About learning Japanese...

[DazzleKitty]

I signed up for Japanese I today at the college I am going to. I have a concern about the textbook. It says 'Japanese for Busy People' and from the looks of it, it's just a crash course. The college has both Japanese I and II, and they both use the same exact book.

I know this may be a dumb question, but no one else knows the answer. Say I want to continue learning it after Japanese I and II, where should I go? I don't think any other colleges in my area offer any advanced class in Japanese. I am afraid I may have to resort to moving away, or being a transfer student (which I really don't think I could do at the moment....). I know this seems especially dumb because no one lives in my area so I shouldn't expect anyone to tell me where to co., but maybe someone else ran into this problem.

[Danju]

There are courses you can take online that are much better and more helpful than on-campus courses. I know of one that you might be able to sign up for, but I'm not 100% sure if it's available for your area. You'd also have to buy their textboox online. I'll do a little research on that one and look elsewhere to see if I can find you any other options.

[DazzleKitty]

Thank you Danju for you help!
I don't know much about taking an online class, so I didn't even consider it. I will take the two courses that my college has right now, and then look into doing the online class. How do those things work anyways?

[Danju]

The only courses I ever took online were World History and Physics. It probably varies with each online program, but the way it worked for me was I signed up and gave them detailed information about what school I go to. They used that to actually give me credit in my real school after passing the courses. I thought that was kind of nice.

The program I used was Utah Electronic High School (http://ehs.uen.org/). They appear to accept out-of-state students, but I haven't been able to find any detailed information on if there are any limitations in doing so. You can take a preview look at all the courses they offer here (http://ehs.uen.org/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1). Just click "Browse Course Catalog" and start looking. To make things easy, I'll quote what it says about the Japanese courses.

Japanese 1
Mr. Boyce
Credit: 1.00
Work Phone: 801-256-5600
E-Mail: james.boyce@jordan.k12.ut.us
or
boyce17@emstar2.net

Overview: Upon completion of this class, the learners will be able to speak, comprehend, write, and read Japanese as a novice (0/0+) according to the ACTFL proficiency guidelines. The students will also cover the history and culture of Japan.
America's relationship with Japan has always been strong. Japanese proficiency can offer many opportunities in college and for a career. There are many opportunities to speak Japanese in America as well. The realization that Japanese is not the easiest language to learn must also be considered. The students are entering the class with no prior knowledge of Japanese.

Materials: Textbook: Yookoso, w/ 4 accompanying cds. (the CD's or tapes are optional)
It is your responsibility to purchase the book and cds. (again optional) The book and cds may be purchased online. I would suggest going to www.gettextbooks.com and type in yookoso, or use the ISBN#. ISBN: 0-07-072336-2 make sure you get the book
**This book will be good for Japanese 1 and 2 if the student chooses to take Japanese 2.
NJ star Japanese word processor: You must download and eventually purchase a Japanese word processor. The NJ star processor is recommended. However, it is shareware and eventually must be purchased if you want to continue to use it.

Grading Scale:
100-93%=A
92-89%=A-
88-85%=B+
84-80%=B
79-75%=B-
74-70%=C+
69-65%=C
64-60%=C-
59-56%=D+
55-53%=D
52-50%=D-
49-lower%=F

Objectives: Speech and Comprehension
1.At the end of the course, the students will be able to have a basic conversation in Japanese on some subjects.
2.The students will have a basic knowledge of Japanese grammar and vocabulary. Japanese Culture and history
1.The students will understand the levels of hierarchy within the Japanese culture. They will also understand that everything does not directly translate back and forth between the two languages.
2.The students will understand the importance of being contrite and humble within the Japanese culture never taking credit for anything yourself.
3.There will be mini lessons to teach a little about the Japanese history.
**The American culture will be used as a foundation for teaching the Japanese culture.

Reading and Writing
1.The students will be able to read and write in a basic way. (Hiragana and Katakana-some kanji)
2.The students will understand that they are not trying to decode things to find out how they sound, rather, are trying to actually read the text.

Evaluation:
1. Tests
2. Assignments
3. Vocabulary Quizzes

Procedure:

1.Courtesy and respect for the sensei is required.
2.The best way to correspond will be decided by the sensei and student: fax, e-mail, regular mail, or phone.
3.So the student may keep up on the class and to avoid confusion the student is encouraged to contact the sensei often during the course of the class.
4.Make sure you keep copies of the assignment you send to me.


Japanese 2
1.0 credit
Mr. Boyce
Work Phone: 256-5600
E-Mail: boyce@mail.wjhs.jordan.k12.ut.us or
boyce17@emstar2.net
send to:
West Jordan High
8136 So 2700 W
West Jordan, Ut. 84088

Overview: Upon completion of this class, the learners will be able to speak, comprehend, write, and read Japanese as a novice (0+/1) according to the ACTFL proficiency guidelines. The students will also cover the history and culture of Japan.
Americas trade relationship with Japan has always been strong. Japanese proficiency can offer many opportunities in college and for a career. There are many opportunities to speak Japanese in America as well. The realization that Japanese is not the easiest language to learn must also be considered. The students are entering the class with no prior knowledge of Japanese.

Materials: Textbook: Yookoso, w/ 4 accompanying cds. (the CD's or tapes are optional)
It is your responsibility to purchase the book and cds. (again optional) The book and cds may be purchased through www.amazon.com or any other agency you would like to choose.
ISBN: 0-07-072336-2 make sure you get the book
**This book will be good for Japanese 1 and 2 if the student chooses to take Japanese 2.
NJ star Japanese word processor: You must download and eventually purchase a Japanese word processor. The NJ star processor is recommended.

Grading Scale:
100-93%=A
92-89%=A-
88-85%=B+
84-80%=B
79-75%=B-
74-70%=C+
69-65%=C
64-60%=C-
59-56%=D+
55-53%=D
52-50%=D-
49-lower%=F

Objectives: Speech and Comprehension
1.At the end of the course, the students will be able to have a more advanced conversation in Japanese on some subjects.
2.The students will have a more advanced knowledge of Japanese grammar and vocabulary.

Japanese Culture and history
1.The students will understand the levels of hierarchy within the Japanese culture. They will also understand that everything does not directly translate back and forth between the two languages.
2.The students will understand the importance of being contrite and humble within the Japanese culture never taking credit for anything yourself.

Reading and Writing
1.The students will be able to read and write in a more advanced way. (Review Hiragana and Katakana-study kanji up to a 6th grade level)
2.The students will understand that they are not trying to decode things to find out how they sound, rather, are trying to actually read the text.

Evaluation:
1. Tests
2. Assignments
3. Special Project: Textbook tape or to be discussed between myself and the student
4. Vocabulary/kanji Quizzes

Procedure:

1.Courtesy and respect for the sensei is required.
2.The student may find it usefull to download a free Japanese word processor at www.njstar.com.au
3.The best way to correspond will be decided by the sensei and student: fax, e-mail, regular mail, or phone.
4.So the student may keep up on the class and to avoid confusion the student is encouraged to contact the sensei often during the course of the class.
6.Make sure you keep copies of the assignment you send to me.

You'll have to read through all the information you have there and decide for yourself whether it's worth taking or not. They both sound pretty good to me, but I might have the wrong idea about what your school offers in their Japanese program. If that doesn't sound good, I'll help you look around the web for another online program and see if we can find something advanced enough for you.

[DazzleKitty]

I appreciate you going through all that trouble for me. Thank you very much!

Say I take the two courses for Japanese at my college, where would I start online? Those two you mentioned are I and II like what I am taking. Do some places go on to III, etc?
I am bookmarking that site you gave me. My brother took some cl***** online once, so perhaps he could help me with going into that in the future. It sounds good from what it says.

Sorry for all these questions. I need to get an idea of what to do once I finish those two courses.

[Danju]

I'm not entirely sure where to start online. The farthest I've ever seen was Japanese II, but I've only really searched Utah. I'm looking around the web right now for more advanced courses and the requirements for enrolling.

**The first thing of interest I've found is this (http://www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/Technology/VAPScourses.html). I haven't been able to find much information on the site - it doesn't seem too professional - but I found that it had a Japanese III course. I'm assuming it'll accept out-of-state students as well. Unfortunately, though, the Japanese courses weren't linked to anything so I couldn't get any information aside from the fact they do have Japanese I, II, and III cl*****.

**Next thing I've found is an interesting .PDF file containing information regarding online courses in Virginia. Might be interesting for you to read (http://www.vsenvirginia.org/menuitems/registration/regpdfs/05_06_forms%209-2-05.pdf) through.

**Following the link in the .PDF, I've found this (http://www.doe.virginia.gov/) site, which looks promising. Or rather, it was supposed to, but I couldn't find the link to anything about online courses.

Basically what I've been able to find out is that there are Japanese III and higher cl***** for more advanced learning, but I wasn't able to find anything solid that you could take. I think it's a good lead, though, with a little more research you should definitely be able to find something to suit you. The only thing I found in Missouri was an online Spanish I course. :P

Anyway, sorry for dropping short when we were in the middle of the discussion, but I'm about to faint from exhaustion. I haven't gotten much sleep lately and it's really catching up to me. Hopefully you'll be able to find something out, and if not I'll help you out again tomorrow.

[Victory]

1) guidetojapanese.org
2) see what libraries have available
I picked up a grammar and a book with the daily use kanji and their stroke order
3) (lots of practice)
4) profit

if you want to practice conversation a real class would be better of course

[DazzleKitty]

Don't worry about that. You've helped me a lot, so go rest. :P

Thank you again. I will look into all that and discuss it with my brother. Maybe my teacher in college will have something to say too. I haven't met her yet, but I know she's Japanese just by her name.

[ZeroKun]

Try self study and use the JLPT for motivation.

[Ironfrost]

On a vaguely related note: if your class uses "Japanese for Busy People", make sure to get the kana version of the book. There are two versions of Book 1, one of which uses romaji and one of which uses kana; you'll learn a lot faster if you pick up the kana version instead.

[greg]

Japanese for Busy People is a good series of books for conversational Japanese. Is yours the kana version or the romaji version? I suggest getting the kana version, because it helps you master hiragana/katakana. Unfortunately, book I does not go into kanji at all. Volume II does, but unfortunately you will only see the kanji in the main text for each chapter, not for the supplemental material for each chapter.

I went through Volumes I - III, self taught after vol I. (Keep in mind that the old version of II was split into two books: II and III.) I'm now going through an intermediate book by ALC Press... I forget the name of it right now. I bought it in Japan.

Japanese for Busy People focuses on business vocabulary, so you'll learn words for "business contact," "business card," "branch office," etc. Another book, Japanese for Everyone, is a better introduction for day-to-day Japanese, I think.

If you're taking the class that covers Japanese for Busy People, start learning the hiragana, katakana and kanji on your own and you'll be much better off.

[kiyomi]

Good info, Greg. ^_^

Now I know what to get in order to refresh my japanese.

[DazzleKitty]

Hey everyone, thank you for all the tips!

When I picked up the books yesterday, they only had one kind. I looked it over, and I am not sure what edition it is. I looks like it has both kana and romanji....? I really don't know, sorry. :(

Can you really self-teach yourself a language? I figured it would be pretty hard without a teacher. That's why I prefer to go to a class. If I need help, I can ask my teacher for it. I have this fear of learning something wrong if I do it on my own. I hear that if you make one mistake like that, you have to go back and relearn a bunch of stuff. That's how it was in the Spanish class I took.

[kiyomi]

Sure you can Dazzlekitty. My oldest son did. I didn't teach him my native languarge because I had forgotten about 60% of it.

He started to watch anime..then got self help books on how to speak, read and write in japanese. He learned it all by himself.

Now he knows more than I do. ^_^

[cris]

easiest way for me to learn a foreign language is to listen to what they are saying, trying to repeat what they say, and look up at items like dictionary to know what they mean.

I'm not much of a text-book type of person when it comes to studying...I need to do it myself rather than reading (I forget things soon as I read over than compared to when I actually do it)

[HSaabedra]

I taught myself when I was 14. I'm 21 and can breeze through most Japanese blogs to get my fix of pr0n and cellphone info. It is difficult without a structure in place, but I like to think it helps you with self-discipline.

[greg]

Well, it is best to take a class, because self-taught means going at a self-paced learning schedule. Actually, I haven't studied Japanese since last October, just before I started shopping for a house. I really need to get back into it. I lose a lot when I don't keep at it, but I've noticed that I gain it back real fast once I get back into the habit of studying.

During college, I had a difficult time finding the Japanese cl***** I wanted to take that wasn't too far away. JPN115 was conversational japanese and it covered half of Japanese for Busy People, but 116 kept getting cancelled due to lack of enrollment (they needed at least 12 students to keep the class). So we decided to give the tuition money to the teacher and held the class unofficially at a student's house, and we got up to the first three chapters of book II. Then I went to Japan for a month for summer vacation, then tried taking JPN101 at the university. I dropped out after a half semester because first of all I wasn't learning anything because it was such a step backwards for me since I'd already mastered like 300 kanji by that time, secondly it was everyday Mon-Fri and it was a pain to take a suttle bus clear across town to the university (I attended a satellite campus on the west side of town), and third I was so sick of the immature highschool level the class was taught at, and the stupid immature college freshmen in the class. I got a bad grade on my kanji presentation because I had focused on the evolution of Chinese characters based on the book "Read Japanese Today" by Len Walsh, which was beyond what the focus of my assignment was. I was told that a successful kanji presentation from another class was making kanji out of licorice. I was flustered and quit the class the next day. (Sorry for the long rant.!)

So I was self-taught from then on. I'd already mastered the pronounciation, and that's essential for successfully teaching yourself. Then I got a job teaching English in Japan, and I took intermediate Japanese cl***** at the city's shiminkaikan (kinda like a civic center). The book used in that class was geared towards factory workers and involved a lot more industrial vocabulary, different than the business emphasis I was used to. After I'd already taken all the courses I could, I've been self-taught from then on.

[DazzleKitty]

Well then, by the sounds of it, it can be self-taught. This fact gives me a little more encouragement in trying to learn it. Someone on another forum said that kanji are so hard to learn, that if you weren't born in Japan, it could take a lifetime to learn them. And even then, it's still hard. I don't know if that person was exaggerating or not, but I hope it's not that hard. Since it's something I actually want to learn (I've never willingly took a class of any kind in high school ever. This is something I am quite excited to start.), it may be easier to stick through the tough parts.

Thanks again everyone for your comments. They were all really helpful. :naughty:

[Chousho]

Interesting, interesting. Teaching yourself can really help you get the basics down. I know that if I did not know kana and some kanji when I went into class I would have had the same struggle alot of my classmates had.

However, with self teaching you have to be self motivated. When I was doing this I fell into a slump and did not really learn anything after a while. Taking a class (and paying attention to the teacher) really really REALLY can expand and speed up your progress.

We used Genki, but I've heard good thing about Minna no Nihongo. Pick up one of these books and go at it!

[MeStinkBAD]

I took three years of Japanese in highschool. After that, I could have done what most of my classmates did and continue it in College with Japanese 201. But I was sick of Japanese, I never used it outside of that class. I didn't see what point there was is continuing learning it.

7 years later, I've forgotten most of the language by this time. But I decided to enroll in Japanese 102 at the local University. The few days I was in that class, we were doing the most god awful simple stuff you can imagine. Then the Sempai told me I needed to take a placement test. I said fine, but not having any Japanese in such a long time, I didn't do so hot on the placement test. They wanted me to start at the beginning. I asked why if the stuff we were going over in 102 was so basic. Blah blah it'll get tough eventually they said. I just dropped it altogether.

It's been 3 years since... and I've finally started seeing Japanese outside the class. But should I take it? I know even less than I did the previous time. But I don't think it's worth starting over from the beginning since the first year I'll learn nothing. I started Japanese when I was 13, and even though most of it I've forgotten, it would be so simple to relearn. I just don't wanna deal with some teacher or administrator telling me where I belong.

Oh, btw, my Japanese book in Highschool was entirely in Japanese. No romaji or anything. I find it odd they would have books with romaji in it since you won't learn to read if you have romaji.

BTW, you need to read Japanese outside of class as often as possible. It's the only way it'll stick. Back when I was in high school, you couldn't read Japanese stuff on the internet without paying for some software. But now it's all free. あなたは日本語をひけんですか。私の日本語が悪いですね。ごめん。。。T o type and read that when I was learning cost me $200.

[Chousho]

...I find it odd they would have books with romaji in it since you won't learn to read if you have romaji.
...あなたは日本語をひけんですか。私の日本語が悪いですね。ごめん。。。T o type and read that when I was learning cost me $200.
Do you mean after first semester? If so I would agree that it is better, but saying "you won't learn to read if you have romaji" may be a little too severe. It won't halt you, but it may create a crutch.

$200 to type that? I think you got taken. Even if you were using Windows 95 you could do it for free. Japan has had access to the Internet (or JUNET -> USENET) for a while. While non-educational use of it was treated more like a novelty than a resource for a while, there was no shortage of site in Japanese. In 1998 May or so, AOL had partnered with Kinokuniya to market in Japan towards commerce and compete with Nifty (one of the most popular ones).

[MeStinkBAD]

Do you mean after first semester? If so I would agree that it is better, but saying "you won't learn to read if you have romaji" may be a little too severe. It won't halt you, but it may create a crutch.

Well, we had learned the two kana alphabets by the end of the half of the semester. After that everything we were given was definitely in Hiragana/Katakana. If by the end of the first semester you didn't know these two alphabets by heart you'd probably drop the class. I know that by the end of the first year seeing any Japanese written in Romaji looked weird and was much easier to read in one of those two Alphabets (or about 50 or so Kanji).

$200 to type that? I think you got taken. Even if you were using Windows 95 you could do it for free. Japan has had access to the Internet (or JUNET -> USENET) for a while. While non-educational use of it was treated more like a novelty than a resource for a while, there was no shortage of site in Japanese. In 1998 May or so, AOL had partnered with Kinokuniya to market in Japan towards commerce and compete with Nifty (one of the most popular ones).

Okay... first off, I started Japanese in 1993. There was no Windows95. I hardly used a PC for Internet stuff at the time. I had a Mac, which were at the time still considerably ahead of PCs. It wasn't till 1994 that I had access to the Internet from home. Everything was still so new back then. E-mail spam back then was considered quite differently than now.

I got the JLK in 95 or so... just so I could type in Japanese. Windows95 still had not been introduced yet (I don't think). I honestly wasn't much interested in Windows at the time... I really only used DOS on the PC, and the Mac for everything else. I never did any word processing or net browsing on the PC. I really just used it for games and stuff. It was pretty useless otherwise. So making my PC Japanese ready was not very high on my priority list.

At the time, if you did not have the JLK installed and tried to browse a Japanese web page, the only way to make the characters appear was to use a "portal" or "front-end" website (I don't remember what they're called). It works kind of like how babelfish works. Except is doesn't translate the page, it instead replaces all the Japanese text with graphical images of how it would appear if you supported the language nativity. Needless to say this was very slow and troublesome. So I didn't use it much.

Also, there was no way to type in Japanese on systems without the JLK (or equivalent) installed. Actually that's not true... I remember there being a basic text editor that let you type in Japanese. I never used it though. Considering how complex the JLK's IME was, I have a hard time imagining how a basic word processor could come close to matching it.

So the JLK was my only option. Until about '98 when they released all this for free. So I don't think I was taken...

[DazzleKitty]

I am going to go a little off-topic in my own topic, but I have been wondering something for quite a while now.

How are Japanese keyboards set up? If they have thousands of different characters, there is no way it's possible for those to all be on a keyboard.

[Animematt55]

I am going to go a little off-topic in my own topic, but I have been wondering something for quite a while now.

How are Japanese keyboards set up? If they have thousands of different characters, there is no way it's possible for those to all be on a keyboard.
It is just like an american keyboard, except they have kanji.
When they type in the kana, you can then select the group of kana and choose a kanji.
You can do it on your computer too. Just install the Japanese language to it.

[DazzleKitty]

It is just like an american keyboard, except they have kanji.
When they type in the kana, you can then select the group of kana and choose a kanji.
You can do it on your computer too. Just install the Japanese language to it.

Thank you for the info.
Hmm...perhaps it will be a little more clear once I start to learn it. I figured it may have an odd way of working with the amout of kanji. I was actually just recently thinking about downloading the Japanese language into my comp.

[Animematt55]

Yes Downlaod it. You will be amazed at all the damn Kanji....
It did help me get the proper Kanji for "Kitsune Udon" though

[Shio]

A good thing to try is computer programs like Rosetta Stone. It's supposed to be a great program, and immersion is a very important part of learning any language.

[Tatsu]

A good thing to try is computer programs like Rosetta Stone. It's supposed to be a great program, and immersion is a very important part of learning any language.

Rosetta Stone I found to be a good learning program, especially for learning new vocabulary, but after a while it became repetitive then later rather annoying. If any of you are considering to buy it, I would have to recommend you have some extra material such as textbooks to use along side with it. The amount they ask for the software is a little too high though, and you could probably spend the money on other useful learning materials to benefit you just as much.

[Prons]

My problem with rosetta stone is it didn't really explain what I was learning. For example, I like being able to disect a sentence, so when it gave me things like "A boy ontop of a table," and I didn't know which words were table, ontop of, etc. I got tired of it.

[MeStinkBAD]

I am going to go a little off-topic in my own topic, but I have been wondering something for quite a while now.

How are Japanese keyboards set up? If they have thousands of different characters, there is no way it's possible for those to all be on a keyboard.

To take a look at various keyboard layouts you should check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout. I know there is a Japanese keyboard layout with a kana and kanji keys but I don't know if it's stardardized or not. Since those keys can easily be mapped to existing keys on English QWERTY keyboards. I believe the function keys are used in Windows for switching between kana, kanji, and roman lettering. Problem though is that Windows already uses the Function keys for other things.

You type everything in romaji, pressing space converts it to kanji, pressing space again brings up a list of kanji/kana characters to select from. There is direct input of kana characters but I doubt many use that method.

I know Macs have always been a lot easier for typing extended characters such as "à è ì ò ù € ™ ≤ ≥" even though the keyboard classically had less characters to type with. So reason suggests that extra keys like the kana and kanji keys would be unnecisary. Personally I've always thought the PC to be a crappy word processing machine. Regardless what the langauge.

[Chousho]

To take a look at various keyboard layouts you should check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout. I know there is a Japanese keyboard layout with a kana and kanji keys but I don't know if it's stardardized or not. Since those keys can easily be mapped to existing keys on English QWERTY keyboards. I believe the function keys are used in Windows for switching between kana, kanji, and roman lettering. Problem though is that Windows already uses the Function keys for other things.


The keyboards being discussed use the JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) format (http://www.pfu.co.jp/hhkeyboard/kb_collection/images/win95jp.gif). If you are not familiar with it, then there are several ways to get around it. Microsoft has its own IME (Input Method Editor) for Japanese which uses roumaji input. Linux can use Canna and SCSM (or something like that) to input roumaji type Japanese.

[Victory]

do you have shortcuts for the microsoft ime?

I use:
alt-`:direct input/hiragana and ctrl-i: convert to katakana

are there other useful ones? a shortcut for the different kanji modes and one for the handwriting recognition utility would be cool

[Chousho]

do you have shortcuts for the microsoft ime?

I use:
alt-`:direct input/hiragana and ctrl-i: convert to katakana

are there other useful ones? a shortcut for the different kanji modes and one for the handwriting recognition utility would be cool
Speaking of the handwriting tool, I'm absolutely in love with it. For those kanji with no furigana it's a must have for me to find words I don't know.

[sasami-riyo]

Wow...o.O There's so much to learn!
I wish my high scool taught japanese! I'm gonna take cl***** at the college over summers though, and I'm [trying] to self teach. This thread is like a major godsend because now I know more about what to do....

[Chousho]

Wow...o.O There's so much to learn!
I wish my high scool taught japanese! I'm gonna take cl***** at the college over summers though, and I'm [trying] to self teach. This thread is like a major godsend because now I know more about what to do....

lol @ cla.sses (admin should know you can edit the censor with a {word} to single out certain phrases that don't interupt normal words).

[fujyoshi]

Sure you can Dazzlekitty. My oldest son did. I didn't teach him my native languarge because I had forgotten about 60% of it.

He started to watch anime..then got self help books on how to speak, read and write in japanese. He learned it all by himself.

Now he knows more than I do. ^_^

that's kinda what I did but I still have more to learn.....

[saikos]

One thing that's helped me learn is carrying my little dictionary around with me everywhere. I'll just be thinking about something random, and then all of a suddem, "I wonder how you say x in Japanese" will pop into my head, and I'll look it up then and there. Really improved my vocab. It has gotten really easy ever since I got my fancy denshi jisho (a Canon G-55).
As for kanji, my only advice is to put yourself in a situation where you see it a lot, so it keeps getting pounded into your head. Short of living in Japan, pick up some Japanese manga and try and read it. Props if it doesn't have furigana.

[Richi]

One thing that's helped me learn is carrying my little dictionary around with me everywhere. I'll just be thinking about something random, and then all of a suddem, "I wonder how you say x in Japanese" will pop into my head, and I'll look it up then and there. Really improved my vocab. It has gotten really easy ever since I got my fancy denshi jisho (a Canon G-55).
As for kanji, my only advice is to put yourself in a situation where you see it a lot, so it keeps getting pounded into your head. Short of living in Japan, pick up some Japanese manga and try and read it. Props if it doesn't have furigana.


or you can translate a manga and learn kanji like that too, makes kajin more fun to learn.

have to thank prons for leting me translate MS history, LOL, have learned a lot of technical kanji terms.

^_^

[Prons]

have to thank prons for leting me translate MS history, LOL, have learned a lot of technical kanji terms.

^_^

And you better have it done soon because I need a new main manga project!