I have started to teach myself Japanese through a couple of books, namely "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Conversational Japanese"(that's a complete guide for idiots, not a guide for complete idiots...I think XD). I understand the basic rules concerning Japanese grammar and sentence structure, as well as forms of conjugation (though I haven't learned them yet).

I am going to try to learn by building up a small vocabulary of basic nouns (man, woman, boy, girl, dog, cat, etc) and basic verbs (walk, jump, give, etc), then learn how to combine these to form sentences. This is similar to how my Spanish teacher taught us in high school.

After this, I will work on more situational vocabulary (police, taxi, teach, etc) and build my vocabulary up from there.

Is this a good method to use at first, or does anyone have other suggestions?

Hello there imtheonlysane1here! ^^

About learning Japanese, um, well everybody has their own way of learning and certain methods may be preferred by some while others dislike it. Anyhow, I will tell you what I know based on my knowledge.

The idea of focusing your priorities on the grammar is very good, because you cant speak the language with empty words without knowing how to use them, right? However, based on my experience, if you give all your focus on one specific thing you will most likely end up trying to memorize too many words at once, which will result in forgetting most of them, if not all.

So my suggestion is basically:
Prioritize your grammar studies.
While your studying grammar, try to learn the words you come across at the same time as well as their kanji, that will give you a bit of a variety on the things you learn, which results in a better memory.
When you?re done with your studies, move over to kanji studies and increase the vocabulary you have left to learn.

Some good resources I?ve come across:
Tae Kims grammar guide: Free grammar guide online as close to a book as you can come, detailed information starting from Beginner Lessons to Advanced Topics. Very good site check it out ^^
Basic Kanji Book 1 & 2: Teaches you the first 1000 kanjis with their origins, stroke order, on-kun readings, as well as example words that they occur in. Very nice book for learning kanji.
Kanji odyssey cd: Has the first 2000 basic kanjis on a cd with their stroke order, example words, example sentences, and pronunciation. Although this one doesn?t teach the kanji origins.

There you go, I hope that helped and good luck with your Japanese studies! (^^)/

Japanese grammar is damn easy! The real pain in the a** is the kanji and writting and not to forget the many million conversation situations you have.

If you talk with an older or younger person, your relative or a stranger, your boy/girlfriend or just a friend, colleagues, boss, students, teachers,to a male or female etc. - it's all different styles of speaking.

*P.S. I forgott to mention that in different regions you have different accent/dialect

Ohayo imtheonlysane1here! I am also trying to self teach some Japanese to assist me on my endeavor to Japan with my school. I myself found Pimsleur: I, II, and III to be very effective. If you feel you are more intermediate to advanced by now, I suggest you attempt to have real sitution conversations with other people who enjoy learning Japanese, or people that are originally from there. Speaking to people whenever you can is very important so you develop a type of muscle memory in your brain. I really hope this helps.

Yeah, since writing my original post I bought Rosetta Stone and am learning quite a bit. A good ways to go before I can carry on a conversation though, I've got college to worry about as well, and that takes priority over Japanese.

same here. i'm apparently learning the language through self-study. there are some sites that have useful references. i also bought some mini japanese learning books. i'm kinda procrastinating and losing the interest to study some unknown reason but i so want to learn the language.

yes, i have to agree with Mai-san said, we all have different methods, and i think what i'm doing is not enough to fully study it.

what i'm trying to do is:
learn how to write the characters (except Kanji)> learn how to create simple words at the same learning what they mean > grammar / forming sentences > Kanji

i haven't done the first step so i really have a long way to go. i have basic knowledge tho about japanese phrases that are used in daily basis but still i still am clueless for the last 3 years.

Gambatte minna! (TT^TT)q!!