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 Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 10:00 am
Mainly. I've been using Rosetta Stone for a month or two to learn Japanese. The problem is that it is extremely confusing and does not tell me the English- something I need desperately. (I'm just one of those people) I've been doing my best, but I move along at a snails pace and will not be done with the first disk by this time next year at this rate.
My question is what other options are there? I could get a tutor, or maybe find a course at a local college (I know of one, but it started a few months ago and won't begin again until next year), or maybe something else. What would you recommend?
P.S.- As far as I know, this doesn't turn up anywhere else, but I'm guessing that it's a pretty popular question...? Sorry if it is already answered somewhere else.
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Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 5:24 pm
Ahh good ol' Rosetta Stone. So horribly confusing yet it claims to be the best way to learn a language guaranteed. What I'd say to do is sign up for that course at your community college, and in the mean time self-study. Here's a few places you can self-study: http://smart.fm - It's basically like a free version of Rosetta Stone, except it actually teaches you useful words instead of teaching you "giraffe" in the very first lesson. xd I highly recommend this site for studying vocabulary. You also learn how to read kanji from taking these lessons without even trying. If you don't know how to read hiragana and katakana yet, this site is one of the best places to learn them.
http://guidetojapanese.org - A completely free site that teaches most of the major grammatical things. It's almost as good as a textbook. Don't count on it for vocabulary, though. Also, once you get past the beginner lessons, the lessons become hard to learn from. neutral
http://japanesepod101.com - Straying from the free path. This is a podcast that contains hundreds and hundreds of lessons which are typically around 15 minutes long. It will cost you $15 to sign up for a month (sometimes there are promos which cut the cost), but during that month you can download every podcast off of the site and then you won't have a need to continue the subscription lol. The beginner lessons seem to move at a slow, comfortable pace (in a good way of course). Plus since these are all mp3 files, you can learn on the bus or wherever.
Genki - This one is a textbook. It's often used in college classes and is basically the most commonly accepted Japanese textbook. The book tries to make learning the language fun by using manga-style characters, which might explain its popularity. It teaches grammar, vocabulary, and kanji all very well. You can buy just the book or you can also get the workbook or the audio cd. I bought the workbook and I didn't really use it, but it can be useful. As for the audio cd, you'll want it if you don't hear native Japanese speakers anywhere. A free solution for this is using smart.fm (above) instead of buying the cd. You can buy the first book on Amazon for like $30 I think. The first book will take you to a high beginner level.
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Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 5:53 pm
Oh, wow! Thanks. I'll look into those things, most of them sound pretty good. Rosetta Stone's main problem is the lack of grammar and direct translation....
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