Learn Japanese

I’ve decided to start by first learning Hiragana (and a few vocabulary words as I learn the characters for them), so that I don’t use Roman script as a crutch, and so that I can better understand some of the Japanese language programs that I have found that do not use Roman script under the word (I am not good at learning through sound and besides, I want my learning to be precise. I don’t want to mimic what I think they are saying, instead of what they are saying).

I got the book “Let’s Learn Hiragana” by Yasuko Kosaka Mitamura (A Hiragana workbook) for Christmas and I am putting it to good use. So far it looks pretty awesome and I am learning fast. I’m going to learn 10 characters at a time and give myself some time to take in what I’ve learned. Going “slow”, I hope to have learned all of the characters by the end of January.

There’s a neat little Word Search puzzle near the back of the book. The puzzle letters are in Hiragana, whilst the clues are in Roman script. Once I learn, maybe I’ll make my own puzzles and share them. (or try to find some.) It seems like it would be a nice, fun way to practice.

Anyway, I recommend the book.

So, I’ve decided that I would like to learn five languages and be able to speak (and write) them fluently. My first pick is Japanese. Here are some of the (free!) language resources I am going to use to begin this goal. I thought I would share them with the community to try to help others who want to learn Japanese at a beginner’s level.

Learn Languages on iTunes:
http://education.jimmyr.com/Learn_Languages_on_iTunes_23_2008.php
Provides links to language courses available for free on iTunes (you have to download the iTunes software though).

LiveMocha
http://www.livemocha.com/
Amazing website. Contains hours upon hours of free language courses, as well as providing you a way to communicate with native speakers online (if you so choose). You can also partner up with people so you can help each other learn.

StudyJapanese
http://www.studyjapanese.org/
Contains a few beginner courses. :) I will be using it for the Hiragana/Katakana/Kanji Flash Cards and the “Japanese Reference” area, which goes into detail on the subject of Japanese grammar.

JapaneseOnline
http://www.japanese-online.com/
Some more beginner resources (requires registration to their site, which is free). They also have printable practice sheets for Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.

Visualizing Japanese Grammar
http://www.gwu.edu/_{eall/vjg/vjghomepage/vjghome.htm
66 Flash animations that teach Japanese grammar, made downloadable as PowerPoint presentations.}

Online Bidirectional English-Japanese Dictionary
http://dict.pspinc.com/
Translations are not in romaji (latin script – our alphabet), unfortunately.

Hiragana Stroke Order
http://www2.hawaii.edu/ssatoru/other/kana/hiragana_image/
Video files showing you how to write Hiragana properly.

Katakana Stroke Order
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~ssatoru/other/kana/katakana_image/
Same as above, except it deals with the Katakana script instead.

50 Renshuu
http://brng.jp/50renshuu.pdf
A printable PDF file for practice in writing Japanese lettering. Includes stroke order information. Hiragana is on the left and Katakana is on the right.

Learning Japanese – Where Do I Begin?
http://japanese.about.com/od/japaneselessons/a/wheredoibegin.htm
For the true beginner. Information on the scripts, pronunciation, and Japanese culture.

Enjoy! Hope I helped someone. :)

P.S. – I am also autumnkiss on livemocha, so feel free to add me as a study buddy there!