I'm 15 years old and live in the United Kingdom and am very interested in the idea of learning a second language, namely, Japanese (I watch tons of Anime, hehe ^.^; It's what motivated me into learning the language). I have asked my school about learning Japanese as a second language, but as it isn't part of the curriculum, they can't help. I know that I can begin with websites that offer free audio files detailing pronunciation and basic phrases, which I have started, but after that, where do I go? I checked the Rosetta Stone website...

It's like, £300 for the software. I don't have that kind of money! D=

So, leaving myself in the trusty hands of the Yahoo! Answers community, I am hoping that someone can nudge me in the right direction? If anyone has been in my position and has learned how to speak Japanese because of it, I would very much like to know!

I am very patient, and would much prefer an answer which will help me learn the language thoroughly, and not just rushing through phrases in a few weeks.

So, if any of you amazing people out there can help, my life will be indebted to you!

And, if by any chance you could refer this question to your friends for extra answers and help, I would GREATLY appreciate it!

I'm sorry for the essay guys, but this is a really exciting concept for me =D

Sooo, my life is in your hands =P

Domo arigato gozaimasu! (Yes =P Stolen from a Japanese phrase website ^.^;)

Go to: http://www.rosettastone.com/

See if you can find a schools japanese textbook,if you cant find one right away start learning your katakana and hiragana (google it), also colleges often have more choices if your willing to wait.

Wooohoooo! Good for you! You are about to embark on one of the best trips of your life. It's love from here on out, love for life! I was exactly in your position 3 years ago, and I can tell you now that you have been blessed by the linguistic gods for not having a Japanese class in your area. Why? Because classes are so da*n slow and boring for someone with our enthusiasm. A run-of-the mill class might make you get disenchanted with the thing you love. Kick Rosetta Stone out the window because it is for people who want to say "How much does that cost?" and "That is very nice," not for people who want to learn loads of the real stuff.

So, here's what I have done and it has worked perfectly:
1. Get a textbook with audio. I used Yookoso 1 &2 *media edition*. Make sure whatever you get comes with audio cds. This step is NEEDED.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0072938099
1a. Install the Japanese IME that came on you CD for Windows. If you have a Mac, add Japanese through International Settings in the upper right toolbar.

2. The even better partwatch all the anime you can. But there is a trick: after you have learned the basic structure of japanese with the textbook, whenever you hear a word in anime or think you hear a word, look it up. And copy and paste it. Then look it over later, like the next day and try to remember the scene it was used in. The absolute best Japanese dictionary online for English speakers is http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1C

3. Time to learn your Kanji (characters). They are so so beautiful and make sense after a while, so it won't be hard to learn them. Much much more than being beautiful, learning kanji will help words you don't know make a lot more sense. Use the
Basic Kanji Book, Vol. 1 - Vol. 3 by Chieko Kano. Skip the stupid flash cards.

4. Get the lyrics for your favorite songs in Kanji and translate them. Then you can sing them knowing what you're singing.

5. If you're even more serious about all of this, proceed in your book studies with Nihongo Chukyu J301. By this point, you can definitely read manga and books, but never never never let any word go by without looking it up!!!!

If after you have learned some grammar and some of what you hear in anime sounds weird, it's most likely slang/an abbreviation. The abbreviations and smashing together sounds in a language are the most important part of sounding casual. I haven't found a good place for learning this except for listening very carefully and asking.

The best site online for Japanese grammar:http://www.guidetojapanese.org/

An essay for an essay. :P
Seriously, email me if you have any specific questions (especially about grammar and slang) at dreamalive12 @ yahoo.com. Just make sure to make the subject line clear so I don't think you're spam. I can help!

Nihongo benkyou sitai ka? In otherwords, you want to study Japanese?

There are all sorts of ways in which you can learn the language. At the moment, there is this site called: www.japanesepod101.com and it's pretty good. You can download it on your MP3 or listen on your computer. You can practice and also follow along.

Hope it helps for now. Ganbatte ne (good luck).

-cringe-. sorry, random bursts of japanese phrases from non-japanese people makes me uncomfortable.

i personally didnt 'learn' japanese, since it is my first language and i just grew up speaking it (just as english speakers dont technically learn how to speak english, its eventually integrated into their vocabulary). however, what i would do is just immerse yourself with japanese speakers and japanese speaking television programs, etc. the best way to learn is to see how us japanese speak, act and react because they are very different to english people. plus i would advise you to know whether they are speaking in kanto-ben or kansai-ben (different dialects within japan) because if you learn a mixture of dialects its not going to get you anywhere. you could survive, but youll just look very inexperienced and disrespectful to the japanese language.

and i find alot of non-japanese people think JAP is just a nice shortened version of japanese. it is not. it is a racial slur used by the americans in ww2, and has the same effect as calling a black person a n*gga. that is a mistake many learners of japanese make, so just cautioning you.

GO 2 A LIBRARY GET SOME BOOKS LOOK UP ON THE INTERNET

You can go to the library, check out books, and audio files from there too. Also surf through the Internet and find some information and offers. Japanese is a fun language to know!

Dou itashimashite :].