True, that is if she's helpful to your studies and you're showing effort / you're willing to learn. I'm just saying, if. There are plenty of people I know married/dating Japanese women and their wives/girlfriends (my co-workers, mostly) admit that although they are willing to teach, there's a certain glass ceiling point of the learning curve. For most men who haven't spent significant time in Japan, I find that just dating or being married to a Japanese woman isn't helping them much; it takes considerable amount of effort on the guys' part.

I'm actually in Japan at the moment studying the language. I was enrolled for 3 years of college level Japanese. We used genki throughout all 3 years of the class. I'd have to say that nothing bolsters your skill like being here and having to use it. I came here with poor speaking and listening abilities, but now, I feel I can hold my own in a Japanese conversation. I'm not arrogant enough to claim I'm fluent, but I think that I can stumble through a sentence and have the person on the listening end understand what I mean. If you're looking for something beyond genki, or something supplementry to genki though, I'd recommend this book: http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/switch-la...nguage=en%5FJP

It has some repeat grammar from genki, but I really like the way the book is broken up. It takes the different conjugation patterns and gives you verb endings based on that. It's what we're actually using in our classes here. It's meant to prepare you for the JLPT.

And on the topic of why I decided to learn this language, at first it was a mild interest because I liked video games and anime. Now, it's a career driven skill for me. Being bilingual is a valuable asset and damn good resume material. But if you seriously want to study the language, I'd say get some grammar under your belt, and try and come here. I've learned more here in a few months than I have in the 3 years I took the class.

I'm not sure I agree. I mean, they can certainly help, simply because it's a way to practice speaking the language, but nothing is going to make you learn better than taking several years of intensive classes, combined with a year (at least) in Japan. I really can't see any other way to learn the language aside from that.

I've been taking it for four years now (though it hasn't been very intensive until the past year, while in college) and I've developed the confidence to use what I have in conversation simply because I've had to speak to my teacher every weekday since September; had I not done that I wouldn't be anywhere decent.

Hehe, you guys seem to assume that I meant that you can learn Japanese effortlessly if only you get a japanese gf. I can assure you that is NOT what I meant. Didn't I say you get instant feedback? What I meant to say was that if you're studying actively, and you have a japanese gf/bf, she/he's going to be one of the best resources you have for learning the language properly. If you live in Japan while dating this person, all the better. In fact, I wholeheartedly agree, and I'm pretty sure I mentioned this before(I assume you didn't read it) that it is absolutely crucial, in fact critical, to stay on location in Japan for a longer period of time if you wish to truly master the language.

I agree, SOLELY getting a gf will not be enough to truly learn the language. It's similar to the principals and relations between happiness and money, actually. Although it won't make you happier to have a lot of money, it sure helps. It all amounts to how you use your resources.

I can do a little translation with katakana and hiragana tables, but I am not very good. One of these days I am going to sit down and start to teach myself. But unfortunately it will not be anytime soon. :(

I have no problem to read hiragana and katakana, and I'm in process on learning Japanese. Right now I have limited amount of kanji and vocabularies memorized (around 150, I think) but so far, the progress is smooth. I maybe more inferior than the people that has chance to study abroad here, but I guess it's ok, since I enroll a class regularly per week.

My target is to be able to read japanese newspaper and academic paper, so I could cite source that pretty obscure to others :)

I took Japanese for one full year (3 quarters) my first year of college, it was very enjoyable and I would also highly recommend Genki.

I had a hard time with katakana at first, but I think its because being on the quarter system, we had just rushed though hiragana and were expected to know katakana the next week... but I've got both of those down, I've just about lost all my kanji knowledge though and my grammar and conjugation is rusty.

I should probably go pick up Genki Vol. 2 since we didn't get into the second book in my class. I kind of miss leaning the language. I think I'll try to pick it up again this summer. Its been 3 years since I finished my last class, I just hope all those import PS2 games I found will be of some motivation.

Reading your text brings back memories. We also used Genki (1 term) at first and naturally went over to Genki II later on (2nd term). Although I wouldn't recommend it for experienced users, and it might even be missmatched for people living outside of the US due to the content being aimed to american youths, they are quite good for beginners and gives an overall coverage of the basics of the Japanese language.

Actually, I also had a tougher time with katakana than with hiragana. This mostly due to the fact that you don't use katakana as often since it's mainly only used in foreign(and some rare cases, native) names and when dealing with vocabulary lent from other languages. Giving a real-life example of this; I was overwhelmed the first time I played Katamari Damashii in Japanese since the god(forgot his name) speaks in katakana(!), rather than hiragana/kanji, making it really hard to read if you're not used to it. Aside from these rare cases though, there was no trouble practising and I quickly caught up with it. Memories, memories... :p