Self teaching Japanese?

[09373472]

Hey there, currently going to college and aiming for the JET Programme in a few years when all's said and done. However, I know nearly no Japanese - hiragana, katakana, general pronunciation, a couple greetings. Not enough to even consider getting by.

Anyone have any suggestions for Kanji dictionaries, guides to grammar, words, general guides to the language, etc.? I'll be self teaching, so any books you've used and found were excellent would be great.

I'm hoping after doing some self teaching to the point I can understand to do things such as read [easier] books in Japanese, maybe do a pen-pal sort of thing, news reports or shows in Japanese - get practise actually using and hearing Japanese.

I'd prefer actual books to online guides, however. Thank you.

[DarkMage35]

Unfortunately for your book over online guide preferences, I havent seen any book as good as this: Hello, Damage!

[09373472]

Originally Posted by DarkMage35

Unfortunately for your book over online guide preferences, I havent seen any book as good as this: Hello, Damage!

However, prefer doesn't mean I won't check out other resources (audio, video, online). Still searching through the mass of links in the Language Resource Thread - I like books for when not at a computer!

But thanks!

[seatdistrict]

http://www.saiga-jp.com/kanji_dictionary.html

This is a great Kanji dictionary. You can search by radical, stroke order, English word, Japanese pronunciation, etc. It gives on and kun readings, multiple meanings, special uses, etc. It has been extremely useful to me in self-studying the language.

I would also recommend a composition notebook for learning any language.

[seatdistrict]

Also:

http://omniglot.com/writing/japanese.htm

Omniglot has some good basic info on many languages as well as a great collection of links for each individual language.

When you learn Kanji, try to learn them in context. There are several that exist only in certain words and most have different meanings based on context, so try to build vocabulary once you have learned 100 or so basic Kanji (they all follow basic rules for stroke order, etc.).

I've been self-studying Japanese for a few years and got to go there for a couple weeks recently. You can PM me if you have any questions, and I'll try to help.

[pose]

alljapaneseallthetime.com

[sheff]

"Minna no Nihongo" 1 & 2, and "Basic Kanji Book", with CDs.