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Where do I start to learn Japanese?
EliteLamer
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I am going to study abroad in Japan before I am out of school and I would like to learn some Japanese. I really want to find a pen pal but before I can even do that I need to learn enough Japanese to write in Romaji. To learn to write in Romaji do you have to learn the 3 writing scripts first? Oh, and I have a really dumb question, whenever I watch videos with Japanese they always seem to say Hi!!, why is that? It sounds like some sort of acknowledgment.
SEGA
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With that said, you do not necessarily need to learn the two alphabets (and definitely not kanji) to be able to write romaji. While hiragana and katakana are useful and should be learned as soon as possible, it is possible to learn vocabulary and grammar using only the English alphabet. However, it's a good idea to learn how the alphabets are structured, so as to better grasp pronunciation and how to write in romaji. If you're looking for a Japanese-speaking pen pal to help you practice, there are many web-based services that will set you up with a partner who is either a Japanese student wanting to practice English, or a fellow English-speaking student who will practice with you/help you study Japanese. Unfortunately, I don't know any of these services off of the top of my head, but I can personally set you up with a capable pen pal.
In the meantime, it's a really good idea to download and install a Japanese text input method. If you're running Windows, Microsoft will let you download the language pack from their site for free, and typing in Japanese should be explained by the download's readme. If you can't find that on their website, or are not running Windows, there are some older IMEs I can link you to.
In response to your dumb question: what you're hearing is "hai." It means "yes."
Still being in high school might pose a problem, though. See if a community college in your area
will let you enroll without having completed high school. You might be able to swing something!
Well, I am in college and they don't offer Japanese. The university I am transferring to might, but I wont be going to UF for another year.
I know how to install the language packs with the XP discs but I lost them and on their website I can't find any that support Windows XP. I found packs for windows 98 and NT but not really anything for XP. I found this but does not have Japanese...
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0db2e8f9-79c4-4625-a07a-0cc1b341be7c&displaylang=en
I would suggest taking a 100 level Japanese intensive at your local college or university. I did last semester and learned romanji for about the first week then went straight into hiragan, katakana while doing kanjii characters on the side.
The alphabets aren't really that hard to learn (with the exception of Kanjii). Best way to learn imho is to have a sensei who can teach you in a classroom setting.
Maybe get a rossetta stone application for Japanese on the side as well.
EDIT:
Didn't see this. Well, the next best thing would be to put an ad in craigslist looking for a language partner. Your university should have bulletin boards with this kind of thing too.
Don't worry about "learning" romaji, it will just come with learning the kana.
That is the first thing I did and you have to have the XP disc to install the packs.
Yeah I can speak from experience with this. I started learning about six weeks ago and have recently made up some flash cards and it works like a charm for me.
I bought myself a workbook/CD combo that focusses on speaking, and I bought a workbook that focusses on reading and writing to cover my bases.
These two:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Oxford-Take-Off-Japanese/dp/0198603002/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/202-5500268-7088618?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1186598392&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Yourself-Beginners-Japanese-Script-Yourself-Script/dp/0071419853/ref=sr_1_2/202-5500268-7088618?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1186598442&sr=8-2
I'm just working my way through them and I feel it has been very worthwhile so far.
There is a free program called “learn kana” that are Hiragana/Katakana Flash cards.
http://spider.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/brentb/jal/LearnKana.exe
Japanese is a difficult language to learn but not the most difficult of all (Mandarin Chinese holds that honor) with some practice you should get it. Ganbane!
I like anime and I watch it but I find the kids who wear DBZ shirts all the time, annoying. I really don't think Otaku kids over in Japan are as bad as the ones we have in the united states.
I don't know if this helps me, but I learned English with phonics because I had a hard time reading when I was younger. So I was taught using phonics.
Japanese people HATE that, I am told
Why would I do that, wouldn't that make my Japanese full of slang. Wouldn't it also lack the correct tone of respect...
Say, I've seen the CDs and books mentionned in here, and they seemed interesting. Do you have any good sort of "Eng / Jap, Jap / Eng" dictionnary to suggest?
best one I've ever found
http://dict.regex.info/cgi-bin/j-e/fg=r/inline/dict
Any good print format book, though?
It's for a trip to Japan in my case.
Hai just acknowledges you heard someone or telling them you agree or acknowledging direct orders from superiors (if you watch an anime of gundam or some military one you can see hai = yes sir or no sir / maam).
Iie is not just "no" either as you can use it to show modesty, such as when someone compliments youre wife or car or something, you can say "iie" for a"its not all that" type of answer. Just saying "hai" to agree with them would be insulting and a sign of bragging.
So yes, you can generally say hai = yes and iie = no, but you would be wrong for someone trying to learn the language. Watching anime = hai / yes type responses, not real life type responses.
For learning, http://www.kanjistep.com/ is a great site to find all the calligraphy steps to writing in kata / hira gana and kanjis. They have several simple lessons as well. Make flash cards and take a page (like you did in elementary for cursive and printing) and write every kata / hira gana out across lines (practice just like they show you on the site, each stroke in correct order). After you learn the different characters (practice saying them when you pull them out like i = long e sound, ki = sounds like key, etc), you can mix them up and identify them as kata or hira and recognize them on sight. Take random sorted packs on the bus / in car / etc for random practice on the go.
http://www.learn-japanese.info/ is another good site and has links to many others. There are several pod casts as well that can be found online where people have conversations and go over the sentences in step by step fashion that let you experience actual people speaking Japanese and help you learn quicker and pick out words from sentences faster (at least I found it that way). After that, you will need to either find a tutor / class or buy books / library to learn more kanji and grammar / vocabulary.
While it probably seems like I made a big deal about "hai" and it not meaning yes exclusively, it is fairly often used that way. I just wanted to make sure that it is not an exact translation and not to just take it at face value as a yes / no thing. Having said that, without seeing the video, it could be completely wrong or used perfectly and so on. For all I know, the guy could just be agreeing to whatever the other is saying to him sort of like when you get nagged at and just say yes to get the person to leave you alone.
It is at the end of it.
Once you have the language bar, you can switch from "EN" to "JP." Then, you need to click the "A" on this toolbar and pick "H" to have your typing converted to hiragana and stuff, or "K" to have it converted to katakana.
I just started messing around with the typing conversion, and it's fun.