Speaking, romaji, hiragana, katakana and kanji. What order should I learn them in?

[Feral-Darkness]

Any idea in what order I should learn them in? I have found tons of free info on all of them but just not sure which I should go with first.

I was thinking of trying to learn speaking and katakana first but starting to think I should do speaking and romaji first =(

Any tips would be nice.

[Elizabeth]

What does "learning" romaji refer to exactly? Presumably if you know the roman alphabet it shouldn't be much of a problem....Do you mean learn vocabulary and grammar through romaji in order to speak? It totally depends on whether you have a friend, tutor etc willing to devote the hours and years necessary for mastery. As you'll soon discover, the steps involved in learning a language are cumulative as opposed to discrete A follows B follows C etc which you can decide on the fly based on message board responses and expect to have success with. Katakana and hiragana are obviously a necessary first step if you're interested in reading and writing Japanese.

[Feral-Darkness]

"Do you mean learn vocabulary and grammar through romaji in order to speak?"

Yes that is what I mean. I know no one has a perfect way to do it but which way would you suggest?

I was thinking of trying to go for hiragana or katakana "Which is more usefull any ways? They seem pretty close." seeing as how if I learn hiragana I will know how to make the romaji for it.

[Buntaro]

I strongly believe that you need to learn hiragana first. If you do, you will find life is just easier, further down the road.

[SacredBlue]

I learned as follows:
#1 Hiragana
#2 Katakana
#3 Kanji

Speaking should undoubtedly be learned alongside all of these, along with grammar. For example once you know Hiragana and Katakana, form sentences with them using correct grammar then read it out loud. And then begin to introduce simple Kanji into the sentences. That's how I learned it, at least.

[MShingen]

Originally posted by Feral-Darkness
Any idea in what order I should learn them in? I have found tons of free info on all of them but just not sure which I should go with first.

I was thinking of trying to learn speaking and katakana first but starting to think I should do speaking and romaji first =(

Any tips would be nice.

My advice will be never to touch romaji if possible, concentrate on both hiragana and katakana first. Know how to read and write first, just like learning alphabets. With that basic knowledge, you will be able to learn words and sentences easier.

[Sailor Shadow]

Originally posted by MShingen
My advice will be never to touch romaji if possible, concentrate on both hiragana and katakana first. Know how to read and write first, just like learning alphabets. With that basic knowledge, you will be able to learn words and sentences easier.

The only time I've found romaji to be helpful is when I attempt to translate songs. Romanizing the kana helps me to see the words better to then turn it into English.

Yes, I guess I'm a backwards kind of person, but it makes me practice kana recognition... It's how I memorized over half my kana charts. I feel good about going through an anime song's lyrics and being able to turn 80-90% of it into romaji without looking at my chart.

The other time romaji helps is inputting with IME, since you basically have to type the romaji into the computer so the IME can make the kana/kanji for you...

[Elizabeth]

Originally posted by Sailor Shadow
The other time romaji helps is inputting with IME, since you basically have to type the romaji into the computer so the IME can make the kana/kanji for you...

Well, you don't have to, I know at least one Japanese national who does the direct entry method, but as you say it's a very useful process for us Americans to learn kanji readings especially.