Learning Japanese

[Leodip]

Ok, I know, most of you will think that I want to learn it only for Mangas and Animes and only using them as means of study, but that's not quite right. When I read subtitles I tend to isolate my ears a little bit and learning like that wouldn't help. Though, I'm learning better English that way.
As for the topic, I'd want to learn Japanese because I think it is a cool language and I think will help in the future (there aren't many Japanese translators, and I myself think that Japan will become more influent on the world in the coming years). I'm currently just learning Hiragana (Kanji is out of question, of course, if I want to, I'll learn it going to some school or on a study holiday in Japan or something), but I've got a couple of troubles:
-I've got a pretty bad mnemonic memory and learning the strokes and those drawings apparently nearly identical (see "A" and "O") is pretty difficult;
-Even if I'll look into this later, I'll need some good online book (or e-book, or Iphone app for what matters) on the grammatics.

As for the first, I'm trying to learn them and write random words to start memorizing them, but it's pretty hard for me. I read of someone writing "if you understood the pattern, it's easy" but never explaining it. It was talking like it was referring to various symbols being connected to them to let easier understanding. Myself, aside the recurring crosses in the syllable containing A, can't understand it.

Is there someone who learnt Japanese/is Japanese that can help me on my journey?

[dawn to dusk]

i learned a bit of japanese last year in year 8 so ill see if i can help

what we did was we were tought the first 10 symbols and were to memorize it off by heart before moving to the next 10. so start off by memorizing a, i, u, e, o, ka, ki, ku, ke and ko and how to write each of them. words are much harder to learn as there are more of them

take it slow and you can learn a great deal.

[Leodip]

i learned a bit of japanese last year in year 8 so ill see if i can help

what we did was we were tought the first 10 symbols and were to memorize it off by heart before moving to the next 10. so start off by memorizing a, i, u, e, o, ka, ki, ku, ke and ko and how to write each of them. words are much harder to learn as there are more of them

take it slow and you can learn a great deal.

Currently, I'm trying to do this, already. A good way I found to do so is Kana Invaders, a pretty game that requires you to write the symbols (as romaiji, of course, so a, not あ) to shoot at the falling ones just like Space Invaders. Once you clear the first 5, the next 5 appear and add to the first 5. Then other 5 and so on.
If I can learn them at least visually, I'll get to the next step where I'll try to write them.
Other suggestions? Games? Stuff like that?

[Rutarete]

I've been taking Japanese for about 5 years now, so can probably help you with some things. (By the way, I absolutely love kanji )
As for websites, I remember a few flash-card type ones, but I'll have to look them up.

[Drake_XIV]

If you want a game to assist your Japanese learning [just some basic kanji and vocabulary stuff], here's something I found useful when I first started.

http://lrnj.com/

[Pella]

Drake, interesting game.  It didn't help me as much as I would have liked, though.

When I first learned the kana (while I was living in Japan), writing them was a big part of my study.  Just seeing them on the screen seems much less helpful.  I guess it's just the way I learn.  Now you have me wanting to dig up my old Learning the Hiragana and Learning the Katakana books. 

Oh, and I found it much more practical, and ultimately easier, to learn the hiragana before the katakana.  It makes more sense that way, too, at least in my head.  Learn the nihonjin way before the gaijin way.  LOL

[Leodip]

Well, I should get a desk, as of now, since (believe it or not) I've got none in my room. There I could practice some more. BTW, the game, Kana Invaders, is awesome, even though it is pretty nasty to write and if you misclick that'll count as an error, but still, awesome.

And, by the way, I'm learning Hiragana first, and katakana after, that's just the standard, I believe.

[Leodip]

Keeping you up to date. I'm on vacation right now (been to the sea from the first of july to tomorrow), but I kept practicing a bit and am now pretty familiar with hiragana. I wanted to study katakana next, but my mind wouldn't keep working if I tried to learn other stuff by heart. I decided to go into something more pratical, then, like studying japanese grammar (verbs, subject, object, base verbs like "desu", the use of particles like "wa" or "wo" and stuff). Have you got some links, online books or somewhere to study that?

[MegroN]

こんにちは　みんなさん　ぼくも　にほんごを　べんきょうしています。　よければ　ここで　かんたんな　かいわを　もちたいたいです。

今日は皆さん僕も日本語を勉強しています。よければここで簡単な会話を持ちたい。


Before I get excited to see other people learning Japanese. I started studying it about 5 years ago. I used Human Japanese to learn Hiragana. Anki to learn Katakana and Kanji. I also found one of the most comprehensive programs called Tagaini Jisho (my favourite resource). It got flash card functionality, has kanji and kana stroke orders as well as a dictionary.

For grammar try Tae Kim's Japanese guide to Japanese grammar its quite technical (I like it).

I also played kana invaders, another cool game is jrpg ( http://taw.chaosforge.org/jrpg/ ) its quite old though.

I'm also writing a summary of lessons that I'm giving a few people in our club I can send you the material when I feel its been quadruple checked.

[Leodip]

Thanks for the help, megroN, I'll see how tae kiim's guide is when I get back at home.

Spoiler for Hidden:

could read the first message, good to see.

[Pella]

Today I encountered a player in Platinum League who goes by "akasata". 

[MegroN]

Look what I found: