Japanese courses - These good?

[Zeithri]

Still being very interested in learning Japanese, but next to completly uninterested on learning it on my own since:

A language is best learned when used.

And let's face it, you aren't using it very often when your alone. However, I was reading something ( no clue what I was reading now though ) and I found one of these mostly uninterested "ads by google" links but this one caught my attention.

www.jp-sji.org/sji_english/index.html

Do you know anything about them?
Apperently, the total of the A-Course for 8 weeks was 195,ooo yen ( roughly 12,ooo swedish sek ) which is so by far the cheapest course I've stumbled over. I'll give them a mail to request more information but, just curious if anyone of you know anything about them.

[SkyeWelse]

I've found that the best way to learn and practice Japanese is with a native speaker of Japanese. Perhaps look into taking a college course that is taught by a native Japanese teacher. I don't study as much as I used to any more, but oftentimes my hobbies with games, namey old ones such as Xak and Ys will lead me into meeting people over the net who are Japanese living in Japan and I'm pretty much forced to use what little I do know in talking with them. Basically anything that comes to mind that makes you have a sure shot way to force yourself to practice it is what I'd recommend.

-SkyeWelse

[Skeletore has a boner]

I found learning spoken Japanese to be one of the simplest languages I've ever learned out of the 5 I'm conversant in.

Its learning the *written* language for asian languages that is hell, going from 26characters to 10,000+, and unless you truly immerse yourself in it, you'll never master it(Most natives have a pretty limited vocabulary in this sense, and they live with it everyday).

[Century]

I'm pretty lucky in that I know someone who's taking a uni course in Japanese, and every now and again we bounce things off each other. I do most of the learning this way, he just gets the oractice XD

[Zeithri]

Of course, that's why I stated the quote.
Problem in Sweden is that there are just about only two crappy schools that have that - and with crappy, I mean that you -DON'T- want to even live in those towns. And it isn't particulary easy to find japanese friends either.

Have any other suggestions then?

[shinikenshi]

I don't know if it will help you persay, but I can offer you my thoughts on how to really learn Japanese. It isn't quick, but it worked for me. Sorta. @_@;

1) Foundation - Take university courses on Japanese grammar, language structure, vocabulary. Recommend at least 1-2 years.

2) Practice - If it is offered, do a study abroad program in Japan (at LEAST a year or if not half a year in a language-based program) or consider working there doing JET Programme or some equivalent. The job will be mindless, but the prospect of absorbing Japanese is high.

3) More Practice - Try to use Japanese as much as possible. I actually found that using it in conversation vs. reading/listening was much faster and easier to absorb.

4) Find Japanese friends or a significant other - People to converse with ALWAYS helps. Beware of learning from a Japanese girl/girlfriend though. More often than not, I've had friends come out of that speaking like a girl without realizing it. It's funny at the same time mildly disturbing... ;

5) Motivation - If you don't have it, why try?

I must stress heavily any chance you might get to be in Japan for a year-long period of time. The biggest reason is that by being surrounded by everything Japanese (barring Engrish and the occasional gaijin) forces you to use it and learn it...whether you like it or not. My 3 years of university level Japanese got me nowhere until I joined the JET Programme after graduation. In a couple weeks I was "pera pera" in Japanese.

I'm not sure this helped at all, but hopefully you will find your way to learning Japanese. ^_^

As a completely random side note, when I was studying abroad in Sendai back in 2002, I remember meeting a bunch of Swedes who had a very good command of Japanese...and surprisingly American-accented English. Apparently television was to blame for it according to one of them. ^_^;

[Haven]

just go to
Yesjapan.com