Learning Japanese

[Josh Hatch]

I'm beginning to try to learn Japanese. I've made half hearted attempts at it before so I already know hiragana and katakana and a handful of kanji (basically enough that I can make use of the Japanese tsumego books I have). This time I'd actually like to get to the point where I can read more text heavy books and newspapers/websites.

I have a few books from Kodansha about Japanese that I got from Barnes and Noble a couple years ago. I have one about particles, one about verbs, and a kanji dictionary that covers a little more than the jouyou kanji (2,230 kanji to be exact).

My school doesn't offer Japanese classes so I'm not entirely sure where to start. If you can give me any advice or recommend some books that would be very helpful.

[oren]

I would start with this.

http://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated- ... 986&sr=8-4

[Josh Hatch]

Just for reference do you know what JLPT level the Genki series goes up to (if I work through Genki 1 and Genki 2)? On the Genki website they recommend An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese, do you have any experience with that book?

[oren]

Just for reference do you know what JLPT level the Genki series goes up to (if I work through Genki 1 and Genki 2)? On the Genki website they recommend An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese, do you have any experience with that book?

I've never done the Genki series but used the Intermediate Japanese and liked it.

I did JLPT 2 kyu way back when. They've changed the levels a lot but I wouldn't worry about it. Work through the Genki series, the Intermediate, and then grab some JLPT handbooks to guess what you can pass.

[Josh Hatch]

Okay sounds good. Thank you.

[jts]

I would strongly recommend that you get your hands on a few Japanese movies or TV shows (maybe you already have a favorite) and watch them over and over again. Try alternating subtitles-off with subtitles-on.

The idea is that if you, like most people, spend a fair amount of time watching TV/movies/cats on YouTube/whatever, you can replace that with Japanese material without cutting into actual study/work time. After enough hours, it will give you a visceral sense for the rhythms of the language that you would never get from studying books on your own.

[Jedo]

Integrated approach to intermediate japanese is a very good book, but be aware that you need a solid grounding in the language before reading it (it's called intermediate for a reason)

[Josh Hatch]

Do you know if there is a website with Japanese Go tv shows like the Korean Baduk TV stream?

I do have some Akira Kurosawa movies that I really like but maybe they're kind of old to learn from. Do you have any recommendations of good modern Japanese movies?

@Jedo - I wouldn't be going through the Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese until after going through Genki 1 and 2. I think at that point it would probably be at the right level since that's what the publisher recommends.

[Psychee]

I'd recommend 'minano nihongo' as text book.
http://www.amazon.com/Minna-Nihongo-Boo ... 250&sr=8-1

[p2501]

Minna no nihongo, sounds familiar. I think we used something from this series when I was starting to study japanese at the university. All the material we had was pretty good, so I guess I'd recommend it too. ^^

[jts]

I do have some Akira Kurosawa movies that I really like but maybe they're kind of old to learn from. Do you have any recommendations of good modern Japanese movies?.[/quote]

If you enjoy watching them, I don't see any reason they'd be too old to learn from...

[Jedo]

I do have some Akira Kurosawa movies that I really like but maybe they're kind of old to learn from. Do you have any recommendations of good modern Japanese movies?.

If you enjoy watching them, I don't see any reason they'd be too old to learn from...[/quote]


I don't know about that, most of the old kurosawa movies use some pretty funky old japanese. You should still watch them though

[xed_over]

Do you know if there is a website with Japanese Go tv shows like the Korean Baduk TV stream?

I do have some Akira Kurosawa movies that I really like but maybe they're kind of old to learn from. Do you have any recommendations of good modern Japanese movies?

@Jedo - I wouldn't be going through the Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese until after going through Genki 1 and 2. I think at that point it would probably be at the right level since that's what the publisher recommends.

when I was trying to learn Japanese, I was working in chinatowm/japantown and I would just walk across the street to the video store and buy a Japanese movie on sale. Or some Japanese gentleman on the bus might recommend a current (back then) title, such as "Shall we Dance" or "Ringu". Otherwise my video picks were hit and miss, but it least it was in Japanese.

"Tokyo Story" is a good one. A little old, but very easy to understand Japanese.

What about anime? "Hikaru no Go" is a good choice, killing two birds with one stone

[jts]

I don't know about that, most of the old kurosawa movies use some pretty funky old japanese. You should still watch them though

One of my friends is fluent in German... but mainly as a result of spending his days up to his eyeballs in Kant. Germans think he's awesome.

[Redundant]

What about anime? "Hikaru no Go" is a good choice, killing two birds with one stone

Note that you shouldn't try to emulate any Japanese found in anime, as anime language tends to be very colloquial and informal.