Hajimemashite!

Hello there! Due to many friends asking me for help with learning and studying Japanese, I've decided to start a blog.  This blog is intended for complete beginners, who have very little, if any, Japanese language experience.  The blog can also be used for reference, and will contain many links to outside references to help you on your way to proficiency with Japanese.  All reference pages will be tagged so you can easily find them later.

Before we begin, I would like to make one thing absolutely clear:  There is no shortcut to learning another language.  There is no magic, secret technique that will allow you to instantly learn Japanese.  You can only learn with time, effort, and practice.

You will NOT learn Japanese by watching subbed anime.  Subbed anime can help you get a feel for the pronunciation and overall sound of Japanese, but you will be hard-pressed to find anyone who has ever learned Japanese only by watching subbed anime.  The reasons for this are pretty simple: Regionalization, Simplification, Time constraints between cuts, and differing translation styles mean that sometimes the subs in an anime or movie do not match the exact words being spoken.

The job of a translator and interpreter is not to be an exact match, but only to get the meaning of the conversation across. "Doushite" means "what's going on with" or "What's the matter?", and yet, Sesshoumaru says aloud, "Doushite no Ah-un," and it was subbed as "Where is Ah-un?"  In reality, the word "Where" is expressed as "Doko" and "Where is Ah-un" would be "Ah-un wa, doko desu ka?"

With that out of the way, I would like to lay out the order in which things will be taught and the form this blog will take.

We will begin with learning the Japanese writing syllabaries (these are sort of like Japanese alphabets) Hiragana and Katakana.

Once we have completely learned all of the hiragana and katakana (both of them together are known as the kana syllabaries), we will move on from there, slowly and with plenty of time for practice so you really feel confident in what you know, before we add more.  After we learn the kana, about each week, you will also be given one grammatical marker or copula, and five kanji.  We will learn the kanji in about the same order as children learn them in school, starting with the most simple and working our way toward the more difficult.

We will use example sentences, exercises, flashcards, quizzes and tests so you can continually track your progress.  Questions on the material can be left in the comments.

I make no promises of following this material making you fluent in Japanese, however I believe that I can present material in a way that will help you as you go along and supplement any other study program you may be using.  I recommend using the Human Japanese software if at all possible.  It's cheap, and one of the best programs I've seen out there.  Rosetta Stone is garbage and about $500.  HJ is great and less than $25 for actual software disks, and has the complete program available for $10 as an android app in the market place and on google play app store.

One final, but very important thing... You will *need* to set up Japanese Input (The IME and East Asian Language Pack) on your computer in order to participate!  

This is found in the regional and language settings of your computer, and you will need to install the East Asian Language Pack.

Instructions for Windows 7 users here
For Windows XP users, if you have a Windows XP disc, it's easy. If not, torrent all the files you need here. Setting up the language bar/IME is also very simple, you just add Japanese to your list of keyboards.

From there, you can EASILY google up instructions.  Please do not ask me to personally guide you through the installation process, as I'm not really good with things like that.  There are videos on YouTube, there are step-by-step guides available online, and it's really not that difficult.  Basically it's regional and language settings and adding a new language and keyboard (especially in Windows 7) is really easy and takes about five minutes.

Thank You, and I hope you enjoy my efforts. :D

Ganbatte!
RavynSkye

PS: Please be patient with the look of the site.  I'm working on it. :D