So now I have to tell you some stuff before:
1. There is no 100% right and perfect way to learn Japanese, even if some people claim to know it.
2. I've seen so many sites and ressources and instructions on how to learn Japanese. I've tried them all at least for a while. My current method is the result of my own experience, and it works perfect for me.
3. I'm a very lazy person, and I can't learn if I don't have a motivation to do so. If you are a person who learns stuff easily by heart and always had the best grades in school, there are maybe more effective ways for you.
4. The main difference between my method and other's is that I refuse to learn all the Kanjis right now. I just don't have the motivation to hack 2000 complex symbols with 10 meanings and 10 readings into my brain. I tried it though :D Right now I'm only trying to learn how to speak and understand the language. Maybe, when I finally made it to Japan, I will catch up with it.
For complete starters
If you are a complete starter, I suggest you start learning Kana (the "easy alphabets") with, for example, Power Japanese, because with just romaji you'll get stuck soon. After that, get the basic grammar and sentence structures into your brain (there are millions of ressources on that). Buy an audio course, the best would be Pimsleur, and do a lesson each day, so you take the pronounciation etc. in.
The main method
So let's start with my actual method. It focuses, as I said, on speaking and listening skills. The things you need right now are:
1. There is no 100% right and perfect way to learn Japanese, even if some people claim to know it.
2. I've seen so many sites and ressources and instructions on how to learn Japanese. I've tried them all at least for a while. My current method is the result of my own experience, and it works perfect for me.
3. I'm a very lazy person, and I can't learn if I don't have a motivation to do so. If you are a person who learns stuff easily by heart and always had the best grades in school, there are maybe more effective ways for you.
4. The main difference between my method and other's is that I refuse to learn all the Kanjis right now. I just don't have the motivation to hack 2000 complex symbols with 10 meanings and 10 readings into my brain. I tried it though :D Right now I'm only trying to learn how to speak and understand the language. Maybe, when I finally made it to Japan, I will catch up with it.
For complete starters
If you are a complete starter, I suggest you start learning Kana (the "easy alphabets") with, for example, Power Japanese, because with just romaji you'll get stuck soon. After that, get the basic grammar and sentence structures into your brain (there are millions of ressources on that). Buy an audio course, the best would be Pimsleur, and do a lesson each day, so you take the pronounciation etc. in.
The main method
So let's start with my actual method. It focuses, as I said, on speaking and listening skills. The things you need right now are:
- Vocabulary
- Example sentences
- Listening skills
- Speaking skills
- Advanced grammar
Vocab and sentences
You can get vocabulary anywhere, or just listen to Japanese stuff and look for single words. There are some blogs with (romaji) example sentences, but denshi jisho combined with Kanji Convert is maybe the best place to look for them.
But how, as lazy persons are we supposed to learn them? Well, the key is spaced repetition. This is meant for long term learning and will send it on a highway into your long-term memory :) Get Mnemosyne (right menu again) and hack your stuff in, as romaji or kana. For the example sentences I include a word to word translation before the actual one. Add between 0 and 15 words or sentences a day and go through it as often as you can.
Listening and speaking skills
Well, listening's easy, just watch anime :D Or better: Watch Nihongo Dekimasu, a Japanese show for gaijins, without subtitles most of the time! It's awesome since they also teach you some stuff! (you can buy it on DVD)
If you don't have a Japanese around, how can you practise to speak Japanese? Well, there is a solution that covers both, listening and speaking in awesome way. Audio courses! The best of them IMO is Pimsleur Japanese, since it also uses the spaced repetition method that rules so much xD
Grammar
If you look through example sentences a lot, you'll come across grammar structures you've not seen before. In most cases, it will have to do with strange verb conjugations. In that case just look for it here: Japanese verb conjugations (Wikipedia) or at Tim's Takamatsu Grammar Guide
If you really want to go through the grammar in a linear way, the best guide would be Tae Kim's (though it doesn't use romaji).
Motivation
If you, for some reason, lose you're motivation during your studies, just take a break and do something else. Remind yourself why you started the whole thing, watch videos about Japan (for example the video logs on youtube), your favorite anime or anything. If it doesn't come back, just let it be. Maybe in some years you'll get back to it again.
You can get vocabulary anywhere, or just listen to Japanese stuff and look for single words. There are some blogs with (romaji) example sentences, but denshi jisho combined with Kanji Convert is maybe the best place to look for them.
But how, as lazy persons are we supposed to learn them? Well, the key is spaced repetition. This is meant for long term learning and will send it on a highway into your long-term memory :) Get Mnemosyne (right menu again) and hack your stuff in, as romaji or kana. For the example sentences I include a word to word translation before the actual one. Add between 0 and 15 words or sentences a day and go through it as often as you can.
Listening and speaking skills
Well, listening's easy, just watch anime :D Or better: Watch Nihongo Dekimasu, a Japanese show for gaijins, without subtitles most of the time! It's awesome since they also teach you some stuff! (you can buy it on DVD)
If you don't have a Japanese around, how can you practise to speak Japanese? Well, there is a solution that covers both, listening and speaking in awesome way. Audio courses! The best of them IMO is Pimsleur Japanese, since it also uses the spaced repetition method that rules so much xD
Grammar
If you look through example sentences a lot, you'll come across grammar structures you've not seen before. In most cases, it will have to do with strange verb conjugations. In that case just look for it here: Japanese verb conjugations (Wikipedia) or at Tim's Takamatsu Grammar Guide
If you really want to go through the grammar in a linear way, the best guide would be Tae Kim's (though it doesn't use romaji).
Motivation
If you, for some reason, lose you're motivation during your studies, just take a break and do something else. Remind yourself why you started the whole thing, watch videos about Japan (for example the video logs on youtube), your favorite anime or anything. If it doesn't come back, just let it be. Maybe in some years you'll get back to it again.
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