I'm Disappointed.

I always heard Japanese is the second hardest language to learn after English, but I was told differently on this site. I tried starting out using this program, but there really is no cure for my lack of memory for the words, phrases, intonations, letters, etc. It really is just too much! I don't believe there's any simple way (or even just a slightly easier way) to learn this language; it makes me so frustrated to see all these happy, satisfied customers with their perfect reviews: they must all be complete geniuses, because I can't even figure out how to start at the most basic level in learning Japanese! If Rocket Languages doesn't work for me, what the heck will???? What's the point? I learned English extremely easily growing up, and it's a cinch now. Why is Japanese so hard?! Can anyone direct me to a source/program that would actually make sense to me? I need something to teach me from the ABSOLUTE basement of the Japanese language; it seems everyone else here understands the program at least enough to start progressing in the language. Can't anyone help? I have a feeling that the only way I'm going to be successful in learning Japanese is if I had a personal bilingual tutor, but there's no way such a resource and support would be affordable in the very least. Maybe I shouldn't even bother... what do you think???

I also just started with Rocket Japanese. However, I have been studying Chinese for two years using both Rocket Chinese and Rosetta Stone. There is no silver bullet to learning languages. It takes a lot of work. I think you need to be patient and keep at it. One thing Rocket Japanese does is break down the lessons in small bite-size chunks. However, it seems the early lessons bites are pretty big. One thing I have learned from using the software is the lessons come in pairs. You have the Interactive Audio lesson and a corresponding Language and Culture lesson. There is also a Writing lesson though this is not really related to the first two. The dashboard flow indicates that you should go through the Interactive Audio first and the the Language and Culture lessons. I suggest doing them in pairs. Actually, I prefer to do the Language and Culture lessons first and then the corresponding Interactive Audio lesson. So, my flow would look like this: 1.5 --> 1.0 --> 1.6 --> 1.1 --> ... I take the time to use all of the features of the program, particularly the testing features. So, I would not give up on Rocket Japanese...take the time to drill it in. What Rocket Japanese does not offer is a live component, i.e. opportunity to talk to a live tutor and other students. Rosetta Stone offers this through its Rosetta Studio sessions, though you do need to pay extra for access to its online components (~10/month once you buy their software). Finally, someone posted a link to a website that offers videos to help learn languages such as Japanese or Chinese: http://www.fluentu.com/ I haven't explored this too much but it looks promising.

Thank you. I seem to understand pronunciation a little, but retention of words and phrases is near non-existent (usually unless it's a short simple phrase or a single word). I have a feeling that it'll take me years of deep exposure to the language to understand it; I know it would work if everyone around me spoke in Japanese and immediately spoke the English translation afterwards, but that's not going to happen, not here in Wisconsin! I don't know, maybe someday I'll pick up a few words if I'm not really exposed to the language in every day life. I should probably move to Japan, but that'll never happen. :)

Hi Kaegen, I think you need to learn the Hiragana and Katakana first. These are the ABC of Japanese. Just imagine how a person will learn English, he/she will probably start with memorizing A to Z first. In many ways, Japanese and English are similar but in the reverse order. Learning a language will always need to be patient and require a lot of determination. You will struggle for at least one or two years initially. After that you should be ok.

Thanks. I've tried studying "Basic Japanese" by Charles E. Tuttle, Jr., and I couldn't get past the first two pages of the introduction. It just outlined basic categories that deal with the Japanese language, like sentence structure. The book also talks about nasal inflections, and the proper usage of pronouns, adverbs, adnouns and proverbs and whatever other crazy words are out there that aren't even described in the book. I don't know how I'm supposed to learn two alphabets and possibly draw the characters; at least english characters are simple to draw... I just don't know if it's for me. I was really excited to get into learning the language, but the sentence structure alone makes absolutely no sense to me, even if it's explained as simply as possible. I now really think that the only way I'd be able to learn a different language is if I let my English suffer or somehow completely forget it and start on the new language; either way, it seems I'm not mentally flexible enough to know more than one language at a time. I don't want to be pessimistic, but I'm just feeling this is the reality of things. I'd love nothing more than to learn Japanese, but this desire's now been more of a curse, since I can't do anything about it. I do appreciate your advice much! Thank you.

I think you may have just tried to eat an elephant all in one sitting, metaphorically speaking. Rocket Languages has an Advanced Learning Technique article titled "How Do You Eat An Elephant?" which may be an appropriate answer to you right now. http://members.rocketlanguages.com/members/ALT/9 I do find it overwhelming at the beginning when I start learning a new language. I just work on getting small pieces right. For instance, we don't need to learn Hiragana and Katakana to get started with the lessons. However, I agree with other posters that we should make it a priority. In learning those systems (e.g. Hiragana), we can work on learning one row at a time. I have created some Quizlet sets to learn Hiragana one row at a time with one set containing things from that row and a subsequent set containing everything up to that point: http://quizlet.com/RobertC7/folders/rocket-japanese-hiragana-writing-lessons My main concentration now is Chinese so I'm not worried too much about my slow progress in Japanese. I expect that I will be learning this for many years. By the way, many times when I start a new lesson I feel a sense of panic as I think I am not ever going to get this. Then, after enough study and digestion it seems like a piece of cake.

Robert, Thank you for your Quizlet.... I used it the other day and had such fun! Learning can be an addicting experience! :~) You've made it even better! Stephanie.... a brand newbie...