Really want to learn Japanese but having a really hard time?

Question:

I know English as my native language and I take French at school (and also teach myself at home) and I can hold basic conversations in French. I have been studying Japanese really irregularly (real school has been too demanding for independent study) for months but I'm having a really hard time remembering all the hiragana and katakana. I mean, I can remember how to say a lot of words, and phrases, but only in romanji. I think what made French so easy for me is the alphabet and how our sentence structures and words are similar. What advice can you give me for remembering and retaining Japanese characters, it is so difficult for me to remember them? Also, I really want to learn Japanese properly so no advice askign what I want to use my Japanese for or encouraging me to just learn to speak it...

Answer:

You are focusing too much on learning to write Japanese. Can you say sentences in Japanese yet? If you can't then don't bother learning to write it yet.

You need to get an understanding of the sentences and words first.



When its time to learn to read and write, here is what you do. Start with Katakana. Learn 1 row at a time "a i u e o". Learn the stroke order, do this by writing the same character, over, and over, and over again. Once you know 'how' to write all 5 letters, then write in romaji, something that looks like this down a piece of paper

aueoi

aaiiuuoo

ooueeiia

, It looks like nonsence, and thats cause it is. Now go becide it and convert the romaji into katakana. It will help you remember them faster than just repeating. You may have to cheat and look a few times, but aventually you will get it.


Also go to a good learning website.

http://www.123japanese.com

- Full lessons on almost every topic.
- Lessons start from the very basics - to advanced.
- They teach Japanese in casual Japanese and polite and formal Japanese (for buisness situations)
- They have the largest vocabulary list/dictionary available
- They also teach you to write Japanese
- Its free


http://www.japanesepod101.com

- They have lots of audio lessons to chose from, but you have to sign up.
- You get 1 week free trial, if your not willing to pay 10$ a month on contract, you can just keep re-signing up for the free account.
- They teach polite and casual Japanese, but there isn't a lot of structure (no from beggining to end, all just random)


http://www.maggiesensei.com

- This website has a lot of in depth lessons covering certian topics
- Everything is natural Japanese, taught from a Japanese speaker