Need help learning this!

[shawnjeezie]

i like just started self-teaching myself Japanese. Unfortunately I don't know of many things I can do that can help me learn the vocabulary an average japanese college student would know. Things I know are watching japanese anime (unsure of whether it is better to turn on english subtitles or to just listen to the japanese and try and figure it out myself), reading and studying out of the book i got (kinda old, Japanese in Ten Minutes a Day), and speaking it with people who are also learning or already have learned it. Also a kind of off-topicish question, but I was wondering if college-prep school was another way of saying high school in Japan or if it was different. All help will be appreciated!

I left off something xD. My book doesn't teach me how to read Japanese writing symbols. Teaches me how to speak it only. Therefore all the words are in English Alphabet. Could someone tell me where I could find a book that will teach me the symbols. I'm sure I'm am going to need it.

[GTJ]

Reading.
Vocab.
Listening.

- Stop watching anime. It will ruin your Japanese.
- Stop "teaching yourself". You're not a licensed Japanese teacher so I don't see how this phrase makes sense. Enter a class.
- If you learn from your friends who are learning, you learn their mistakes, too. Be careful.
- Did you even try to find any answers to your questions before posting here? Just curious.

Good luck!

[shawnjeezie]

Thanks. Reason I am teaching myself is because I can't afford to pay for classes. I barely scraped up enough money to pay for college classes this semester. I'll do anything that helps, but I can learn slang terms and whatnots from watching anime I think. So far I don't know enough of the language to start trying to do that yet. This is tough, but not as tough as high school French. Crappy Texas schools don't offer Japanese =(.

[BoyFromTheFuture]

Originally Posted by GTJ

- Stop watching anime. It will ruin your Japanese.

I disagree, anime taught me the word order in Japanese (which apparently is a big obstacle to learners of Japanese) , long before I even had interest of learning the language. Learning the entire language from Anime though, is ridiculous.

[JustinATTACK]

That's because Texas sucks...(spoken by one who has spent all all his life here..)

[MMM]

Originally Posted by shawnjeezie

Thanks. Reason I am teaching myself is because I can't afford to pay for classes. I barely scraped up enough money to pay for college classes this semester. I'll do anything that helps, but I can learn slang terms and whatnots from watching anime I think. So far I don't know enough of the language to start trying to do that yet. This is tough, but not as tough as high school French. Crappy Texas schools don't offer Japanese =(.

You don't need to know Japanese slang, you need to start by learning proper formal Japanese. Your best bet is taking a class when you can afford it.

[shawnjeezie]

By the time i can start class for the language, I'll have learned quite a bit of the language. I could however use help with how you learn the order in which i put words. It looks to be kinda like the latin based languages of french and spanish where you like always say it in reverse order. you say the noun at the start of the sentence then define what is is you desire to know about it or what it is doing after you put the noun. Is it always that way?

[MMM]

Originally Posted by shawnjeezie

By the time i can start class for the language, I'll have learned quite a bit of the language. I could however use help with how you learn the order in which i put words. It looks to be kinda like the latin based languages of french and spanish where you like always say it in reverse order. you say the noun at the start of the sentence then define what is is you desire to know about it or what it is doing after you put the noun. Is it always that way?

No because often the subjects are dropped altogether.

You'll never know how much or how little of a language you can know in a certain period of time. If you do know a lot maybe you can test into a higher level.

[shawnjeezie]

kewl. thanks. now i di need to know what to do about learning that 1100 symbols they use for writing. If im to someday get out of texas and to someplace better, learning those symbols could come in handy.

[shawnjeezie]

just found a good artist who is doing tutorials on youtube. his name on dere is markcrilley. He does some detailed stuff. all anime/manga.