Topic: 日本語 (Japanese!)

I've noticed that there are quite a few people here that know Japanese. So I'm curious about how you became interested in Japanese, how long you have been learning it for and why you want to learn it, etc.

I'm half Japanese and when I was a kid, my grandfather taught me some words and how to count in Japanese. I think that that started my interest in Japan and it's culture. Roughly 5 years ago or so I started teaching myself Japanese through phone apps and learned a decent amount, then in 2012 I took lessons for half a year before going on an exchange program for 6 months to Japan. I currently want to become an English/Japanese teacher and/or a translator.

I don't currently know Japanese but I am trying to learn. I want to learn because it will add value to my resume and I want to start importing some games.

What are some good apps? I am currently using Human Japanese and some other ones. I have pretty much mastered hiragana but I am still trying to memorize katakana.

It would be awesome to fully learn Japanese. When I first started, the whole hiragana, katakana, and kanji was really tough. Now, even with some apps, I've barely learned some words, phrases and numbers.

I started getting into the language and culture a few years ago due to some movies, and some fan translation of games that didn't or haven't made it stateside. Japan is at the top of my list of places to go.

My interest in Japanese mostly came from me being sort weeaboo as a kid. I was obsessed with anime and Japanese video games, so in high school I decided to learn Japanese. I loved it, plus my teacher was actually Japanese, which helped with the learning. However, I was only able to take it my freshman, sophomore, and junior years. Due to a problem with summer school (namely, no one signed up to take the class I was >_<) I schedule was unfortunately full (I was also taking a programming class at another place, which took up 2 blocks), so I was unable to take it in my senior year (this year, I just graduated BTW). As such, my Japanese is a bit rusty (lack of practice does that) so I'm trying to work on building it back up, unfortunately I suck at reading/remembering kanji and vocabulary.
Still, nice to meet you. Any advice for relearning my Japanese? ^^*

Yeah, I learned a bit back in high school by myself (mostly written Japanese), but it's been years since I've practiced, so I've forgotten most (though I've held onto enough Katakana knowledge to generally make my way around Japanese websites)...

BTW, If you just want to chat about Japanese culture, movies, news, etc. in general, I have a Japan Discussion thread around here somewhere. It's been months since I last updated it, so it's buried, but I could dig it up if you're interested

EDIT: I definitely will be reviving that thread by the end of the month, though. We'll be getting a new tablet that should be able to handle the NHK World app in a few weeks, and I like discussing the programs I watch on the app, in that thread.

@Ash_Anne oh, I found Human Japanese quite useful! Too bad it doesn't really go into kanji much though... I have an iPhone btw so these are from the App Store on it. I have a Japanese dictionary called Imiwa? that is free and includes stroke orders for kanji (takes up a lot of memory though since it saves all words to your phone). I also have one called Japanese phrases which includes some Kanji, but I think human Japanese is better. I also have an app called Mango Library, but I needed a membership at my local library to use it. If you can, I definitely recommend taking lessons since I think I learned a lot more a lot faster with a teacher.
@PKpunky If you haven't tried it, Human Japanese might be useful (the full version is $10 btw)

@ZeroZX_Dev I haven't really studied much for awhile either so I'm kind of forgetting some kanji too haha. You can search up specific words/kanji on imiwa?.

@RR529 ok thanks! I think I've seen that post, but haven't commented on it yet.

@yokokazuo I like Human Japanese but I feel like the quizzes aren't much help. I would like it if I could practice writing and more reading. I will look into that dictionary on the Apps Store. I would like to take lessons but I am in grad school so I am really busy during the school year. Also, I think it is kind of hard to find personal lessons in the Midwest.