Learning Japanese

[Random.Virus]

All right, I was wondering if learning Japanese is worth the time and effort that will be need to put into it. It would take a good few years, but then once you've gotten the hang of it, you would be able to read, write, and speak Japanese, as well as understand it when it is spoken to you.

Then, you would be able to purchase material that is only in Japan, and not have to wait till the release date in the United States, or wherever else it is you live, or if it isn't even going to be released in the US (and again, wherever you may live) then you can have a japanese copy, but you would be able to understand it.

Take for instance the manga "Star Ocean: The Second Story". I really enjoy the Star Ocean series, but the manga was only released in Japan, and an english translation was never made..

Also, you could watch anime's in japanese, instead of with dubs or subs..

What do you think, is it a good idea?

 

[Odin's Child]

I've been attempting on and off for almost a year now to learn Japanese, and all I've really memorized are the basic introductions, and stuff like that.

I plan to go to Japan right after collage and teach english as a second language, so obviously I need to get cracking on my Japanese, but as far as I've seen, it's not quite as hard as everyone makes it out to be. I think the hardest part would be writing it, especially since the majority of people in Japan don't write Romanji (phonetically), you have to learn how to write the characters at some point.

But it could definitley be handy, especially for business careers and such, not just reading and watching anime.

I'm assuming your school doesn't offer it, so what I would do is buy as many books as you can on speaking and writing Japanese. As far as writing goes, start out with Kanji, and move onto Hiragana, at least thats how I was told to do it.

 

[Random.Virus]

Thank you for this information!

I'm going to keep this in mind for a later date.. and save my money..

If anyone else has any good ideas or contributions, I'd love to hear 'em!

 

[Holic]

Yea, I'd say its definitely worth it. Especially if you appreciate the culture. It'd probably be more useful than French or Latin unless you plan on visiting those countries.

Now how to go about it?

Well, the best way is to actually move there and you'll get it quickly, but it may be overwhelming to say the least.

You could do it through books, but learning a language through a book is not that easy. There are so many things you can't learn from a book. Especially any slang.

A teacher is usually the best way. But that costs money and they're not exactly everywhere.

So the unfortunate answer is get it through everything. Get books, get a teacher or someone that can help teach you, and make a trip there one of these days.

Thats how I'm doing it anyways!

@Tenshi: really, you were told to learn kanji first? We did Hiragana, Katakana, and then Kanji. And I think thats the best way. There are way too many particles and Hiragana is kind of like the base for Kanji.

 

[Odin's Child]

Yeah, I was told to learn Kanji first, when I was told this though, I knew very little about the language, and now I'm starting to regret it, and I've stopped trying to learn how to write. I want to start back up again, and I guess I'll start with Hiragana.

 

[Savior of the Damned]

It would be hard and failry expensive, but well worth it, im learning Manderin and its hard not to mention very expensive. But id recomend you go learn Japenese.