“arguing”) really detracted from the time I would have otherwise spent studying.
Best language program to learn japanese plus#
Plus the time we spent ironing out our cultural differences (i.e. Contrary to my expectations, this did almost nothing to improve my Japanese, since she wanted to improve her English and her language skills were far superior to mine. We completed both Genki I and Genki II books.Ī Japanese lover for several years. I learned a ton and made a bunch of friends. A lot of people seem to dislike taking classes, but I think they’re fantastic. I’d already completed graduate school, so I enrolled just to take Japanese. Then I taught myself katakana the same way. Every day I re-wrote all the hiragana I’d learned, plus five new. Then the next day, I wrote the five from the previous day and five new ones. I wrote down five hiragana the first day. Somewhere along the line I taught myself hiragana with the help of a website that provided mnemonics. I used it every day for years, until it finally snapped at the hinges from all the opening and closing and I had to hold the little guy together with duct tape. But like Pimsleur, it’ll empty your wallet in a hurry.Ī Canon Wordtank electronic dictionary. The curriculum is pretty solid, and you learn a lot of core phrases and vocabulary. But after that, I thought it was fairly good. It took me a while to figure out that I had to go though the program reading the kanji and hiragana, and looking up the words I didn’t know in a dictionary. I did almost the whole thing, until I finally got bored with it. Plus the spaced repetition was effective. Not a big investment of time, and it gets you up and speaking right away. Pretty good for an introduction into the language.
The Pimsleur audio-only course, I, II, and III. Here’s the abbreviated version of what I did to learn Japanese: First, let me provide you with a little perspective on how I got to this point. I figured I’d get all that learning stuff out of the way early so I could get on to something more important, which turns out to be laying on my futon drinking Japanese malt liquor and trying to understand the TV.īut back to the question of learning Japanese. I didn’t care what effort it required or how much it cost I just wanted it over and done with so I could hold a decent conversation. So from the start, that’s how I approached learning the language. But as far as I’m concerned, most things-like making money, learning Japanese, and folding my laundry-would be best done as fast as possible. I got that from an instant coffee commercial, actually. They say the best things in life should be savored. What’s the best way to learn Japanese? After pouring years, beers, and tears into the question (pretty much in that order), I finally have an answer.