I am looking to learn beyond the typical Japanese we speak in class, mainly to make a lot more sense of it. My dilemna is that the nearest place that teaches Japanese is nearly an hour drive from my house, has anyone extended their knowledge of this language on their own? If so is there any books/tapes that they would recommend checking into to assist in this process.

Thanks,

I too am interested in learning to speak Japanese. I did some research into the books/software out there. In my opinion, the best thing to do would be to take a college course, aka "seek a qualified instructor"

You could always do what I did:

Get a job at a Japanese Company...and/or marry a nice Japanese girl. However, these might be extreme options for just learning a language.

Good luck!

-B

That is kinda extreme. My duddy married a korean girl and he can't speak a lick of korean...lol In his defense, I spent two years in Korea and found the language hard to learn...

Alexander Kask has a japanese language tape for the Dojo. You can special order it from most big book stores.

ZOmbie I would love to learn it from a qualified instructor, unfortunately that is not a practical option at this time, the closest college teaching it is an hour drive, and even they will not have the entry level course again until fall 06. I do have a couple of friends that speak Japanese, but are also too far for me to learn it from them, they can correct mistakes I am making though, that is the primary reason why I am looking for books/tapes. At least to memorize some vocabulary and get a basis for sentence structure. My pronounciation will be nothing more then a butchered attempt, but that can be fixed Imho.

Probably the best way to learn a language, and how to use it properly and understand it is by actually going to the country of its origin. Now I realise this may difficult to do, and possibly costly but if it is an option for you I'd highly recommend it.

I myself am presently taking Japanese at my University and I am planning on participating in an exchange a little farther down the road (1 - 2 years from now). The exhange is offered through my university (the University of Manitoba). The way it works is you pay the same tuition that you pay at the U of M (which are quite cheap compared to many other universities), however you attend classes down at the Kokugakuin university in Japan (and as many know, everything in Japan is expensive so no doubt you are getting a good deal on tuition). Its a 6 month exchange, plenty of time to get used to the language.

I work at a university with strong Asian languages/cultures connections, there are plenty of Japanese nationals in the area (this weekend there is a yearly visit of representatives from Hokkaido)...and yet I can't find the time to learn. Argg!

Good luck.

Linguaphone is usually the best bet for home-learning.