Is there any good program for learning JAPANESE?

[Nekolover]

Before somebody try to be a smart ass with me I will make something clear now.  I can speak and write 2 languages.  So I will appreciate some serious answers and not being a dick to me.  Why? Because I don't like waiting for English release. -.-

[FrozenRaven]

I use slime forest for learning kana/kanji and I listen to Japanesepod101 to help with increasing my vocabulary. Good luck, I hope it goes well for you.  

[seventhfonist425]

https://lrnj.com/
That's apparently the Slime Forest thing, haven't used it myself, so I can't vouch for it, but it looks pretty good.

From my own experience, the best way to see improvement in Japanese to read VNs and the like is to gather resources (free whenever possible, like Tae Kim's grammar guide, which I highly recommend.) And once you've gone through a good chunk of the book, there's a bit of set up you can do to extract text from most visual novels to your clipboard so you can look up each and every word individually, which is honestly a pretty fun way to read a story and learn words. After the set up, you can hit up a visual novel of your choice (preferably something easy like a slice of life genre) and just go at it. You'll learn words that appear more often than others, and if you look up a word enough times, you'll remember it eventually, I always say.

Edit: Oh yeah, one more thing, there's also a book called "Remembering the Kanji" by James Heisig, that uses mnemonics to teach all the meanings (and not readings) of the commonly used kanji. (There's actually 6000+ kanji or something, but we don't talk about those.) If you happen to decide to take that route, here ya go. I know people who haven't done touched it and have gotten really good though, so it's up to you.

[KuroganeHomura]

12 minutes ago, seventhfonist425 said:

From my own experience, the best way to see improvement in Japanese to read VNs and the like is to gather resources (free whenever possible, like Tae Kim's grammar guide, which I highly recommend.) And once you've gone through a good chunk of the book, there's a bit of set up you can do to extract text from most visual novels to your clipboard so you can look up each and every word individually, which is honestly a pretty fun way to read a story and learn words. After the set up, you can hit up a visual novel of your choice (preferably something easy like a slice of life genre) and just go at it. You'll learn words that appear more often than others, and if you look up a word enough times, you'll remember it eventually, I always say.

That's essentially what I did. +http://www.kanjidamage.com/ for learning kanji.

[AaronIsCrunchy]

To reiterate what people are saying, as with any language it helps to immerse yourself as much as possible - so read VNs, newspapers, LNs etc. to aid in your learning.

I like jisho - it's basically a massive kanji dictionary which you can search for unfamiliar kanji by their radicals (or components). The links above are smashing too.

If you're serious about it, Tae Kim's Grammar Guide is excellent for learning grammar - essential for the annoying fiddly shit like particles. Has a good few exercises to help learn, and if you use that alongside your studies it will help massively.

Good luck

[john 'mr. customer' smith]

there's a pinned topic for this

 

[Tweek91330]

I'd say learn kana, then follow tae kim's grammar guide while learning kanji with cards (anki you can easily find kanji decks)

 

You can use the obenkyo apps on android too

Then just play simple games with ith and tl aggregator

That's how i did it ˆˆ

[Tyr]

5 hours ago, FrozenRaven said:

I listen to Japanesepod101 to help with increasing my vocabulary.

JapanesePod101 is nice, but very confusing if you are new.
For example, it's best to begin with Beginner Season 2, not 1, and nothing on the site itself hints at that. You have to research for yourself what's the best order to listen to the content and that's something they really messed up.
Not every series is good either. But they do have some really nice podcasts. For example the series about onomatopoeia is very good. Partly because the hosts are great, but also because it's a topic most textbooks and other Japanese learning sources don't cover.

3 hours ago, seventhfonist425 said:

Tae Kim's grammar guide, which I highly recommend

Tae Kim's guide has the best introduction to the Japanese language I know. Everyone should at least read the first chapters.

If we're talking about advanced grammar though, I believe Imabi is really the best grammar guide available. And with "best" I mean most comprehensive. However, it's far too detailed and hard to understand for beginners. So yeah, start with Tae Kim.

3 hours ago, seventhfonist425 said:

Edit: Oh yeah, one more thing, there's also a book called "Remembering the Kanji" by James Heisig, that uses mnemonics to teach all the meanings (and not readings) of the commonly used kanji. (There's actually 6000+ kanji or something, but we don't talk about those.) If you happen to decide to take that route, here ya go.

If you are not a native English speaker, I recommend searching for a version of that book in your language. Chances are, it might be much better than the original. That's what happened when I bought the book in my language. Some translators chose much better keywords than Heisig himself.

[Nosebleed]

I played this game called JRPG (yes, literally) where you have to battle monsters by typing the correct pronounciation of the words on top of them. They only show you the furigana once, then you have to remember by yourself how the word is pronounced, and the more areas you visit the more words appear.

It's literally impossible to progress unless you start memorizing stuff. You'll usually be tempted to go around monsters, but eventually you get to dungeons that are impossible to navigate without battling.

It's a pretty forceful way to shove kanji in your brain, but hey sometimes that's just what you need

[Andrew]

Don’t use anime has a study guide. Its likes someone learning English by watching Teen Titans. Half the stuff being said is made up and some parts of it aren’t even English! 

Dorama (Japanese Drama) is a good substitute. The main reason is because you can hear the accents, versues the voice-acting, and get a good hold of how certain things are pronounced. Also, it helps separate female speech and male speech. 

Books! Japanese textbook is a good thing to have. Some are bad, but if you get a good one it could be a very useful resources. College level sounds good. Other books are good too! I have ‘bout.. 4. Things dedicated to certain parts of the language are extra helpful, such as verbs and particles. 

Learn the basics. Hiragana and Katakana. The, move on to Kanji. 

When on the kanji, start to work on your vocabulary. For all writing styles, learn the proper stroke order and stick with it! Don’t get used to mistakes; bad habits are hard to break. 

After some time of working on vocabulary, you should start also working on the grammar. I would do it in that order because it doesn’t make much sense to know where words go if you don’t know any words. When you are at this stage, get an account on something like Lang-8. Its basically a language peer-editing site. Lots of fluent Japanese speakers and natives there willing to help you. 

Also, learn 'bout the culture! Don't just go into the language, learn about the culture. The more sense you can make up the people, the more sense you can make up their language. So, subscribe to blogs and news sites (in english of course). Subscribe to anything 'bout Japan and Japanese people and the language that you like. Tofugu is a great place to start at. Japan Probe, Japan Today, Kanji-a-day, and all those places are good. 

PS. When you are learning, its best to really.. Say it out-loud. Most of the words you will learn you will hear in a drama. So, say it and hear it so that you know where your weak and know where your strong. 

..Don't learn from anime. Like, there are so many ppl thinkin' they speak Japanese when all they are doing is quoting Naruto. Dattebayo! 

Its good to get used to speaking the language! So, try to fit as much of the language as you can into everyday life. Like, instead of saying/thinking "Oh, i'm going to be late for school" be like "i'm going to be late go 高校/university/high school/whatever". 

Also, use firefox. Its has many plug in's and whatnot that are very helpful when learning 日本語 :] (Make it to where you can type in japanese..good stuff!)

[Okarin]

This thread is fantastic