Learining Japanese Options

[jcdietz03]

How to learn Japanese?

I know a few words from watching anime - All of them are nouns. Verbs are a total engima. Could someone explain Japanese verbs - and maybe give examples of common ones? I am looking for "To be" and "To go" since those are very common.

Also - How would you go about translating Japanese text? How do you enter it into a computer even? Is there a dictionary somewhere that will let you "Look up" Kanji?

Random stuff I feel like posting:
-chan: Not sure what these are called but this one you use with a friend (Informal)
-san: Like Mr. or Mrs. in english (Formal)
-senpai: Senior. Doesn't have an english equivalent.
-sama: Master.
-niichan/kasan - Brother/sister - Not used in english.

I DON'T KNOW JAPANESE BUT I LIKE TO PRETEND I DO!: Cute.
neko: Cat.
nya: The sound cats make. Meow in english.
sugoi: Amazing
inu: Dog
henge: Transform
jutsu: Technique

When viewing subtitle anime the words above are usually used w/ few other words making them easy to pick out. Even when watching multiple times, I can't pick out all the words in complicated sentences (Like the Inuyasha Intro).

That's funny - the board system will replace ka_waii with "I DON'T KNOW JAPANESE BUT I LIKE TO PRETEND I DO!" - Thats pretty funny. Good one, whoever came up with it.

This post has been edited by jcdietz03: Sep 19 2007, 04:43 PM

[Marionette]

It's because people will abuse if and pretend to know Japanese but really don't if we let 可愛いoff the filter.

Uh, anyway.
Start with textbooks. Stay away from anime, learn the basics in writing Hiragana and Katakana. I'd suggest also working on your English a bit more first before diving into Japanese, but that's just me. >_>a;

http://www.thejapanesepage.com/
This site offers great resources. Study it, worship it, learn it.

Don't rely on Anime or Manga for your Japanese. It's not the same.