How did you learn Japanese?

I've just brought some software on learning Japanese; "Instant Immersion", can you guys tell me how you learn't Japanese?

I can't go to Japan just yet as I've just started Judo and I don't really see the point of learning over there until I've got some
of the basics in the UK, alongside that I can't afford it as a student. Obviously the best way is to go to the country and immerse
yourself, but I cannot for those two reasons.

I pick bits up at Judo in terminology, most of which don't apply outside the Dojo.

On a side note if any of you guys have used software I find it "goofy", quite embarrassing as it were.

I did 2 semesters at Uni here in Norway before going to Japan to study more, so I had most of the basic grammar etc covered before I arrived. Pronounciation has never really been a problem, since Norwegian (especially some of the dialects lol) is much more sound-complex than Japanese.
I've tried several types of software, but the only one I've returned to again and again is 暗記 Anki. (link here). They also have a iPhone/Android app that syncs with your computer.
I have it installed at work computer and on my phone. Usually I do a 10-15 min burst of kanji in the morning as I'm getting my first cup of coffee, then depending on my mood I spend some of the time going home by subway to do another session or to try to not forget what little Korean I know

I used Japanese Mastery Method. It doesn't focus on martial arts vocab of course, but for learning general spoken Japanese (without being confused) it was pretty awesome. Got me through the "glass-ceiling" I had hit with trying to speak Japanese on my own.

cuivien wrote:
I've tried several types of software, but the only one I've returned to again and again is 暗記 Anki. (link here). They also have a iPhone/Android app that syncs with your computer.

Interesting piece of software, that I haven't seen before. How hard is to import data to create your own cards?

afulldeck wrote:

cuivien wrote:
I've tried several types of software, but the only one I've returned to again and again is 暗記 Anki. (link here). They also have a iPhone/Android app that syncs with your computer.

Interesting piece of software, that I haven't seen before. How hard is to import data to create your own cards?

Import? You mean from some other kind of SRS software? Never tried. I've either downloaded pre-made decks or built my own the entire time. The "shared decks" feature offers a wide variety of things to study; from GRE vocab, via organic chemistry, to the entire set of JLPT1 kanji

Creating new cards is super easy though, the only thing that might take a bit of fiddling is making the card template if you want to have your own, difficult, stuff. I have a deck where the cards look as follows:

Top line: kanji/hanzi/hanja (simplified + traditional if available)
Middle line #1: Kana reading (on- plus kun-yomi)
Middle line #2: Pinyin reading
Middle line #3: Hangul reading
Bottom line #1: Meaning
Bottom line #2: 3 common compound words using that character

I only have something like 260-280 characters in there atm, planning on expanding to ~500

"learn't"?????.....learned.  What little Japanese (Nihongo) I do know, I learned from Japanese martial arts, and taken a couple of Japanese language classes at a Japanese Girls School in Boston area.  Girls come there from Women's University in Japan to study English and to learn about America.  I'm trying to remember the name of the University in Japan........Showa???  Maybe????

So.... hajimemashite...anata wa Nihongo o dekimasu ka.