Learning Japanese

Like most geeks, I've put in a decent amount of effort into learning the Japanese language. Now that I'm in university, I'm actually sitting down and figuring it out properly, but I do have background in the language and I know more than most of my class. So this blog (since I do wish to be a teacher and I wish someone would have told me this when I started) will be a little 101 for people who want to at least dip their feet into Japanese before taking a formal course. The picture, by the way, was my attempt to make a memory trick to remember keezaigaku (also spelled keizaigaku), which is economics. This might be long, but there will be a lot of info.
Alright, so lets get started.

Lets get some basics down first. Japanese has 3 forms of writing: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. First of all, kanji are Chinese characters. Before kanji, there was no writing system in Japan, only oral. That is why there are 2 ways of saying all kanji: on and kun. The on reading is the Chinese reading and the kun is the Japanese reading. You know when to use each one by.... um.... magic... I guess. USUALLY (this is not a set in stone rule AT ALL), the on reading is used when the word is in a compound form and the kun when it's on its own. Take the japanese word for star, which is 星. Star, by itself, is pronounced "hoshi" (the kun reading). Now lets add on 座, which means gathering and is pronounced "gi" in its kun reading. Together, they would logically be hoshigi, right? WRONG! The on reading for hoshi is sei, and the on reading for gi is za. So they are pronounced seiza together. seiza literally means "a gathering of stars", but we would know it as a constellation. Cool, right? But like I said, this rule is FAR from correct (it's just a good default way of pronouncing things you don't know). Take 星空 for example. You'll recognize the first kanji as "star", and the last one is "sky" (the translation being "starry sky"). The way this is pronounced is "hoshizora", coming from the kun readings "hoshi' and "sora". It's a z for pronunciation reasons.
This is horrible and confusing, but it is the way of Japanese. You kind of get used to it and accept it, especially once you begin to realize how horrible and confusing English is. Seriously, English is a cluster fuck of horrible. -_-

Moving on, we have hiragana and katakana. Hiragana was made for women, because it was assumed that kanji were too difficult for women to understand. They are derived from kanji and are all based on phonetic sounds. There are 46 different symbols which are sometimes mixed and matched for different sounds (like mixing "ki" and "ya" for "kya"). I won't go over these, just figure them out on your own. I might do another blog later with some tricks, but not now.
Katakana is also phonetic and derive from kanji, but they look different. The reason katakana exist? Foreign words. This may seem stupid, but it does serve a purpose besides old Japanese people not wanting foreign words mixed in with their own. Primarily, there are different ways to mix and match katakana that give you some sounds that aren't available in hiragana. Also, when you're reading, you'll know if the word you're reading is supposed to be foreign or not. This is very helpful since there's a good chance it's a word English speakers would know and all that's left is to play Mad Gab with yourself! Think of it as a game. A really frustrating game...

With that out of the way, here's the #1 absolute best way to learn slang, modern, and traditional japanese vocabulary: manga scanlations. It may sounds dumb, but you wouldn't believe how much culture you'll pick up from scans as opposed to the official English translations. Also, start watching your anime/ japanese movies with subs. NO MORE DUBS! Subtitles don't change the wording to fit the dialogue timing and usually come with cultural notes to explain things. Seriously, it's crazy how westernized japanese flicks get when they're dubbed.
Watching anime in Japanese also comes with the added bonus of picking up on words they use a lot. Seriously, I will ALWAYS know what "heika" means thanks to Kyo Kara Maoh. And as ANOTHER beautiful bonus (so many perks!), you'll get used to hearing Japanese. Your ears need to get used to the sounds whether you like it or not.
If you go the manga-route, though (and I do prefer manga over anime), you're going to miss out on stuff like getting your ears attuned and getting used to random vocab since everything will be in English. Don't be fooled, though, there's a HUGE plus side for you as well. There are FAR more cultural notes and you can pick up stuff at your own pace. Also, sound effects are left untouched usually, so you get get used to looking at kana and use them as exercises.
Shoujo will be your best friend when learning about culture. Seriously. Shoujo, for people that don't know, is basically chick-flick manga. Don't be fooled by they cliche plot lines and simple characters, they are LOADED with culture. Holidays, classroom games, how school works, what is expected from genders, traditions... I can't even name it all. It makes sense, though. Shoujo are the most life-like ones that are made so that girls feel like the situations can happen to them as well. So things that are very every-day for them come up all the time as a normal thing, even though they are foreign to us.

Wooh! that was a lot of info, huh? Well, we're not quite done yet. Last, but CERTAINLY not least, I'm going to leave you with some pronunciation notes. Why? Because if I hear one more girl in cat ears and gal makeup run up to me at ACen and scream, "Ohmigawd! That is sooooo Kowai de-su!", I will actually start murdering them.
First of all, you do NOT always pronounce the "u" sound... or the "e" sound. This (like how "sora" became "zora" back in the kanji paragraph) is just a speaking thing. The "u" in desu is not really pronounced so much as it is breathed. The u is more of a hard "s" sound. It's kind of hard to explain, but you'll get used to it when your ears get used to the sounds. The u IS pronounced when you say something like "desu ne". The u sound is blended into the "ne". I'm probably explaining this poorly, but you'll get used to it.
Also, besides the u and the e, PRONOUNCE ALL YOUR DAMN VOWELS LIKE THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO BE! See that "kowai" up there? That actually means "creepy". What the obnoxious girls MEAN to say is "kawaii", which means "cute". You have to pronounce it kah-wah-ee. Anything else does NOT mean "cute".
In addition to pronouncing all of your letters, I'm sure you've run into the problem Japanese people have with "L" and "R". They do not have a sound for each one, rather a combined sound. Additionally, it also kind of makes the "D" sound. Crazy, right? Not really. I could explain where the tongue goes and how to hold your mouth, but there's a much easier way to do this. Have you ever watched Veggie Tales? You know the asparagus with the monocle that introduces Silly Songs With Larry? Go to youtube and listen to how he says the R's in "Larry". THAT is the sound. You hear it as "Larry", "Lally", and "Laddy" all at the same time, but you only register it as Larry because you know who he's talking about. Seriously, it's just that simple.
Also, just a note, there is no "F". I'm obviously lying because Japan has a mountain called "Fuji", right? Well... kinda. It's an F/H sound. Even when learning the kana, you notice that there's no "hu" sound because it actually sounds more like "fu". I know, it's confusing, but it's another thing you'll get used to when you start hearing Japanese.

Alright, that's all for now *cracks neck*. It might have been a lot to take in, but hopefully it helps. So keep what I said in mind and get onto learning those kana and reading/watching your manga/anime! See you tomorrow. ^^

As for my music recommendation, we'll stick with Veggie Tales, cause I love my childhood. I suggest the "Hairbrush Song" (and you can totally find the Japanese version on youtube!) and the "Water Buffalo" song.