wanting to learn japanese...where to get started?

[Inazuma]

Or do what I did. Jump straight into a Japanese MMO and put all of your free time into playing it. You will be forced to learn Japanese if you want to be able to communicate and play with other people. I kept that up for 5 years and became fluent. I also watched raw anime while I ate food. Good luck.

Your story amazes the heck out of me. I'm in awe, to be honest.

Still, what do you consider fluent? Conversational I guess? I hear different definitions of that word all the time. Maybe I've been in Japan too long?

Well, after about 2 years, I reached the point where most Japanese players couldn't tell that I wasn't Japanese. As for the anime, I know it's basic Japanese but I probably understand a good 95% of what's said. If I don't understand a random word that I hear, I can either figure it out from context or look it up.

I do consider myself fluent but I am not perfect. Basically, I should be able to communicate anything I need to, but sometimes it may take me a little longer to figure out how to say it. Kanji is my biggest weakness. Even though I learned Japanese through text communication, I never attempted to learn kanji outside of that. I would guess that I can read somewhere around 500 kanji. Also, I cannot write any Japanese characters by hand.

At the end of the day, I can easily play a Japanese video game and understand it fine. The only times I will have some trouble are RPGs that have a lot of difficult kanji in the character dialog. However, if the dialogue is also spoken, I shouldn't have any problem understanding it.

[Frag Mortuus]

I have a friend that had a japanese room mate in college. Well after they both graduated they stayed in touch. My friend stayed here and her friend went back to Japan. Well after a couple of years my friend decided to go Japan to see her friend (Yuko was her name, I think). So she picked up Rosetta Stone to help her learn the basics of Japanese to help her enjoy her stay more.

Long story short: After studying the Rosetta Stone for about a year, during her trip people were not only amazed at how well she spoke Japanese, but they were astonished at how authentic her annunciation was. They said that she sounded as if she were born and raised in Tokyo!

I think that, in its self, is reason enough to try the program.

[Breetai]

Well, after about 2 years, I reached the point where most Japanese players couldn't tell that I wasn't Japanese. As for the anime, I know it's basic Japanese but I probably understand a good 95% of what's said. If I don't understand a random word that I hear, I can either figure it out from context or look it up.

I do consider myself fluent but I am not perfect. Basically, I should be able to communicate anything I need to, but sometimes it may take me a little longer to figure out how to say it. Kanji is my biggest weakness. Even though I learned Japanese through text communication, I never attempted to learn kanji outside of that. I would guess that I can read somewhere around 500 kanji. Also, I cannot write any Japanese characters by hand.

At the end of the day, I can easily play a Japanese video game and understand it fine. The only times I will have some trouble are RPGs that have a lot of difficult kanji in the character dialog. However, if the dialogue is also spoken, I shouldn't have any problem understanding it.

I think I've told you this before, but... that is awesome. You are one of the few guys who actually pulled it off. Kudos to you!

I'm sure the next time you post this story, I'll say the same.

Personally, I probably know about 500 kanji as well... but have studied none of them. I just... know them from immersion. Same with my speech and listening. You're surely better than I am at it, but I can get by just fine in Japanese and I haven't formally studied a day in my life.

[grittykitty]

i think most of the advice posted so far was pretty good. what i can suggest depends on your goal - are you just wanting to be able to fluently read japanese to play some old video games? that's what i'm getting from your question. if so, i think all the good advice has been said - memorize all the kana. don't even start learning words in romaji before you do that, as it would be a waste of your time. most college-level textbooks start with romaji to learn simple words, and that doesn't sound like what you want.

if you're going to be reading a lot of kanji (super nintendo and later games) then get practicing with a kanji book. learning stroke order will be important if you decide to use some kanji software on the ds (THIS is pretty popular, and it's what i use)

however, if you'd like to learn conversational japanese, watching anime without subtitles is a good start. if you can use skype, maybe you can make friends with a native japanese speaker and learn from each other. of course, conversing with friends is person is even better, as they can teach you a lot of useful "real world" slang, phrases, and grammar. but that seems out of your reach i'm guessing, since you don't have college-level japanese courses around you, so a skype friend might be a nice idea.

also, here are some good resources for simple vocabulary:
http://www.alc.co.jp
just enter a word in the first box and hit enter - search in english OR japanese. i believe it's all or mostly user submitted, so there's most likely going to be multiple definitions for any given word, and most of the time sample sentences are included

http://nihongo.j-talk.com/kanji/
this can look up the meaning of a kanji, or turn your kanji into romaji or kana

[Beak]

Move to Japan with no money or food.

You will never learn a language better than when your ability to eat is dependent on the ability to communicate.

[Inazuma]

if you're going to be reading a lot of kanji (super nintendo and later games) then get practicing with a kanji book. learning stroke order will be important if you decide to use some kanji software on the ds (THIS is pretty popular, and it's what i use)

That looks like some nice DS software. I will have to make a note to buy that sometime.

[hashiriya1]

I lived in Japan for 7 years (also spent summers there when I was a kid), and I can tell you that most of the advice given on this thread is not useless, but not entirely useful either. I probably speak, read, and write the most Japanese out of anyone on this site who isn't Japanese, and I'll tell ya....it's hell. I don't have any advice for you because it's different for everybody else. The way I learned may not work for you, and the way you learn may not have worked for me, if I wasn't pretty much fluent.

I never learned Japanese the traditional way (classes and such) but I find this link very informative.

http://www.enemieslist.net/japanese/

[hashiriya1]

Move to Japan with no money or food.

You will never learn a language better than when your ability to eat is dependent on the ability to communicate.

The best advice thus far.

[BoringSupreez]

I'm learning Japanese right now, I'm about halfway through Rosseta Stone Japanese level 1. The only advise I can give you is to stick with it, take it in college, and move there if you think it will help (and you care that much).

[Breetai]

I never learned Japanese the traditional way (classes and such) but I find this link very informative.

http://www.enemieslist.net/japanese/

Heh, heh. I'd read that website a few years ago. It's right on the money.