Best way of leaning Japanese?

[QualityChimp]

If there's a language barrier, I don't understand why you can't just SPEAK ENGLISH LOUDER?

[chopemon]

I've been using Memrise a lot for hiragana studying. It has a load of courses (free) and you go through each stage and then repeat them to get them in your long term memory. I've found it very helpful.

The evening class I go to started us out with romaji and halfway through term 1 started with the hiragana. We're into term 2 now and by the end we'll have covered all of hiragana.

[Nijo]

I found a free 2 hour one-to-one trial lesson at Berlitz to be really useful, if exhausting. Pure spoken Japanese from the first introductions: if you bring your A game you can get pretty far in 2 hours.

On top of that there must be loads of free hiragana teaching apps for mobile.

[Anpanman]

Not used it much myself but this site is free with podcasts, lesson etc;

http://www.japanesepod101.com/

[GluedOnBeard]

Does anyone know if the hiragana times is worth getting?

[randombs]

Winning Eleven player name editing. Started to recognise the characters and flow of it.

WE6 is exactly how I learned katakana

Although in my case it was just from reading them rather than editing.

Also (and I'm not taking the piss out of your thread, I swear ) Japanese Shenmue's children mode is wicked. Replaces lots of kanji with hiragana and puts furigana above the rest.

My gf bought me a notebook and told me to write random Japanese stuff in it. She's also writing an English one, and every weekend we swap, correct each other's writing and explain the corrections. Maybe try something like that. I don't usually write things but it's become really addictive. I keep it with me all the time and write on the train or at work.

I'm pondering taking classes here in Japan. My local town does free evening ones. Even if they're crap I'm sure I can get something out of them. Seems there's one tonight so will give that a shot. World Friendship Lounge

I get bored with textbooks so am always trying to find free-form ways of learning, even though they might not be good for me. If anyone's interested, I've been beavering away at an Excel sheet that has JLPT N5 and N4 vocabulary in it. It has buttons to hide the hiragana and English columns for testing myself. It's handy if you're at work and don't want it to look obvious that you're spending time studying.

[kryss]

The free classes are endless vocab and little else according to my ex.

[randombs]

Last night's one didn't happen.

I spoke to the woman in charge and she said it's on next week and put my name down. I expect voluntary lessons to be a bit naff but it's better than sitting at home on Netflix like I normally do in the evenings.

She asked what areas I want to develop - conversation, reading, grammar and/or kanji - and I said all four Vocab is my weak point, anyway, but let's see. The advert says it's mainly conversational but one-to-one and you can bring material in to talk about or study.

I might ask if I can volunteer myself to teach some basic Japanese as well.

[sj33]

For self-study vocabulary-building, I tend to use Anki or iKnow these days. It's a bit of an adjustment not having access to classes anymore (due to graduating from university), but they make sure I am still turning over new vocabulary on a semi-regular basis. They have smartphone apps with cloud syncing too, so great for studying on the bus or train.

[randombs]

I went for the free Japanese lesson. Unfortunately my teacher/partner didn't arrive until later so I was with the two beginners but I helped their teacher instead which was still fun.

When my guy showed up we only had 15 minutes so just had a chat about shepherd's pies and stuff but he's cool. He's in IT, too, so might be a handy contact in the future.

[randombs]

[sj33]

It's the Japanese Language Proficiency Test this week! Anybody taking it?

I'm going to be taking N2. I've actually studied most of the N1 content already, but 5000 yen is a lot of pay if you fail. Really hoping I pass the N2 so I can focus completely on the N1. The hope if that I can pass the N1 before the end of next year.

[randombs]

I only realised about it last week so missed the deadline by a fair bit. I think it would've been good to take at least N5 just to get a feel for the tests. I got 88% and 80% for some N5 and N4 mock tests but I just happened to know the vocab they'd chosen. I tested myself on the N5 vocab and I know about 500 words of the 700 needed. Apparently the pass mark is around 50% so I could afford a few more wrong answers.

A mate is egging me on to take N3 this December. A month or so ago he posted an FB photo of his N1 books and I was wishing for the day I'd be doing the same thing(the books, not the photo!).

I'm just memorising the words for now and letting the grammar trickle in whenever it feels like it.

Good luck!

[sj33]

I'm somebody who really doesn't do very well on tests, relative to the amount of work I put in at least. I think it's probably the same for a lot of people who study a language without actually possessing natural talent at languages.

On paper, I should be able to pass the N2 in the sense that I know the content very well. Whether or not I'll actually perform well on the test is another matter entirely though. I'd really like to pass though, just so I won't be distracted by the N2 anymore and can work towards the N1.

[randombs]

WISE FWOM YOUR GWAYYVE



2015 will be the year I finally get serious with my Japanese.

Now that my IT job's honeymoon period is over, work is getting a lot more serious. Like when I have to chat to the warehouse guys about the subtle nuances of our home-grown inventory management system that's entirely in English and has no documentation at all.

I'm clearly not doing any self-study so I'm considering paying for evening classes somewhere.

Has anyone tried this in Japan? Anything I do would have to be evenings and weekends only. I was pondering looking for a tutor as well. I'm not interested in language exchange at all - I have no time for that - and I'm less inclined to go for free lessons by my local town hall (if they even exist, although I haven't checked).

There's a Coco Juku right next to me that does Japanese lessons at Y2300 a pop. Something like that would be good as I'm after a classroom environment. I find lots of bad reviews about them from an English teacher perspective but nothing about learning Japanese there.