Don't try to learn Japanese here.
 

We are a diverse group of Japan and Japanese loving people. But you are never, ever, ever going to learn Japanese by visiting these forums.

In fact, you will learn bad Japanese if you rely soley on the well-intentioned but quick-draw posters who love to respond to "Teach me Japanese" Posts.

Bless her heart, I watched a well-intentioned young woman volunteer to teach Japanese to two enthusiastic non-native English-speakers over the last 24 hours, and in her very first "lesson" declared she coudn't give a good translation for よろしくお願いします。

I don't blame her.

I just worry about those that think they can come here and "learn Japanese".

A small percentage of the people that come here actually speak Japanese. A few of us are happy to answer specific questions about the often confusing Japanese language, but I never respond to the "teach me Japanese" post for one reason only.

YOU CANNOT TEACH SOMEONE JAPANESE OVER A TEXT-ONLY FORUM.

It would be like me asking you to "Teach me sign language"

"OK, so i put move my thumb to the left, and then at an upward angle, and that makes the letter J?"

We might as well be using smoke signals to communicate.

I feel sorry for those that can't get a Japanese tutor in Sweden or Norway or more out-of-the-way-places, but you have the Internet, and you can oreder books and CDs.

Bottom line, you get what you pay for if you want free-Japanese lessons.
My fear is it will turn people off, rather than encourage.

Wel uhm... I guess most people know that aready

I wish, Lien. But daily there are post from people that hope to learn Japanese from these forums.

Yeah i know, but i guess most people know already that they won't be able to learn it but they keep trying, i'm learning Russian at the moment which is much easier cous when they write something it's the same as the spoken word, so you don't need anyone to teach you how to say the words :)

yeah.. its getting boring reallyy... it use to be interesting before..

You are absolutely right.I never understood how people would learn a language through a very Long-Distance.:confused:

I am not sure about that. Some people that speak a couple Euro languages think that they can learn Japanese just as easily. It's a totally different monster.

TBH, i came on this forum to learn about japan and get some basic language learnt. but i quickly realised that you can't really do either of those. which is a shame really, this is more of a forum that has 90% of the people under the age of 18 (that are planning to go to japan in 4 years lol). and 10% adults that try to help (like MMM for example).
as you may have already gathered, my intentions for staying on this forum are different now. Its just like any other forum, just to talk and chat with people from all over the world (which is good, but sad at the same time)

yeah i agree with you MMM, i would never use this forum to learn japanese, merely get some pointers or advice. Nothing beats real teaching! I am lucky enough to have a japanese learning college in my city. If you are really dedicated to learning japanese you should think strongly about doing the same. If not even going to the country to learn. Learning by yourself is strenuous and needs vast amounts of motivation. Once starting lessons its helped me keep motivated and also lets me test out my japanese reguarly. ! :)

So true... many people try going to forums to learn Japanese when they should be getting on a voice chat program like Skype or MSN and actually TALK to someone.