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Topo Gigo · Joined: 01 Jun 2006 Posts: 57 Location: Japan

Does anyone have any advice on learning Japanese? Specifically, is it useful to learn to read Japanese characters?

I'm planning to go to Japan in a couple of months, and am going to try to learn as much Japanese as I can before I go, as I would like to communicate with people whilst I'm there. Do I also need to learn to read it, or can I get by without? Admittedly, I've put no effort into learning it so far, but it does seem very difficlut at first glance, and as I'm only planning on being there for a year, and the task of learning how to ask for a cup of tea seems quite immense to me at the moment, is it worth the effort?
Are most things (signs, menus etc) also written in roman characters, or will I be lost??
And, if it is important to learn, which one do i start with? Having had a quick shufty on Amazon, there seems to be 3 different types: kanji; hiragana and katakana. What's the difference, and do I need to know all three?

Cheers for any input!!

Quibby84 · Joined: 10 Aug 2006 Posts: 643 Location: Japan

good question.
I am anxious to hear the answer.
My husband and I are also planning on going to japan, he tried to learn the characters, oh my...it is hard. We have now decided to just learn conversational japanese...

chirp · Joined: 03 Dec 2005 Posts: 148

OK - I'll bite.

Learn!

Also try using the search function - this topic has been covered a number of times and many useful resources have been posted.

Many people have successfully survived living in Japan without learning any Japanese. If you want to really experience the country and culture though, my personal feeling is that it cannot be done without being able to communicate atleast at a basic level in Japanese.

Some websites to practice katakana and hiragana:
http://www.gyford.com/japanese/
http://www.realkana.com/

Kanji takes years of study to learn and even then, you will have barely skimmed the surface. Katakana is used on most menus.

Start with the katakana then try hiragana. If you can learn to also recognize some of the more common kanji, more power to you!

Make sure you check out "Learning the Kata" etc. (mentioned on many other posts with links) if you feel that study method will benefit you.

Again, do a search and you will have a wealth of opinions about the value of learning some Japanese.

Happy studying!

callmesim · Joined: 27 Oct 2005 Posts: 279 Location: London, UK

Learn hiragana and katakana!!!

As I've read many say before, this can be done in a week and you'll be all the better for it. I started with hiragana in about the first 2 months of being here and then (due to being lazy) didn't start with katakana until recently but got it under my belt in 2 nights.

You will be glad you learned it. Trust me! If you know it before you get here, more power to you.

As for kanji, that's more difficult. But I'd advise getting someone to help you with the basic food ones. With hiragana, katakana and the meat kanji, you'll be okay to get into many eateries and not have to freak out because they don't have plastic food displays.

Apsara · Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 2142 Location: Tokyo, Japan

Hiragana and katakana, definitely. If you are finding it tedious to learn the kana by rote, then start with katakana, recognising words that might be useful for you, to give you some motivation- examples could be the words for coffee, yoghurt (I know many people who have bought drinking yoghurt instead of milk soon after arriving here- the packaging is often similar), hamburger, vegetable, cheese- in menus and on cafe pricelists these and others are all usually written as phonetic katakana versions of the English.

There should be texts or phrasebooks around that will have lists of this kind of word.

JimDunlop2 · Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Posts: 2286 Location: Japan

At first glance, the answer to this question would seem obvious -- but unlike many other countries, where you can actually get away with not speaking or reading a word, Japan is not one of them. But I can understand that the OP wasn't sure if that might be the case.

Living in Japan will be VERY miserable for you unless you can at least read (and write) the alphabets, have some semblance of a vocabulary. Learning some kanji is VERY helpful too. A simple example: If you drive a vehicle here, for instance, they use kanji for the words "ENTER" and "EXIT" -- something that you really should have a handle on -- so you don't end up blocking traffic in a busy shopping center parking lot...

Although I've heard of people living here and not learning (and not wanting to learn) a single word, it will make your day-to-day life much more pleasant.

red dog · Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Posts: 41

I didn't think I'd ever be able to read a thing here, but I've picked up hiragana and katakana without too much difficulty; Kanji is much harder, but I'm at least starting to recognize a few basic characters. I'm still hopeless in Japanese, but the scripts are definitely worth learning.

shuize · Joined: 04 Sep 2004 Posts: 1270

red dog · Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Posts: 41

thermal · Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 60

Topo Gigo · Joined: 01 Jun 2006 Posts: 57 Location: Japan

Thanks for all the replies! It's cleared a lot up for me.

Chirp- you say 'Ok I'll bite' as though I've asked a silly question. I did do a bit of a search, but got far too many hits and it would have taken ages to search through (most of them irrelevant), and I'm a busy woman - I've got katakana to learn damnit!! Wink

You also say 'kanji takes years of study to learn and even then, you will have barely skimmed the surface' which I'd sort of osmosed (if that's a word?!) from reading around here, which is really what led me to posting - I'm only planning to stay a year, and if it's going to take me 3 years to scratch the surface, then I'd say my time is better spent else where. But, it is a relief to learn that I can learn the alphabet in a couple of days - well perhaps a bit longer - I can't work the search function on here so maybe there is some level of retardedness in me Laughing

But cheers for the info and the links - I'll check them out

I have heard many tales of people living here for years without learning the language so I was beginnig to think it may be slightly Holland-esq but obviously not. Even so, I was always going to try to learn conversational Japanese. I spent a while living in France, and even with the dizzying heights of a grade B GCSE french in my back pocket, it was such hard work! So I guess I'd better get my books out...

Deicide

Florizalll · Joined: 01 Apr 2006 Posts: 42

I've purchased Remembering the Kana (The Hiragana and The Katakana) (ISBN-13: 978-4-88996-072-3) by James W. Heisig on Amazon. For about $15 US dollars, the reader is given sort of mnemonic devices to identify and then remember the sounds of the characters. This doesn't do much for knowing the meaning of the words you've read, but it's a start. (And the hitch is that you should be able to read and write the characters in just 3 hours! haha)

Hoser · Joined: 19 Mar 2005 Posts: 694 Location: Toronto, Canada

Definitely learn hirigana and katakana. Kanji on the other hand is an abomination. The most useless, inefficient method of writing ever construed (with the possible exception of Chinese kanji or some kind of Egyptian hiroglyphs)

kdynamic · Joined: 05 Nov 2005 Posts: 562 Location: Japan