I assume you already know the kana.

Anki! http://ankisrs.net/
Deck for Anki: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/702754122
Read the description of the anki deck carefully and just do the reviews + new cards daily, it will pay off big time. Some people also prefer to make their own deck with vocab they encounter in daily life, but I'd recommend that only if you can already read to some extend.
I recommend writing down the kanji you learn in anki at least once.
If you have problems getting anki to work I can help you with tech support.

Grammar guide: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/grammar_guide.pdf
And watch a lot of anime raw, read raw manga, japanese posts on the internet, watch japanese TV, whatever comes to mind. Learn by doing.


That's how I study, there's no "perfect" way to study though so this method may not bring your very far. It's important you find your own way of studying at some point, do what you feel is best and not what people want you to do.

Post edited on 15th Oct 2014, 12:00am

I learned it through Anki, Mass Cloze Deletions, and the AJATT method.

Basically, I learned the kana and joyo kanji on/kunyomi first through spaced repetition with Anki. Then I switched to copying chunks of text from books, websites, music, etc and doing MCDs on it until I understood every word. With each new sentence I learned more and more until now where I can read it without much more difficulty than English. Once you can have the definitions for a card in Japanese you know you're in good shape.

I can barely speak it or write very well, but I wasn't interested in learning those skills anyways.

Some resources:
http://learnanylanguage.wikia.com/wiki/Massive-Context_Cloze_Deletion
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/all-japanese-all-the-time-ajatt-how-to-learn-japanese-on-your-own-having-fun-and-to-fluency
http://www.kanjidamage.com/ (though I suggest making up your own stories)

The most important thing in my opinion is to have fun learning it. I got burnt out several times but I just persevered while taking it easy and it paid off. Don't hesitate to delete cards that aren't working for you, you will always be able to learn the word in a different context.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/rikaichan/

>>25196
I forgot to mention something important: Don't be afraid of the kanji. If you learn the kanji properly from the beginning they will help you a lot and they will make things easier.

>>25196
>>25197
>>25198
Much appreciated guys, I'll put the information and resources given here to good use. It looks like starting with Anki cards is a good bet.

>I assume you already know the kana.
I'm afraid not. As far as the speech goes, I've picked up quite a bit from anime and Japanese games, but I'm still completely ignorant of the written form- even katakana.

KanjiTomo and Translator Aggregator + AGTH are quite useful for games and ebooks and most everything that you can't use rikaichan on.

Tae Kim has two japanese guides. Even though the Complete Guide is way far from completion, I find it easier to pick up by a complete beginner than the Grammar Guide(which is what >>25196 suggested). But if you start with the Complete Guide do read the Grammar Guide after it.

This http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/index.html is a good resource for getting easy, short newspieces to improve your reading.

Maybe that's just me but I'd also recommend learning how to write the kana and at least a few hundred kanji. You may drop it later but I find knowing how to write pretty much every kanji that may be thrown at you helps distinguishing troublesome kanji that look a like easier.

Finally, there are some learning packs on tpb and public trackers with plenty of stuff. I find most textbooks a bore and a waste of time, but the readers are pretty interesting if you're into folk tales and "classical"(as in non-LNs) literature.

>>25200
You don't need a program to learn the kana.
http://www.realkana.com/hiragana/
Go to that website and just write all the hiragana and katakana down, it's tedious at first but it will pay off. Learn the Hiragana first, it's more important than the katakana.
like >>25201 said I think you should know how to write them down from the top of your head. Just grab a piece of paper and start writing them down (a lot).
Here you can see a picture of my Notebook I use for Anki every day. I write down the kanji when I get a new word and the pronounciation next to it. I do it because it helps me remember the words when I have a lot to learn at once.

You HAVE to know the kana before you can start with anki.

If you need help with the pronounciation you could watch this video for weebs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz1Pft0JCak
It's especially helpful if you're american because the guy in the video has an american accent and he explains how to place your tongue in your mouth and how the japanese have no L and R and stuff like that.
I wouldn't recommend any of his other videos though. The pace at which he's going at is really slow.

Just dropped by to say I learned Moon Runes using kanjidamage. This would be a 'guaranteed replies' post anywhere else on the net I'm sure.

I hear Heisig is a great method, google something like 'remembering the kanji torrent' if you're interested.

Oh, and I found the book 'Japanese the Manga Way' to be way way better than Tae Kim's guides. The premise sounds silly but don't misjudge it based on that; it's a damn good book in my opinion.

>>25209
I also read japanese the manga way and it's good.