Reddit reviews GENKI I: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese (English and Japanese Edition)

Edit: Apparently I had nothing better to do than this evening, so here's a wall of text. Hope it's useful for you.

EditII: Didn't expect so many people to look at this, either.. so I'll say: this isn't an in depth zero-to-hero guide for Japanese, this is just a tidy gathering of the path I took to learn Japanese to my current level (minus a few textbooks), which is definitely still very far from fluent. I'm personally learning Japanese for its literature, and the vast majority of what I did was aimed at getting into books as fast as possible (cough Heisig cough) -- if you don't care about reading, I'll be the first to say that a lot of what's here might not be interesting to you. Google around and see if my suggestions fit your learning style or not. Japanese is weird in that there are literally resources for everything, so I'm sure there's something that fits you.

EditIII: Just wanted to link the DJTguide, a library of tons of resources organized into different skills and stuff. If you don't like my suggestions, I'd personally start here to find something else.

intro -- textbook stuff -- post-textbook stuff -- tutoring -- loose timeline

I have lived in Japan (for school) for two years, speaking nothing before I arrived (fully intended on going to Spain instead lol)...and am now somewhere between N2/N1, which is the level of fluency required to work with Japanese businesses/join a Japanese-conducted program. At this point no conversation is a problem, I can read modern literature for enjoyment (older stuff literally employed a partially different language and requires its own study), and follow movies/comedy shows/anime without subtitles if I'm pay attention.

I didn't try nearly as hard as I could have, so I honestly think you could reach my level of "fluency" if you make a religion of it -- a research student at my university came speaking nothing one year ago and now speaks notably better than I do across the board (on behalf of being forced to communicate with people for like 12 hours a day). Granted, you don't have the luxury of multiple Japanese people needing to communicate with you in order to do their job, and thus adjusting their language to your level to communicate with you all day every day... but I still think you can learn enough in a year to thoroughly enjoy yourself, at the very least.

Here's how I'd do that.

Textbook Stuff

1. Read The Kanji -- don't use this for kanji. Make a free account, use it to learn the Hiragana and Katakana (two of Japanese's three alphabet systems; 48 characters each and phonetic. One is for Japanese-origin words, the other is for loan words and other random things). It just throws flash cards at you with each of the symbols; you can probably commit them to memory in a few hours. It's okay if you forget a few or several or even most of them at first; you're going to see these things so often that they'll be impossible to forget before long. We're just shooting to prime your passive memory so that you'll see a word written, have your curiosity irked, and be able to work it out, connecting that forgotten information to more and more recent memories to help remember them. Plus, this is a model for your year as a whole -- contextually acquiring passive understanding that stretches your boundaries, then diving back inwards and working to solidify passive knowledge that has become useful for your current situation or will allow you to express something you want to express currently, into knowledge that gradually becomes active.
   
   
2. Buy Genki I, its workbook, Genki II, and its workbook. This will walk you from knowing absolutely no Japanese at the beginning of Genki I, and while mileage varies, I was personally able to make sense of ShiroKuma Cafe (see the link in the next section) upon completing Genki II. I'm currently taking the first "advanced" level Japanese course at my uni, meaning that I have had the opportunity to talk with other "advanced" (apostraphes meaning take with a grain of salt, looking at myself) learners about how they learned Japanese, and the Genki series is by and large the crowd favorite.
   
   
3. Buy Heisig, or you can probably find a version somewhere on the interwebs....... make an account at Kanji Koohii (a site where people work together progressing through Heisig, mainly by sharing the mneumonics they make for the kanji), and otherwise follow the instructions on Nihongo Shark's Blog. He suggests to completely put learning Japanese on hold till you finish the 2200 Kanji in this deck in 97 days, but I think that's ambitious as is, and eats too much of your year up. So I personally would say learn 15 a day, every day, until you finish -- that will have you finishing in around 5 months, you'll be on target with the 6 months I'm plotting out for Genki I + II even if you miss a few days. (see below).
   
   
4. Others might disagree and you can make up your own mind, but I personally think learning the Kanji is essential. They take time to learn at first, but repay you dividends later on when you accumulate vocabulary basically without thinking, passively, by reading or watching subtitled shows. Plus, any resource you'll use past the beginner stage will require kanji.. meaning if you don't learn them, you can't use these resources, and gimp yourself down the road. They're incredibly logical and like legos; the resources in #3 basically talk about the most efficient way to build things out of those legos (to help remember what each lego is). Also look into Moonwalks with Einstein if you'reinterested in memory in general. The thing about Kanji is that they unlock Japanese, as every single Kanji has a unique meaning, and Japanese words are basically simple definitions of themselves. Take fire extinguisher, for example: 消火器。It literally means extinguish-fire-utensil/tool. Good luck understanding a random word like that in any other language at first sight, but it's easy in Japanese, and the vast majority of Japanese words are exactly like this. Learning the Kanji allows you to take a word you've never seen before, instantly have a reliable guess as to what it means... and depending on your familiarity with the Kanji, maybe even how to read it. This happens to a lesser extent in conversation, also. Kanji are a new system of logic, but once you adjust to it, it's pure magic -- eventually, you sort of stop needing to study vocabulary, because you can just read and passive understand most any word (which you'll eventually work into your active vocabulary). I talk about "The First 2000 Words" in #5, and basically, words give you diminishing returns -- they're a lot of bang for your buck at first.. but past 6,000, 10,000, 20,000 ... learning 10 or 100 or even 1,000 new words might not give you noticeable improvement.
   
   
5. This anki deck is Genki in Example Sentences; pace your daily reviews so that you'll be going in time with your progression through chapters in the book. I really, really wanted to link you The Core 2k(the first 2000 most frequent words of Japanese) because I really liked it and the first 2000 words make up a significant majority of daily conversations (we repeat a lot of the same things over and over, the same bread and butter structures, laced and spiced with more rare nouns, then descriptive words, and the occasional verb)......... but I also think that context is the biggest key when it comes to language learning, and the 2k doesn't have that for you right now. It's eventually going to outpace your Kanji studies (if I'm recalling how I studied accurately), and more importantly, the word order does not follow Genki. You're going to be spending a lot of time with Genki for 6 months, the pace that I want you to complete these words in. You're already going to be stretched thin, so I guess I'm going to recommend you take that Genki deck and use it as a supplement to help you get more out of Genki -- it looks like it's going to take, on average, ~25 cards per day. I don't know if that's ideal, but then again, I stuck with Genki until I finished Genki (no other resources, began Hesig - also below - about 2/3 of the way through), and I began watching Shirokuma Cafe (below) immediately after Genki II, able to (at first, painfully) understand it... and I think I'm just a normal dude, if you're also a normal dude -- or, better, a better than average dude -- I guess Shirokuma should be good for you, too, after Genki II and this Genki Deck.

A good starting point is the app LingoDeer and its Japanese practise sessions. The first course is free and has a ton of content. Its practise focuses on teaching kana, grammar and building up vocabulary with a variety of guessing games so it's a very natural and entertaining way of learning. This makes it better than a lot of the language apps out there since their main focus is usually flashcard learning and hard memorisation.

Beyond that, Tae Kim's Japanese grammar is considered by many to be a fantastic way to learn the language. It builds up the necessary fundamentals for learning the language in a rational, intuitive way that makes sense in Japanese. The explanations are focused on how to make sense of the grammar not from English but from a Japanese point of view (which means you think in japanese rather than english).

If you want to get a textbook the Genki guides are considered by many to be the quintessial classroom learning book. Japanese for Busy People is also a good one if you don't have a lot of spare time.

Beyond that, watch Japanese tv without subtitles to get used to them speaking. Japanese Children's tv is a great way to go about it. Try watching something like Chi's Sweet Home without subtitles on. There's also Japanese dramas on Netflix where you can turn the subtitles off.

2-3 years is plenty of time to "learn" japanese. There are a lot of people here who reached N2 on the JLPT in 3 years or less. There a lot of people who have also reached "basic" fluency as they call it, in 1.5-2 years(AJATT/MIA). There are lots of start guides out there, all which can work very well. There is one right here on this subreddit that is a sticky at the top of the page. You could also try NukeMarines SGJL. A lot of people also like AJATT / MIA as it seems to be the most effective way to learn Japanese quickly (but this requires a lot of time each day that most people aren't willing, or cant commit).

Pretty much all of them start the same way though, by learning Hiragana and Katakana (which are the basic writing systems). Some systems also suggest learning some or all of the kanji in the beginning as well. Many will also say to start immersing with native japanese material early on too (aka watch anime/dramas without subtitles in japanese)

From there you want some type of learning resource for grammar. Many here suggest Genki 1&2 if you have some cash and like textbooks. Other systems will tell you to use free online resources like Tae Kim or Wasabi-JP. All of them seem to work.

From there a lot of paths split as to what you should do and at this point you can kind of choose what you like. If you liked the textbook route than you can move onto an intermediate text book like Toriba. Many say learning from sentences is the way to go though. This can either be done with a pre-made deck like the Core 2/6/10K anki deck. Some people say make your own sentence deck by "mining" native Japanese material for i+1 sentences. AJATT/MIA has even recently suggested using the JLPT Tango books for sentences as they are already pretty much in i+1 format.

Here are a bunch of links to what I am talking about:
anki (awesome FREE flash card app): https://ankiweb.net/about

SGJL (method + resources): https://community.memrise.com/t/course-forum-suggested-guide-for-japanese-literacy-sgjl-course-series/1100

AJATT ("intense" method): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PdPOxiWWuU

Genki (grammar & vocab): https://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-English/dp/4789014401 (who knows you might be able to find this free somewhere on the internet as a pdf too...)

Tae Kim (grammar): http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar

Wasabi-JP(grammar): https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-grammar/wasabis-online-japanese-grammar-reference/

DJT (overall great resources just look at it...):https://djtguide.neocities.org/

If you're just starting out, I'd probably recommend the Genki series, or Tae Kim's excellent Guide to Japanese Grammar (free online).

The book OP has is very useful and you can learn a lot from it, but it's specifically made to help folks study for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). You lose a lot of the foundational stuff if you go straight for the JLPT materials, I'd argue.

The decision is up to you, and your final choice should pertain to your situation/interests, but if you do choose to learn Japanese, then I can give you some pointers:

Learning Material

Start by learning Hiragana and Katakana. This should take you 2 weeks tops. You can learn it through apps like Dr. Moku (apple and android), and practice with Drag-n-Drop.
After that, use the Genki textbooks I and II (make sure that it's the 2nd edition, which has more features added to it), which are the most popular by far within the Japanese learning community.
Japan Times, the company behind the books, also made some pretty neat apps to side with the book. Available for apple and android. There's also a workbook, which is a bit of a drag to buy after buying two $50 textbooks, so I uploaded the PDFs here.


Supplement your studies with Anki SRS (Spaced-repetition-system), which is essentially virtual flash cards.
There's also Tae Kim's Grammar Guide, which is pretty good as a reference, but not so much a sole learning material. His website is another good reference resource.


Please realize that it's okay to forget words and grammar points, and you're definitely going to have to revisit some of them along the way.




I should probably mention Kanji. Kanji are characters imported from China during the 5th century, although many have divulged from their modern Chinese equivalent. Genki I+II will teach you 317 kanji (image for scale (sorry for bad quality!!)), and Tobira (the textbook I'm about to mention) will teach you another. There are officially 2136 "Jouyou Kanji", or kanji used in everyday life (e.g. a newspaper). Some people use Heisig's Remembering the Kanji, which I wouldn't recommend since it only teaches you the meaning (which it sometimes lies about), and doesn't even teach the reading or any words that use it. I'd recommend learning words and then the kanji that they use. That way you're getting more bang for your buck. While I personally don't use WaniKani to learn kanji, I have used it in the past, and it's really good. Sleek interface, gets the job done, forums for questions. All the good stuff you'd expect out of a kanji learning site. The first couple of lessons are free, and then it's something like $8/month. Despite WaniKani and all its greatness, the creator behind it (named Koichi) also made an "online Japanese textbook" called Tofugu, which I definitely wouldn't recommend. It waaaay too much around the bush, and half of it is just "motivational talk" (which I'm pretty sure is just trying to get you inspired for a night or two, pull out your wallet, pay for a lifetime subscription, and then give up once you get to the 〜ます forms).


Edit: I also feel the need to mention that, despite what pop culture might tell you, only a tiny portion of kanji are truly pictograph (e.g. 川 (river), 山 (mountain), 人 (person), and 大 (big)). The more conceptual ones have almost no tie to their actual meanings, which is why kanji teaching resources that use mnemonics fall apart pretty quickly. After being written with a chisel on turtle shells (called "oracle bone script"), imported to Japan 1500+ years ago, written 1,000,000s of times from people in prefectures miles away, and reformed numerous times, almost all of them lost their original pictographic quality. Just take a look at 働, 色, and 起. What do you think those mean? The answer is: to work, color, and to get up (in the sense of waking up).

Edit 2: Learn the stroke order for the kanji, since it makes them much easier to break down in the long run. For that matter, learn the radicals, or parts, of the kanji. There's a list here.


To clear up any more misconceptions, Japanese is not like Chinese in the sense that a character alone can be a verb. The kanji "起" doesn't mean "to wake up" on its own; only when you add the "き" and "る" hiragana does it turn into the verb. This is called "おくりがな" (okurigana). There are also many different readings for each character, unlike Chinese where there's usually only one or two. For example, the character "日" (day, sun) can be read ひ (or び), にち, or じつ. One kind of reading is called 音読み (onyomi), literally meaning "sound reading" because when the Japanese came into contact with the Chinese, they didn't yet have a writing system (their language was called "和語" (lit. "native Japanese language"). So, they "borrowed" their characters and transcribed the Chinese pronunciation based on their phonetic system. The other kind of reading is called 訓読み (kunyomi), which literally means "riverside reading". This type of reading is native to Japan and was prescribed to the kanji that corresponded with the meaning. On the more extreme side, some kanji can have 10+ readings. Don't sweat it though (心配ないよ！), as you'll learn all of these different readings through context in your vocabulary.

Now to bridge the gap between "beginner"-ish to "intermediate"-ish, use Tobira (which literally means "bridge"). The book assumes you to have a certain level of knowledge, some of which might overlap with Genki and other words/grammar that you may have to look up. It's an uphill battle, but you'll come out triumphant in the end.


On a side note, I'd recommend Jisho.org as your go-to online dictionary, even if some of the example sentences are riddled with errors. "Imiwa?" is a great Jp<->Eng dictionary for android and iOS. If you're really serious, then get "Kodansha's Furigana Japanese Dictionary".
Also check out /r/learnjapanese. There's a lot of great questions/resource links on there, and you can ask any questions you might have.


Duolingo has opened up alpha testers for its Japanese course as well. I'm so-so on the quality of Duolingo, since it doesn't even really teach you grammar, but just in case.

There are a lot of great resources posted up on the Kanji Koohii forums, which is where I found ヨミちゃん for Google Chrome.


To go further, read 4chan's /int/ guide.
Oh, and in case you didn't know, stay away from Rosetta Stone!!

Native Material

After Genki II, give a go at よつばと！ (Yotsuba!), a simple children's manga with furigana, which is kana above the kanji (intended for little kids). There's quite a bit of slang in it, and almost always uses the casual form. Even in a simple manga like Yotsuba, there will still be words and advanced grammatical constructs you haven't even touched yet. You can get the "Yotsuba Learning Pack", which consists of an Anki deck and vocabulary list here.


You can practice speaking with native speakers on a wonderful app called HelloTalk (available for apple and android). It's pretty great.


There's also iTalki, where you can write journal entries in your target language (so you can do this for Italian too) and have them be corrected by native speakers. You can also correct journal entries in English.

About the JLPT

The "Japanese Language Proficiency Test [Number X]", commonly referred to as "JLPT N[X]", is the standard Japanese test. N1 (Number 1) is the highest and most advanced, while N5 is the most basic. You can see how ready you are for each one here. Honestly, N5 and N4 are so easy, they're really not worth the money you have to pay to take it. N3 is a good warm up to N2. Passing N2 will look pretty damn good on any business related Japanese job. I wouldn't worry about these tests until a good way into your studies.

Conclusion

While Japanese might not be the easiest language for an English speaker to learn (far from it, it in fact), and quite daunting due to the scores of kanji you're required to learn, the rewards are numerous. For one thing, you get 130,000,000 more people to converse with on this planet. You're also opened up to the world of anime (Japanese animation) and manga (Japanese cartoons), and the original language of the haiku (俳句). Not only that, but you're also introduced to the literature world Haruki Murakami and other such Japanese writers. Most importantly, you should enjoy it. After all, nobody who doesn't enjoy learning something gets very far into it. If you ever feel incredibly discouraged, take a break for as long as you need. Revisit the material when you feel ready. Never study something if it pains you to do so. PM me if you have any more questions.

That book you linked is only going to teach him Kanji, not vocabulary and grammar. A well respected first step would be the Genki series. There are 2 series and both series have a main textbook and a workbook.

Genki I (second edition) http://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-English/dp/4789014401/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449110193&sr=1-1&keywords=genki

Genki I Workbook (Second Edition) http://www.amazon.com/Genki-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Workbook/dp/478901441X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449110193&sr=1-2&keywords=genki

You should probably just use Genki

It is possible to learn Japanese using only the internet and free sources, but it certainly makes things more difficult. The advantage of using a standardized textbook and traditional learning methods is that you get a solid foundation, both in the sense that it gets you started on the right foot, but also in that it teaches you what sort of things you need to learn in the first place.

I highly recommend you try getting and using Genki. See if it is available from your local library, for example.

Yes, it is possible to learn Japanese using just free resources found on the internet.

These days, everything you could possibly want for learning Japanese exists on the internet right now.

If you learn how to use Anki (the best and most popular free flashcard program) you can get SRS flashcards without paying for a fancy website. TextFugu's free lessons will get you started with using Anki while at the same time teach you hiragana and katakana (the two syllabaries used in Japanese).

If you use Tae Kim's grammar guide and other online sources, you technically don't need a textbook. Imabi is another website similar to Tae Kim that people like. Duolingo might even be worth your time, assuming you utilize the discussion forums and that community to make sure you understand the grammar which is poorly taught by the app.

If you use HelloTalk, iTalki, and HiNative you can interact with Japanese people who'll help correct your compositions, and that could potentially lead to language exchange friendships where you Skype and practice conversation.

You can find free reading material online for practice, both by nature of the entire Japanese internet being at your fingertips, but also due to free websites like NHK Easy News and Watanoc.

You can assess your skills without ever paying for a standardized test by using the J-Cat.

You can find communities of fellow learners here on /r/LearnJapanese (we've got some good guides in the sidebar, btw), on the Japanese Language Stack Exchange, and /jp/'s Daily Japanese Thread (they've got a good guide for getting started over there).

/r/LearnJapanese

Best places to start are to learn the two main Japanese alphabets, hiragana and katakana. A good place to start with that is here.

Next, you need a grammar resource. Tae Kim is a good free online resource. You could also get a popular textbook like Genki.

Lastly, you need a resource for learning kanji, the complex characters adapted from Chinese that make up a lot of Japanese writing. The first two levels of WaniKani are free.

It takes a couple months of study before you really start to feel like you're making progress, but after a year or so a lot of easy reading material becomes approachable. There's also a huge and awesome community of people doing the same thing. Give it a try if you feel like it!

https://www.amazon.de/GENKI-Integrated-Course-Elementary-Japanese/dp/4789014401/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&keywords=genki&qid=1574368671&sr=8-1
Is this fine?

Looking over those, this seems like the best choice.

Honestly I don't understand much written japanese but I've been self studying using the internet and I have signed up for beginners japanese classes in my university next semester (they use Genki which I plan on buying this month and start early) and I have also been listening to the Pimsleur Japanese I lessons (and of course copious amounts of Anime).

Yeah it is. Buying it on Amazon Japan is cheaper than Amazon US I'm pretty sure. Here's a link for it: http://www.amazon.co.jp/GENKI-Integrated-Course-Elementary-Japanese/dp/4789014401/

If you've never ordered from Amazon Japan before, here's a guide: http://cdn.halcyonrealms.com/japan/how-to-order-from-amazon-japan-a-detailed-buying-guide/

You should really read the sidebar. There's an FAQ with a lot of stuff specifically designed for absolute beginners like you. Regardless...

Genki: An integrated course in elementary Japanese is what I used when I started, and it's what I like to recommend to people. It has two volumes. You can find the first one here on Amazon, or you can just pirate it if you don't have the money to spend or want to try it out first. Finding out where to pirate it is up to you.

No matter what textbook you choose, you should take a look at Tae Kim's free guide. It's a very good guide to basic and intermediate grammar. It is a little lacking in some explanations and practice exercises, however, so I usually recommend it as a supplement to a normal textbook.

Teaching yourself Japanese all the way to fluency is entirely possible, by the way! I've never stepped foot in a classroom, and while I would never call myself fluent, after four years, I'm good enough at the language to watch Japanese TV without subtitles and read Japanese books.

No, ho un maestro (3h/settimana), ma buona parte del lavoro è soprattutto calligrafia e memorizzazione: di fatto si potrebbe anche fare da autodidatta immagino. Il testo che usiamo è questo


https://www.amazon.it/GENKI-Integrated-Course-Elementary-Japanese/dp/4789014401

accompagnato da


https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/478901441X


Entrambi si trovano facilmente in PDF se vi interessa!

There's a massive step between being able to read/write hiragana/katakana, and being able to write/read Japanese. I'm not saying you shouldn't get a penpal, but don't be too disappointed when it's almost entirely English to start.

That said, I'd say you should look into ordering a textbook on basic grammar. My university didn't use these, but I hear that Genki series is extremely popular with beginning learners. Try checking that out!

I think you would be better off with the 2nd editions. I met one of the authors and he told me that they changed some things after some feedback on the first edition. He gave a talk at my school but I don't remember any of the examples.

The GENKI I is about 15 dollar used but I would make sure that it is the 2nd edition.

GENKI II is about 40 dollars

https://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Course-Elementary-Japanese/dp/4789014401

https://www.amazon.com/Genki-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-English/dp/4789014436

Possibly better on Abe

Genki I

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=21808789441&searchurl=kn%3Dgenki%2B2nd%26sortby%3D17%26ds%3D20

Genki II

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22386775654&searchurl=kn%3Dgenki%2B2nd%26sortby%3D17%26ds%3D20

Reading, writing, speaking, or a combination of the above? Why are you studying Japanese? How advanced do you want to be?

I'm currently learning some Japanese through self-study because of overseas work. Here's where I started:

• Hiragana: https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-hiragana/
  
• Katakana: https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-katakana/
  
• Basic Conversational Japanese: GENKI | Japanese for Busy People
  
• Other tips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfCc00zmPZI

http://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Edition/dp/4789014401

http://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/wiki/index

http://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/wiki/index#wiki_faq

http://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/wiki/index#wiki_language_learning_resources

http://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/wiki/index#wiki_japanese

Amazon Japan

The first thing I'd recommend doing is learning ひらがな(Hiragana). Hiragana is one of the three alphabet systems in Japanese. It's made up of 46 separate characters and is used primarily for native words and grammar. You need to be able to read hiragana to actually start learning Japanese. This may seem like it's super hard but it's not actually that bad. I recommend printing worksheets and writing them by hand to start with. After that I'd recommend using flash cards or online/mobile testing programs to drill them in. Hiragana will allow you to read and pronounce most Japanese text (though there are exceptions for particles which you'll learn later on).

I would recommend getting a textbook: Genki is often recommended and you can either buy it on Amazon or find a digital copy floating around somewhere. After that you just need to start working through the textbook. Somewhere in this process you should also pick Katakana, which is used for foreign words mainly. This can be learned in the same way you did Hiragana.

The hardest part about learning Japanese is definitely kanji. Kanji are the (mostly) Chinese characters used for words in Japanese. There are thousands of them and this is where a lot of learners burn out. The important part is to take them slowly and I'd recommend not starting kanji for a little bit anyways just because it's a little overwhelming. That being said, I'd recommend learning kanji with vocabulary. There are flash card sets meant for this using Anki, a flash card program. You don't have to worry about that for a while, though.

This may seem overwhelming at first, but all new languages are, especially one as far from English as Japanese is. The important thing is to take it slow at first so you don't burn yourself out. Languages are learned over long periods of time, not overnight and that's important to keep in mind. Just set yourself a small goal to start and work on completing that, the rest will come in time.

 

Here are some resources you might find helpful:

• Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese - really good resource for explaining grammar, has lots of examples
  
• Jisho.org - Japanese -> English and Kanji dictionary
  
• Pretty much everything here
  
• /r/LearnJapanese - Good for questions and finding resources
  
   
  
  Well, that's all the procrastination I think I can handle from writing this right now. Ending up being a lot longer than I thought it would be. Hope it helps you find where to start. Feel free to ask any questions and message me for help anytime. Good luck with your goals and happy New Years!
  
  がんばって！(Good luck)
  

In regards to the cost it will be cheaper to order it from Japan, here is the textbook and the workbook it should be about £50 for both including shipping.

On the other side of the coin, anime can have its place in language study. So, to answer your question, check out http://kitsunekko.net where you can find Japanese subtitles for many shows. They're of course written in Japanese, so be sure to study your kana and kanji.

But don't expect that to be enough to learn the language. Language learning needs lots of practice interacting with others. It's also more difficult to learn the grammar rules from passive listening.

I'd recommend looking for a place that holds Japanese lessons in your area. One possibility if you have the time are universities or community colleges, where you may be able to sit in on classes for no credit, for a small fee (which is called auditing). My old university charges $50 for non-students, which is pretty cheap for a several month-long language course. Other universities may be cheaper or more expensive. Granted, the class times might be difficult if you're still in K-12 or working.

If you can't find any classes, at least invest in some proper course books. The universities I studied at used either Minna no Nihongo (main book in Japanese only, need the English, or your native language, supplement), Genki (starts out all in English/romaji, and gradually introduces kana and kanji), or one other I don't recall the name of. For supplementals, I had found the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar set useful. A good electronic dictionary is helpful as well, which will give you many example sentences. http://jisho.org is so/so as well, and free.

Good luck!

Genki I: https://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-English/dp/4789014401/

RTK1: https://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Kanji-Complete-Japanese-Characters/dp/0824835921/

I really liked Genki as a textbook. Teaches you grammar, vocab, and hiragana/katakana/kanji assuming no starting knowledge. Definitely recommend getting the workbook that goes with it for practice.

In my own opinion, grammar is the most important part of any textbook. How well a book explains a grammar point determines how well I like the book. There are 3 major areas of grammar that I look for: verb modification, particle usage, and how well the book explains 関係節 (using a verb/sentence to modify a noun: "The chair that he sat in")

I've looked at a few textbooks:

Yookoso (which has, apparently changed its cover...) is a sort of intense, high-density textbook that makes it a bit hard to look up grammar points. However, it is well written and has a lot of practice. It also only requires 2 books to "get the job done". The grammar explanations are short and don't really explain away the confusion, but it's FULL of practice. There isn't much translation in the book, so if you have a question... your screwed (unless you have a teacher with you). However, you probably won't have many questions while reading because the sentences kind of stay mundane.

This book gets a 4 out of 5 on the "Evan Grammar-Explanation Scale of Justice": It explains it, gives good examples and practice, but the explanations are lacking depth. Good for learning the basics, bad for learning the specifics.

Nakama isn't really anything special.

Adventures in Japanese is a series of books that I'm using on my website to teach Japanese a little bit. However, I only chose this textbook because it is the book being used by the local high school, so my students are using it. The book isn't bad, but it teaches a lot of things that really don't need to be taught. Also, some of their explanations/translations are... less than accurate? -- I find myself saying "yes, this is right, but... Really it's this" too much to recommend this book. There is also a stunning lack of practice/guidance. It's NOT a self-study book, you NEED a teacher for it. The workbook for this book is nice, however, and would probably be good practice. The grammar points taught in this book are easily-referenceable.

This book gets a 4 out of 5 on the "Evan Grammar-Explanation Scale of Justice": Similar to Yookoso, however the practice is lacking. It's a textbook and a workbook rolled into one.

Ima! is a book that I kind of detest. When using it to teach, I found myself having to make my own materials in order to get the point across. It's a thin book without hardly any grammar explanations.

This book gets a 1 out of 5 on the "Evan Grammar-Explanation Scale of Justice". I hated using this book. A lot. It was just a glorified workbook.

Genki seemed pretty decent as far as a textbook went. It had plenty of practice, the grammar points were short, concise, and easy-to-reference. I would use it as a textbook in the future.

This book gets a 4.5 out of 5 on the "Evan Grammar-Explanation Scale of Justice": Great explanations and easily referenceable. It seems like a pretty good buy.

Japanese the Spoken Language is my bible. The grammar points are in-depth, effective, and incredibly well thought-out. If you want to know exactly how to use a grammar point, this textbook is the one you want. It is JAM-PACKED with practice that can be done completely solo. It also comes with audio cds that are worth a damn. When I want to know the difference between ～て、～たら、～れば、and ～すると, you can expect a great amount of explanation. The practice sentences in this book aren't just mundane sentences, either: the authors intentionally use weird examples in order to show the student the true meaning of a grammar point. That is, it doesn't just use "one-sentence examples", it uses "entire conversation contexts, and then weird 'breaks the rules' verbs to highlight how the grammar works"

HOWEVER- the language is dated - this book was written in the 80s (earlier?) and has never been updated; it uses a weird romanization system (zi = じ, tu = つ, ti = ち); is intended to teach the SPOKEN language (get Japanese: the WRITTEN language to learn how to write); and the grammar explanations are almost TOO long and convoluted (long and convoluted, but extremely insightful and specific).

This book gets a 5 out of 5 on the "Evan Grammar-Explanation Scale of Justice". However, the grammar is SO well-explained that you might be a little confused trying to read it.

-------------

To teach the language, I would use Genki or Yookoso to get people off the ground, then move into JSL. Then the student should be more than ready to self-study and translate native materials.

If you're in college, see if they offer Japanese classes. If not, you could try to self-study with Japanese textbooks. The one I took in college used the Genki textbooks, so you could try with that.

http://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Edition/dp/4789014401

There's also a workbook that you can buy to test yourself on how well you learned the material. I don't know if it comes with an answer sheet though :S

Just go right to the source.

I'm not sure what you're seeing, but this is the link to Genki.

> Thank you for giving me the free feels of what it is going to be like when I visit you there! Immersion ftw!

You're so very welcome!!! Have I told you about this yet? and this?

That was a delicious giggle! Thank you! Thank you!

Yeah I've viewed that wiki before and done research I guess I'm just stupid. And it's more so that I can only afford 1 thing so I want to make absolutely sure that it's the right thing for me. From what I'm getting, get a Genki book because it teaches you a lot more? The question then is...

https://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Edition/dp/4789014401/ this one or https://www.amazon.com/Genki-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Workbook/dp/478901441X/ this one? Or are they both necessary? Both the same thing? etc.

They both say second edition which is kinda throwing me off I guess.

Thank you so much! Is this what I’m looking for along with getting the workbook? Also since this is completely self-study, would I need the answer key that is shown below “customers who bought this item also bought”? https://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-English/dp/4789014401

It is a Japanese textbook, used for learning elementary-type Japanese and further.

Hehe, おうえんする = verb for to cheer. おうえんしているよ = I am cheering you on

Edit : P.s. if you wanna get a japanese book get this : http://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Edition/dp/4789014401, it's what I learned from, theres multiple volumes and this is the first one

Edit 2: おうえん*

More than likely the light novels (7 and 8) will be officially translated by the time you're able to read the untranslated version.

If you still want to learn Japanese though, my best advice is to search around on your own and see what works for you. What I've found works for me has been:

Free Stuff:

First memorize Hirigana and Katakana (Japanese has three alphabets - Hirigana, Katakana (for loan words), and Kanji. Hirigana and Katakana are close to the English alphabet while Kanji is more like pictograms (for example, eye <3 u)). Write them in the margins of notes your taking, buy a set of post-it notes and write down the hirigana and katakana tables every hour or so, and you'll learn it in a few days Certainly less than a week.

For kanji, wanikani (https://www.wanikani.com/dashboard) is a good idea to get started on early (it's slow going at least at first, but a nice review tool - learn the kanji and example phrases on your own if it's too slow). (edit: Actually $10 per month after the first three levels (~1 month to complete first three levels). edit 2: There's a coupon for 50% off forever floating around though.)

Other than that, there are pdfs of the textbook Genki I (link to amazon) floating around (or you could pay $80ish for the textbook and workbook). This is the textbook the majority of people use, and it's basically your standard textbook. The stories of Mary and Takashi are awesome though and pretty fun to follow.

Learning a language requires you to learn a whole host of new grammar rules (Japanese has a good chunk with no equivalent in English) and thousands upon thousands of vocabulary. Tae Kim's Grammar Guide is typically pointed to for those who want to learn the grammar quickly, or have a resource to look at as you encounter new grammar.

Youtube videos. Puni-Puni, and others are quick to watch and really good review.

Watch anime, read manga! It's either very low-cost, or free, and exposes you to the language. You can hear or read the grammar structures your learning about, or see kanji in action. Likely since most are geared towards japanese middle-school-age to high-school-age students you won't be able to understand the vast majority of what you read or hear (without subtitles or translations), but you'll be able to get the gist of it. Here's a youtube channel that takes a sentence or two from currently-airing or recent anime and breaks it down. Also, here's a newer subreddit doing somewhat the same thing.

Lower cost stuff:

I used the workbook "Japanese Tutor" to get from the beginner to intermediate stage. It's $20 but was a very nice way to work my way through the beginner stage to intermediate.

Japanese Graded Readers is a great way to practice reading. They're kind of like scholastic books you would find at book fairs in elementary school. They don't use complex sentence structure or complex words (or complex kanji in japanese's case), and are designed for foreign language learners (so the topics are more adult, less "The dog ran. The cat ate. The bug couldn't swim."). I recommend you start at Level 1 since Level 0 is more about learning odd vocab. You can understand Level 1 books in about 2-3 weeks if you spend around 2 hours each day studying. You get 5 books (15-25 pages each - which is just enough so you don't get tired ever so slowly reading them) for $30.

High cost stuff:

Rosetta Stone is a nice way to learn vocabulary and practice hearing the language, but it's costly at $170-$200 (for all 3 levels - 150 hours). If you have a friend who can loan it to you to try out (or split the cost with) it's a really nice tool since it teaches vocabulary of objects you see in daily life, and you'll be able to look around your house or city and have a word for a good chunk of things.

This is what my program used. It's pretty good.

Textbook part 1 This is the main textbook that you need, includes the mp3 cd.

Optional workbook part 1 Extra practice for the textbook.

Textbook part 2 You move onto this book when finished with part 1, also has a cd

Optional workbook pt 2 extra practice that accompanies the second part

These are all the 2nd ed.

I think you meant you know some Hiragana instead of kanji. You'll need to know all 50 of them before you can read anything. Worry about kanji later. Learning with a textbook is more effective. I recommend the Genki textbook. http://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Edition/dp/4789014401/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y You can also search for "beginner Japanese" videos on Youtube.

http://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Edition/dp/4789014401

i suggest this book. it comes with a cd for you to follow along in.

best advice is for you to just be able to stay consistent enough for just one semester to be able to make it to a face-to-face class at a community college somewhere. (~350 a class depending on your residency. hopefully you live somewhere close to a comm college)

our japanese teacher who was also japanese with a phd in linguistics taught from this book and it was great.

I don't believe there is a 2017 version -- there is the old First Edition and the newer second edition. It is available on amazon for a reasonable price -- to my knowledge there is no legal pdf download.

Try learning some verbal japanese?

https://nihongoshark.com/japanese-greetings/

​

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/4789014401/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0

​

Also, take her to a japanese bookstore or the japanese books section in a library?

plus this:

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/howto/

​

Along with anime - start with miyazaki's "howl's moving castle" or "kiki's delivery service".

Certo! Il fatto che conosci hiragana e katakana è un'ottima cosa, visto che in questo modo puoi partire già da subito. Io ho seguito gli (ottimi) consigli di r/learnjapanese e ho quindi acquistato il libro che praticamente tutti consigliano: genki (2 volumi che vengono 50€ ciascuno su Amazon). Unica pecca è che esiste solo in inglese, Ma il livello di inglese è ragionevolmente basso e, personalmente, mi ci sto trovando bene. Purtroppo genki non è abbastanza per imparare anche i kanji, per cui ho acquistato il "kodansha kanji learner's course", il quale utilizza un inglese un po' più "avanzato" e del quale ancora non ti posso ancora dire nulla, dato che per impegni non sono riuscito ancora a iniziarlo. Comunque una volta completati i due genki dovresti essere all'incirca al livello del JLPT N4, per cui in grado di leggere o manga semplici (con scrittura furigana, se non hai ancora iniziato uno studio approfondito dei kanji) oppure giochi come どうぶつの森 (conosciuto in Italia come animal's crossing). Come bonus ti lascio questa lista, sempre di giochi che utilizzano un giapponese semplice, per quando avrai completato i due genki. Scusa per essermi dilungato così tanto, spero di esserti stato d'aiuto!

It can be quite confusing! Firstly I did a lot of looking around and unless there is a seller on ebay/amazon UK selling a second hand copy cheap, I found it was cheapest to order it new from amazon.co.jp

http://imgur.com/ZiYfwrh

http://imgur.com/visBrmu

Here's the link to 2nd edition Genki 1 textbook (all you really need, but the workbook is at the bottom of the page too)
http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/aw/d/4789014401/ref=s9_bbs_awgw_d6_g14_i1/375-3555975-0547058?pi=SL115&aid=aw_gw_jp&apid=154199649&arc=1201&arid=1MAW3KEVFNH08PQBG3X1&asn=center-4&pf_rd_i=aw_gw&pf_rd_m=AN1VRQENFRJN5&pf_rd_p=154199649&pf_rd_r=1MAW3KEVFNH08PQBG3X1&pf_rd_s=center-4&pf_rd_t=1201

There should be a button somewhere to view the site in English.

(sorry about the formatting, on my phone)

If you're anything like me, I would wager that you're not focusing because your curriculum is painfully slow.

I got my Japanese degree from Indiana University, and in first-year Japanese (two semesters, 5 credit hours each) we went through the entire first Genki. By the second year, we were already on Genki II.

If you're still learning this level of Japanese at the 200 level in college, I'd really recommend you jump into something more intensive--provided you have enthusiasm about learning the language. I study my best when the curriculum is too difficult. I study hard, and I fail. But ultimately I learn more failing at difficult curriculum than I do exceeding at boring curriculum.

My absolute top recommendation for learning Japanese is the Kanzen Master series levels 2 and 3, but those seem to be out of print. It looks like you can purchase the "New Kanzen Master series", but they only publish starting from JLPT level 3 and lower, which is more difficult than the old JLPT level 3.

This is the best way I've found outside of classes.

First of all pick up a copy of Genki I and Genki II, really good textbook to learn Japanese Grammer and basic Kanji.

Here's a link: Genki I

Next I'd head over to /r/LearnJapanese to get some more resources and find someone to talk, italki is also a great way to find a teacher, a proper J-teacher, prices range quite a bit.

And next read everything you can in JP, change your phone language and learn kanji EVERY DAY.

I've never used Japanese for Dummies, so I don't know how far it takes you and how well it allows you to transition to more advanced learning materials. As has already been mentioned, the easiest method is to exhaust all the grammar your current book can teach. The most popular alternatives to JfD are Genki and Japanese from Zero. If you asked anyone who studied Japanese for a while, if they used either book or at least heard about them, they'll most likely say yes. On top of that, it's easy to build up on your knowledge after you finished the textbook. After Genki 1, you can use Genki 2 and after you finished that as well you'll be quite good at Japanese.

If you want to practise natural speaking and writing, I'd recommend to take a look at an app called HelloTalk. It basically lets you chat with native speakers of a language of your choice for free. It might feel like it's still a little too early to try that but when I look back at how I learnt Japanese, I wish that I would have used that app much, much sooner. It's never to early to start speaking/ writing!

This is the correct Genki book to get for studying correct?

http://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-English/dp/4789014401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427604537&sr=8-1&keywords=Genki

四/よん/yon = 4
Try https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imiwa/id288499125?mt=8 if you have iOS. I'm not sure if Imiwa is on Android, this app serves as a dictionary.

Also checkout the 1st Genki textbook and workbook, they are used by schools all over the US and my professor teaches from it daily.

Textbook: GENKI I: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese (English and Japanese Edition) https://www.amazon.com/dp/4789014401/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_gxGPCbTNRWJB9

Workbook: Genki: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese Workbook I [Second Edition] (Japanese Edition) (Japanese and English Edition) https://www.amazon.com/dp/478901441X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_GxGPCbQEZBF16

I started with Duolingo as well and it wasn't a great start. These books will help further your Japanese learning. I've been studying for two years starting in August, they really work.

r/learnjapanese is also a great place to check for viable resources besides the ones I mentioned.
Good luck! 頑張って！

> Can anyone give me some advice, as well as any websites/books that I can read up on to improve in my understanding of the language?

The book Genki 1 is often recommended.

You need the textbook itself, as well as the workbook. Scans of the answer key are among the first results on Google when you search "Genki answer key". There's nothing else you need, though pencil and paper will probably be helpful. I also recommend checking out Anki, which is a flashcard program that will help you memorize vocabulary.

We all have that phase. I recommend the Genki series if you are serious about starting to study Japanese. It's what they use in beginner university courses.

https://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Course-Elementary-Japanese/dp/4789014401

It's a little pricy, but worth the money in my opinion. I bought mine 10 years ago.

http://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Edition/dp/4789014401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345338134&sr=8-1&keywords=genki

It's costly, but it's easy to get for free if you know what I mean, very good textbook

https://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-English/dp/4789014401

This is the textbook you want.

Hello, does anyone know where I can buy a Genki I textbook?

I tried asking at fullybooked and apparently it costs 10k for a special order. The one at national bookstore simply stated that they don't have one (which I doubt, since she was busy chatting with her worker).

Lots of studying.

If you want to get started, you'll need to learn Hiragana and Katakana before anything else. The demo of Human Japanese will teach you Hiragana, and Anki flashcards will help with Katakana. From there, move on to Genki, and maybe supplement that with Anki and a Genki vocab deck.

It's not that difficult. You just gotta keep at it and never stop.

/r/LearnJapanese if you haven't found it already. I am trying to learn as well!

To be more specific, the FAQ is a great place to start. I am using a textbook called Genki along with a flashcard program called Anki for vocab memorization.

Start by learning Hiragana and Katakana, then you can start to learn vocabulary. I'm obviously not going to claim this is the best method, as learning a language is a unique process for everyone. Good luck!

That's the first book I considered but right now it is not available on Canadian Amazon with Amazon Prime

and it is a bit out of my price range as a high school student

Don't worry about the N# levels, they really don't indicate your skill at all. Many people have studied for those tests specifically and had no skill in Japanese other than those tests, and still managed to pass N5. It doesn't test you for anything other than reading.

For learning hiragana and katakana, you can do that over the weekend and the kanji you can learn in two or three months. Personally I'm doing 50 a day. You should look in to a tool called Anki, and some books. Specifically, Teach Yourself Complete Japanese, Colloquial Japanese and GENKI I: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese. Send me a PM and I'll see what I can do for sending you some E-book versions of those books.

For Kanji, check out Heisig's Remembering the Kanji. There's a shared deck for it on Anki. I changed the particular deck available on Anki so the kanji is on the front, and the meaning and the story are on the back. It doesn't teach you the meanings of the kanji, which I believe is a good thing; you should learn the readings of the kanji from the context in certain words. I'm currently learning 50 new kanji a day with Anki + doing my reviews.

I accidentally bought the Genki 1 workbook thinking it was the textbook; I'm guessing it won't be much help without the textbook? Also, is this the textbook I'd need?

Always start with learning hiragana and katakana. These are a handful of phonetic symbols that you will need to read basically anything. The guides below will cover them, but just make sure it's the first thing you do.

Tae Kim's guide starts at the basics and then continues with grammar. It's very much based on a "casual first" principle where it starts informal and builds up to formal speech, unlike most textbooks that focus on the latter. You could also check out the pdf version if you find that more comfortable.

Speaking of informal, you might like Namasensei's videos. This is how I made a start years ago. His handwriting is terrible, but it's a very motivational way to learn your hiragana and katakana.

A popular tool for learning vocabulary is Anki with a Core 2k/6k vocab deck. I found a guide here, but I haven't checked if this particular one is up to date. Anki is a flashcard program, and that vocab deck contains the 6000 most frequently used words in Japanese. You can build up your vocab knowledge daily, and get reviews on words you've had before. There's also a mobile app (free on android, paid on iphone), which is really convenient if you commute a lot.

If you like textbooks, possibly the most commonly used are Minna no Nihongo and Genki. I have no experience with these myself, so I can't really comment on them. Apparently the Minna no Nihongo book I linked expects you to know hiragana and katakana before you even dive in, so be aware of that.

For reading practice, look for children's books or simple manga. These texts usually have furigana, which basically means that all the complex characters (kanji) have little hiragana on top that show you how to read them. It's going to make your life a lot easier when you're just starting out.

Another website to keep in mind is Jisho, which will help you look up kanji by piecing them together. Useful if furigana aren't present, which is the case for most advanced texts. Kanji are a huge roadblock for a lot of people, but don't be intimidated by them.

The only thing I can't really help you with is listening practice. I have tried watching some TV shows, but it's often very fast and hard to follow. Anime is fine, as long as you're aware that it's not always exactly realistic.

In summary:

• Learn hiragana and katakana first
  
• Build up your grammar and vocabulary
  
• Find material to practice reading and listening, appropriate for your current level of grammar/vocabulary

(sorry, for some reason I only got the notification of your reply now)

Yes, the cheap one is the workbook. A workbook is an optional book that only contains exercises, it won't teach you japanese. It's useful, but if it's up to you to buy it or not. What you need is the textbook, which is the book that actually teaches you stuff (vocab, grammar).

This one is the textbook and this one is the workbook.

https://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Course-Elementary-Japanese/dp/4789014401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499677957&sr=8-1&keywords=genki
Is a great starter as a book.
You also have http://www.imabi.net/beginnersi.htm if you rather start online (and free) It's very extensive and the guy is really a nerd about the language but imho it's a bit blunt for beginners.
http://www.textfugu.com/ is online and beginner friendly but I find it quite verbose (maybe you wont). First "season" is free so go check it out as the WK team has done a nice job there too.
頑張って

I started off with DuoLingo for the same reason, and while it was helpful to learn the Hiragana and some basic things, I personally found myself dissatisfied with the teaching style, and started taking a college course. I found that the book, combined with other self study (like music, anime, reading and deciphering comments on youtube, and trying to read untranslated hentai), was very helpful.

https://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-English/dp/4789014401 This link has the book that I have, though you might be able to find a free PDF if you look hard enough. There's a workbook companion book with it for review.

It teaches mostly polite forms of speaking, which you should almost always use if you're planning on attempting to speak to anyone that's Japanese, unless you know them very well. Just a heads-up.


Edit: It's also best to have a study buddy to practice conversations with, and to correct each-other's mistakes. So grab another weeb and try to learn alongside them!

If you are okay with spending some money you can buy Genki Volume 1 textbook (Amazon page). It's the basics of the grammar and reading. If you don't want to spend money then duolingo (link) is a good site for learning Japanese. Though I personally don't like it as much as just taking a class and learning from a textbook

Precisa ser um curso ou só um material com uma estrutura linear basta? Se você vai virar autodidata de qualquer jeito e a grana ta curta talvez seja melhor já ir começando. Dá para aprender japônes de graça na internet, o que muda é a qualidade do material e o tempo toma para te levar um certo nível.

Tem o Genki que é um dos livros mais usados para aprendizado de japonês. A estrutura dele é extremamente linear, bem fácil de entender e os capitulos iniciais são bem intuitivos para quem esta começando. A ideia é você tentar achar esse livro de graça na web (ho ho ho), dai ver os primeiros capitulos para ver se tem compatibilidade com o livro.

Como duas pessoas já mencionaram aqui, também tem a Misa-sensei e Nama-sensei . Uma é super fofa que explica grámatica de básica até avançada com vários exemplos e o outro é um bêbado(no bom sentido) que usa mais comédia para explicar os básicos. O nama é mais fácil de assitir mas ele tem vários problemas como: letra horrível, errar as ordens de kana e meio hit-or-miss com o jeito que ensina.

Esses são os caminhos mais lineares que têm. Porém, se você mudar de ideia e quiser ir para autodidata desde do começo, sugiro ler o guia do /int/ que te dá objetivos claros que precisam ser atingidos. Se você quer algo mais direto que o Genki (sem história, mais grámatica) , tem o guia do Tam Kim que é bem direto ao ponto. O Tam Kim é de graça, ao contrário do Genki, então pode ser uma boa alternativa se não quiser pegar o livro por outros meios.

Quando você começa a ser autoditada estudando uma língua aparece vários métodos estranho que você não tem certeza ou não. Um canal que pode falar mais desses métodos é o Matt vs. Japan. Esse cara perdeu boa parte da vida dele usando métodos extremos para aprender japônes e nos vídeos ele fala o que funciona ou não. Algumas coisas dele são muito extremas, mas sobre métodos de aprender kanji e spaced repetition system(SRS) são bem interessantes e realmente funcionam.

De qualquer jeito, você vai ter que aprender usar o Anki, seja para decks pré-feitos ou preparar ou seus próprios (decks próprios são sempre melhores que pré-feitos). Não há uma sombra de dúvida que o Anki é o instrumento mais forte para se aprender japônes ( e qualquer língua). Ele entra no SRS que eu mencionei anteriormente. Pra você ter uma ideia tem pessoas que estudam sem material/livros, só através de input (animes/videos/filmes) e Anki.

Para output(conversação), você vai precisar: ou procurar algo em RJ que tenha grupos de conversas em japônes, ou vai ter que achar pessoas na internet (o que é mais fácil). Tem vários aplicativos que te conectam com nativos, assim como canais de discord onde treinam japônes/inglês.

Sounds like a cool idea, maybe we could set up an IRC channel, or something? I've started going through this book by /u/capitafk 's suggestion over at /r/SakuraGakuin. I've done the first 2-3 lessons, and it's been great so far, though I'm still slow when reading kana and I can't necessarily write that well...

Genki, a textbook for English-speaking Japanese learners, has an infamous character called Mary-san, who's a huge asshole. I believe there was a Tanaka-kun in there somewhere as well.

If you can directly import from Amazon Japan, the prices aren't that bad. They are currently ￥3,780 each for the textbooks, ￥1,728 each for the workbooks, and ￥864 for the answer key (note these prices have tax included so if you are ordering and shipping them outside Japan they may remove the tax--I paid ￥3,500, ￥1,600, and ￥800).

Links:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/GENKI-Integrated-Course-Elementary-Japanese/dp/4789014401

http://www.amazon.co.jp/GENKI-Integrated-Course-Elementary-Japanese/dp/4789014436

http://www.amazon.co.jp/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Workbook/dp/478901441X

http://www.amazon.co.jp/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Workbook/dp/4789014444

http://www.amazon.co.jp/GENKI-Integrated-Course-Elementary-Japanese/dp/4789014479

Yeah those are the ones! They might be cheaper on amazon.co.jp even after shipping, they were for me:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Edition/dp/4789014401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394474799&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.co.jp/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Workbook/dp/478901441X/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1RG7R56CW6E23F9J9BV9

http://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-English/dp/4789014401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411604386&sr=8-1&keywords=genki

That's the first edition, and while not a lot is different between the two I definitely recommend getting the second edition as it comes with the CD and prices for the first edition individual CDs are criminal. The workbook and answerkey also help.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Genki-Second-Edition-Integrated-Elementary/dp/4789014401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411588323&sr=8-1&keywords=genki

I also have some social anxiety, but I think what helps me is that I have a teacher I can talk about my interests with easily. I had a teacher closer to when I started learning and the lessons weren't nearly as enjoyable and I'd try to look for excuses to cancel them. Now I look forward to them and don't feel nearly as nervous about making mistakes (which happen often, my speaking is pretty bad).

First, learn how to read these. I would recommend getting Genki, to teach you basic grammar and vocab. There is probably a downloadable version somewhere.

I use Anki for mostly vocab. You can download packs here. I also use Tae Kim's site and iOS app for advanced grammar.

Katakana above all else. If you decide you hate everything and don't want to learn any more, or you've gotten distracted and run out of time to study, at the very very least, learn katakana.

Yes, you should learn hiragana as well, and a few of the most important kanji, and basic survival phrases, but.... If all else fails, cram those katakana in on the flight.

Beyond that, the First Grade Joyo Kanji (of which there's only 100 really simple ones) are probably the most essential.

I'd grab Lonely Planet's Japanese Phrasebook. Even if you're planning on learning the language with a textbook (go with Genki, imo), the LP phrasebook is invaluable for your first few months in the country.

Yeah, thanks, seems so This comes out to about £26 (then add conversion, shipping, etc) so still much less than £70!

A dictionary is good, but won't get you what you want.

• Take a class (optional but helpful)
  
• iTalki or other online tutor/teacher arrangement
  
• Apps: LingoDeer, DuoLingo, Human Japanese, Learn Japanese w/Master Ling, RosettaStone, etc.
  
• Online resources: TaeKim, Tofugu, r/LearnJapanese, YouTube, etc.
  
• Genki 1 book
  

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/4789014401/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1452975070&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=genki&dpPl=1&dpID=51FXpMajKOL&ref=plSrch

I also recommend the work book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/478901441X/ref=pd_aw_fbt_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1Z7QM6FRR2AVB1XWNP2F (more practice is always better)

And the answers to all the questions: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/4789014479/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1452975133&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=Genki+answer&dpPl=1&dpID=41dA6oHl-KL&ref=plSrch (just to make life easier if you get stuck)

Make sure to download the audio files from the cd and always listen to the accompanying audio while going through it, even a little listening will help you out.

Hmm, you might want to try buying those from the amazon.co.jp sites instead. I bought them for $130 (GENKI 1 & 2 costed me $69) and the workbooks too + a dictionary. I think you could buy them for ￥６４００ which equals to $55 shipping included.
Here the links:
Workbook 1 ||
Genki 1 ||
Genki 2 ||
Workbook 2

The book alone is £39 and the workbook is £20 incl shipping. You pay £5 more to buy it in that bundle lmao.

So is this the correct one?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/4789014401/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1419796143&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SY200_QL40

Just wanna make sure!

I don't really know why but the books are listed twice on Amazon... on the more expensive base listing (the 90€ one) the alternative shops are actually a bit cheaper (see here) so at least you could get the textbook for around ~50€ and I think the workbook is around 23€ here (the picture shows the second edition so it should be the right one), maybe if you get them from the same shop you could get lucky with cheaper shipping as well, but I don't know about that (same goes for the answer key )

Apart from looking for cheaper shopping on Amazon de you might also want to check Amazon jp (the shipping costs are pretty high but the base price is much cheaper). I'm a bit too lazy to look it up right now, but you can change the site to English so it shouldn't be too hard. Just don't forget to calculate the shipping in as well!

You seem to have a good grasp on things. It looks like some of the linked threads follow a similar path, and I'll probably be following a very similar path myself. Nice books, too. I have quite a few myself. I'm not quite sure which of these are good (since they all had great Amazon reviews). I have the following:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014RTDPBA/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078G5P6Q4/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/4789014401/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/478901441X/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/4805312270/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1572229195/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GW5KTDK/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0976998122/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0658014900/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

(Although Genki I and the Genki workbook, plus the Kata/Hira quick guide looks good)

Couple of leads:

http://genki.japantimes.co.jp/howtoorder

http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/switch-language/product/4789014401/ref=dp_change_lang?ie=UTF8&language=en_JP

Here is the mobile version of your link

I appreciate the quick reply! Yeah, I'm looking at Genki at the moment. I'm wondering which is the best one to get? Is this version suitable? Does it have audio instruction or is it all text? I'm not opposed to text, but I benefit greatly from hearing the pronunciation and flow of things.

Like I said, I enjoyed Pimsleur; if anything it gave me a great jumping off point, I learned basic grammar through exposure, but as you mentioned it doesn't really branch out much, and I feel like most of the lessons have been condensed greatly. I should say I started learning the language out of genuine interest, but I'd love to have it as a career advancement tool in the future, so I'd love to find a good approach to learning the language that I can stick with that should hopefully dovetail with more advanced programs. I don't think my knowledge is advanced enough yet to start working with something like, say Tobira for example.

I've had success with Genki.

https://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-English/dp/4789014401

Pretty sure you can find it at Chapters or for free online.

This is the book I'm using: http://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Edition/dp/4789014401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368512121&sr=8-1&keywords=genki&tag=r601000000-20

And thanks!

Welcome! Check out the wiki to get an idea of where to start. Around here, most people (myself included) suggest getting Genki I to start off, as it goes through the basics of Japanese quite well. Feel free to ask any questions!

thank you very much. I have heard a lot about genki. Is this the right one? amazon link

Thank you by the way for helping me out so far. If you don't mind, could you help me figure out which first 2 books I should be looking at, or what order to get them in?

​

My assumption would be, in the order listed,

1st to get:

GENKI I: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese (English and Japanese Edition)

by Eri Banno

​

2nd to get:

Genki: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese II [Second Edition] (Japanese Edition) (English and Japanese Edition)

​

I am not sure on that second one, I assumed it would be the second book due to it saying Japanese II, but it saying second edition is throwing me off.

A few thoughts off the top of my head...

1. Spend as much time as you can listening to native speakers of the language. Watching Japanese shows, even with English subtitles, is going to really help your pronunciation, colloquial language use, etc. Even better would be conversing with native speakers, but that can be harder to arrange.
   
   
2. This is the textbook series my American university worked from. This is the textbook series my Japanese university worked from. It can be kind of confusing to switch series of books in the middle of learning, so I'd recommend picking one and sticking with it. Learn Japanese was great with a professor guiding me through, but Genki may be better for a solo learner. (Grain of salt: I am not familiar with the earlier Genki books.)
   
   
3. Japanese uses three writing styles: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. The first two are both syllabaries, which are kind of like alphabets, only each "letter" stands for a mora (a syllable, more or less). For instance, what we would write in English as ka is expressed in hirigana as a single "letter." They also are used to represent the exact same set of sounds, and some of the "letters" in each syllabary look pretty similar to each other. You'll want to learn hiragana first, then katakana. If you're able to focus on your work, with lots of practice and flashcards, it shouldn't take you more than a month to learn all of them. Once you have the hiragana down, learn katakana. You'll probably find it goes much faster, since so many of the "letters" are similar. Next will come kanji, which are characters whose meaning and pronunciation can change based on context. You will eventually need to learn about 2,000 kanji to be functionally literate in Japanese, but don't panic; even in Japan, they spread the teaching of them over years. Whichever series of books you pick to learn from will introduce kanji to you gradually.
   
   
4. Once you learn to read hiragana, WWWJDIC is going to be your best friend. There are features to look up individual words, search for kanji, and perform text glossing of entire chunks of text. Dictionary entries include a ton of features, including example sentences, verb conjugations, and the ability to examine individual kanji in a word. Additionally awesome if you have an Android smartphone is the app, which comes with a kanji recognizer: you can draw out kanji you don't know, and it will give you its best guess. (Accuracy increases hugely if you're drawing the kanji with the correct number of strokes and stroke order, so the tool gets more useful once you've started learning kanji.) Note, however, that WWWJDIC is a dictionary, not a translation engine; it can give you a bunch of useful vocabulary, but it can't tell you how to use it to construct a sentence.
   
   Source: Japanese was my foreign language in college, which included a semester abroad in Tokyo.

Did you read the FAQ? It contains a bunch of sites you might find useful for your situation, like Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese, which can get you started on grammar and hopefully won't arouse anyone's suspicion.

Incidentally, if you're looking for a language where no one is ever going to judge you, this might not be the one. Just saying. Maybe you should get that issue sorted out before moving onto any new hobbies.

If you can wait until you move out of home, Genki (also in the FAQ) is a great textbook, and is highly recommended. Get the workbook too so you can practice what you're learning. This is way more comprehensive than Tae Kim IMO.

Im seeing many Genki 1 books, would getting only this one be ok to start? https://www.amazon.ca/GENKI-Integrated-Course-Elementary-Japanese/dp/4789014401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503335624&sr=8-1&keywords=genki

Thanks for the reply! Are these the Genki books you're referring to?

Offhand I'd put myself as an Intermediate-Beginner. Kana is no problem, but I only have around 60 or so Kanji under my belt, and my vocab/verbal was about the level to get me though typical everyday conversations, albeit with some groping around with very basic and bad grammar to make myself understood when I don't know how to say something. One of the bigger points is just that I haven't been speaking / listening to it for the last 4 years.

Is Nikkei this website?

I guess I would want to get a lot of math / physics / mechanical vocab so I can describe results from stress tests and failure loads and so on. I'm not aiming to have easy, flowing conversation skills in 2 months or anything, but if I can understand most of what the other engineers are saying, and make myself understood quickly at least, I'd be satisfied.

Yeah, I haven't set myself up for success very well; all of my blocked-off self-study time ended up getting eaten up with business trips and late nights in the lab, and then the transfer date got set recently.

I've been hoping to find an outside tutor / course if for no other reason than to have some time that I know couldn't get sucked into work-time, but you may be right; setting some focused time each day to work on vocab could be my best bet.

No, they're two resources. Tae Kim, genki

This one

http://www.amazon.co.jp/GENKI-Integrated-Course-Elementary-Japanese/dp/4789014401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450349405&sr=8-1&keywords=genki

Okay, so I'm also new to Japanese, and I'm 15 too, so I'm in the same boat as you. I should probably let you know though how often people tell me to learn Hiragana and Katakana before jumping in to anything else.

You can do that through hiragana and katakana courses on the flashcard site Memrise. It's recommended for general language learning and specifically Japanese vocab. and writing systems often, and I've had a generally good experience with it. Pick up a book on them if you feel like it.

It could take you between a week to a month depending on your skill level and your general ability to pick up knowledge, but once you have them under your belt and only then, start learning speaking, listening and general grammar and vocabulary then. Pick up a textbook like Genki if you feel like it. Genki 1 is recommended a lot here too.

I should probably emphasise the FAQ, wiki and other info here on this subreddit, too. The /r/LearnJapanese starters' guide is your friend, and will give a more wholesome rundown than I did.

One final thing - I'm new to this too, so to you and any other new learners like me reading this: I'm not an expert; I'm just doing what's working for me and is generally advised. To people with more experience learning Japanese with a better idea of how to start: please comment with anything I've missed or messed up; like I said, I'm not a genius. I've seen people here who I think are, and they're friendly, good people. I try to be good and friendly, but I'm no genius at all, I'm just starting like you.

Sorry for the long post, I can't feel my fingers from typing fast. Good luck to you, /u/Harry-kun!

£53 for volume 1, £49 for volume 2.

That's not counting the workbooks, which are about £20 each.

Edit: It would be considerably cheaper just to import them from Amazon US.

Would this be a good one to get on Amazon?
https://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-English/dp/4789014401/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Genki+I&qid=1569861371&sr=8-1

I actually took the class at Rutgers. It was very fun and interesting, but you could probably do all the work on your own (if you're dedicated enough). The textbook we used was Genki 1
https://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Course-Elementary-Japanese/dp/4789014401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491451953&sr=8-1&keywords=genki+1
The workbook as well
https://www.amazon.com/Genki-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Workbook/dp/478901441X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1491451953&sr=8-2&keywords=genki+1

Not all Rutgers classes are on the NJIT schedule builder. Japanese you'll have to find in the Rutgers schedule builder:
https://sis.rutgers.edu/soc/

Finally, to register for any class at Rutgers, you need to fill out this form and bring it to our registrar:
http://www5.njit.edu/sites/registrar/files/lcms/forms/RUTG.pdf

https://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Course-Elementary-Japanese/dp/4789014401

Learn Japanese and you will have no problem finding hype for Dragon Quest.

http://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-English/dp/4789014401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458446988&sr=8-1&keywords=genki

sorry for late reply. These books are one of the most popular series. You can have conversational japense after learning from both text books. after that you have to by a kanji text books to learn kanji, or you can find something online.You honestly just need to learn the common ones cause even japanese people forget kanji they don't use very often.

https://www.amazon.co.jp/GENKI-Integrated-Course-Elementary-Japanese/dp/4789014401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496990257&sr=8-1&keywords=genki+1

This one?

Just making sure this is 'the' Genki book right? http://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Edition/dp/4789014401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412811297&sr=8-1&keywords=genki

Sorry to bug you one more time. Would you suggest this one with the CD-ROM or would I just need the workbook? Thanks again.

Be sure to get the textbooks. You WILL be using them. Especially the workbooks.
These are what you'll need:
https://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Course-Elementary-Japanese/dp/4789014401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501126453&sr=8-1&keywords=genki

https://www.amazon.com/Genki-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Workbook/dp/478901441X/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=478901441X&pd_rd_r=9T6QJ16NYXTG8SS140AV&pd_rd_w=Rs3eV&pd_rd_wg=AzzaO&psc=1&refRID=9T6QJ16NYXTG8SS140AV
https://www.amazon.com/Kanji-Look-Learn-Eri-Banno/dp/4789013499/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1501126506&sr=1-1&keywords=kanji+look+and+learn
https://www.amazon.com/Title-KANJI-LOOK-LEARN-WORKBOOK/dp/4789013502/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1501126506&sr=1-2&keywords=kanji+look+and+learn

I also suggest getting little things like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Vocabulary-Quickstudy-Inc-BarCharts/dp/1572229195/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1572229195&pd_rd_r=9T6QJ16NYXTG8SS140AV&pd_rd_w=Rs3eV&pd_rd_wg=AzzaO&psc=1&refRID=9T6QJ16NYXTG8SS140AV
https://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Grammar-Quickstudy-Inc-BarCharts/dp/1572229128/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1572229128&pd_rd_r=1R88XNVSTEQ0BSSQ6J78&pd_rd_w=lbplP&pd_rd_wg=hbKyk&psc=1&refRID=1R88XNVSTEQ0BSSQ6J78

http://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Edition/dp/4789014401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415162226&sr=8-1&keywords=genki

Hey, this is very late, but I am procrastinating studying for my Kanji test tomorrow, so I'm going to write this out again! I hope you see it.

Free is going to be hard. I would suggest less than $50, as that's a hell of a lot more feasible.

Step 0: Get your expectations in Check

You have 3 - 5 months, depending on when you are going. That's enough to learn some stuff, but not as much as you'd like.

You will need to study at least an hour a day, every day. At that point, you'll likely be able to form basic sentences, read basic signs and instruction, and absolutely struggle through the most basic of basic conversations. That's really about it.

You can do more if you study more, obviously. But you also run the risk of burning out. Personally, I would suggest setting an hour a night aside, and at the end of that hour, ask yourself, "Am I good for another 30 minutes?" and continue doing that until you can't honestly say yes.

---

Step 1: Learn Hiragana and Katakana

There are lots of apps and books and stuff for this: It's a gigantic waste of money and time. Make yourself some flashcards, drill them into your head at every spare moment over a few days. You should have a basic sense of them. You'll still forget some, that's normal, don't worry. As long as you don't have to stop and look up every other kana, you're going to be fine.

Step 2: Get a Grammar Resource

Textbook, unfortunately. Alternative: tutor or classes but that gets expensive quick.

Any one of us can give you a massive list of vocab and useful grammar points and flash card decks. That will give you a wealth of information and no direction. The important part of a class or a textbook is that it's a lesson plan. You don't need to waste the time deciding what to learn in what order: Just flip the page.

Genki is the standard recommendation, because it's used in University/College classes across North America and there are resources for it everywhere: Downside: You need 4 Books + The Answer Key to use it effectively. That'll end up at $225USD ish.

Skipping Minna No Nihongo because, while it's another popular recomendation, it's MORE expensive.

I used Japanese for Everyone (I have also used Genki and I own a copy of Minna No Nihongo 1 from school, but haven't used it) and I'm going to recommend it here stronger than I normally do. Reason: It's super cheap, because that's the only book you're going to need. Downside is less internet resources and a faster pace.

Free Alternative is Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese Grammar. It's useful, but it contains no useful practice problems and a not so great selection of example sentences.

---

Step 3: Practice

Once you get 6 or 7 chapters into your textbook of choice, you need to start using it. Even if you're not speaking, at least be writing to someone in real time in text. Input is probably more important than output, yes, but you need some output at least. Lots of people (Me included) put this off far too long and I Definitely suffered when I first came to Tokyo for it.

Free? You want HelloTalk. It's an iPhone/Android messaging app specifically tailored for people exchanging languages. It's pretty much your only/best option for free. Conversations tend to fizzle out when both people are low level, so be persistent.

---

Step 4: Additional Resources

• imabi.net
  
  One guy writing hundreds of pages of guides that go into mid-depth of Japanese Grammar. This is not a primary resource. It takes the problems I have with Tae Kim to the extreme, and it is very grammar term heavy. It's best used for additional explanation when you don't understand something. Say, you get to ~てしまう in a textbook and don't understand? Imabi.
  
  
• Anki/Ankidroid/Memrise
  
  Spaced Repetition Flashcards. They work, they're useful. Anki is more powerful and has more community vetted resources, Memrise is more "Game-ified" but less powerful and with less resources. You should never use either of these programs as your first contact with any grammar point. They are flash cards. They are used to review.
  
  
• A Dictionary App
  
  Goes without saying. Take your pick, 99% of them use the same base database so the only difference is UI. I use mine 500 times a day (But I am in Tokyo).
  
  
• NHK Web Easy
  
  Here. 3 Articles a day (5 on Friday) taken from the NHK main site and simplified heavily, intended for foreigners and elementary school students. Includes Furigana on every kanji, colour coding places/names, and full audio recording for each Article. Too advanced for you now, but good god is this good to know about it.
  
  
• Erin's Challenge
  
  Here. Originally made to go with a textbook, and for learning it's pretty well impossible without that textbook. This site is still a fucking goldmine, with over 100 1-5 minute skits and videos in normal Japanese (Except the main character, who is correct but intentionally slow). Full scripts and line-by-line break down in Japanese, Kana Only, Romaji, and English. Listening Practice and Shadowing does not get better than this.
  
  ---
  
  Step -1: Things to Avoid
  
  

1. Massive Pre-made Vocab Decks on Anki. They have a time and a place, but neither of those are "At the beginning of your studies".
   
2. "Learn Japanese" apps. Duolingo is bad. Lingodeer is less bad, but still not ideal. Human Japanese is even less bad, but provides no practice beyond shitty quizzes.
   
3. "Remembering the Kanji" or RTK. It basically teaches you English Key Words for all the standard Kanji, with little mnemonics and mnemonic forming tips. It requires a 3 - 5 month investment, during which you are not learning Japanese. The key words are incomplete at best and wrong at worst. It has a place if you're willing to not learn Japanese for 3 - 5 months to make the following 3 - 5 months significantly easier on you, but that's not going to help you in Japan.
   
   Have fun!

Do you have a local university where you can audit a summer class? I recommend doing that if you can, and also you can ask your professor recommendations.

Force yourself to learn Hiragana and Katakana in 1 week or so and get that over with quickly. Do not go easy on yourself and move on from reading the Romanized pronunciations. There are flash card apps you can use as well, my preferred is called Anki. I live in Japan and still use it as there are flash card decks for everything, and especially since it's on my phone (free on android, paid on iphone).

Find a language partner if possible. There are also online Skype services.

For now though, I recommend either of the first two books, and the third. My organization's Japanese language advisor prefers Minna no Nihongo, because he thinks the Genki series uses too much English. But I first learned in the states during college and still feel that Genki 1 & 2 were great introductory books. The third book is from my language advisor's preferred Japanese Language Proficiency Test prepbook series:

Genki

[Minna no Nihongo] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/4883196038/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522710731&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=minna+no+nihongo+1&dpPl=1&dpID=41T4AzzZhzL&ref=plSrch)

[Nihongo So Matome N5] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/486639076X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522710835&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=nihongo+sou+matome+n5&dpPl=1&dpID=51HKNmOKvfL&ref=plSrch)



Learn how to count, along with the basic various counter words (ex: the first 10 days of the month are special words, 10 people, 10 things, etc)

Learn "すみません sumimasen" for "I'm sorry / excuse me / thank you" (sometimes). Use this especially if you need someone's attention or want to ask a question.

"arigatou(gozaimasu/gozaimashita)" = thank you

Toire wa doko desu ka? =
Where's the bathroom?

男 "otoko" = man

女 "onna" = woman

Also check out /r/movingtojapan /r/japanlife

Blessings on you

Yeah, of course. It looks like this:

https://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-English/dp/4789014401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466867058&sr=8-1&keywords=Genki

There's a workbook that goes along with it, if you desire:

https://www.amazon.com/Genki-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Workbook/dp/478901441X/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=41E9x-SxfaL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR112%2C160_&psc=1&refRID=ZCS88SX1RCDF3ZYKRYNE

I'd recommend the workbook.

Ah, yeah. There are two Genki books - a textbook and a workbook.

The textbook is what has all the lessons, dialogues, grammar explanations, vocabulary lists, and so on.

The workbook is meant to be a companion book which provides you with a lot of exercises to complete after doing a lesson in the textbook.

You want the one that doesn't say workbook on it, like this one, for example.

Thanks Man, Think I got it all This Is it right?

/r/learnjapanese's Getting Started Guide

> ###Online Guides
>
> Luckily for the modern language learner, the internet is full of free resources for study. When using them, however, make sure that you are using a credible source. One extremely popular and quality guide is Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese. Written, and even available through Amazon, as a book, Tae Kim’s Guide covers everything you need to know to get started learning Japanese.
>
> Another great choice is Pomax's Introduction to Japanese.
>
> If you’d like to follow a different path, you can follow the subsections below.
>
>
> ###Textbooks
>
> If you’re interested in a more traditional form of study, you may be looking for a recommendation of a textbook. In /r/LearnJapanese, the most commonly recommended textbook series is Genki. Currently available in its second edition, the Genki consists of two textbooks (GENKI I: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese and Genki: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese II) with companion workbooks. The books and associated media are designed to be used to help in learning speaking, listening, reading and writing skills, with additional segments for cultural information. These textbooks are commonly used in college and university settings and cover the first two years of study at a common pace.
>
> These books are available for purchase from many sources, such as Amazon.com (Amazon.com Purchase Links: Genki I | Genki I Workbook | Genki II | Genki II Workbook ) and traditional brick-and-mortar resellers.
>
> Additional choices for textbooks, such as the Nakama series, can be found on the Resources page of the wiki.

While I won't be able to teach you myself, I've got a spare copy of this book that I could give to you.
https://www.amazon.de/Genki-Integrated-Course-Elementary-Japanese/dp/4789014401

It teaches basic Japanese by using one or two short sample dialogues for each chapter with emphasis on a certain grammatical form.
If you want to get any use out of it, it is vital to at least being able to read Hiragana, one of the three writing systems Japanese is composed of, though.

If you're interested just send me a message.

Ah, makes sense. Just to make sure I'm ordering the right things:

http://www.amazon.com/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Edition/dp/4789014401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394473441&sr=8-1&keywords=genki

http://www.amazon.com/Genki-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Workbook/dp/478901441X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1394473441&sr=8-2&keywords=genki

These are the two I need?

I don't know if it answers your question but I learn Japanese using this book . It's fantastic and it starts from the basic.

If you like anime and manga this site is fun:

It would really help you to get an actual textbook though. I use the Genki series, and it is much, much more affordable than Rosetta Stone and a million times better too.

This and This you don't happend you know the difference since there's such a huge price difference.

Edit: nvm textbook and workbook. Would i need both or is textbook enough?

I can't speak for the quality of Rosetta Stone, but he is correct in recommending the Genki series of books. The best I've encountered so far.

1. Cry
   
   
   
2. Essential Japanese Grammar: A Comprehensive Guide to Contemporary Usage, Genki I, and Genki II
   
   
   
3. JAPAN: Understanding & Dealing with the New Japanese Way of Doing Business
   
   
   Even if you disregard my advice on everything else you must must must must follow three in getting some books in understanding how to do business in Japanese.
   
   
   Language barrier is easy to overcome if there's money involved, cultural barriers less so. For learning Japanese and/or doing business in Japan culture and etiquette is everything.

Hello!

I'm interested in taking genki too, i would like to know if you bought only the book

or if you also bought the exercises ( question and answer)

thank you!

Is this one good? this I'm sorry that im suddenly offending everyone im just trying to learn...