokyo with my boyfriend to drink coffee' etc.

would be very much happy and contented if I will at least reach N3 level. Not merely taking the exam, but at least professional speakers will at least grade me to that level. Anyways, how I will reach that far via online? Any url or free tutorial?

Iknow or core 6k via anki would easily cover the vocab. Tae Kim would be borderline N3 grammar, you'd definitely need to cover a few extra points which you could get from Imabi and then memorise with grammar decks.

Last edited by RawToast (2013 April 22, 3:22 am)