Where should I begin with this? I don't have the money to go to any expensive school and I'm not the social type as I don't get out much. I recently downloaded a HUUUUUUGE file from tpb.

It has a great deal of information in it essential for understanding the language. My main problem is that I feel a tad overwhelmed. I don't know where to start.

I'm somewhat accustomed to a curriculum. So I'd like to know what to do and how to go about pacing myself and testing my progress.

First let me say that there is no substitute for a real education from experts. I took 1 semester of Japanese and it was by far the most I ever learned in any amount of time (both in total and in time spent in Japanese study). So this will be slower and harder because you get what you pay for.

Also bear in mind that like most skills (and in fact, in my experience, far more than most skills), language is like a staircase; you will plateau and make no notable progress for a long time, and then one day you'll "get" something and take one step up.

As far as testing your progress, I inherited a habit of talking to myself, so it was pretty easy to try to do that in Japanese and see how well I can say things? I did it for fun so I wasn't really interested in specific milestones. Anyway here's what I would do in order. Please do try other things like live language exchange, local meetups, etc., but basically this is my personal roadmap for a decade of occasional month-long binges of free-time Japanese study:

* Set up Japanese input on your computer so you can type things in moonspeak. I think the next link has something in the resources section but Google works just as well.
* HERE'S YOUR CURRICULUM: Use <<www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/|this site>>. It is amazing. I mostly use the grammar guide but I bet the complete guide is also great. I bet the resources section is good too. Just re-read it frequently; it's concise and memorization comes from practice and time.
* Once you've learned the basic kana, use <<addons.mozilla.org/ja/firefox/addon/rikaichan/|rikaichan>> / <<chrome.google.com/webstor...bhldikgcjhfnomkfpcebammhp|rikaikun>> to be able to immediately read all kanji on your computer. I am really awful about practicing writing (as in, I've basically never done it other than kana) but after a very long time of just exposing myself to text with rikaichan I've actually gotten pretty okay at reading everyday kanji.
* <<alc.co.jp/|This>> is my favorite japanese/english dictionary, because it contains loads of example sentences (even if they sometimes have iffy translations). The whole site is in Japanese because it's for Japs, but you should be able to figure out a search field. The problem with a typical dictionary is that you get 5 different words and you have no idea which ones are actually used in everyday speech; by looking through example sentences that resemble what you're going for in terms of form, you might notice that almost all of them happen to use the same word. These translations are not from a single source so this is usually representative of what people actually say, barring regional and generational quirks.
* I think someone in the translators thread mentioned KanjiTomo for reading japanese text in images? I haven't gotten around to needing it. Historically for looking up kanji that isn't in text format, I've used the slow and painful process of using <<jisho.org/|this page>> to look up individual kanji when I really wanted to know it, though once you learn rules about stroke orders you can save time transitioning to <<kanji.sljfaq.org/|this one>>.
* The best writing practice site I've ever found on a budget of 0 dollars is <<lang-8.com/|lang-8>>. You write blog posts and other members correct them, and you can correct people writing posts in English. This is a really good when you know your are still too terrible to have any hope of even a slow live text chat. It sells itself as a generic language exchange site, but the company is based in Japan and the reality is that most of their traffic is Japanese users and English speakers, and most of the Japanese users are trying to learn English.

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The following is something to think about going forward; maybe bookmark this post or bookmark all the links below and shove them in a folder somewhere for later.

As you get better, I highly recommend using video for listening practice. YouTube and "other sources" are fine but an account on <<nicovideo.jp/|niconico>> will also help. My personal priority is to emphasize enjoyability and maintainability over speed of learning, so I love this method. I prefer to spend a longer time on stuff with less educational value but less pain and boredom. The trick is just to avoid watching Le Fun Animango and end up learning nothing. If you actually like anime, I would insist you avoid anything you truly enjoy unless you can turn the subs off.

It might help trying to find television programs <<www.youtube.com/results?s...3%82%A2%E3%83%8B%E3%83%A1|aimed>> at <<www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvLAwi1MuBY|young>> <<www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNGU6_xH5xA|children>>. You generally can't find anything with English subs targeted at anyone under 13, but when you're first starting out, subs are a great way to start training your ears. The critical thing is to be willing to treat it like research: make a nonstop conscious effort to try decoding the line before looking down at the sub. Even if you're not at that point yet, see if a word or turn of phrase comes up a lot and try putting it into rikaichan or a dictionary site and see if anything comes up. If not, try the English word you think it might mean and see if there's any results that sound similar to what you think you heard. Pause to look things up, and replay lines frequently (get to know the keyboard shortcuts on your video player for scrubbing in small amounts).

Generally my experience is that the simplest language where you're guaranteed to find subs seems to be in those tsundere comedies, like Hayate no Gotoku or Zero no Tsukaima, or one of those all-schoolgirl sitcoms... er, sorry, "slice of life" shows, like Azumanga Daioh or Minami-Ke.

However, once you want to try weaning off subs (and really you can try this as soon as you can occasionally understand a line), for realistic Japanese, absolutely nothing beats Let's Plays. （実況 , 実況プレイ ,　or 実況プレー in case you want to try searching.） They provide real-life everyday casual speech among peers (i.e. not what you get in anime) with nonstop context (you can usually see what they're talking about on the screen at that moment, i.e. not what you get in news and talk shows). It's a lot easier to focus on study when there's no subs, and the "plot" is way easier to follow than any sub-free anime. They also do a lot of pausing and filler speech when they're not sure what they're going to say next, something you will never hear on a scripted program and arguably the most useful language skill for a complete amateur in a speaking situation because it communicates your emotional state and intention to respond. They interrupt each other, stutter, get surprised and react to things, wonder/conjecture about things on screen, and all sorts of things that TV shows cut out of scripts because no one wants to see the protagonists flounder around like human beings and take longer to move the plot forward. It's absolutely my favorite way to study, although it doesn't do anything for your skills in their writing system.

Minecraft has so far been my favorite because there's a lot of <<www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfspZ3FXS0k|relaxed conversation>> about <<www.youtube.com/playlist?...Gsua2aEfPSRrnHUAU_5xzYsZU|everyday objects and materials>> and that makes them feel more educational than combat-centric games.

You would think that this approach would leave you with no speaking skills but I've made a point to practice saying things as I learn them and then whenever I try to spontaneously explain or talk about a subject as an exercise it just sort of <<www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnnREr8BV24|magically happens>> because human beings are designed to be able to reproduce language just from hearing it around them.

I was making a reply, then greasyi replied and gave a way better answer than I did.

Buuuttt I can say that I am currently using <<ankisrs.net/|Anki flashcards>> to help me with memorizing some words. =D It sets a time for you to review the cards based on how much trouble you had with it before.

Watching more Anime will make you more sugoi at Nihongo nanodesu.

Nipah~ ^_^

Anime is good but you'll find (like me!) that you had your vocabulary limited. There's a lot that's said in real Japan that is not said in anime. Even live-action shows often do a better job, but "actor speak" is much more deliberate and carefully enunciated than actual Japanese folks. Of course, it depends on what your end goal is.

KanjiTomo kicks the ass of the old jisho lookup method six ways from sunday. Soon, soon i will unleash its fury upon untranslated doujinshi.

:3

The game grumps mentioned in one of their recent mario 64 episodes a program that Linquists say is good for learning new languages, and that Arin was having good luck with it. But for the life of me I can't remember which episode it was in or what it was called...

They did say though that Rosetta stone is crap.

Arin is doing Pimsleur, which is 50 years old but recently had a lot of trashy "linguists hate him" web ads claiming you could learn to speak a language in 10 days or whatever. I dunno who was behind that but it's a double-whammy of intellectual dishonesty because not only can you not learn a language that fast, but Wikipedia states that Pimsleur was a scholar of applied linguists whose first position was teaching language at university and who eventually had dual professorships in French and education, and a founding member of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages which today has over 12,000 professional members.

Anyway the punchline is that Pimsleur is not free.

Also the Pimsleur methodology is actually quite literally based on natural language aquisition, i.e. listening to people talk over consciously and explicitly focusing on the constructive rules of the language, so frankly I would be skeptical about paying any money for it when Lets Plays are free. Personally I say go whole-hog and have human beings teach you, or just save your money except maybe on cheap-ass workbooks. But overall "you get what you pay for" is still a good principle in language education.

I agree with greasyi on his first post, so hopefully I won't be redundant here (guidetojapanese.org is a pretty awesome resource).

I'm bilingual in English and German, but I was never raised in a very German-heavy environment. I only learned what my parents and grandparents would speak to me, since it's their primary language.

German is very literal and heavy on the weird vocab (tons of weird compound nouns i.e. "haustier" is a pet, or more literally a "house animal") . My mom still makes me practice my vocab a lot, but she's pretty much had two techniques that I've been using.

1. <<lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret|Don't break the chain.>> She never explicitly said this outright, but I practiced everyday until it's become a habit. I read one news article in German everyday, and I still talk to my parents on the phone primarily in German. The same goes for any language and skill. If you don't practice, you won't improve.

2. Refresh often. Go over old vocab, even simple words, often. If you ever feel bored or confused with new vocab, take a break and read over some old vocab you think you already know. Once you finish a new set of vocab, quiz yourself on it a week later and see how much you retain.

It apparently worked, I just went to Germany for the first time in my life and I was able to hold a few conversations without trouble, even if my accent was terrible :P

Hope those help!

"Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung" is the German word for "speed limit".

What the hell, Germany.

German? Isn't that the language with the weird-



Yes, yes it is xD

Huh, that "don't break the chain" thing is excellent advise. Putting something aside temporarily is the quick way to indefinite hiatus, i've found.

And it helps justify my daily anime habit, as it does keep me listening to the language, almost every day since fall 2008.

I'm studying Nipponese too and "don't break the chain" is the best advice there is.
I once planned to do a 2 month break. It actually took a year.

Also here are two links from the daily japanese thread on 4chan's /a/ (the only reason I still visit /a/ from time to time):
pastebin.com/w0gRFM0c
djt.みんな/


Ba- Baumukuhen
[spoiler]Actually it's because when you're chaining nouns in German you concatenate them without spaces.
So Tasche(pocket) + Uhr(watch) = Taschenuhr(pocket watch).

4chanint.wikia.com/wiki/T...reign_Language_Guide_Wiki

The computer program Rosetta Stone is rather good o hear for learning another language on the comforts of your own home an at your own pace

Make sure you're not just doing it because you like their cartoons.