Learn To Speak Japanese

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Learn To Speak Japanese

Learn To Speak Japanese - Speaking Japanese is inevitable, if you want to start understanding the Japanese culture. Japan has been keeping apart of the rest of the world for a long time. That means that culture, the way people treat each other and all sorts of small every day things are very different from what we are used to in the Western world.

Nevertheless, to learn to speak Japanese can be a lot of fun and a true expedition into the fascinating unknown. With the Pimsleur audio books, you will train your unconscious mind to start recognizing the Japanese language and before you know what's happening you'll be speaking your first senteces of Japanese!

Japanese Language Audios Pimsleur Download

 

The Japanese Language 

The Japanese language or Nihongo is spoken by over 130 million people, in Japan and by Japanese living in Japanese emigrant communities worldwide.

The Japanese language is heavily influenced by the traditional hierarchic system that defines the Japanese culture. A complex system of honorifics differenciations with verb forms and a particular vocabulary is used to indicate the relative status of speaker, listener or the person mentioned in conversations.

The Japanese Alphabet

The Japanese language is written with a combination of three different types of scripts: Chinese characters, kanji, and two syllabic scripts, hiragana and katakana. The Latin alphabet, romaji, is also often used in modern Japanese, mostly for company names and logos as well as advertising. Romaji is also used when writing Japanese with a computer. Western style Arabic numerals are generally used for numbers - the same importance have the traditional Sino-Japanese numerals.

The Japanese vocabulary has been heavily influenced by words from other languages. Many words were borrowed from Chinese, or created from Chinese models. Recently, Japanese has also borrowed a considerable number of words from European languages, mainly English. Because of the special trade relationship between Japan and Holland in the 17th century, Dutch has also been influential, with words like birru (from "bier" ("beer")) and kohi (from "koffie" ("coffee")).

Learn Japanese with a Comic 

The alternative to Pimsleur - Maybe not... ?

Here's a comic for kids that runs on Japanese TV, with English subtitles, so that you may follow what's being said.

Once you speak Japanese, you'll have to start working on your cultural understanding of Japan, most likely much more difficult. It's an other world!

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Japanese Silk Kimonos 

Silk has played and still plays a major role in Japanese apparel. The classic kimono and nowadays also many other pieces of especially womens clothes are made of prime silk.

Why not get a few of these beautiful pieces and get in the right mood when learning Japanese?

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Learn Japanese in Japan - Life in Japan 

Learn to speak Japanese in Japan - Learn business Japanese

cell-holder03 by MioCailynnKeeps

cell-holder03

Posing for Tarja by MioCailynnKeeps

Posing for Tarja

cell-holder01 by MioCailynnKeeps

cell-holder01

cell-holder02 by MioCailynnKeeps

cell-holder02

cell-holder04 by MioCailynnKeeps

cell-holder04

geo-pi2 by MioCailynnKeeps

geo-pi2

fjaereheia090609-14 by MioCailynnKeeps

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fjaereheia090609-23 by MioCailynnKeeps

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fjaereheia090609-07 by MioCailynnKeeps

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New eyes by MioCailynnKeeps

New eyes

Tokio Skyline by Susonauta

Tokio Skyline

tokyo station by kusabi

tokyo station

by kusabi

incoming by kusabi

incoming

by kusabi

marunouchi by kusabi

marunouchi

ghost taxi by kusabi

ghost taxi

Tokyo Disneyland Jubilation Parade - Dancer's collage by Carlos Alejo

Tokyo Disneyland Jub...

Torre de Tokio by Susonauta

Torre de Tokio

Venus Fort, Odaiba by Carlos Alejo

Venus Fort, Odaiba

Mercado de Tsukiji by Carlos Alejo

Mercado de Tsukiji

東京 Tokyo at Night by themonnie

東京 Tokyo at Nigh...

La torre de Tokio by Susonauta

La torre de Tokio

Guía del metro de Tokio by luquerias

Guía del metro de T...

Dentsu Building - Shiodome by dr floyd

Dentsu Building - Sh...

Tokyo by night by dr floyd

Tokyo by night

Harajuku by dr floyd

Harajuku

Marunouchi by dr floyd

Marunouchi

stripes by chelsea(:

stripes

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The latest News: Japan - Japanese 

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Learn Japanese in Japan - How To Get There 

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Glassware and Porcellain from Japan 

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Essential Kanji: 2,000 Basic Japanese Characters 

Essential Kanji: 2,000 Basic Japanese Characters Systematically Arranged For Learning And Reference

Essential Kanji: 2,000 Basic Japanese Characters Systematically Arranged For Learning And Reference

by: P. G. O'Neill

Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 07/13/2009)Buy Now
List Price: $24.95

Essential Kanji is an integrated course for learning to read and write the 2,000 basic Japanese characters. It introduces the kanji that are now in everyday use, a mastery of which makes it possible to read most modern Japanese. Devised for either home or classroom use, the book has been tested and refined by years of use in university classes taught by the author.

Release Date: 11/01/1987

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Guide Books for Japan 

Books about Japan

Japan (Country Guide)

Japan (Country Guide)

by: Chris Rowthorn, Ray Bartlett, Andrew Bender, Matthew Firestone, Wendy Yanagihara, Michael Clark, Tim Hornyak

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Amazon Price: $22.73 (as of 07/13/2009) Buy Now
List Price: $28.99

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Country Commercial Guide: Japan (Country Commercial Guides)

Country Commercial Guide: Japan (Country Commercial Guides)

by: U. S. Embassy Tokyo

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Amazon Price: $9.95 (as of 07/13/2009) Buy Now
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A Primary Source Guide to Japan (Countries of the World (Powerkids Press Primary Source).)

A Primary Source Guide to Japan (Countries of the World (Powerkids Press Primary Source).)

by: Tobi Stanton Stewart

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Amazon Price: (as of 07/13/2009) Buy Now
List Price: $8.25

Japanese Language Websites 

Pimsleur Japanese
Pimsleur Japanese Audio Books - Japanese MP3 Pimsleur Downloads. Save money with these downloads and start your first Japanese language lesson in a few minutes from now!
Japanese Audio
Japanese Audio: Learn Japanese 'Hello', Japanese 'Thank you' and much more by listening to these Japanese language audios. Speak Easy Japanese - Basic Japanese really fast!
Pimsleur CD - Pimsleur Japanese CD
Pimsleur Japanese CD - Learning Japanese from CDs right now: Download the Japanese audio here and burn your own CD.

Learn to Speak Japanese Fast - Nihongo Lessons 

Learn to speak Nihongo

Using Japanese audios can be a great help in learning to speak Japanese fast. Speaking Japanese is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance, especially because with a good instruction on how lo learn Japanese you van get started systematically.

There are learn to speak Japanese books, and there are great audiobooks that teach you an easy way to learn to speak Nihongo.

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Minna no Nihongo - Learn Nihongo 

Mina no Nihongo - Mina no Nihongo online

These books are "For real people that need to talk to other real people".

This textbook treats you like an adult who needs to speak in Japan. Each lesson introduces a few sentence patterns (i.e. grammar), gives relevant vocabulary, shows how to use it in useful situations, and provides lots of opportunity for practice.
The vocabulary is excellent.

It is aggressive: it requires us to learn about 50 new words per lesson, and reuses the vocab from previous lessons. It is also well chosen: the vocab logically matches the sentence patterns for that lesson so that we can learn and practice them together. But it doesn't ask us to memorize exhaustive themed categories (animals, etc...). It recognizes that many adults need to talk about "reports" more often than "horses".

Minna No Nihongo uses a lot of pairwork, and I have found it most effective studying in a class with a teacher or at least with a dedicated partner.

The book itself is unique. I've never seen another like it. It is written for foreigners in Japan so it is written completely in japanese. Then students can buy the accompanying translation and grammatical notes (recommended) in the language of their choice (English, Korean, Chinese, etc.).

Dennis B. (Canadian in Japan)
Minna no Nihongo: Bk. 1

Minna no Nihongo: Bk. 1

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Minna no Nihongo: Bk. 2

Minna no Nihongo: Bk. 2

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Minna no Nihongo: Workbook Bk. 1

Minna no Nihongo: Workbook Bk. 1

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Minna no Nihongo Honyaku: English Translation and Grammatical Notes

Minna no Nihongo Honyaku: English Translation and Grammatical Notes

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Minna No Nihongo II: Translation and Grammatical Notes (Bk. 1)

Minna No Nihongo II: Translation and Grammatical Notes (Bk. 1)

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by sudever

Hi, I'm Susan and I love languages!

Since I discovered the Pimsleur language audios,  I've been brushing up and learning new languages with thes...

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