Welcome to TBT!
(Any tips on learning Japanese/Korean? I just can't get over the fact that they have syllabaries, not letters X^X I've tried learning Chinese for years without success.)
Japanese and Korean are WAY easier if you take time to learn the writing/syllables first. Seriously, I taught myself how to read Korean (probably the best and easiest writing system in the entire world, PLUS it looks like a bunch of cute faces) during my university health class from a little travel book that I got at Barnes & Noble for like $10. Hiragana and Katakana are the easiest parts of the Japanese writing system, so definitely definitely learn those.
Kanji can wait, but once you get Hiragana and Katakana down, you might want to start looking at the Jouyou Kanji, which are the Kanji taught in schools, separated by grade level. That will give you some good chunks of common Kanji to work on a little at a time, so you don't get overwhelmed with super hard ones.
Then, take in as much media as you can! I'm an audio learner, so I listen to a ton of music and if I hear a word repeatedly, I look it up to see what it means. You can also watch Korean dramas or anime, as long as you pay attention to the words being used! I learned a ton of words that way (I watched every episode of One Piece in 2.5 months... I know a lot of pirate words now)
Oh also if you have a smartphone, try to find a dictionary app! I use JED dictionary for Android. It's a FANTASTIC Japanese dictionary, where you can enter english, romaji, kana, or kanji and it'll try to find the word for you. I can't remember what I used to use for iphone, but I wanna say it had jisho in the name?
I feel you on Chinese though! I have a ton of Chinese friends, so I really want to learn, but I was terrible in my Chinese class. The writing system is literally designed to keep people illiterate, and it takes English speakers a long time to get a handle on the lack of grammar and the addition of tones.
P.S. Gosh I'm sorry this is so super long... I get really excited about this kind of stuff...
- - - Post Merge - - -
And thank you to everyone else for welcoming me!! Y'all are so nice!
