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Learn Japanese Reading Writing Hiragana Katakana Kanji

by: shinmeigu( 1100Feedback score is 1000 to 4,999) Top 1000 Reviewer
4 out of 4 people found this guide helpful.
Guide viewed: 2022 times Tags: Kanji | Hiragana | Katakana | Japanese | Japan


This should help you on your way to learn Japanese, please give me your rating if you may.

Check out my store for Japanese Learning Tools

Japanese is probably one of the hardest languages to learn. There is only one other language structured like Japanese...That's Turkish, it has similar grammer.

Japanese is hard b/c most of the spoken Japanese is shorted on every day usage. One word should be enough to express many things.

Written Japanese is based on Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji.

Hiragana & Katakana are sounds, in order to proceed to Kanji which is symbols, one should be fluent with Hiragana & Katakana.

Hiragana are sounds for Japanese words, Katakana are sounds for foreign words and Kanji are symbols borrowed from Chinese. Each Kanji can have a few pronunciations and meanings plus there are thousands of symbols to learn.

Many of the books out there take your knowledge of Hiragana & Katakana for granted, so before you go crazy over books, make sure you are fluent with both. Very few books touch the subject in depth unless they are dedicated to Hiragana & Katakana, and these are very boring books.

If you want to learn Japanese you will need a few things:

  • Love for the culture and language, it's going to be a hard journey.
  • Hiragana & Katakana Flashcards, easy & fun way to learn the sounds.
  • A kanji book and even a chart with the most common 300 to 1000 symbols.
  • A good dictionary, they are worth the money is you use them.

 

Things that wasted my time....

  • Audio books: I tried and tried, boring to death but I guess I did pick something up. Maybe it's better to speak to a real person.
  • "Fast Learning" books: They are the worst, what a mess. You can't learn without solid structure.
  • Grammer books: I tried a couple and I almost gave up on the whole thing, why learn so many rules when you are the only one following them.

Fun Books

  • Japanese cursing books: Like "Zakenayo" - Always good to know the bad words and dirty terms, they come in handy when someone will talk *&^% infront of you (most Japanese are very polite)
  • Sex & Naughty Books: Like "Making out in japanese" - It's a fun series of books, they terms are a bit old but still a lot of fun to use. Just don't call your Japanese girlfriend a Gai-Sen and don't ask your father in law if he had a long day after a drink...Long day sounds like Nombe - Drunkard.

Guide ID: 10000000003783249Guide created: 06/09/07 (updated 03/11/08)

 
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shinmeigu
shinmeigu( 1100Feedback score is 1000 to 4,999) Get fast shipping and excellent service from Top-rated sellers.About Me
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