Anyone know any good ways to learn Japanese?

[Blorx]

Okay, so I'm getting fed up with all of the Japan-only games, which frankly a lot of which seem awesome.

With the exception of Knuckles in China Land, what's a good way to learn Japanese?

[Fournine]

Best ways for any language:
1) Immersion
2) Formal classes
3) Instruction programs
4) Watching shows in the target language

That last one is technically a form of immersion, but since it's not interactive it amounts to parroting unless you've a framework to understand the language already. I keep up with my Japanese by watching lots of anime, movies, and samurai dramas. I've gotten a lot of vocabulary by watching shows, but things like conjugation and sentence structure are better learned in the other options.

[Blorx]

Well, I know there are the obvious like formal classes/instruction, however, my school doesn't offer classes on Japanese.

[Endoperez]

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5915&p=97759

A thread about software that help you to study Japanese.

[Fournine]

Are you in highschool?
Try seeing if any of the local colleges offer classes, and if you're eligible to enroll in them. Doing such was quite common where I went to school.

If you're in college, though, and they don't offer Japanese... well, don't know what to say. Pretty piss-poor college, I guess - mine was a mere 1450 students, and even we had a decent Japanese program. Then again, my alma mater is on the west coast...

[Grayswandir]

If you're in a college, see if there's a Japanese, Anime, or whatever they hide their names under these days Club. I'm sure they'd be able to help you find something or get you in touch with someone who could help (Well, maybe not an Anime Club, that's usually full of people who WISH they could speak Japanese). Although, knowing the crowd, they're just as likely to sit on their hands and do nothing...Its worth a shot though.

[Fournine]

The anime club that I ran for a while at my highschool was officially named the "Japanese Culture Appreciation Club" - named such because one of the morning announcement kids kept unknowingly pronouncing it as the "Enema Club" before the transition.

Would anyone be interested in having some Japanese conversation practice over Steam voicechat or such? If anyone's up for learning irreverent yakuza-style dialect with spatterings of random archaic crap, I'm your man.
I used to teach my Japanese interest house "Sensei ni ienai kotoba" [Words you cannot say to Sensei].

[Blorx]

Alright, thanks for the responses guys. I'll see what I can find out.

[cameleopard42]

Move to Japan.

[Anton]

I like the Pimsleur method for learning languages. You don't really study written language as much, but it's a good way to learn to speak, and understand the spoken language. Here's an example of lesson one from the Japanese series: http://files.me.com/ariehl/vyanl2.mp3
You can usually find this CD collection in your local library...

[Renegade_Turner]

As Bart Simpson showed us, just hang around in a foreign country for a few weeks and you'll become fluent in its language.

[Untadaike]

Hey, I live in a town of 50,000 and there's at least two Japanese tutors in my neighborhood alone. Try and find some.

[Sandurz]

I agree with Ariehl, Pimsleur is the way to go. He sent me that link a while ago (I think it was him, Idk though, it was on IRC) Anyways, after that I went and...er...got the rest of it. I'm only a few lessons in, but the ones I HAVE done I can speak almost as easily as I can English. That is, after doing each lesson three times.