experience for self-learning Japanese

[zozzen]

I'm trying to learn Japanese by myself because it seems fairly easy to achieve basic fluency in Japanese and i also share an apartment with a Japanese roommate too.

I'm using a Japanese language video downloaded from Verycd.com, and also pimsleur Japaneese I, II , III and i read 3-5 lessons a week.

I guess here's some advanced Japanese learners. What tools do you highly recommend for self-learners? And what had i better do, or better avoid when self-studying japanese?

[spitz]

My two yen on the subject...

Avoid thinking of the Chinese sound when reading Japanese kanji compounds.

I have that bad habit in the opposite direction (I read Chinese hanzi with Japanese pronounciation) and, while it helps me read faster, I find it tends to drag me down when I try to speak. Force yourself to learn the right pronounciation for all the words, even if you already understand them when seeing the kanji.

Also, make a point of learning properly the differences between p/t/k and b/d/g. Mixing them up can make your Japanese very difficult to understand in a conversation.

Long and short vowels can also be troublesome, but I find for Chinese speakers the voiced stops tend to cause more of a problem.

[zozzen]

Thanks for the great hints! I had a bad habit of skipping to learn the japanese pronunciation on kanji but i'm trying to change it now. spitz, which e-dictionary do you use to learn japanese now? Do you know any tool similar to Kingsoft's Powerword?

[atitarev]

I've been using NJStar Japanese Word Processor (南極星 - なんきょくせい - Nankyokusei) with built-in and updatable EDICT dictionary. Works for me as a dictionary. The dictionary expires in 3 months/90 start-ups but it's fixable. (sh)

People have developed nice Mozilla Firefox plug-ins, which are similar for Chinese and Japanese. Use Rikaichan and Moji (+ dictionaries) to learn Japanese or to read Japanese online pages.

[zozzen]

Thanks. Rikaichan seems quite similar to Kingsoft's Powerword but the meaning is still quite insufficient. In English, we have oxford, so which dictionary is the most famous in Japanese?

[spitz]

The dictionary regarded as the most authoritative in Japanese is 広辞苑 (Koujien) published by 岩波書店 (Iwanami Shoten). 大辞林 （Daijirin） by 三省堂書店 (Sanseidou Shoten) would probably come in second.

[floatingmoon]

Perhaps there is a Japanese Forum, such as this Chinese Forums.

[Guest yangbin]

Im also studying japanese by myself, just started 3 months ago!

Im using genki, this is a really good book in two volumes! there is a cd with audio in each volume, and this is pretty easy to understand how to use it!

personnally, i do not work too much on my japanese, because im still struggling to be fluent in chinese, so i just study one lesson per month! in fact, i do 2h30 a week of japanese, i need something like 10h by lesson !

so, anyway, ya will need a book, and genki is amazing!

[zozzen]

Im using genki, this is a really good book in two volumes! there is a cd with audio in each volume, and this is pretty easy to understand how to use it!

did you try pimsleur too? I also didn't put too much effort on learning japanese because i've spent a lot of time on learning programming right now. Pimsleur is painlessly good at enhancing the oral and listening skills which are fairly enough for me. (take them from emule)

[kdavid]

Are any of these online / downloadable dictionaries listed above similar to the Chinese ZDT flashcard / dictionary software?

[zozzen]

I'm using 新时代日汉字典 for pocket pc. Google shows various online shop for it, but ...ahem, there's a lot of 'free' version. The problem is that i don't know how to input kana in my pocket pc.

As I can't get the book recommended above, i'm using the apparently most popular Japanese learning material in the mainland china---- "中日交流--- 标准日本语" (人民教育出版社). When you buy this, make sure the book is printed with a label "新版" because the publisher has drastically re-edited the book in 2005.

[atitarev]

I am using MDict (free dict software), for which there is a Japanese dictionary file (and Chinese), MJDict (Japanese only).

Zozzen, for inputting Kana I use CE-Star, where you can switch to Japanese (one method) and enter any Japanese word or select Hiragana (misspelled "Hiragara") or Katakana as your soft keyboard, the 2nd method is good because it never complains saying "Unregistered" instead of the proper word, even if you haven't bought the software.