Anime 2 Manga Forums

I'm an actual Japanese teacher (well, substitute, but you know what I mean), even though I'm not Japanese lol

If you'd like to learn the language, I'd suggest buying a couple beginner's textbooks/self-learners to help you along. Memorizing both the hiragana and katanana is a must. Kanji is more worrisome if you don't have a Chinese background like I do, but that shouldn't be your first priority anyway. Japanese language works in the SOV syntax (Subject-Object-Verb), as opposed to English which is SVO. You might have some trouble with different forms, from polite to vulgar, etc.

But it remains, as with any other language, the best way to learn the language is to immerse yourself with it; spending a few months in Japan will do wonders which a few years of school-based Japanese won't do. You can take my word for it Hope this helps!

Any other questions? You know where to find me! ( see following: http://forums.anime2manga.com/showthread...d=5&page=1 )

Also try and find some flash-cards of common things, objects, phrases. Make sure they have that item in katakana, kangi, and romanji. Like Manabi said kanji is not a priority (besides maybe bathroom, male, female, and exit ). Numbers are easy to learn over a weekend too. It's not a hard language to learn to speak but don't go by anime honorifics or you will definitely be rude over there...! I just really like the flash-cards, i pick like 20-30 a week and just go over them whenever i have a chance

To Philz and manabi:
How long did it take you before you were able to understand Japanese well. I mean when you didn't have to read subtitles to understand Japanese shows. ^_^

I bought two text books but I didn't have enough time to read them although they gave me good hold of the basics.

Well depends on the anime honestly. I know enough japanese and somehow "understand" without "understanding" even more when i'm over there. I still typically use subtitiles though, with multiple meanings i've realized i can mess a lot up... Japanese is so situational >_> . Like Ergo Proxy, I HAD to read the subtitles the whole time, when i tryed not to i went back to often and took longer to watch the show... Though for say, Air Gear, i barely payed attention to subs. So easy to follow... I can't read anything though. I suck at that. Lame Really. Very. I still have to say immersion is the best way, just don't be around girls all the time, as you will have famine japanese... For that matter a lot of anime can do that to you... I have a weird relationship with japanese, seriously.

I would say my Japanese dramatically improved after spending a few months there back in '03; by then I'd already had 3 years of studying under my belt, but it just made things a lot easier.

Now as far as watching anime/tv, I can skip subtitles on simpler shows (something like Hidamari Sketch of January comes to mind) and still understand most of it, but it's still a bit of a challenge to watch detailed, plot-driven shows like Detective Conan without the usage of subs.

If anyone is serious about learning Japanese, I'd suggest buying an electronic translator. You can get those easily in Japan and/or online; I've used mine for years and it serves me well, in anime, work, and travel.

Maybe I should use the forum or something to hold beginner's lessons

Wow manabi! That would be awesome if you do that! How about articles? ^_^

Yeah! And I bet most people who are anime fans would find that interesting as well. Good way to attract regular visitors. It's a great idea manabi! ^_^

Looks like we have one hell of a team! Great ideas guys. I hope we can make them all work. ^_^

Let's make a sub-forum under "Visit Japan". Shall we call it "Manabi's Phrase of the Day"? ^_^

EDIT: I went ahead and created it. ^_^ If you want the title changed or the description.. let me know.

^ that's cool! Thanks for that link. ^_^