Topic: How Do You Learn Japanese Using My Japanese Coach?

I own My Japanese Coach for the Nintendo DS, and I was wondering what school supplies should I used to learn Japanese. So far, I have been using a 70-sheets notebook to write down notes, a pencil, index cards, and a bookmark to know where did I left off in the notebook. Also, I was wondering should I still used a Notebook to learn Japanese, because it usually takes me nearly an hour to finish writing one lesson from My Japanese Coach on the notebook. Plus, I feel like that since I using index cards to learn Japanese. I feel like I remember some Japanese words easily. I had learn a lot of Japanese words from My Japanese Coach much faster on Hard difficulty. But, I have been using the 'Listen' feature in order for me to know how to say the word in Japanese, except using the 'Speak' and 'Write' features. So, should I used a notebook to learn Japanese for My Japanese Coach?

Watch and listen from Anime are also help you to understand Japanese language.
One thing about Japanese pronounce.
Don't pronounce it with English accent.
Let's say i want to say Akira.
Say Uh-Key-Ruh, not Ae-key-Rae.
Practice writing Hiragana and Katakana to build your knowledge about Japanese letters.
And some Kanji will be better.

Okay, ty. Do I need to used a notebook in order for me to learn Japanese?

@LinkxPeach
You can practice writing with actual notebook (with paper)
Choose the book with big squares lines inside to practice writing Hiragana and Katakana so many times.
Don't type, but write the letter with your hand.

If you are serious about learning Japanese you need a few things.
First, you need to understand that learning a language is a long commitment that takes practice. A second or third language is not like your mother language, or riding a bike, it will be use it or lose it.

Second, while games like this can make for useful practice, they aren't ideal to actually learn from scratch. If you can't take a formal class for whatever reason, I still suggest using a proper text book. My suggestion would be Genki published by the Japan times. There are 2 books and a workbook for each. ISBN numbers
ISBN-13: 978-4789014403
ISBN-10: 4789014401

Three: enjoy it. Watch anime in Japanese, listen to music, play games if you can. It is much easier to learn if you can mix in fun things with the practice that you will need.

Four: do not beat yourself up. You're gonna mess up, we all do.

そうすれば、いつか、日本語が絶対に喋ることが出来ます。

Move to Japan.

It’s strange why Japanese language still use many Chinese characters when they have their own characters that mean the same thing.

@Don The kanji script is older than hiragana and katanana. So it's more of a habit than anything else I presume. You could argue that the Latin alphabet is a lot easier (with less characters), and more flexible, same with the Korean script.

One useful thing that kanji allows is to write a lot in a very small space with few characters. Useful for books and newspapers for example.

@Don Japan has used Kanji for so long that, while it is widely accepted that it is from China originally, Kanji used as Japan uses it, has been adopted as part of Japanese culture.

It is also interesting to note that Kanji portrays meaning, not sound. In English you know the read the letters: G A M E, and know it makes the sound for game and thus you know the word is game. Using Kanji you can actually see a word and not know how to pronounce it but still know what it means. For example 食べ物(ta be mono). 食 means eat and 物 means thing (べ is not kanji and would be romanized as "be") therefor the word mean "thing you eat" - food. Also using easier to understand sounds for westerners: "tah bay mono" is how you would pronounce it.

In short English: 1. read 2. sound 3. meaning
Japanese using Kanji: 1. read 2. meaning 3. sound

Do you mean play Japanese games in Japanese language? Is it okay to used a Japanese/English dictionary app?

@LinkxPeach Dude... it's been 3 years, wtf are you still whittling about trivial things like using a dictionary app. Why would it not be ok?

@LinkxPeach Yes I do mean to play in Japanese. But start smaller. Don't jump straight into something like Xenoblade or Final Fantasy or any major story heavy title. Go with something smaller at first or even aimed at younger audiences.

Japanese media aimed at kids or young teens is great for learning because it often has furigana, or the phonetic characters written above the Kanji to help Japanese kids who would still be learning them too.

And of course using a dictionary or digital app is fine. But don't use it as a crutch, sitting there looking up every word. Try to figure out what you can, then if you're totally stumped, look it up.

And I want to repeat myself about not being afraid to mess up. And don't beat yourself up when you do. Because we all do. Even native speakers of any language make mistakes, use incorrect grammar or pronounce words incorrectly.

@Heavyarms55

Is furigana often used in video games

@Kirby_EU
Depend on the games.
Japanese games for kids mostly included Furigana on top of Kanji words. Sometimes there are no Kanji at all for certain games (only Hiragana and Katakana letters).

@Anti-Matter

It is interesting that furigana is used in Zelda, while not in Pokemon

@Kirby_EU
There are also Japanese games that display English texts by majority with a few Japanese texts (only for warning messages before playing or the explanation of Game mode with English texts) such as BEMANI games by Konami like DDR on PS1 & PS2 Japan version, Beatmania IIDX, Para Para Paradise, etc.

Wave Race Blue Storm, Starfox Assault on Gamecube Japanese version also have some English texts.

Just use Genki 1 and 2, then find a nihongo talking partner.

I assumed it would be cheating.

That’s pretty cool.

So, only look up certain few Japanese/English words?