I visited a bunch of courses, but in the end they were all useless and a waste of time and ressources. Ecept I learned how to order a pizza and give directions to a taxi driver in tokyo.

They tried teaching a few kanji each week and making us learn ALL THE READINGS at once for every Kanji. Of course we learned very complex Kanji and the only help to learn was a little image that was meant to be the look-alike of it. So, 20-stroke Kanji… picture of an ape eating a banana and write the kanji over and over until it “sticks” (+6 readings).
We also used a Textbook avoiding the actual use of Kanji and relying on Romaji most of the time. Learning like.. 5 kana per WEEK. Honestly, when I first self-teached myself out of frustration I learned all of them on a weekend and continued using them and it was SO EASY -.-’
TextFugus way to go about it is 300% more effective than any courses.

The only positive things about japanese classes is “maybe” the actual talking. Find yourself a fellow language student or Japanese friends (offline, online) to chat and talk. You’re 100% better off.

Self-teach all the way – with the added benefit of not having to “order” pizza and learning other “useful” sentences (meaning, to cram them and repeat them, without understanding what’s behind it really).

Sorry for my bashing on courses, possibly not every course is the same, of course.

Edit: I’m not a total newcomer to not sound arrogant or the likes. I studied with various ressources, courses and textbooks before. For the last 6 months I only learned Kanji with RTK and did only listening comprehesion and the likes.

Bought this baby today and went through season one (it took almost all day! Did everything honestly, feels good man). Was a really refreshing read and helped me brush up, refresh and strengthen my basics in an enjoyable way.
I’d say it is really great for newcomers, too!
Especially appreciating the time-saving and motivational bits (even having read all of AJATT like… thrice).
Now with S2 I can finally brush up my long-forgotten Katakana (I never used those and felt really shaky about them). Actually I already did the free parts of S2 before todays purchase (so, yesterday).
It helped me a lot and motivated me to maintain them and become even faster at recognizing them.

So, with that being said, I brushed up on my basics, have my Kana down for reals and feel very motivated to learn even more.
Only for the Kanji I didn’t have much love, as I already started out on those with RTK,but I did finish all the 1-2 stroke content.

I deducted that I am to finish up RTK (am at the 1500ish mark right now) and maintain my reviews of it on Reviewing the Kanji website and later move to a new method of reviewing them in Anki.

I really like TextFugus approach to the Kanji, as it isn’t avoiding them like the plague as other learning approaches do.

Alright, I’m pumped, throw S2 at me now (or tomorrow). I know I’m gonna enjoy myself.

• This reply was modified 13 years, 1 month ago by  Revenant.

Let Calypso tell you what true motivation is and where it is coming from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpN98L1XL50

You have to love the language and learning it. That’s not overnight.

Just do with Japanese what he is doing here with “walking” :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAqFNa316_Q&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_96732

• This reply was modified 13 years, 1 month ago by  Revenant.

I’m very sorry, I’m not using any kind of social network. No Facebook, no Twitter… that’s how I roll.
I have Skype, tho :)

Revenant, I am your father.
… I KNEW it! Oh my god!

That’s why I’ve got this funny looking face
and the reason why I keep repelling kuute girls who
will only spit at me (the spikes D:)