Looking for Sites/Helpful Things That Teach Japanese

[Danchou Tsubomi]

So, my Japanese isn't very good at the moment and it's not really improving. While I do have a English-Japanese (and vice versa) dictionary and Rosetta Stone, I'm...not really learning much. Learning Japanese would help me talk to some of relatives as they don't know a lot of English and are in the more rural, older areas. I'm a student and don't really have much money, so I'd prefer free/cheap subscription based sorts of things. I mostly just want to learn the grammar and form sentences from there, but I'm still a newbie in language learning despite knowing very basic French.


Thanks again. :-)

 

[ShotoNemar]

It takes a lot of time to learn a new language, I for one have been learning japanese very slowly and probably don't know much more then you do, and I don't have rosetta stone. While grammar can't really be taught without words first, I can suggest what I do to learn japanese, with no money in my pocket.


I watch a lot of anime, and if you watch it in subbed, you can start to understand the grammar a little better the more you listen. Just pick a single word from the anime, or japanese subbed tv show, and see where it's repeated in future sentences to understand the word and how it's used. I also do this with J-Pop, and other Japanese media that provides japanese language, and english subbed material. The best places I've found to do this is Youtube or anime sharing websites like kissanime


A site I've been going to that's completely free is PuniPuni. It is simple and easy to follow with both video and text to see. It also helps with Kanji, and other forms of japanese for me.


The longest track I take is looking up the word I want to learn and finding at least five different websites that confirm the original source (just like how school taught me to learn things on the internet) Books and other references count as well, but it's the best way to keep the word in your mind despite how long it takes.


While your japanese won't be perfect, It's a start. I for one don't have any japanese relatives or friends. Well, I have one that is new to the family, just married, but she doesn't know english. Hope I helped.

 

[cupidcreep]

Memrise is a great tool.


Japanese courses on Memrise

 

[sorrow made you]

I'm not really sure of any websites that help, since I took a few semesters of Japanese (before I ended up moving to Madarin Chinese by accident). I can see if I can find some of my old worksheets and scan them in if you really want them. O_o


Grammar is the hardest part of Japanese, to be honest. It is incredibly complex with so many different rules for different situations. While watching anime and listen to Jpop/Jdramas do help, they usually speak pretty informal and if you copy how to speak just from that, any Japanese person will think you're trying to be some cartoon character. If anything, learning how to speak formally is the best bet. This means using the "desu" and "masu" verb endings.


I might be able to find some articles for you to go through as well, if you'd like.