Quote:
Originally Posted by redline
My cousin and I are planning on taking a trip to japan within the next year or so, and I thought it might be best if I learned to read, write, and speak Japanese. I taught myself hirigana and katakana and now I'm having trouble deciding what the next step is. Do I learn the kanji, or do I work on the actual speaking of the language. Should I just try to learn both at the same time? I'm new to these forums by the way. Hello my name is Timmy.  |
If you're just taking a vacation, I'd say the first thing you ought to do is learn "tourist Japanese." Basically, learn how to order things off a menu, ask where important locations are, ask for directions (street addresses are
really illogical in Japan—it's more like a disordered number for area of town, block number, and house number on that block, so you won't be able to just walk down the street and pass by 1-1-1, 1-1-2, 1-1-2, 1-2-1, 1-2-2-, etc.), and other set phrases.
That's to CYA before the trip. Yuriyuri's advice gives more good advice, but I'd prioritize the tourist Japanese stuff first because if you're going to Japan "within a year," you're not exactly going to be a flawless speaker, and you're definitely going to want to be able to ask how to get back to the hotel after you inevitably get lost.
Enjoy.