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I have 8 mos to learn to speak it as well as I can for a trip (but I'd like to know in case I make return visits in the future). I'm going to start learning tomorrow. I don't care really about writing it.
My friends put their children in Japanese immersion schools in grade school, one continued the other left for regular school. As an adult it will be harder for you as your brain is not as open as a child's is. But immersion would do a lot for you. I see you are in SoCal so look around and see how you can create an immersion situation, perhaps hire a native speaker to only speak Japanese to you 9-5.
I have heard good things about Rosetta Stone. Have you looked into that?
Thank you. I, unfortunately, don't have the money for Rosetta Stone. I just recently got the opportunity to start working with Korean individuals talking w/ them in English & I really, really wish it were Japanese individuals instead because they could help me some too!
Aren't there classes of any kind in your area? A nearby college or continuing ed/adult ed? I took Japanese some time ago through an adult education program, and got a reasonable grasp of some basic structures and vocab.
I used the Genki textbook series--not very visually splashy, but inexpensive and very functional. It does require that you learn writing, though.
There are some Youtube videos with good Japanese lessons, but some of them require learning a bit of the written language. But still, take a look if you haven't already-- you may be able to find stuff that teaches important phrases and basic sentences.
Thank you. I, unfortunately, don't have the money for Rosetta Stone. I just recently got the opportunity to start working with Korean individuals talking w/ them in English & I really, really wish it were Japanese individuals instead because they could help me some too!
My local library offers Rosetta Stone to patrons free with a library card. Perhaps your library does too.
My local library offers Rosetta Stone to patrons free with a library card. Perhaps your library does too.
I had a chance to do a whole Rosetta Stone course in Spanish and I hated it and felt that of the various ways I used to learn the language, it was the worst. This advice is good though because if you do it free it would be worth a try and/or the library may have a different language learning course. Also, maybe the one for Japanese is better. I would definitely not pay out good money for RS though. Sometimes you can find really good courses on YouTube though and will just have to dig around till you find one you like. Duolingo is free but moves too slowly for me.
Thank you. I, unfortunately, don't have the money for Rosetta Stone. I just recently got the opportunity to start working with Korean individuals talking w/ them in English & I really, really wish it were Japanese individuals instead because they could help me some too!
Try Duolingo - It is supposed to be better than Rosetta Stone and it is a free app.
I'm going to start free Japanese classes in January. I'll post here then about the materials being used.
My library offers the language learning program Mango. I never liked Duolingo because it really didn't explain all the grammar, it just repeated itself, at least for the romance languages.
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