How to start learning japanese?

[Masterpie263]

I've been watching anime for 2.5 years, I'm on mal and it says I've watched 535.2 hours of anime. I can now recognize some vocabulary when japanese people are talking, and I have a vague idea of what they are talking about. I am a bilingual 13 year old girl (I speak Russian and English), I can't pay for lessons because my family is quite poor. Where can I learn Japanese? Thank you for reading

[?]

See what's available at your local library - mine subscribes to a couple of online language lessons that you'd otherwise have to pay for. Perhaps buy a self-study book or start with a few basic websites to get to that level. If you can find a native Japanese speaker in your neighborhood willing to learn Russian, consider a trade.

[Abby]

I'll give some websites I used/am using for learning Japanese that can help you.

First you will have to learn the hiragana characters, and eventually katakana, and here is a great book (to read online) for learning them. It took me 2 days with this book. Go ahead and download it.
http://www.tofugu.com/japanese-resources...iragana42/


http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar - good, straightforward grammar guide, but in my opinion it needs more exercises.

http://www.wanikani.com/ - an awesome tool for vocab and kanji, but you only get two levels free, and then you have to pay. Do the first two levels, and then either quit or maybe by then you will be able to afford it. The first two levels are worth it though, even if you can't do the rest.

http://ankisrs.net/ - download anki for the vocab from the grammar guide, and click on get shared to download japanese vocab decks that other people have made too. You might want to get the Japanese IME for your computer or laptop so you can type in Japanese. Just google how to do it.

http://www.memrise.com/home/ - memrise is another good site for vocab. There are lots of Japanese courses people have made, both kanji and hiragana vocab, and you can even make your own.

http://www.japanesepod101.com/2007/07/03...yle-you-1/ - Japanese pod is a good site if you don't mind being constantly asked to upgrade to premium. There is still quite a bit of content on the site that you can access for free though. Also sign up for the Japanese word of the day, it goes to your email, and you can find it somewhere on that site.

http://life.ou.edu/stories/ - some stories in Japanese written using almost no kanji, just hiragana, for when you are a little farther along.

Oh, and I don't know if you are using Firefox or Chrome (or something else), but if you are using Firefox get the Rikaichan extension. It lets you put your mouse over any Japanese word or kanji and it will tell you what it means and the reading of the kanji. It is great for when you are reading something more advanced, just try not to depend on it too much. There might be something similar for Chrome, I don't know.

Hope all that gets you started!