What I've learned so far

I started learning the Nihongo quite a while ago. If I can remember clearly it was in 2005. I would be fluent by now but I got involved in so many projects that I did not have the time to study. Actually I did have the time, but I was thought that if I can't study a subject several hours per day I would not learn it. How wrong I was!

For the last six months I have taken the subject seriously. If you are a beginner I highly suggest you create an account at www.livemocha.com. Livemocha is free and is excellent website. There you will have lessons, basically flash cards, and your exercises will be checked by other users who are native or fluent in the Nihongo. It is a nice place to learn and make nice friends. Exercises include speech and composition. The Livemocha website worked really nice for me. I still did not finish the whole course. What I like the most is that I can make question in the spoken exercises and people will kindly teach me. Oh, and you will have the chance to help someone who is learning your first language.

Also, I listened to the Pimsleur audio course. It is a collection of audio lessons, 90 total, including the most basic and practical Nihongo expressions. However, Pimsleur is not free. But do not get sad, there are excellent audio lessons at NHK's website http://www.nhk.or.jp/lesson/ and they are available in different languages. As we talk I will present you (and hopefully vice-versa) some other audio learning material. We will look for free stuff whenever possible.

I studied some Kanji already and some grammar. There is this famous collection Minna no Nihongo which helped a lot. Due to copyright issues I cannot publish several lines from book's lessons, so what you will find here are my own personal notes and I will create the examples on my own. This way we can keep free information for you.

Our ultimate goals are the JLPT. We are aiming for that, so let's keep our eyes on our target and do our bet, ok? We start tomorrow with character study!

またあとでね、
Gustavo.

The very first post!

Hello everybody! I welcome you to my blog. My name is Gustavo and I'm writing from Brazil.

From here on we will learn the Japanese language, hereby called Nihongo (日本語). We both know this is not an easy task. So, before you start asking yourself "How on Earth are we going to do that?", let me tell you: 

We are going to use the power of discipline!

I do not mean we both will spend four hours a day practicing, but we will sure persist. We will have the guts to study everyday, be it fifteen minutes or one whole hour or more if you got the time. And the reason why I am using "we" is because I am still learning the Nihongo too.

You stick with me. I stick with you. We stick together until we get ourselves fluent in the Nihongo. Do you hear more about the plan? Here it is:

•  We will study characters once or twice per week;
• There will be grammar studies also once per week;
• Every week we will read one or two little dialogs;
• Once per week we will have a stress free conversation about Japan related things;
• On Sundays we rest, ok? We need it.

 After all is done we will look back and say: "Hey, that was quite a way until we got here!" And then the others will be able to read and learn from our recorded efforts.

I will count on you and you can count on me. Your feedback is really appreciated, without it I am truly lost. Please share your opinions and doubts with me as I will share mine with you. Use the comments or email contact whenever you need it, ok?

Good luck to us all!