Wondering what to do next?

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  OathKeeper June 30, 2014 at 8:49am

  I don't know how big your vocabulary is with the Hiragana and Katakana, but I say work on that (vocab) and gradually work Kanji in. Next, the reason why there are Kanji and Hiragana/Katakana together is because all Kanji can be written in both Kanas anyways. After that switching off between Kanji and Hiragana makes it easier to tell where a word ends or begins because in Japanese they don't really use spaces between words.Hope this helps and if I am wrong hopefully some better informed on the subject will correct me. がんばって!
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  katemily1991 June 30, 2014 at 9:42am

  Thanks :)
  
  I'm not even sure, either. I had a spur of inspiration and translated the one romanji phrase into hiragana & was super happy when I found out I was doing things right, but other than that I'm just trying to memorize hiragana/katakana individually+the connection...
  
  I'm confused about something else though ..... how do I learn how to speak Japanese? because I understand the working on reading/typing/writing Hiragana as well as recognizing foreign (Katakana) words compared to native words .......I also am confused with how I should learn to properly know native Japanese language so I can one day freely type Hiragana/Katakana. This is something that makes it difficult for me in the 'practice' sessions because I write down the Katakana shown by there sylabbary ... but I am left with a Japanese word .. am I suppose to just take that and translate it to get the answer? I feel this is wrong.
  
  ?
  
  
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  katemily1991 June 30, 2014 at 9:48am

  For example (with the practice session)
  
  I'll be shown: たべもの
  
  I write down the syllabbary (by looking at the charting):
  
  た = TA
  べ = BE
  も = MO
  の = NO
  
  = Tabemono (I google the word = FOOD)
  
  So I then click food as the answer.
  
  Is this the correct way of learning?
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  ShamitaS June 30, 2014 at 10:11am

  I think, rather than having to change it into romanji, you should try being able to just read the hiragana in Japanese, I feel that should be your next step, I also try to read in Japanese as much as possible.
  As for speaking, that can be kind of hard... You can see how they say words/speak if you watch some Japanese drama though, I find that helps with pronunciation.
  With your translations, there is this site called lang-8.com where you can write out your translations and someone who is a native Japanese speaker will correct it. This has helped me heaps!
  For kanji, the words all have pronunciations, it's kind of hard to grasp at first, for ex. instead of たべもの you can just write食べ物 and it's said exactly the same way, if that makes sense.
  
  Hope this helps, keep working hard ^_^
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  freakymrq June 30, 2014 at 10:42am

  To touch up on what others have been saying you really need to start thinking in japanese. In other words don't just try to change everything into romaji ( if anything I recommend avoiding it at all costs) but really embrace using the kana and kanji as the readings. As far as pronunciation goes there are a few exceptions when it comes to pronouncing words. (ie. 好き also すき is pronounced like "ski" instead of "suki" and the best way to figure this out is from either grammar resources or just from real world stuff (ie. music, shows, etc.) but saying food would be just like saying "ta~be~mo~no". )
  
  But to answer your original question I would recommend continuing learning vocab, begin learning kanji (you need to know around 1800ish), and definitely get your grammar going. Kanji is important because reading string of kana with no kanji is possible but too hard to understand and all Japanese outlets use kanji (except for some children books.).
  
  がんばって！
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  OathKeeper June 30, 2014 at 10:43am

  I agree with Shimita's answer: "you should try being able to just read the Hiragana in Japanese".That is way I love the set up of this website for learning Japanese, They give you approximately 20 words per section (Hiragana Vocab) which I feel is a good amount to learn a day.
  Then for myself I have found that the best way to learn is to give the word or phrase a story or connect it to something similar.
  
  Using the word you gave tabemono (food) I remember it by you eat tabemono at the table, which to me is the best way of learning and makes sense.I know you mostly likely know that but still it does not hurt to be reminded :). Also you could do it the boring way and wright words out hundreds of times.With that you should be able to retain the breadth of vernaculars you come across.
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  katemily1991 June 30, 2014 at 11:38am

  Aaah! thank you all so much ♡!!!!!!!
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  OathKeeper June 30, 2014 at 12:42pm

  どういたしまして! さよなら.
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  fionamills August 7, 2014 at 1:57pm

  I had the same issue after finishing hiragana and katakana. I usually try and rotate. I try and get at least 3 days per week, 2-3 hours of Japanese each time. One day would be vocab, the next would be grammar and how to construct a sentence and so on.
  Vocab is important but just memorizing words won't get you far. Grammar is the glue for it all, where to put what particles, past and present tense, conjugation....it's boring but ya can't avoid it XD
  Keep at it!~ ^u^