who knows japanese

gah..... i'm forever lost xD

 

Actually, no. Most anime, such as Darker than Black and other modern-set anime, teach you how to enunciate like typical Japanese people. Besides, a lot of people find it much easier to learn the language through anime like that. I'd say the only downside to using anime is that you'll miss out on a tonne of vocabulary that isn't typically used in anime. Most of what you will learn will be vocal only, as well, so you'll have a hard time learning how to write. It's no different to watching TV to learn English, which is what a lot of people do.

As for what I know, I can speak/understand vocal Japanese pretty much fluently. In terms of reading and writing, I can read and write in hiragana and katakana almost fluently (Japanese is completely phonetic, so I only really needed to learn the hiragana and katakana tables and remember to use which) but I need to work on my kanji. I took the JLPT after I moved to Japan for my student exchange program (so it was taken to ascertain how well my Japanese was when I left the country). I'm, basically, at Level 2 - my listening was Level 1, my vocabulary was Level 2 and my Kanji was Level 3. I have a Level 2 certificate, although I understand that I only passed because I aced the second section and did well enough in the third section to cover my lacking first section scores.

 

It's fairly correct. It teaches more modern and unrealistic ways of speaking usually.

 

Hm, I have to disagree, Wintrale.

From my experience most people who "learn" Japanese through watching anime/dramas are just .... a nuisance. One guy in my class just kept saying "Uso" at anything that was said. One girl went so far to declare "Watashi ha baka desu". I wanted to impale myself over the railing.

As I said before, knowing the words doesn't mean knowing the actual language. To some extent, you also have to undertand the culture associated with Japan, e.g. how to phrase things depending on your social status, connotations associated with certain words, subtleties etc. Expressions and such in most anime/dramas are over-exaggerated and not to mention specific to the anime/dramas. I don't think anyone in their right mind would speak to anyone else in the kind of manner as they do in anime/dramas. You'd get fired before you can say "meiwaku" if you ever spoke to anyone in your workplace like you see in most anime/dramas (Unless you're a seiyuu or an actor, I suppose)

As you can see, I really dislike it when people "learn" a language this way, and claim that they know the language because they can repeat a few words

 

Well, in all honesty, what do you expect? Not everyone can afford to spend £100's to learn a new language, especially one as difficult as Japanese. I only learned Japanese 'cause I was lucky enough to actually get to move there for over a year as part of a program. Very few other people have those kind of opportunities and even less have the funds necessary to "understand the culture".

If they have a choice between never learning the language, or learning how to repeat basic sentences... Well, I'd rather they chose the latter - even if their pronounciation and overuse of moronic catchphrases is cringe-worthy. It's a start, if nothing else. They know what they're saying, right? If they understand what they're saying, and are serious about learning the language, they generally won't be as stupid as to say "Uso" or "Watashi ha baka desu". It's just a very simple and fun way to ease yourself into the language. I don't see any problem with that, as long as they're not so mindless as to "learn" the language exclusively through anime.

 

Cool language, i would like to learn it!

 

I studied the language two years and then spent a year in Japan as an exchange student. I am able to speak and understand Japanese quite well. (My host-family and friends did not speak English at all, so it was learn or suffer situation XD Actually I think I was really lucky, as there was no temptation to speak English. I learned really fast.) I can also write and read somewhat. I took my JLPT 3rd level two years ago and next winter I aim for the 2nd. (I would've done that already, but I forgot to send the application in time....-_-;
I think that watching anime/dorama is a good way of learning if you understand the basics of the grammar and so on. But I think that there should be some studying of the written japanese as well. Getting to know first kana and then some kanji makes it easier to understand the constructure of words and how to use them. For example:
行く　( iku = to go [somewhere]) (informal)
Here the kanji 行 has the reading "i". And when using that particular verb, the kanji stays in the same reading form.
行かない (ikanai = don't/doesn't go)(informal)
行きます (ikimasu = to go) (neutral)
行きません (ikimasen = don't/doesn't go) (neutral)
行った (itta = have/has gone) (informal)
行きました (ikimashita = have/has gone) (neutral)
行けます (ikemasu = can go) (neutral)

If I've translated wrong, I blame it on my not-perfect English...
There are also other meanings for the verb/word "ikimasu", but I'm not gonna write them here.
By informal I mean that the form is used in everyday language when speaking with close friends/ones family and so on. You can use it when speaking to a clerk at a store etc., but I've noticed that most people still use the neutral form to them too.
The neutral form is used towards unknown people, older people (for example seniors at school/work, teachers) and generally towards anyone you are not so close to. There are also even more polite forms of course.

少し難しいですけど、文法と漢字を勉強して頑張りたいと思いま～す！

Are they really? Never seen a game in romaji. Or perhaps you mean the name of the rom when downloaded from the net. The game itself would not be in romaji. Most japanese don't even read/write japanese with romaji. My japanese host-sis tried to make her e-mail address basuke_love (basuke= basketball), but she didn't know how to spell "love" and now her e-mail is "basuke_lave". Kinda hilarious XD.

£100's?!?! I went to a evening school to learn Japanese for two years and it was only around 70€ (~£60?)/year. Of course one year wouldn't be enough, but I think over £100/year is too much...