I have been trying to learn Japanese for months now with only a couple English to Japanese dictionaries. But I've always wondered, what is the key? My friend, who knows a bit of the language himself, said that they speak the same as us English do, just the words are different. But then, I've heard they speak backwards. I do know that the Japanese write downwards, but what about their language? So sometimes what I do is just look up each word at a time in my dictionaries, but that's just not going to work. I'm so confused about this, and I understand learning this language is going to be very hard, but I just need a little help here.

go 2 japan and learn thay know much better, it's their language

The truth is... you need to surround yourself with those who speak Japanese, and try to converse with them. It may be slow, but it works, and they will help you. Start with "How are you" and "Good Morning" and work your way up to harder phrases.

I've been trying to learn too, and, frankly enough, it is hard. Dictionaries won't do, you have to see Japanese in action. The best way (if you can't afford to buy a Japanese course) would be to watch movies (anime ones are easier to understand) in Japanese, use Internet sites that offer free lessons, and find some Japanese person to help you practice it. Gokouun o inorimasu!

watashi no nihongo mada heta desu. you must practice phrases first, try getting some japanese children;s books writtenin hiragana and work your way up gumbate!

concerning studying japanese,
speaking and hearing are may be easy,
but reading and writing are may be difficult.

I think you should use the easiest material at first.
Hang in there!

You need to find a book that teaches simple grammar (I bought several at the bookstore in my hometown, so I know they are not hard to find.)
When you say "they speak backwards" what you mean is that the words in a sentence are arranged in a different order than they are in English. Japanese is not really "backwards." Often in Japanese there is no "subject" per se, because the two people talking understand what is being talked about. Here's an example in English:
person one"Coming?"
person two"Sure, in a minute!"
In English class your teacher would mark this wrong because it is not a "complete" sentence. But in Japanese, these kind of sentences are okay. That's just an example.