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Stationed in Japan

August 16, 2012
22:43

nfusaf

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Forum Posts: 1

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August 16, 2012

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The only language I have ever spoken is English. After being here for 6 months and finally settling into a daily routine I am finally ready to devote time to learning Japanese. The base has Japanese nationals working for the military and close around the base a lot of people speak English, but it is usually hard to understand. I was wondering if anyone who was become fluent in Japanese had any tips for helping remember how to communicate.

On a related note, originally when I first got here I had my hands on Rosetta stone for Japanese. I was 2 weeks into using it and had a few phrases that were spoken good enough for the listener to understand. After I spoke one of the phrases they shook their head and laughed, "No no no. That is a very bad saying." I was told what it actually meant (Rosetta stone apparently was teaching very proper Japanese and natives don't speak formally), and I have yet to use the program again. :sigh:

Any help/resources will be appreciated. Thanks!

August 17, 2012
10:30

Veronica226

Montana

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January 29, 2012

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I would recommend Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide over here: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar
It starts you off with the informal way of speaking and builds up to the formal. It does use kanji though so beware. If you have Firefox there's a cool pop-up Japanese dictionary add on called Rikai-chan. You just put your cursor over the kanji and it will pop up with the English definition and the pronunciation (in kana, not romanji). It's pretty useful. I also liked the book series Japanese in Mangaland, but Tae Kim's guide is free and that's always a bonus!