Entry point to Japanese

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Random House Japanese-English English-Japanese Dictionary (1995)

Best Way with Japanese

Best Way to Learn Japanese Hiragana and Katakana.

Best Way to Learn Japanese Kanji.

Best Way To Learn Conversational Manga Japanese.

Japanese culture

Japanese Hiragana for the five basic vowels

Hiragana:

a あ

i い

u う

e え

o お

Books to Help you Learn Japanese

• Berlitz Japanese Resources.
• Japanese: From Educational Services in their Language/30 series.
• Japanese Step By Step by Gene Nishi. [Very helpful exercises.]
• Pimsleur Japanese Resources.

Japanese Step By Step

Japanese Step By Step (2001). Also see the revised Japanese Step By Step: second edition (2010)

Advantages:

• Fast-paced introduction to writing and grammar.
• Organized methodically by an ex-IBM engineer.
• Its approach to teaching kana is one of the best. Its exercises are particularly helpful; you should take care to do them and repeat them!

Berlitz Japanese Resources

Random House Japanese-English English-Japanese Dictionary (1995)

Pimsleur Japanese Resources: Basic

Japanese: Basic.

Pimsleur Language Program:
Audio-only progam.

Advantages:

• Learn Japanese by hearing and speaking it.
• And you're hearing it at the brisk rate spoken by native Japanese speakers.
• Conversational sentences are built up from carefully introduced vocabulary.
• Each word is broken down to its sound units and the student is led through repetitions in order to internalize the sounds.
• Lots of repetition greatly helps to keep you upright on the roller skates of learning Japanese.
• Re-listen to each lesson a couple of times before you go on to the next one.
• Small booklet offers a paragraph on background for each lesson.

• Re-listen to each lesson a couple of times before you go on to the next one.
• If you're primarily a visual learner, this will be especially challenging. To help you:
  • Read the small booklet section before each lesson, to get some background grammar and words for each lesson.
  • Write down some of the words as you hear and say them.
  • After the lesson, check the words in a dictionary, particularly:

    Random House Japanese-English English-Japanese Dictionary (1995)

Pimsleur Japanese: Course I; Beginners/Part A

Pimsleur Language Program: Japanese: Course I; Beginners/Part A.
Audio-only program.

Advantages:

• Learn Japanese by hearing and speaking it.
• And you're hearing it at the brisk rate spoken by native Japanese speakers.
• Conversational sentences are built up from carefully introduced vocabulary.
• Each word is broken down to its sound units and the student is led through repetitions in order to internalize the sounds.
• Lots of repetition greatly helps to keep you upright on the roller skates of learning Japanese.
• Re-listen to each lesson a couple of times before you go on to the next one.
• Small booklet offers a paragraph on background for each lesson.

• Re-listen to each lesson a couple of times before you go on to the next one.
• If you're primarily a visual learner, this will be especially challenging. To help you:
  • Read the small booklet section before each lesson, to get some background grammar and words for each lesson.
  • Write down some of the words as you hear and say them.
  • After the lesson, check the words in a dictionary, particularly:

    Random House Japanese-English English-Japanese Dictionary (1995)

Japanese: From Educational Services in their Language/30 series

Japanese: From Educational Services in their Language/30 series.
Audio plus a booklet.

Advantages:

• Combines hearing, speaking, and reading Japanese.
• Speed is said to be realistic but it's less panicky than Pimsleur Japanese Resources, and accordingly less intimidating and friendly.

Japanese Hiragana

Hiragana for the first five vowel:

a あ

i い

u う

e え

o お

Basic Hiragana symbols:

The k- syllables:
ka か	ki き	ku く	ke け	ko こ
The s- syllables:
sa さ	shi し	su す	se せ	so そ
The t- syllables:
ta た	chi ち	tsu っ	te て	to と

Preliminary Japanese vocabulary

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