My schools anime club sucked.. they never really did anything but talk..

and the school only offered spanish and french ><

DK: たぶん。xD Depends on where you wanna start. c:

I'm taking in college. I went there between soph. and jr. year of Highschool, so I learned alot then, then self-taught then continued on in college. c:

I wanna start with the basics.. *^*

I don't know how the schools teach americans but I believe the basics are the Kana ><

My anime club sucked cause it was a reason to watch Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away, and other Hayao Miyazaki movies.

I'm not hating on him, his work and story lines are pretty and can be used once in a while, but not everyday of the club. I wanted to add other stuff like how to draw and learn the culture but they dropped it and ended up watching Howl's Moving Castle.

For me that was the last straw before I resigned as Vice President of Anime club, became the lonely anime lover, and my boyfriend (at the time, he was the President of the club) still stayed as his duty for anime even though I can draw and know more of the culture and animes out there than the president himself LOL.

sounds like my anime club but they only wanted to watch Love Hina -.-

Yus. Learn the Hiragana first:
あ　い　う　え　お
か　き　く　け　こ
さ　し　つ　せ　そ
た　ち　つ　て　と
な　に　ぬ　ね　の
は　へ　ふ　へ　ほ
ま　み　む　め　も
ら　り　る　れ　ろ
や　　　ゆ　　よ
わ　　　を　　　ん

This is without the dots or tentens.
Ten tens are the little two dots. " だ”
With a tenten:
k -> g
s -> z
t -> d
h -> b

With the open cirle dot as in pa: "ぱ”
h -> p.


That's where to start. c:


I LOVE HAYAO. xD
Andandand, sounds like mine, too.
Anime CLub=sucks everywhere.

Hiragana first? k.. I was doing Katakana x'D

I'm learning Japanese! My sister and her friend got me into it. I know all my hiragana and katakana. For the most part, I'm self taught, and I'd be happy to tell you guys different websites that are good to use.

Baka oTL

That would be helpful sushi :3 and maybe lend us some tips as well <3

Yes Please. I want to mess up my peeps with complete japanese and the South Park episode of Chinpokomon made me laugh when then all spoke japanese XD

I want to learn cause its a beautiful language.. and I wanna play Japanese only games ><

Alright! Let me think, there's a lot to say. xD
Once you learn your kana, vocabulary is very important and helpful!
I suggest learning it with kanji if you can, just because you can learn two things at once.

And if you need motivation, this website is good. lol The blog focus' on doing a self immersion but it's a big tool if you need the extra push to get you to study. http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/

can I quote your post and add it to the front page in beginners <3

Sure thing. Feel free to quote any of the websites or what not I share with you guys. I know of A LOT. And I got some tips I picked up personally as I'm learning. xD

Suu~īto (Sweet)

それはフランス語、私にはフランス語が多くの方法で倒錯音よりももっときれいだ

Sore wa furansu-go, watashi ni wa furansu-go ga ōku no hōhō de tōsaku-on yori mo motto kireida

[It's even more beautiful than French, French to me sounds more perverted in a way]

Google translate oTL

Oh hi~

I took two years of Japanese in my high school, and I randomly relearn whatever I've forgotten when I get bored. XD I'm much better at learning in a classroom setting (mostly because of the structure), but I've realized that if I create a structured study routine for myself then I'll do decently enough.

I found that the website smart.fm was perfect for me, but it's unfortunately closing. The company that had opened it has created another language learning website (called iKnow!), but it requires a monthly payment of ￥1,000　(roughly 10USD). I haven't checked it out yet, but if you're serious about learning the language then I recommend that you try their free trial and see if it's something that'll work for you.

smart.fm was great for beginners, intermediates and beyond, so I'm hoping that iKnow! (being something you have to pay for) will be even better.

(Rosetta Stone never worked for me. I've always considered it a useless program if you wanted to learn more than what your average traveler might know when visiting Japan.)

Also, if anyone has Windows Vista or Windows 7 and would like to know how to activate their Japanese keyboard, I'd be happy to help you. I can even write up a simple tutorial if the OP would like.

:3 And because I'm in love with creating learning aids, I'll be happy to make a few worksheets for beginners if anyone would be interested.

I heard of the Rosetta Stone, but it's no point in purchasing it for $200 just for learning a language that for me wont be useful in the future business world. It's today mostly [CEO] Mandarian and [customer] Spanish (where I'm from)

my japanese keyboard on vista is up and running xD same on my win xp <3

I would love some work sheets for beginners =o


and I tried downloading a cracked version of rosetta.. it never worked so I gave up xp

@Bloo: I used smart.fm just about everyday for a while until they decided to go paid. It was so frustrating that I spent so much time and effort into and now it's changing this way. I don't have lot of money to spend so I rely on things like that. Now I'm trying to get into Anki.

EDIT:
Here you go Dk. I didn't really use these but tell me if it works or not.

http://www.mlcjapanese.co.jp/Download.htm

Thanks Sushi :3

*adds to front page*

is it a japanese keyboard input that you can change

@Demonskid: Anytime. I just know all these sites I want to share. xD I don't want it to seem like I'm posting links one after another and annoy you.

@Echo: You actually can make some settings on your computer to where you can switch in and out of typing Japanese to whatever language it's set to now. So, I think if I understand your question, yes?

@Echo-chan
Where I live - unless you go corporate - Spanish is the most useful language in the business world. However, if you go corporate it really just depends on what area you want to work in.

And, yes. It's the input. You can enable your language bar and switch between languages. There are two different keyboard settings that you can use, I believe.

@Demonskid
I meant a tutorial for you to put on the front page for other people who aren't aware of how to enable it. XD But, if you have yours enabled then I'm sure you can add one of your own if you feel up to it. :3

@Sushi
I really liked smart.fm. It was such a useful site. V _ V

@Blooberry: I was thinking the same thing for the input thing. I know when I first started learning, that was really important so for others, figuring out how to set Japanese input can be helpful.

I live in Colorado, the reason why I say Madarian is because it sthe most common/popular language internationally

I thought English was, but Mandarin was spoken more worldwide (but that has to do with the Chinese population). Plus, I love languages so I think you should learn one not just because it's helpful, but because you want to. :)

I was late in the process to learn another language.

about the input language. I'm not sure how nd whwere on my keyboard that I could change my language

Oh sure! x'D I'd like that :3

@Echo: You actually have to go to the computer's control panel (well, at least if you have a windows since I'm not clear on any other comp). I can probably find some tutorials or walkthroughs online if you need them.

@Sushi
I agree~ I find that being able to see and use kana often really helps me learn.

@Echo-chan
Most corporate businesses have HQs in several different countries offering several different foreign language opportunities to multilingual people.

yea, polyglots

I'm a language fanatic. I'm thinking I'll either go into a college major about some kind of language, or art. :3

My mom said I should be come a Japanese to English interpreter once I learn the language =w=,

a translator DK? I'm only good and fluent is English-American XD

My uncle said a similar thing! He's all into me doing something that could really help my career, and even if it's not like, a super popular language, companies still want multilingual people.

damn special education school, they never taught us another language but my sister did in Elemantary school, only spanish. I could only wish that my special ed school taught us another language

Being one would be fun.. I just hope I can learn the language fluently.. I'll be keeping an eye on the learning centers around here but none near me teach Japanese ><

I'm just learning the language to learn it. XD I want to be a massage therapist, so speaking Japanese isn't a necessity.

Although, a few years back when I worked at Wendy's, two Japanese girls came in. They didn't speak English very well, and were getting frustrated with my manager because he didn't understand them. XD So, I had to intervene with what Japanese I knew then. It was all very entertaining.

Yeah, my school never offered Japanese, just Spanish and French. I had to take Spanish two years, and I've been to Spain on a one week trip thing. It was what I wanted to learn originally but once I got into Japanese, I feel in love. So that's why I teach it to myself. I think it's really pretty. :3