Welcome to Learn Japanese Now.  My name is Chris.  This is my on-going blog of someone who is learning Japanese and all the excitement, difficulties, shortcuts, methods, and overall fun that I’m having learning Japanese.  It is my hope that you will be able to avoid some of the pitfalls that I have experienced and learn something too!

More about me.  I’m from Southern California.  I go to Japan at least once a year and I am studying Japanese with the help of a private tutor.  As I work full-time, I only have 1 hour a week to meet with the tutor and 1 to 2 hours a week to actually study.  Some weeks are without study as I have a hectic schedule and travel a bit for work.  Please excuse me if I don’t post as often as you might like.  Adding this blog is adding another item to manage in my life.  But I would like to do this as I know that when I focus on the blog I will also be focusing on my Japanese studies.  Perhaps I should have named this blog “Study Japanese Now!”

My goal is to post relevant topics on Japanese Language study and tools and aids I use to learn this interesting and sometimes unusual language.  I personally find that Japanese is not difficult.  What is difficult is the vocabulary and kanji memorization.  Surprisingly enough, I don’t find the grammer all that difficult, just different.

Please feel free to comment and let me know what techniques or learning methods you use.  I’d like to make this a collaborative environment.

Thank you for reading and I hope we will all learn better together!

First, I began with Japanese for Busy People I.  This text book starts at the absolute beginning.  If you do not have any concept of the Kana, I would recommend the Romanji (or English Phonetical version).  Along with these textbooks there are accompanying workbooks.  I recommend these too.  Usually in my Tutoring sessions we cover the workbook pages.

Japanese for Busy People I

After book 1, I moved onto Book 2 of the same series.  I did however switch to the Kana/Kanji version.  This is a lot more difficult to begin with because you are learning the Japanese characters as well as trying to understand the content, but with dedication, it actually is worthwhile.

Japanese for Busy People II

I am currently working through this and am about two thirds complete.  I still have a ways to go and it is slow going as I don’t study as much as I’d like.  My current goal is to catch up on all the vocabulary and memorize the words from everything in both books up until where I am.

The interesting thing is that as I am learning the new material, I think to myself “Man this is hard.”   Then after a couple chapters have progressed, I look back at what I covered and say “oh yeah, that was not too bad.”   It is just that as you are learning, it seems difficult because it is new.  But once you learn it, you find that each chapter is only a small part of the sum of what you have learned.

I have yet to progress to Book III, but I will link to it here if any of you are interested or have progressed that far.

Japanese for Busy People III

As I mentioned on our home page, My goal is to post relevant topics on Japanese Language study and tools and aids I use to learn this interesting and sometimes unusual language.  I personally find that Japanese is not difficult.   I don’t think you will either.  It only takes perseverance.

I will be posting tools, references and experiences to help you understand and gain more from your Japanese Language Study.  Please feel free to comment and contribute to this site!

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