Minna no Nihongo is a great method to get you started. By the end of the second book you will have a firm grasp of the grammar and if you are serious about studying the words your vocabulary will also be great :) Personally for vocabulary however I recommed you use Anki, a flashcard program. It would probably be ideal to find lists of JLPT vocabulary, starting at level 5 (you'll be done with that in no time), going to level 4 etc. You can download them through the program or online somewhere. If you use Anki for 10-15 minutes a day you'll get really far really quick, trust me.
Do not buy Remembering the Kanji. I know a lot of people swear by it but I think it's a nonsense method and a waste of money. The question is what you want to achieve. Do you want to be able to read and recognise kanji? Or also write them? If you also want to write them, I had a great method for learning kanji that made sense, but unfortunately I can't find it for sale anymore. If you'd like to give it a try anyway, it's called Kanji Master. Point is, frankly it's still tedious to study kanji. But with this book, the kanji are sorted by theme and radical, and it makes a lot of sense. It's the first method I ever used that made me actually remember kanji. (But you still have to sit down every day and repeat repeat repeat). If you just want to recognise kanji, I recommend you just use Anki and learn kanji by studying words/compounds.
Hope this helps a little! If you have any questions, do let me know :) I'm very enthusiastic about this topic.
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Date: 2012-01-07 10:03 pm (UTC)Personally for vocabulary however I recommed you use Anki, a flashcard program. It would probably be ideal to find lists of JLPT vocabulary, starting at level 5 (you'll be done with that in no time), going to level 4 etc. You can download them through the program or online somewhere. If you use Anki for 10-15 minutes a day you'll get really far really quick, trust me.
Do not buy Remembering the Kanji. I know a lot of people swear by it but I think it's a nonsense method and a waste of money. The question is what you want to achieve. Do you want to be able to read and recognise kanji? Or also write them?
If you also want to write them, I had a great method for learning kanji that made sense, but unfortunately I can't find it for sale anymore. If you'd like to give it a try anyway, it's called Kanji Master. Point is, frankly it's still tedious to study kanji. But with this book, the kanji are sorted by theme and radical, and it makes a lot of sense. It's the first method I ever used that made me actually remember kanji. (But you still have to sit down every day and repeat repeat repeat).
If you just want to recognise kanji, I recommend you just use Anki and learn kanji by studying words/compounds.
Hope this helps a little! If you have any questions, do let me know :) I'm very enthusiastic about this topic.