Starting to learn Japanese from the zero!

[SteppenX]

What should I do first if I start to learn Japanese from zero. Well I thought maybe I should study first Hiragana and Katakana with some workbooks, then move to textbooks (with audio CD's and workbooks) that would'nt be Romaji. Because I have read that they are not very good. But are they? :clueless: Do you think this studying system would be reasonable?

[Homerduff]

first you should start with the pronounciation but that shouldnt be a big problem..

then indeed its wise to start with hiragana and katakana. Im currently already past this and im beginning with learning a rather big list of basic vocabulary together with all the kanji of these words. After that I will move to the grammar part, trying to understand all the particles and forming good phrases..

[SteppenX]

Does anyone have any other opinions/suggestions?

[nhk9]

I'd say learn the hiragana first, then learn the 50most basic words in Japanese. You can leave katakana for maybe 3 months from now, since they are not nearly as useful as the hiragana. Memorizing katakana would take some time so don't expect to get them all at once.

Overall you plan sounds fairly good. Ganbatte

[Automatisch]

Just start slow, and do kana first... Once you get that over with, you can start working on the other areas, like vocabulary and grammar. I personally had a very easy time learning katakana, and hiragana took me a little bit longer... In fact, I just about memorized katakana in about a day, whereas hiragana took me at least a few days or so of hard studying. I can't really say which one you might learn faster, as it will just vary person to person. The easiest way to learn kana is to just do charts, and right each one multiple times until it's just stuck in your brain. Flash cards are really helpful too, and you can usually buy some in a store... Good luck.

[Sparky]

Here is the very first basic Japanese Lesson I created.
Learn Hirigana and Katakana from the start. It will help you alot in the future.
Here is the link enjoy: www.japanlinked.com/real/index.html