Any recommendations for learning Japanese?

[Espionage724]

I would love to learn Japanese, specifically for watching Anime or reading Manga, but also being able to use an Operating System in Japanese.

Right now, I use a variety of methods:

http://www.realkana.com/ (for learning Hiragana and Katakana)
http://www.hesjapanese.com/ (for learning stroke order of Hiragana and Katakana characters)
Rosetta Stone (for words and etc)
Anime (not sure if helps or not, but maybe hearing Japanese will help me learn :p)

Anyone else have any tips that might be helpful?

[PolynAzn]

Haha, I will stalk this for tips....

[Krozam]

Anime, hearing someone actually speak Japanese, definitely helps. You start picking up common phrases and get a general understanding of the pronounciation. You also learn about the culture, which in turn helps learning about the principles behind the language.

My suggestion is: find a teacher. Self-study is far from useless, but I can tell you from experience, going to an actual class is a hell of a lot faster way to learn.

[kenjinsakura]

I agree with Krozam. You need a structured approach to learning the language. If you cannot go to a class, find a textbook. Watching anime helps with pronunciation, but if you plan to use a japanese OS, youre going to have to work hard on kanji and grammar.

[Espionage724]

I agree with Krozam. You need a structured approach to learning the language. If you cannot go to a class, find a textbook. Watching anime helps with pronunciation, but if you plan to use a japanese OS, youre going to have to work hard on kanji and grammar.

Hmm, I'm probably not nearly the best at identifying characters, but with Windows 7, it all looked like Katakana to me

[kenjinsakura]

I agree with Krozam. You need a structured approach to learning the language. If you cannot go to a class, find a textbook. Watching anime helps with pronunciation, but if you plan to use a japanese OS, youre going to have to work hard on kanji and grammar.

Hmm, I'm probably not nearly the best at identifying characters, but with Windows 7, it all looked like Katakana to me

Well a lot of it is katakana for stuff like "computer" and "uninstall" but trust me, theres a LOT of kanji. And you wont be able to touch a lot of the settings if you dont know any kanji. I'm using Japanese Windows 7.

[PolynAzn]

What if you are Chinese to begin with? Like me xD

[BB_96]

I started a while ago with "Genki I&II", it will teach you lots of grammar and vocabulary, and the primary Kanji that are useful during the elementary stage of learning Japanese.

[InfinityStream]

If you're able to, find an online class. They're actually very useful. I've been taking one for two weeks and i know more than I did in one year of Spanish, comparatively.

Northern Star Online might be available in your area. If you go to school, college, or whatever, you should ask a counselor. They'll usually tell you about things like that.