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Learning to read Japanese as a total beginner

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    Learning to read Japanese as a total beginner

    Hi all

    I'm interested in learning Japanese. I've thought about taking evening classes at SOAS, but they're expensive and I'm wondering if it might be better to pick up some reading comprehension first. Does anyone who's studied Japanese have any recommendations for where I should start? Is katakana the best place to begin? And what tools are favoured here? I know there's no shortage of books, apps, CDs, DS games and what have you, but I'd really like some recommendations.

    I'm a total beginner. However I do know the word SUGOI.

    Thanks.

    #2
    You want to join our Monster Hunter team right?
    Kept you waiting, huh?

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      #3
      Sole reason for post

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        #4
        You need to start with hiragana, that is the alphabet used for native words then move on to katakana for foreign words.

        I have classes and use the Minna no Nihongo text book. You want to get the one in Japanese and then a yellow covered book that gives you the translation and grammar explanation. You can get them cheaper second hand off Amazon.

        For learning the characters off by heart, you want to just keep using and reading them so having a text book in Japanese will help. I also use memrise.com to practice character recognition.

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          #5
          Minna no Nihongo? Everybody's Japanese? Or is it Hot Shots Japanese?? I'm learning already!

          Thanks very much Chopemon, that's most helpful. Is it these ones?



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            #6
            Dude, you want to start with the Let's Learn books. Hiragana and Katakana will give you a great start BUT YOU NEED TO PRACTICE.
            Learn to write and you will be able to read.

            Not really going to help you in MH though as it's aimed at the late teen/early 20s. Learn what you need from the game.

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              #7
              The MH thing was a joke anyway. If I was gonna play that in Japanese I'd play it in Japanese like a real man, with no absolutely no bloody idea what any of the moon runes mean.

              Did some research into those books Chopemon but they seem more like textbooks for a classroom style setting. Are the Let's Learn books easier for solo study Kryss?

              Thanks.

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                #8
                As a side-note, evening classes are probably the way to go eventually, even if you do some self-studying in the meantime. You lose quite a lot without interaction with other people, and the commitment of actually going to classes ensures that you regularly improve.

                I started learning Japanese about 7 or 8 year ago with an evening course at the University of the West of England in Bristol. Classes were only once a week, and cost around ?150 per year, but this gave me the foundation I needed to build upon.

                That said, Minna no Nihongo seems to be the book of choice these days, and is almost certainly going to be the book used in any evening class. Mind you, I used Genki.

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                  #9
                  I used Take off in Japanese for a while too. Fair grounding that.
                  I learnt the most from watching anime and reading manga and have still yet to take a class. But keeping a vocab book with stuff from TV etc was the most useful for me while living in Japan.
                  I've lost a lo since I left but am going back through my manga to boost me back to the level I was.

                  Really immersion is the best way.

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                    #10
                    Minna no Nihongo is very text booky but working through them is a good way to self teach. Grammar is important to learn and without having it explained, just translating hiragana won't give you all the information you need.

                    I really recommend classes if you want to learn the language for realsies but I appreciate the expense. I take classes in Guildford and I pay ?124 per term with 3 terms a year. If you are doing it for funnsies I'd get an explanation of grammar and get to translating.

                    Should anyone consider Japanese for Busy People a decent book, I have the engligh language version you can have for a tenner. Barely been used. I'd still recommend a Japanese copy of Minna though.

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                      #11
                      Yeah, I know evening classes (and, ideally, immersion) are the way to go, but I'm not planning on a move to Japan any time soon and I'd like to get started with some self study. Good to hear what people are paying for classes as it gives me a ball park.

                      Thanks for your advice guys...at work now so I'm going to peruse the books you've suggested later. Would be great to understand a little Japanese after years of passing my eyes over it and hearing it.

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                        #12
                        Does anyone have any good recommendations for books that are suitable for translation. I want to practice my hiragana and katakana by translating. I have set about trying to translate a column from Famitsu but finding it somewhat difficult. I can recognise the characters but the meanings of words and the context are quite confusing (e.g. atari can mean area/surroundings and also to hit the target apparently).

                        Are there any good books to translate that don't use kanji and have simple language?

                        Thanks!

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                          #13
                          You need kanji, they actually making translating things easier.

                          Otherwise, I guess you could go with any Japanese Pokemon game. Books specifically, the novelisation of Disney movies would not be a bad place to look at. I have The Incredibles/Mr Incredible and that is mainly aimed at kids. It has kanji but also furigana to show how you read it. Watch out for ateji though, when they take a word and impose a completely fake reading on top of it.

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                            #14
                            Cheers Kryss.

                            How did you go about learning kanji? I just can't see how I'd find the time to learn it at the moment.

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                              #15
                              If you have a DS flash card, download one of the 3 "Nazotte oboeru otona no kanji renshuu DS" games. Set the date at the day you start playing and you can learn all 2000+ from the ground up. A few minutes a day is all you need to get some practice in, although more is obviously better.

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