Easy and Fast Way to Learn Japanese
 

Ok, so I've seen so many people struggling to learn Japanese fast and easy. They have tried tons of resources, become discouraged, and often give up. I learned Japanese fluently in under two years, so i thought id share some of the programs and resources i used. They will all help you a great deal, and make it fun and easy.

The resources i used included, Nakama, Human Japanese, Power Japanese, Rosetta Stone, and Pimsleur. I wrote a detailed review on each of these and how they will help you learn. You can read my overview of all these programs here:

What You Need to Learn Japanese: Top 5 Programs to Learn Japanese FAST and EASY

let me know if you have any questions or need help learning. Im currently a Japanese Major at UCLA

Of course you should struggle if you are trying to learn Japanese "fast and easy". As a translator I wouldn't trust anyone that learned Japanese "fast and easy" just as I wouldn't want a doctor who studied medicine "fast and easy" or a lawyer who studied law "fast and easy".

Learning how to speak and read Japanese is not like learning how to play a new video game. It is practically a lifestyle choice. It becomes a career in and of itself, and for those that stick with it, it can be the most satisfying choice of one's life.

Oh my. You're just truly inspiring me more and more to learn. :p

umm..ok? I didn't direct this post for people who wanted to become translators. Also, I didnt say that it is possible to learn the entire language fast and easy. I simply offered these resources for beginners who have a hard time grasping the basic. Thus, my intention was to offer a variety of programs that make the BASICS of Japanese as fast and easy as possible. Not EVERYONE wants to become a translator like yourself, so try to understand thet it IS possible to learn essential Japanese fast and easy.

@KokoroZukai

ゴチャゴチャ言い訳してないで実際に「素早く簡単に」 学んだって主張してるあなた自身の日本語力がどれくら いのものなのかをＪＦのメンバーにこの場で見せてあげ た方が手っ取り早いんじゃないの？その方が説得力があ ると思うんだけど、どうだろう。もしこれくらいの日本 語が読み書きできないのなら、たとえ冗談でも日本語は 簡単だと言わないでほしいな。勘違いするメンバーも出 てくるからね。ぜひ早いうちに数行書いてみてください 。

Yes, you did...

I think the Callan Method would be a good way to give people the basics very quickly. It's a visual method in the early stages and the vocab gets absorbed quickly.

lol. I see that you lack the ability to read my entire post. I stated multiple times that it was direct towards beginners. Nowhere did i state that you can learn the entire language, nor did I in the actual blog

That's a good point, Sweetheart (KokoroZukai). The foundations are key in Japanese and they cannot be skipped by any fasttrack method. There are many methods for beginners, Callan being one of them.

I have never heard of that one, but thax, i'll definitely look into it

@KokoroZukai

いつまで待たせんの？早く私のカキコに日本語で返答し てくれないかなぁ・・・　日本語なんてチョロイんでし ょ？それとも全部嘘だったって認める？

I was a teacher of that method for 3 years and trained others in it. Robin Callan pioneered the method.

It would broadly work as follows. You'd hold a pencil in your hand and say, 'kore wa enpitsu desu ka, kore wa enpitsu desu ka?' and the student would answer, 'Hai, kore (or 'sore', depending on the distance from the teacher) wa enpitsu desu'. Each question is asked twice with a swift and rythmic tempo. Then, you immediately prompt the student to produce the answer. It's highly visual and rythmic in the first 4 stages. You work your way through many useful/everyday items.

I am not the biggest advocate of the method but the lower stages can be effective if the teacher is committed to the process.

I think you took my post to literally, as I do not mean to state that I learned Japanese fluently soley through the use of these programs. I studied abroad a year at Meiji Gakuin, and also at Middlebury College and UCLA.

haha, you really want to provoke me, why the sudden grudge? have you been waiting all this time? i have nothing to prove to you

Geez, it's depressing. Once upon a time I could use those characters on my keitai but I've forgotten much. Still, some things I'm just not supposed to know :)

You've already proved to me that you're a big liar. You don't know 1/80 of the Japanese you pretend to know. :ywave:

[edit] decided to delete the nasty comment, i felt guilty. anyways, i'm going assume you are a lonely young girl with nothing better to do but hassle me. I will no longer give you the attention

I really think this is getting out of hand. x_x;;


Honestly, I think it would be rather difficult to learn any language easily and quickly as one would want to. I'm learning Japanese, and it gets frustrating when I am not understanding as fast as everyone else. But, I believe that if one wants to learn something the right way, there are no easy nor quick methods to doing so.

Its a long road to learning a language fluently...

Trust me. My English grammar sucks, and I've been in English classes for 15 years!!! (12 years in high school, plus an additional three in college).

Your English grammar looks fine to me and I'm an award-winning English teacher. Keep up the good work :)

lol, your grammar seems perfect to me as well!

lol Everytime I see these types of threads pop-up and Nago or Nyo get into to them with their 日本語, I go "OWN THOSE OPs NOW!" XD

Nago means naked/nude in Polish, I just thought I'd add a different dimension.

Who's being rude, exactly?

OP fail.

Nagoyankee Win.

There are some who can learn fast and easy if it comes to them. I was by no means fluent in Japanese but I picked it up pretty quickly and could have reasonable convos after 18 months.

You can't knock advertising too much. Kokoro, it was maybe better to give a realistic time frame for your average learner. 5 years to speak very well is more realistic. Still, it depends how intensively you study, of course.

I am just saying...

Thank you. :D

RKitagawa: I love your image. (Lmao)

Seanus: Five years does seem more realistic.

Helpful thread. I was aware of Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur, however I was unaware of the other programs. I will implement those into my studies as well.

I learned Japanese "fast" and "easy". :p
By living in Japan in a total immersion situation.

I don`t believe there is a "fast and easy" way to learn it otherwise. It`s all about environment and determination.

なんかいじめられてるような反応してるけど、日本語で 返事してくれたら誰も文句言わなくなるのだよ？　なの にどうしても書いてくれないもんな
怪しまれるのは当然だと思うよ。
入って来てすぐに「オレの日本語うまいぞ！」って言っ てるやつは大体下手（笑）

「能ある鷹は爪を隠す」:p

Lol, is that what you call easy? Life must have been tough for you! But, truly, that is one of the best ways to learn any language.

I always cringe when I hear "fast and easy" when talking about learning a language. I mean, there's not only a ton of memorization, you have new concepts and ideas. Also, there are cultural fact you must learn. For anyone wanting to learn another language, this is, like MMM said, a conscious change in life style. You are going to have to sacrifice a lot of time to this effort.

Being humble also helps. Many Japanese are but in a different way. I've taught people from many nations and they are not as afraid as making mistakes as Japanese people were. You have to experiment and roll the dice with language. Sometimes you'll be right and sometimes you'll be wrong. Only God doesn't play with dice, or so Einstein would have us believe :)

I put youtube on during work. So trying to do my work and learn Japanese at the same time :D

are'nt you gonna get fired for that?

I have an office job. When I want to concentrate I put some music on(earplugs) or put youtube on. And I work pretty hard, so it's no issue.

When I hear learn Japanese "Fast and Easy", that equals to dropping someone off in the country side of Japan and live there for 1 year. I think you'll learn more than you can from a book... Anyways, I too struggle learning Japanese, is there a group here that exchanges language? Everyone is different. For me I learn better if I'm actually using it... right now! LOL! :D

Isn't Japanese one of the hardest languages to learn? I know the grammar stumps me haha. I still have barely gotten into the Kana:rolleyes: I use books most of the time and lots of writing it out. It is working for me... Though having someone to speak it with would help:p I think the trick is just really wanting to learn it.

I agree yusuke speaking it is the best way in my opinion but alas I am all alone here with my learning Japanese... haha. Sorry dry humor... :rolleyes:

I also would love a learning group or something but I am not to great with lots of people. I do better one on one or with maybe two or three people.

I've had encounters with many people trying their English on me from visiting many countries. And I don't know what kind of Japanese you met, but the Japanese I knew were just as eager, with plenty of mistakes (they tried!) to try their English with me too. :D

About Japanese being one of the hardest languages to learn, I've heard this before, but I have to disagree. I am talking about the spoken language. To me, the grammar is as straight forward as can be and can be well learned in a matter of weeks. Then the words are mainly just fill-in-the-blanks. Just like any other language, it becomes rote memorization after that. Of course, you will need to learn more in person to sound natural, but that's no different from any other language. Reading it is another story...

Though it's hard to say being a native speaker of English myself, I'd say that English is probably a good deal more difficult to learn than Japanese. English is far more critical and quite inconsistent.

English is much harder but I am having a hard time with it. :( Not that I won\'t get it but... Speaking it is not as hard as writing or reading it. I am doing ok with the speaking part but as I do not have anyone to converse with it is hard :p I have the sentence structure down for the most part but I tend to forget at times. haha. I\'ve just noticed that there are so many words for one thing in Japanese. It is very confusing. I\'m still a beginner though :D

I agree with IcewindDude, I think the Japanese language is not too terribly difficult when compared to the English language. The only major barrier would definitely be learning the characters, as opposed to the more familiar roman alphabet that you would use for the latin-derived languages. In my experience, though limited, I\'d have to say the more simple the writing, the more intense the grammar is.

But anywho, I am creating a new website on the Japanese language and culture. It\'s called theJapaneseTutor.com.

I am looking at other sites and trying to make learning the Japanese language more easy and less painful. The site is divided into two sections: the Japanese language and Japanese culture. Within each section, there\'s for example Japanese food in the culture section or Japanese grammar in the language section.

For all the Japanese language learning veterans out there, I\'d love your opinion and suggestions on how the website can be improved! I\'ve recently added some grammar quizzes to the site. Let me know what you think!

Yours,
Tony

There is no \'hardest\' language to learn in and of itself.