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There is worse: http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/ts/...

I think the FA's author is mistaking the apparent lack of a 'wi' character in the modern Japanese phoenetic alphabets as an indication that the sound does not exist in the language. This is not, as far as a quick google (and my hazy memory of the Japanese I took in college) indicates, true.

There was a specific kana for 'wi' in the ancient form of hiragana, according to
http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/ts/japanese/wvowels.htm l.

I'm in about my 3rd month of doing exactly what it sounds like you want to do -- teaching myself Japanese. On the whole, I don't think it's as hard as people make it out to be. The key thing is, do you enjoy learning? If so, then it should be worthwhile to try.

There are a couple of resources I am using to learn:

Japanese in Mangaland - a fantastic book that is organized into simple lessons of grammar, culture, and vocabulary. Each lesson includes examples of actual Manga to apply what you have learned. (There are two more books in the series once you get past the first one.)

If you read that book and decide you want to learn more, then it's time to start learning Kanji (you should already have learned the two phonetic scripts -- Hiragana and Katakana by then). For Kanji, I have been very pleased with:

Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters by Henshall.

This book may or may not work for you depending on your learning style, but it's been fantastic for me (I'm up to 400 Kanji in 3 months). It basically lays out the history of each Kanji and explains why it came to have it's current meaning. It shows you how to break the characters down into their component parts (called radicals) and what the meaning of those parts is. Since radicals can be shared by many kanji, this gives you extra insight into what a Kanji is likely to mean, even if you don't know it to begin with. This is a great memory aid, since it means you're not just memorizing random symbols but actually learning a system of symbols with meaning and context.

The other tool I used to learn Kanji is King Kanji. This is a Palm program that has tons of different writing lessons. It does handwriting recognition and tells you when you are writing the characters incorrectly. You can use it to quiz either the kanji, katakana, hiragana, or the meanings or pronunciation of the Kanji. I basically do this whenever I have some down time (bathroom, bus, etc.) and that is what has allowed me to progress as far as I have on my own with learning the Japanese writing.

Finally, a couple of websites that I have found helpful:

Teach yourself Japanese has a great detailed explanation of Japanese grammar.
Japanese Online has fantastic language lessons.

There are a ton of other sites out there as well. Just spend some time with Google and I'm sure you'll find the ones that work for you.

Good luck! Learning Japanese has been a lot of fun for me, and isn't nearly as hard as people make it out to be.

Have a look at this site - It is basically a teach yourself Japanese guide :)

Except, my sister gave me a "deluxe" language training software package. Windows-only, of course, which defeated the idea of learning with my Powerbook. But after I installed it, I tried it for about twenty minutes before I got sick of the pathetic interface, dog-slow loading times (they do their best to prevent you from loading it on the hard drive, too) and the overall horrible audio tracks and pixelated graphics. If anyone's seen the sort of drivel produced out of Toolbook 2.0 -- along with the associated media from the time when that program was popular -- that's the sort of product my sister paid $50 for. I gave up, went online, and started doing my own searching.

My personal approach to learning Japanese isn't driven out of any specific need -- just a deep-seated curiosity (and one I've had before I'd ever played video games or watched anime, mind you.) I decided I'd learn the alphabets first, adding kanji slowly, until I could safely go purchase a few kids' books written almost entirely in hiragana and katakana. It's worked, so far. My friend is taking courses the traditional way, through a community college, and though his speaking abilities are obviously better at this stage, he's got some serious dependence on romaji.

My single greatest resource for learning the characters has been, oddly enough, the Microsoft and Apple IMEs. I used a word processor to make myself worksheets and practice writing the characters. Five minutes and 100 sheets of "appropriated" office paper later, I had a stack of worksheets to practice with that beat any of the ones I found online or as samples in books. Best of all, if I needed more practice with a specific group, I could just print more of the same worksheet whenever I wanted it.

As for online references, someone compiled a great list of them already. In particular, my favorite from that list has been Takasugi Shinji's site, written from the perspective of a linguist. It's also got a great java applet that helps you memorize the kana alphabets -- allowing you to switch fonts to get a greater familiarity with writing styles.

In short -- I've not found any particular free-as-in-beer resource for language learning, and I don't think there's likely to be any because such courses are usually subjective. Perhaps it's something MIT and OpenCourseware can tackle in the future. In the meantime, IMEs are your best friend, and try to avoid getting dependent on romaji. :)

That's pretty silly. Why don't the French just speak English like everyone else? Americans, Canadians, AND the U.K. speak English. What better language to adopt as the world common language?

• tough
  
• bough
  
• dough
  
• trough
  
• rough
  
• through
  
• cough
  
• thorough
  
• nought
  

BTW, you might want to take a look at what Google has to say about romanization wo o. In particular, the first hit says, "The Romanization is "o", but some people use "wo" instead."