How Do You Learn Japanese

Japanese Jobs or Occupations

2012-01-08T11:57:00.000+11:00

Your Second Lesson in Basic Japanese is Jobs or Occupations (職業)

The following is a list of the most common words and vocabulary related to Japanese jobs and occupations.

Japanese Greetings

2012-01-05T16:27:00.005+11:00

Your First Lesson in Basic Japanese is Japanese Greetings (日本語の挨拶)

On this page you will find a list of the basic Japanese Greetings that you need to know when learning Japanese.

Kanji & Kana - A Handbook and Dictionary of the Japanese Writing System

2012-01-04T12:22:00.002+11:00

Kanji & Kana – A Handbook and Dictionary of the Japanese Writing System

This book is a uniquely comprehensive and systematic guide to the reading and writing of the Japanese language. Suitable for both home and class, it provides all the information needed for a mastery of the basic characters (kanji) and the syllabaries (kana). Through the study of written Japanese will always require time and effort, this book has been designed to help the student achieve fluency more quickly and effectively than ever before.

The first part consists of a general introduction to the Japanese writing system, which will be of interest to travellers, linguists, and others in addition to serious students of the language. Among the topics discussed are the history, form, orthography, usage, reading, and writing of kanji and kana, as well as punctuation, romanization, and how to use Japanese reference books. Numerous examples and tables are included to aid understanding.

There follow conveniently arranged listings of all 1,945 basic characters, along with their most important readings and definitions. Up to five compounds are given for each kanji, using only kanji that have been introduced earlier, with a cross-reference number to the main entry for each. Most kanji are presented in brush, pen and printed forms, with the stroke order clearly indicated. Each kanji is cross-referenced to 'The Modern Reader's Japanese-English Character Dictionary' by Andrew N. Nelson.

The Kanji are fully indexed by on-kun readings, by stroke count, and by radicals, making it possible to use the book as a concise character dictionary.

Japanese Demystified - Japanese Textbooks

2012-01-03T18:58:00.003+11:00

Japanese Demystified

Japanese Demystified by Eriko Sato is a great self-teaching guide for learning Japanese. It is great for beginners to the language as well as challenging enough for the more experienced learner.

It begins with a review of Japanese writing systems, basic pronunciation, and everyday expressions. The book covers key grammar fundamentals such as particles, nouns, verb forms and honorifics. It will help you build your vocabulary with essential words and phrases. You can even test yourself at the end of every chapter for reinforcement. It allows you to learn at your own pace and build the fundamentals to effectively learn Japanese.

Here are a few of the important things that I really like about this book

Clear and straightforward explanations

Lots of great examples

Covers hiragana, katakana and kanji with phonetic transliterations

Covers everyday topics as well as conversational expressions

Quizzes help you to reinforce the language and new material

Shin Nihongo no Kiso - Japanese Textbooks

2012-01-03T18:54:00.004+11:00

Shin Nihongo no Kiso

The Shin Nihongo no Kiso series of Japanese textbooks was very important in helping me successfully learn Japanese. The first book Shin Nihongo no Kiso I enables the beginner or new learner to master the basics and make simple sentences and conversation. The second book Shin Nihongo no Kiso II is for the more advanced with more advanced conversations based on real life daily situations.

Here is a breakdown of the two books

Shin Nihongo no Kiso I
100 hours study time, 25 lessons, 800 vocab items, and 75 sentence patterns

Shin Nihongo no Kiso II
100 hours study time, 25 lessons, 680 vocab items, and 64 sentence patterns

The series starts with the Shin Nihongo no Kiso Main Textbook with seperate English Translation and Grammatical notes available. The main textbook is all in Japanese, which is a great way to immerse yourself in the language, but I highly recommend getting English Translation and Grammatical notes as they really helped me. The English Translation lists the vocabulary for each chapter in romaji, kana and English as well as an English translation of the sentence patterns and example sentences from each chapter. The Grammatical Notes in English explain in detail the grammatical points and structures for each chapter with lots of examples to help you with correct usage.

I have found that my grammar, vocabulary, sentence structure and reading and writing improved dramatically using this book. It was also a great aid in studying for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.

An Introduction to Modern Japanese - Japanese Textbooks

2012-01-03T18:52:00.001+11:00

An Introduction to Modern Japanese

An Introduction to Modern Japanese by Osamu Mizutani & Nobuko Mizutani is a fantastic book for learning Japanese. The book is designed to give the reader a solid foundation in modern Japanese, sufficient to handle everyday conversations and discussions as well as the ability to express their interests and life.

After studying this book you will be able to read all of the hiragana and katakana, recognise a lot of basic words in kanji, and have a good knowledge of grammar.

The book is made up of 30 lessons which contain dialogues, explanations, drills, reading comprehensions, aural comprehensions, pronunciation practices, and writing practices.

The drills are very useful because they are designed so that you will be able to use new expressions in meaningful actual situations, rather than just memorizing.

An Introduction to Modern Japanese will fill all your needs for both classroom and independent study.

How to start with Learning Japanese

2012-01-02T17:01:00.009+11:00

The best place to start learning Japanese is with the basics. Start with building up some basic vocabulary and learning some simple grammar and basic expressions. I recommend keeping a notebook just for Japanese vocabulary and start learning around 5 new words a day or about 20 a week. Write down the word in your notebook with the Japanese and a simple sentence. Something like this really helps

Word Kana Kanji Sentence English

Hon ほん本本を読む Book

Once you have developed a decent vocabulary you will find your Japanese really taking off. At the same time you should also be learning some basic grammar, and useful expressions to expand your level of communication. Some great resources to get you started are:

• Japanese Demystified by Eriko Sato a self-teaching guide

• An Introduction to Modern Japanese by Osamu Mizutani & Nobuko Mizutani

I would also advise getting a start on the Japanese sound system as you are beginning. Japanese is usually written in a combination of kanji and hiragana with foreign loan words and specific modern words written in katakana. Ideally you should start learning these straight away as this will significantly aid your learning further down the track, Start with hiragana followed by katakana and then attempt kanji.

These resources will really help you along

Yokoso - Welcome to How Do You Learn Japanese

2011-12-29T16:12:00.000+11:00

This site is dedicated to learning Japanese and here you will find a wealth of information that will help you too learn Japanese. I have been lucky enough to have studied Japanese for over 15 years and have over a large period of time gathered a wide range of different resources and tips to help you improve your Japanese.

Japanese is not a difficult language to learn, but does take a lot of practice and motivation to succeed. The best way to learn Japanese is through a variety of methods. You need to work on your grammar, listening, speaking, reading and writing. It’s best to think of these as separate categories and focus on each specific category as these require different methods and techniques.

The best way to study is to mix up what you are learning and the way you learn it. Set some goals for motivation and try to achieve your goals. These could be a test at the end of the year or simply to learn 10 new kanji every week.

You will quickly find that learning Japanese can be fun and will naturally find interesting ways to practice and learn the language.

I hope you can get as much enjoyment from Japanese as I have over the years and Good Luck.