(My response is not Japanese related) A lot of people here are recommending Duolingo. I, personally, find it to be awful for anything past the basics (progress is so much slower than it could be). It also often rushes the beginning of different language courses, especially when dealing with unfamiliar writing systems, and the written help often ignores pronunciation or deals with it poorly, with what could be described as an aversion to the use of the IPA.
I don’t have any recommendations and find that services dedicated to the language itself often are good enough (like lernu.net for Esperanto). Real life tutoring coupled with the reading of a book on the language, I predict will very likely be much better.
Lots of reading and listening. However, the key here is comprehensible input (you can look up that term). You need to learn some amount of vocabulary for any input to make sense. So either start with very easy texts and a dictionary or start with Duolingo or something like 200 most common words flashcards. Lingq might be a good service too if you can afford it.
Oh, I forgot - TV quiz shows. They often read out the question and it’s shown on screen at the same time, so one thing supports the other.
I also learned German partly by watching Star Trek (I knew roughly what the characters said in English and found I could piece it together in German). Whether some of the terms were useful in day to day life is another matter…
You didn’t specify which language, but since this is the community for Japanese Immersion, I am basing my answer under the assumption that the language you’d like to learn is Japanese.
First, you would need to get some basics under your belt. I’m talking kanji, grammar, listening and reading comprehension, etc. Apps/webpages like Duolingo are okay, but honestly, nothing beats having an actual teacher. Everybody is going to suck at something and a teacher can advise you how to get better in the areas that are giving you problems. So yeah, if you have an option to take a class in your local school or whatever, I would go for that.
After that, just dive into something. Read a manga, watch an anime without subtitles, play a JRPG in its native language, etc. Fair warning, though: it’s going to feel like a lot of effort at first, you probably won’t understand half the things the characters are saying and that’s completely normal. It does get easier with practice.
If you’re into Zelda, you might want to check out the Japanese versions of Phantom Hourglass (夢幻の砂時計) and Spirit Tracks (大地の汽笛), both on the Nintendo DS. It’s a game meant for all ages, so no complicated grammar and you can tap on kanji characters you’re not familiar with and the game will show you the pronounciation like so.
The Japanese version of A Link Between Worlds for the 3DS (神々のトライフォース2) goes a step further and gives you the pronounciation above all or most kanji characters (picture), so no tapping involved.
What language? It’s quite different to learn a Sinitic language than to learn an Arabic one, or a Germanic one. I have some experience with Italian, German and Japanese (also Spanish and English but that doesn’t count) so I can give you an insight on that, but it’s not always the same process.
Duolingo is a catch-all for many different languages, but the didactics are rather meh. There are dedicated sites for different languages, less well-known than Duolingo & therefore harder to find. For Japanese, there’s wanikani.com for example. I’d suggest joining a community for learning one specific language and ask what learning tools & materials the others use.
It also depends on what type of learner you are + your level of motivation/your goals: Do you want to achieve fluency or are you already content with just a passive understanding, do you want oral AND written command of a language, etc.
A flashcard software was what enabled me at the start. I tried AnkiSRS and just learned a bunch of words/kana/kanji. It gets very inefficient to just use flashcards after a while, but software like Anki keeps you on a daily workflow. Ankiweb has ready made decks, and as Japanese is extremely popular, you should be able to find good quality decks.
(My response is not Japanese related) A lot of people here are recommending Duolingo. I, personally, find it to be awful for anything past the basics (progress is so much slower than it could be). It also often rushes the beginning of different language courses, especially when dealing with unfamiliar writing systems, and the written help often ignores pronunciation or deals with it poorly, with what could be described as an aversion to the use of the IPA.
I don’t have any recommendations and find that services dedicated to the language itself often are good enough (like lernu.net for Esperanto). Real life tutoring coupled with the reading of a book on the language, I predict will very likely be much better.
Lots of reading and listening. However, the key here is comprehensible input (you can look up that term). You need to learn some amount of vocabulary for any input to make sense. So either start with very easy texts and a dictionary or start with Duolingo or something like 200 most common words flashcards. Lingq might be a good service too if you can afford it.
You might be interested in this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9ND6uw6-QA&ab_channel=MattvsJapan
You don’t need to learn it anymore…
https://www.deepl.com/translator#en/ja/You don’t need to learn it anymore…
Oh, I forgot - TV quiz shows. They often read out the question and it’s shown on screen at the same time, so one thing supports the other.
I also learned German partly by watching Star Trek (I knew roughly what the characters said in English and found I could piece it together in German). Whether some of the terms were useful in day to day life is another matter…
You didn’t specify which language, but since this is the community for Japanese Immersion, I am basing my answer under the assumption that the language you’d like to learn is Japanese.
First, you would need to get some basics under your belt. I’m talking kanji, grammar, listening and reading comprehension, etc. Apps/webpages like Duolingo are okay, but honestly, nothing beats having an actual teacher. Everybody is going to suck at something and a teacher can advise you how to get better in the areas that are giving you problems. So yeah, if you have an option to take a class in your local school or whatever, I would go for that.
After that, just dive into something. Read a manga, watch an anime without subtitles, play a JRPG in its native language, etc. Fair warning, though: it’s going to feel like a lot of effort at first, you probably won’t understand half the things the characters are saying and that’s completely normal. It does get easier with practice.
If you’re into Zelda, you might want to check out the Japanese versions of Phantom Hourglass (夢幻の砂時計) and Spirit Tracks (大地の汽笛), both on the Nintendo DS. It’s a game meant for all ages, so no complicated grammar and you can tap on kanji characters you’re not familiar with and the game will show you the pronounciation like so.
The Japanese version of A Link Between Worlds for the 3DS (神々のトライフォース2) goes a step further and gives you the pronounciation above all or most kanji characters (picture), so no tapping involved.
Good luck!
What language? It’s quite different to learn a Sinitic language than to learn an Arabic one, or a Germanic one. I have some experience with Italian, German and Japanese (also Spanish and English but that doesn’t count) so I can give you an insight on that, but it’s not always the same process.
Duolingo is a catch-all for many different languages, but the didactics are rather meh. There are dedicated sites for different languages, less well-known than Duolingo & therefore harder to find. For Japanese, there’s wanikani.com for example. I’d suggest joining a community for learning one specific language and ask what learning tools & materials the others use.
It also depends on what type of learner you are + your level of motivation/your goals: Do you want to achieve fluency or are you already content with just a passive understanding, do you want oral AND written command of a language, etc.
Duolingo or something similar? Classes with actual people if you can stomach that?
This is not a good use of time! Check out refold / ajatt immersion methods for a better & more structured way for learning a language.
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A flashcard software was what enabled me at the start. I tried AnkiSRS and just learned a bunch of words/kana/kanji. It gets very inefficient to just use flashcards after a while, but software like Anki keeps you on a daily workflow. Ankiweb has ready made decks, and as Japanese is extremely popular, you should be able to find good quality decks.