Learning Japanese

[Redeemer]

Okay listen I know a lot of people are like "I want to learn Japanese because it's cool" and whatnot but I am actually attempting to learn it because in Germany there is a massive Japanese community and I'm wanting to maybe aim for a job in it. Or at least broaden my horizons and learn something other than German. I'm pretty much fluent with German now and I'm sort of thirsting to learn another language.

My question is - can any of you folks speak Japanese and do any of you recommend specific websites or books that can help?

The Japanese courses offered in my area are all basic level and no higher. Like I would pay the money no problem if I could learn more than tourist level.

[CrypticQuery]

Learning versus Turning joke aside, I've heard that Rosetta Stone's Japanese edition isn't too bad and comes with varying levels of difficulty, but it is on the pricier side.  Take a look at the most helpful section of the customer reviews on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Japanese-Rosetta-Stone-Level/dp/1617160482#customerReviews

It's also good to see you dropping by once again, Red.

[Clearwater]

First off (And I know this is off-topic), welcome back Redeemer!

Okay, now to the topic at hand. I have never been one to learn Japanese (Although I really want to, but school and other commitments being more important), but straight away, I think we can agree NOT to always rely on Goggle Transtation (Typos intended). Sure, it might be useful for short sentences and words, but when it comes to having to translate something like the integrity of official documents, then just... no. Steer clear from Goggle Transtation for that kind of thing.

I would have to agree with OneUnder and say that Rosetta Stone us very handy when it comes to learning foreign languages. It helped me a fair bit when I started learning French, and although I'm now perfectly fluent in it, I still take a peek at it once or twice to make sure a few words I'm not too sure about are indeed correct.

Spoiler

(This is a joke, no offence intended)

Or you could just go buy a copy of Learning Japanese for Dummies.

 

[WolfOD64]

The college course Japanese I'm taking utilizes the two textbooks labeled GENKI I: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese and Genki: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese II, along with their accompanying workbooks. Both were compiled and written by the Japan Times, and contain audio CD's that assist with listening and identification skills. It might be "basic" on the grounds that it covers the essentials of the language in the first book, but I've found it very good for refreshing on the grammatical nuances and sentence structure.

I also recommend using Rosetta Stone like the other posters above, as a means of refreshing over long periods of time. 

 

[Redeemer]

Thanks guys, nice to be back.

 

Rosetta Stone is all very well and good but it's mega expensive, is it not? I used a friend's to start off my German and I know how useful it is. I just can't afford that right now. Like even the start up courses here are cheaper than Rosetta Stone hahaha.

I have a book, which is the basic phrases for if you're visiting the country, for conversation and situations like parties, travelling, ordering things, asking directions etc. and it's really interesting. But it's of course not enough.

Another question - when should I start learning hiragana and katakana? Is it better to learn to speak first before I do that?