Best place on the net to learn japanese?

[dragos240]

I've always thought japanese was a cool language, being one of the two languages that writes right to left. I did find a nice video showing a picture of Haruhi Suzumiya coming out of a monitor, it was easy to follow, but I would like a place to learn japanese with audio as well as written word.

Anyone know of such a site or video?

[The Toxic Mite]

http://www.japanese-online.com/

;)

[NFblaze]

Well, its been a heck of long time since I've studied japanese, but when I was studying I always seemed to learn better via books. That's just me, tho.

Rosetta Stone (not free) is great for audio and visual aid, it does have writing but it's hecka useless if you dont even know the writing alphabet. This is really the only suggestion that meets your criteria that I can think of, but it's not free (unless you are in the military like me and get access to the free online version), but maybe you can find a used copy or other means of getting it.

There is a podcast called Japanese101 Podcast, and it does have audio and writing for one to study. It's heavily guided, though one must pay for it also.

On a sidenote, for learning the writing system, I recommend http://lrnj.com/ which is like an NES version-esque game that teaches you the writing letters. It was very effective for me for Hiragana and Katakana. I also, reccomend Kanji Gold http://web.uvic.ca/kanji-gold/ which has a wonderful Kanji Flashcard program, also great for when you start learning the ideographs for writing in Japanese which will be no easy task.

Yookoso, sends out a daily Japanese Grammar Newsletter that can help you improve your writing abilities with tips on sounding native.

[Salvan]

http://smart.fm/
http://smart.fm/series/3318

[Frak]

http://www.livemocha.com/

[macogw]

http://www.livemocha.com/

+1

Also: Japanese isnt an RTL language... If you write horizontally, it's left to right. Otherwise, it's top to bottom. And what do you mean "one of the two"?? I can think of 3 right now: Arabic, Farsi/Persian, Hebrew.

[JDShu]

I would recommend looking for a nearby japanese conversation group as well. Self learning is great and all, but conversation buddies, especially native japanese speakers, will improve your japanese more than any site.

[dragos240]

+1

Also: Japanese isnt an RTL language... If you write horizontally, it's left to right. Otherwise, it's top to bottom. And what do you mean "one of the two"?? I can think of 3 right now: Arabic, Farsi/Persian, Hebrew.

Huh. I thought kanji was right to left.

[JDShu]

Huh. I thought kanji was right to left.

Top to bottom, right to left, when reading Japanese vertically.

[macogw]

And when writing individual kanji, you always start in top left of the character.

[lightningfox]

http://www.japanese-online.com/