Learning Japanese??

[Ibbygirl]

I don't even know if this is doable because I don't speak Japanese or know anyone who does, but dd wants to learn it.

 

Has anyone ever tried to learn Japanese at home?? Any book/cd-rom/DVD/etc reccommendations??

 

Thanks for your replies. :)

[lisabees]

I don't even know if this is doable because I don't speak Japanese or know anyone who does, but dd wants to learn it.

 

Has anyone ever tried to learn Japanese at home?? Any book/cd-rom/DVD/etc reccommendations??

 

Thanks for your replies. :)

 

Yes! DS10 is using Irasshai from Georgia Public Broadcasting. I cannot rave about this program enough. It is perfect for ds. It is fun and engaging and teaches a lot about the culture. It is video-based, with workbooks available also.

 

http://www.gpb.org/irasshai

 

You can use the videos free here - just search for Irasshai lesson 1.

 

http://dl.gpb.org/vsx/GPBPro/diglib_search/search

 

We bought the DVD collection for $100 and it is worth every penny.

 

http://www.gpb.org/irasshai/about

 

The workbooks are available from Amazon.

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=irasshai&x=0&y=0

 

Have fun deciding. It is a fun language to learn. :001_smile:

[Ibbygirl]

Yes! DS10 is using Irasshai from Georgia Public Broadcasting. I cannot rave about this program enough. It is perfect for ds. It is fun and engaging and teaches a lot about the culture. It is video-based, with workbooks available also.

 

http://www.gpb.org/irasshai

 

You can use the videos free here - just search for Irasshai lesson 1.

 

http://dl.gpb.org/vsx/GPBPro/diglib_search/search

 

We bought the DVD collection for $100 and it is worth every penny.

 

http://www.gpb.org/irasshai/about

 

The workbooks are available from Amazon.

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=irasshai&x=0&y=0

 

Have fun deciding. It is a fun language to learn. :001_smile:

 

 

Thank you so much! :) Does it teach them how to read the characters and write them too? She really wants to learn to read it. :) Thanks. :)

[stripe]

 

This is nice too, from NHK (Japanese radio).

[KuniMom]

We live in Japan most of the time, and I have used lots of different things to teach my girls Japanese (they are elementary school age). Rosetta Stone is popular, but it doesn't teach how to write, and it doesn't explain the underlying grammar rules of sentences. You're supposed to just figure those out, which I found rather annoying.

 

I did use a program called Adventures in Japanese. I thought it was very good, and it was probably our favorite program. It uses all the ways to learn a language: it has a teacher's text, a student text, a workbook, a Kana workbook, audio CD's, and a computer CD-Rom. It is geared towards JH/HS age, but I used it pretty effectively for my grade school kids. I am actually selling it because we I started my kids in outside Japanese classes (we live there, so hiring a Japanese person to teach them just makes a lot more sense).

 

I think somebody else has posted about the same program here on the forums. It was highly recommended by them also, you can do a search to find it. If you want more info, you can go to this website. If you're interested in buying it, let me know. I was actually going to post it on the For Sale forum, but I don't have enough posts!

[prairie rose]

I second Irasshai.

 

We also lived in Japan for a time and I found Irasshai most appealing because it didn't feel completely Americanized. ;)

 

If she wants to learn how to read Japanese, you need to choose which kind, Kanji, Katakana or Hiragana. Signs in Japan are often written in at least two of these plus Romanji (Japanese words written phonetically in our alphabet). I found learning Kanji the most useful as a foreigner living in Japan.

 

Irrasshai does have some Kanji practice, reading and writing, I think if I remember right. (We are on school break right now and my memory is a little fuzzy :lol: ) But most of the instruction is Romanji.

[Ibbygirl]

I second Irasshai.

 

We also lived in Japan for a time and I found Irasshai most appealing because it didn't feel completely Americanized. ;)

 

If she wants to learn how to read Japanese, you need to choose which kind, Kanji, Katakana or Hiragana. Signs in Japan are often written in at least two of these plus Romanji (Japanese words written phonetically in our alphabet). I found learning Kanji the most useful as a foreigner living in Japan.

 

Irrasshai does have some Kanji practice, reading and writing, I think if I remember right. (We are on school break right now and my memory is a little fuzzy :lol: ) But most of the instruction is Romanji.

 

Oh, I'm not sure which type of writing she would need. She loves anime and wants to be able to understand what they say in tv shows like Lucky Star and Tokyo Mew Mew. She has also bought some of the dolls for the characters from these shows and the writing on the boxes are all in Japanese so she wants to be able to read the boxes and also the Japanese subtitles in the t.v. shows. Would that be Kanji?? How can I know the difference??

[stripe]

Hiragana have a few strokes and are round. Katakana have a few strokes and are geometric. (You can see them here.) Kanji are from Chinese and generally have many strokes. Authentic written Japanese has predominantly hiragana and kanji, except for things aimed at young children (which deliberately has few or no kanji), or things loaded with foreign words or trying to be emphatic (katakana used sort of like italics).

[Ibbygirl]

This is nice too, from NHK (Japanese radio).

 

 

Thank you. :) We're listening to it right now. Just learned ano sumimasen. :)

[KuniMom]

Oh, I'm not sure which type of writing she would need. She loves anime and wants to be able to understand what they say in tv shows like Lucky Star and Tokyo Mew Mew. She has also bought some of the dolls for the characters from these shows and the writing on the boxes are all in Japanese so she wants to be able to read the boxes and also the Japanese subtitles in the t.v. shows. Would that be Kanji?? How can I know the difference??

 

It isn't that hard to learn the katakana and hiragana. They are phonetic, and say the same thing pretty much all the time (unlike spelling in English). I think there's like around 30 or each. The kanji is another story...there are LOTS of them. I would start with learning hiragana, and then move on to katakana, and finally kanji.

[lisabees]

Yes, Irasshai teaches how to read and write all three forms. ;)

[elegantlion]

My ds wants to learn Japanese as well. I plan on using Irasshai when we plan a formal study.

 

A few more fun things I plan to do:

 

- buy him a tour book on Japan.

- take him to a Japanese steak house. He's dying to try sushi.

- he wants to try and find some Pokemon or Yu-gi-oh DVDs in Japanese

[Ibbygirl]

Thanks to all of you lovely ladies for your replies. :) You're all so helpful. :grouphug:

[hsmomof2boys]

We live in Japan most of the time, and I have used lots of different things to teach my girls Japanese (they are elementary school age). Rosetta Stone is popular, but it doesn't teach how to write, and it doesn't explain the underlying grammar rules of sentences. You're supposed to just figure those out, which I found rather annoying.

 

I did use a program called Adventures in Japanese. I thought it was very good, and it was probably our favorite program. It uses all the ways to learn a language: it has a teacher's text, a student text, a workbook, a Kana workbook, audio CD's, and a computer CD-Rom. It is geared towards JH/HS age, but I used it pretty effectively for my grade school kids. I am actually selling it because we I started my kids in outside Japanese classes (we live there, so hiring a Japanese person to teach them just makes a lot more sense).

 

I think somebody else has posted about the same program here on the forums. It was highly recommended by them also, you can do a search to find it. If you want more info, you can go to this website. If you're interested in buying it, let me know. I was actually going to post it on the For Sale forum, but I don't have enough posts!

 

I agree. My older son is on his second year with Adventures in Japanese (in public school), and he loves the curriculum. My son plans on teaching his younger brother Japanese (since he has picked it up so well) with this curriculum.