The Like/Hate Thread

[Super Buu]

I'm not sure if we just hit the same start up guide or something, but that's basically how I've been approaching it. I'm trying to memorize hiragana/katakana while listening to it, but I found it hard to not laugh at myself because I keep thinking I'm pronouncing everything wrong.

I'm using http://www.freejapaneselessons.com/ to learn the stroke order when writing and then I print out a page of the letters, then fill them in with ink as I say them aloud. It's working decently but it's a real bore so it kills the will, but at least I remember them. Do you know if there's an alphabet rhyme/song/something to learn the alphabet? I keep thinking I need B after A and it's messing me up.

Nope! I just remember them now. I think doing the hiragana lessons for namasensei was good because it was funny and had some mnemonic devices. After each lesson, I'd then write down each hiragana for a couple of lines to practice the writing, then use anki until I remembered them. I did around 10 kana a day and in total it took about a week for each alphabet to 'basically remember' them 95% of the time. From them on it was just a matter of reading every goddamn thing I see over here that's not kanji. I don't give a fuck about stroke order for hiragana/katakana, the only time it'll matter is when you're learning kanji and then only because it'll help when you need to identify one with a phone/computer tool (they recognise stroke order and can tell you what a kanji is if you don't know the meaning, for example). And for that, better to just learn the pattern than each individually: http://www.tofugu.com/guides/guess-kanji-stroke-order/

I've started learning kanji by way of radicals. It's much easier. There's only about 220 radicals (as opposed to thousands of kanji) which are shapes that make up all kanji. Most people try and learn kanji by strokes, but it's like trying to remember every English word without knowing the alphabet and simply memorising each and every one by their strokes. http://www.wanikani.com is awesome for this, and ignore the 'beta' thing, it took less than a day for me to get the email back. (albeit it requires a subscription after a certain point, I'm debating whether to use it or switch to something similar, but it really is awesome and I might subscribe)

Cheers, Shun, I'll check dem out.

As for weeaboos: psh! If you're learning Spanish, you're obviously a creep who won't stop talking about tapas.