I am by no means awesomely good at the language, but I find myself constantly coming on to CL in the hope of someone asking a question that I can answer. I find teaching people about it when im not immersed in it is the best way to continue learning myself as well. So, fire away.

I just started? What would you say are the most efficient(fast and thorough) resources you used to learn it? I'm going straight into the ugly, writing (kanjii) so that it gets easier as I go along. I'll keep this thread linked for the future questions Ill surely have.

I just started? What would you say are the most efficient(fast and thorough) resources you used to learn it? I'm going straight into the ugly, writing (kanjii) so that it gets easier as I go along. I'll keep this thread linked for the future questions Ill surely have.

Well, kanji wise there arn't many shortcuts. Its probably better that you get your hiragana and katakana nailed before going onto kanji. You need to know lots of kanji to be able to read anything written for natives, but you can write and communicate anything you like if you know hiragana and katakana, plus you will then know how the language sounds. As far as resources there are plenty of books that employ a "fill in the blanks" and "re-write this sentence with all of the kanji you know" method. They give you new kanji to learn at the start of every chapter and the newer chapters constantly draw back on the older chapters so you dont forget the previously learned stuff. So by the end of it you are a few hundred kanji stronger, then the books go up levels and you repeat the process. the website www.popjisyo.com is really good for helping you with hard kanji, but it goes a bit funny when it gets to grammar, so dont rely on it too much. It gives you the reading of the kanji in hiragana and all of the broken down meanings of each part of the word. To actually learn to read Japanese fluently would require a shitload of effort if you didnt live in the country. Most primary school kids in japan can even read newspapers until the end of grade 6.

Japanese is on my hit list, I plan to visit Japan sometime soon.

1. How hard is Japanese grammar?

Can you recommend me any grammar books?

2. Are the Honorific's complicated?

I just started? What would you say are the most efficient(fast and thorough) resources you used to learn it? I'm going straight into the ugly, writing (kanjii) so that it gets easier as I go along.

Thought I'd throw in my two cents:

If you own a Nintendo DS, I recommend these two programs:

漢字そのまま楽引辞典（かんじそのままらくびきじてん） (http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-9g-49-en-15-sonomama-70-198v.html)

Great dictionary program. I particularly like it because I can write in kanji I don't know and look them up, whereas usually I would have to count the number of strokes and look it up that way (which is incredibly time-consuming!). Also, it gives many example sentences. Although, a few example sentences in the Japanese to English entries are suspect; for example, under the entry for "how" is this example sentence: "how did you tame your squirrel?" LOL!

正しい漢字かきとりくん２(ただしいかんじかきとりくん） (http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-9g-49-en-15-kakitori-70-2c9x.html)

Absolutely love this program. This program teaches you how to write all 1,945 jouyo "daily use" kanji (the so-called "newspaper kanji" because you need to know them to read the average Japanese newspaper) correctly. Shows you correct stroke order, correct number of strokes, and correct proportion. Also will show you the onyomi and kunyomi readings of the kanji. It has many other features, like giving you a sentence with blanks in it, and you have to complete based on context and the furigana hint given.

Only downside is that both of these programs are designed for native Japanese, and as such, all of the instructions and screen prompts are in Japanese (thankfully, the screens in the second program have furigana). So like screwdriver said, you have to be able to read kana before you can really study kanji.

I actually went out and bought a DS just for these programs, and I can say it was worth it.

Japanese is on my hit list, I plan to visit Japan sometime soon.

2. Are the Honorific's complicated?

Thought I'd throw in on this one, too:

Depends on the level, IMO. Switching between "plain" form (used between friends and family) and "-masu" (used for "outgroup" people) is not hard, in my opinion. However, the super polite form used in formal situations (such as business) is much more complicated. In fact, natives have trouble with it; new employees in Japanese companies sometimes have to go through training programs to learn this super polite form.

Compounding all of this is that as a foreigner, you will have no ingrained sense of when to use a particular politeness level if a situation is a bit ambiguous and doesn't fall into a clearly defined social situation that you have learned. I've been told that it's safe to then just use "-masu" form if you're not sure, but this can still cause problems. Speaking in "-masu" form when a person expects you to speak in plain would kinda be like giving someone the cold shoulder and creates distance between you and the person. It would be like in English if you said "how's it hangin'?" to someone and they responded in a very stiff and formal way.

The plus side of this is that since you are a foreigner, the many slips you make will probably be tolerated, because you aren't expected to get it right, anyway (バカ外人;)).

Thanks. I'll look into the second program as I get more experience. As of now I can recognize about 70 kanjii thanks to the james heisig book. I also learned the hiragana from his other book. I haven't mastered it, of course, but I can recognize most of the syllables. I recommend any japanese noobs to start with james heisig whether you know any vocab or not.

1. How hard is Japanese grammar?



Japanese grammar is not like English, at all.
about 5 main particles exist (wa as it is spoken, ha as it is written, ga, no, wo, ni, de, ka just to name a few) which are normally placed between every word to show the function of the word in the sentence and the relationship this word has to the words around it. Then you have your interjections and conjunctions which can get a bit more confusing, and then grammar patterns which you have to remember in order to express specific interactions between words and sentences.
Like many languages the word order is usually different too, but particles sometimes allow you to put them wherever you like.
Thats the easy stuff.
It gets really tricky (I think) when the verbs start changing for politeness levels, and every possible modification of a verb makes the sound of the verb change depending on what word it is.
Example:
the verb for drink is nomu
polite: nomimasu
drinking: nondeimasu / nondeiru
eat: taberu / tabemasu
eating: tabeteiru / tabeteimasu
The type of the verb in this case denoted whether i should use te or de to put it in the present tense. This is a really basic example of how verbs change. if you wqanna know and more specifics, ask away :)

It gets really tricky (I think) when the verbs start changing for politeness levels

Or how about those giving and receiving verbs? I had a heck of a time sorting those out at first. 日本語の文法はところどころすごく難しいと思う。:)

そう、その言葉はちょっと難しいと思う。　ところで、ソーシャール・ジャンカーさんは新しい言葉が私の語彙 に上げる事と思えている。　:)　その言葉は『ところどころ』が聞いたないと思う。

私も『ところどころ』という言葉をはじめて聞きました。ポストした前、辞典で引きました。一日一日、新しい 何かを学んでいますね。:)

No...

"No" what?

Aw man, I came into this thread thinking it was a thread started by Red Raven

Heres a question.I know ka is like a spoken question mark.Are there any other spoken punctuation marks?

Heres one for you: How do you go about building your vocabulary. This has to be my greatest problem. I can't build my vocabulary.

Do you like hentai and lolicon?

How many pubes did the first japanese emperor have?

Heres a question.I know ka is like a spoken question mark.Are there any other spoken punctuation marks?

Yes, but they don't have any direct English equivalent, ill try to explain the basics of a few of them:
wa: indicates main subject of sentence
wo: normally indicates that a noun is directly connected to a verb
ga: hard to explain, but mostly the same as wa, with a little less emphasis. It can also function like a wo. If anyone can gave a good English explanation of what ga does i'd like to hear it :)
ni: indicates a place
he: same as ni
no: joins nouns and indicates possessiveness
to: joins nouns like "and" in English would
there are others, but there's an indication for ya.

Heres one for you: How do you go about building your vocabulary. This has to be my greatest problem. I can't build my vocabulary.

The same as any other language, study heaps of words, and apply them in everyday situations. Also try to learn what the words are for everything you come into contact with. Be able to look outside or around your house and know how to say everything you see, and when you see something you dont know, look it up, and bam, there's another word for your vocab. Also thinking about how you would say things that you hear everyday in english in your chosen language is another good way to improve i think.

this works for any language, but visualize vocab as you learn it as much as possible. do not focus on the english equivalent. if you learn the word for orange, visualize a huge orange, sliced open, with a japanese person eating it and repeat the word a lot.