To seriously start learning Japanese?

I am currently a junior in high school. Unfortunately, my high school does not offer Japanese classes. By the time I graduate from high school, I will have taken an AP Spanish class. My native language is English.

I currently know some very basic Japanese, pretty much just the building blocks. I plan to go to college and move from New Jersey to the State of Washington to study to be a video game programmer.

For now, I want to begin seriously (or at least more so than now) studying Japanese. I'd like some recommendations for the best books to allow me to do this, but other resources such as software or Internet resources would be much appreciated, too.

I'm also wondering, since the small college I plan to go to is specific to what I plan to major in, if it would be possible to take Japanese classes at a different college once I move, say night classes or something, or if this would be just way too much and I should just stick to private study.

Thank you very much for helping me with my concerns.

-Josh

The key to learning a new language is will you actually use it.

Obviously spanish is a more important 2nd language to learn if living in the US. So you really have to weigh how is learning Japanese going to help me?

The answer to that is simple:

It will help me when I move to Japan!

^^

To the other person who posted, yes Spanish is an important language in the US, but one of the main requirements for almost any career in the video game industry is being fluent in Japanese. I know this well since I'm studying the same thing. heh.

Anyway, one site that helped me alot was this one: http://www.freejapaneselessons.com/

There isn't a whole lot there, but as opposed to most websites teaching Japanese I've seen, they actually explain things, rather than "This is how you say happy!" But, I think it helps quite a bit.

Also I've found a lot of penpals through this site that have helped me study so much.

Aside from that, I've watched a lot of Japanese TV, and played a lot of video games in Japanese, looking up words I didn't understand. Both of these things have moved my understanding along quite a bit.

Hey Josh,

We currently do a daily podcast direct from Tokyo teaching basic and practical Japanese. The people doing it with me are Japanese. Please check it out, it just might be what your looking for.

http://www.japanesepod101.com


Good luck,
ps I can relate to your situation, as I grew up with a HS without Japanese.

To hear it is very helpful.

Thanks so far for your help, everyone!

I still have some concerns, however, new and old.

1) Any more book/whatever recommendations?

2) What about the college thing in my first post?

3) How can I type in Japanese?

I mean "Doumo Arigatou", not "Domou Arigatou"...

I have the same problem with learning Japanese in my town, my high school offers no Japanese classes, so I have taken 4 years of French. If you live in a town with a university try to find an international student who would be willing to teach you if it's possible.

well first of all, in order to learn a language, you need to be able to USE it. like actually hear other people speaking it, and speak it yourself. do you have anyone that you can do that with? i heard once that you get 20% of what you learn from school, and the rest from actually communicating with people.

so you're high school doesn't have the course? take a non-credit class at your community college. most community colleges i've looked into do have the class. of course you will have to pay a fee, but at least there you will have an actual tutor, and people who are learning with you and be able to use the language. you cannot EFFECTIVELY learn an entire language through self study alone and especially out of a book alone. although you'll be able to read it, when someone is actually speaking to you, it'll all just fly by over your head and you won't catch a word of it. So I suggest either looking into a school that teaches japanese, or a community college, or just holding off until you find a place to learn it.

by all means, though, continue to research and teach yourself. then when you actually do take a class, you'll know more and do better in the class. just don't think that you can teach yourself full japanese all by yourself.

that's just my two cents.

I'm using this program to learn right now, it's been really affective so far, but it has a $70.00 price tag...

http://www.languagequest.com/home/product.php?prodCode=PJ&lang=Japanese

go to www.greggman.com/japan/xp-ime/xp-ime.htm if you have windows xp, this shows you how to set up the Japanese input that's already on your computer。頑ばtて。

I have been trying to teach myself japanese over the internet. Still just starting, but I thought I might know who you could actually speak the language with. http://www.stickam.jp is the japanese version of a video chat site. I haven't honestly used it yet but I'm sure someone would talk to you. :)

You should check out the Rosetta Stone program.

http://www.rosettastone.com/en/individuals/languages/japanese

It's really expensive, but it's supposed to be the best there is. I guess you just have to decide how badly you want to learn Japanese, and choose a program/book based on that.

May I suggest a language school? You can attend a japanese language school in Japan. That way, you can learn japanese and reinforce your learning just by simply walking outside. A great way to learn a language is to learn it in the country that the language is being spoken.

Also as a note, from my research most video game programmers or really anyone who works in the game industry does not need to know japanese. You can look on various companie's requirements, and they will not list Japanese as a required item. Unless of course, you wish to work in Japan with a japanese company, or maybe a company in America with ties to a japanese firm.

Good luck!

It's been a long time since I originally posted this, hasn't it?

Since then, I've decided to go to college here in New Jersey. I'll be starting in the fall, majoring in computer science and also hopefully minoring in Japanese, although I'd like to try to work to a double major if my school provided it.

I've also taught myself a bit more Japanese, and I bought a book called "Japanese Step by Step" by Gene Nishi. I would really love to visit Japan as soon as possible, but I don't think it's the ideal time right now.

Regardless, thanks for all the help everyone has offered me, and I look forward to my future in Japanese, and perhaps in Japan!

And look what I learned how to do:

ありがとうございます！

I have to highly recommend http://www.japanesepod101.com.

My high school didn't offer Japanese. And with two majors, I didn't have the time to study the language in college. Through out many, many years I've bought several books and language programs, but it is hard to learn a language when you have no one to practice with.

I have been listening to the podcasts for a little over a month for about 3-4 hours a day and I can understand some words and phrases when I watch Japanese movies and TV shows. The podcast are in bite size chunks for easy
comprehension. It's conversational so you won't get bored while listening to the lessons over and over. The teachers/cast are very cool and engaging.

Oh, did I mention that the podcasts are free.

Lots of luck to you.

If you really want to learn how to speak Japanese, I recommend reading all the articles on http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/ and following what they say. There are no lessons on his site, just guidelines. Japanese classes, text books, pod casts, online lessons: none of those are going to teach you real Japanese. The key is to shape your environment so that you're surrounded by japanese 24/7, and to study constantly what's around you. I'm a junior too, and I'm using this method.

The course layout is very nice. Subscribers receive one-to-one attentions. The annual fee of $23 is more than reasonable for the care subscribers seem to receive.
Very recommendable.

I forgot link :)

It's www.hesjapanese.com