Learning to read Japanese as a total beginner

[importaku]

Those games only work though Kryss if you already have an intermediate grasp of japanese beforehand. For a total beginner they would be too hard you'd need to use a J-E dictionary to help use those games, they assume you have a grasp of japanese beforehand.

However they are excellent at learning kanji once you can use them.

[sj33]

If you don't know any kanji at all, then that's probably the priority

To be honest, I can't really recommend a decent textbook for learning kanji as I learnt Japanese at university, but we used Basic Kanji Book Vol. 1 initially. I assume the major textbooks such as Minna no Nihongo surely have kanji study sections. There's no avoiding kanji, ultimately.

[importaku]

If you have an iphone/ipad the dictionary app called midori is really good for teaching kanji including showing the stroke order via an animated window. Also a cracking dictionary thats replaced my huge paper one.

The order im learning in is like how they teach kids. First i mastered kana so i could at least read then i trying to learn lots of vocabulary, once you can recognise written words then you can start to use the furigana above kanji (assuming they have them) to learn the kanji meanings of the words instead. Learn the easier grades of kanji first before you go for the mental 20+ stroke monsters.

Keep exposing yourself to it on a daily basis, watch tv, listen to jpop, read manga, play games. The more you get your brain used to reading & listening the more it will start to sink in.

[kryss]

The games I mentioned are for kids and beyond really as they start from the beginning, but do assume you can read/write hiragana.

A "total beginner" would not want to try and tackle Kanji until they have at least that.

[Darwock]

For Kanji I swear by the Heisig method. It took me a few years as I lost motivation in the middle and forgot a lot of the progress I had made, but now I have around 2000 down-pat, in a fraction of the time it takes to get the same through the Japanese school system. Very enjoyable to study too.

[J0e Musashi]

Midori looks badass. I'm gonna pick me that up later.

[randombs]

When I was at uni I remember SOAS' Japanese Society offering free Japanese classes. Granted, you get what you pay for so don't expect much but it depends on how serious the members are and you can only join if you're a uni student yourself.

Hiragana/katakana

I started learning Japanese for fun just to see if I could. I borrowed a friend's dictionary and wrote out the hiraganas. I kept writing them out until I could do all 46 without any gaps/mistakes. It took a few days to manage that but that's how I did it. I ignored katakana for ages until I discovered Winning Eleven. Playing that game really helped with katakana because of the player names.

Lessons

I took a beginner and intermediate modules at uni. I was never seriously into Japanese so barely did any self-study. I'd watch dramas and play games. I didn't invest much at all in lessons/materials. Freestyling kept things stress-free but I'd highly recommend you get a good foundation by taking classes if you're even mildly serious or if, like me, you're not the studious type.

Books/materials

I used Japanese for Busy People book 2 at uni and am going through it again as a refresher. It's quite boring - activities are almost always repeating a sentence and changing key words - but it's designed for self-study and has CDs.

Software/apps

DS: I also used that Nazotte DS thingy for a while until I got an iPhone. It's great and logs your progress.

iPhone: I use Imiwa. It's a dictionary but shows you kanji stroke orders, etc. It doesn't test your writing ability at all but the iPhone's built-in Chinese writing pad does that for me.
For actual learning, I have J Phrases which is very, very good. It has lots of lessons on grammar, etc, and includes stories to practice your reading. Great for whipping out on the train. It also has videos and podcasts but you need to be online to access those.

Computer: If you use Firefox, download the Rikaichan add-on. It does mouse-over translations and shows the hiragana for kanjis. It's also on Chrome(Rikaikun) but the Chrome one doesn't have the brilliant names dictionary which can translate Japanese names including celebrities, companies, towns, villages.

My main piece of advice is: Find your motivation. You'll need it when the going gets tough.

[chopemon]

Cheers guys.

My second year of night classes is going well and I'm getting through the katakana. I fancied doing some translation and a column in Famitsu has furigana but I was struggling with the use of words in a sentence and trying to understand it.

Thanks for the iOS app suggestions!

[sj33]

Just a quick heads-up if you're looking for some accessible games to play, Zelda games always put furigana over all of the kanji. In fact, I believe some of the DS Zelda games even let you click on the kanji on the touchscreen to display the reading, :

[kryss]

Yeah the DS Phantom Hourglass does that.

[chopemon]

Resurrecting the thread.

Has anyone got any recommendations for Kindle books that help with studying Japanese?

I'm well into my second year of classes and want something like Minna no Nihongo but on Kindle as I often find myself with a few minutes to use the Kindle desktop app at work.

[Asura]

As someone who has worked as a language teacher, the main piece of advice I'd offer is that you'll progress quicker if you don't make the common beginner mistake of simply trying to learn to "read" Japanese.

It's a bit obvious when you state it, but languages have four components - speaking, listening, reading and writing. Never approach these in isolation, as the skillset for each is not separate. Speaking will help your listening as you'll have to converse. Writing will help your reading, as humans judge words by their shape, not the individual letters.

Try to make sure you practice all four skills as you lean. If you ever feel you've "hit a wall" in your learning, assess whether you're placing too much emphasis on one of the four (often this is the case).