Speaking and Comprehension

Ok. So today I'm going to write how I learned most of my vocabulary.
The website I've found most helpful for this purpose is
www.Japanesepod101.com
Make a quick account, check it out, try the first couple begginer lessons.

This websites is a podcast which teaches mainly by audio lessons.
it also has a great dictionairy and some other cool features.

so here is how I have learned so far.

Listen, Read, Write, Listen, Read


this method has been invaluable to me In learning to comprehend and produce Japanese

Start off listening to a lesson on japanesepod101.com
(they also have a writen transcript of that days dailog you can toggle on)
after the lesson is over, read through the dialog in both the kanji+kana form
the romajii form, and the kana form, then write it out in the kana form.
also if you can, try making up some more sentances using words learned in the lessons.
this will help you with gaining confidence in the language.

after that listen to the lessons dialog again, it should make much more sense,

a couple hours latter i sugguest you reread through the Japanese you wrote out.
this is a great way to review and keep it fresh in your mind.

do atleast 2-3 lessons a day. otherwise it may become stagnant in your mind and you might forget some.
although since im studying seriously ill be doing 10-12 a day.

The kana

learning the alphabet


the japanese alphabet is made up into 3 sections
katakana and hirigana are the first 2.
they are collectively called the kana
and are just letters that corrospond to sounds
much like our own english alphabet.
 the kanji however is an alphabet containing thousands of charecters
where each individual charecter has several ways of being pronounced
Ok lets go


katakana

the katakana is probably the easiest of the 3 alphabets
for beginners to learn, this is because it is used
only for importated words. and the majority of these
words come from english other imported words come from french and germen.
for example the japanese word  バイソン meaning bison
is pronounced baison
バ ba
イ   i
ソ so
ン n

just a quick explanation on how the letters work
the consanants are each attatched to a vowel
e.g they have a letter for each of the following
 a    i   u   e   o
pa pi pu pe po
ka ki ku ke ko
etc.

Hirigana
hirigana is structured the same way katakana is
however this alphabet is only use for words that come directly from japanese
すごい
pronounced sugoi means amazing (this, unlike the hirigana words, is not a word imported from another language)

how to learn these alphabets

I learned the kana (katakana and hirigana are collectively called kana)
using the tips and instructions given in
www.123japanese.com
under the kana section.
they have a really intutive way to show you how to write and remember all the letters!
so check it out.
once you finish that you can test yourself using

www.realkana.com
i use this every day or other day to keep myself sharp on these alphabets.

well, folks ive run out of time for right now, so it looks like im going to have to make another post
later telling you about the kanji










ア  イ ウ エ オ
 

Welcome

Well this marks the first article of my blog
showing my progress in a new langauge

after about 2 months of casual study and whatching animes
ive decided to get serious about studying
my intentions in the creation of this blog are
to keep myself accountable
and to inspire and teach others who decide to learn japanese

the websites and tools I have found and used so far are as follows
www.japanesepod101.com 
www.123japanese.com
www.livemocha.com
www.realkana.com
www.realkanji.com

these websites, all used in various ways, are the resources and tools
I have used so far in my journey to master the Japanese language.