[Amnell]

To OP:

I feel for ya!!! I've been self teaching now for four months. It's tough, but if you search around enough online, you can find a lot of great resources.

From the internet, I've acquired kana and the rules for it (though I have yet to memorize Kat. >_< ), I've found a website that has a complete brake-down by grade of the Daily Use Kanji and have begun studying first grade Kanji, I've found dictionaries that show stroke order of Kanji, learned and memorized the more essential particles and honorifics, and found resources for listening to the language (in the form of anime XP ). I've also had the great opportunity to talk to a lot of people who know a lot about Japanese or just languages in general.

The moral of the story is this: the internet is invaluable for starting to study Japanese. Absolutely invaluable. And the greatest keystroke for internet study is this: CTRL+D .

You should notice, though, that the things lacking from my above list are grammar and vocabulary. Sadly, most online resources that give you lessons and GOOD explanations of Japanese gram. and vocab. require that you have a credit card and a mailing address. For those, I found my college library very helpful.

If you'd like any more details (like specific websites etc), feel free to PM me or hit me up on AIM or Skype ^_^ .