Learning Kanji before anything else would be like trying to run before you know how to walk

I would suggest spending some time learning the Kana (Hiregana & Katakana). How I would get used to introducing them all would be finding basic texts or workbooks that will help you in building your knowledge. Something simple that has beginner phrases so you can also learn while you do it! I can't really recommend any specific books but if you google somthing even like 'Kana learning Books' you should get loads of results.

Again, learning the Kana is recommend before anything as they are the basic Alphabets, which you also need to learn stroke orders. Kanji characters are harder to learn. Once you feel comfortable in having learned the Kana and also some basic Japanese, you can move forward with Kanji.

Best of luck

Thanks for the answer!

I've been using a combination of Rosetta Stone, Kanji dictionaries (2), Japanese/English dictionaries (2) and grammars (2). Also, just for kicks, I have Rocket Japanese in the car when I drive anywhere. I just try to think in Japanese all the time. It's probably a little over the top but when I decided (two years ago) to go to Japan this June, I knew I wanted to do it on their terms, not mine.

Rosetta Stone is expensive but it has been the core of my learning experience. I really recommend it, though through people I know from Japan I've learned that all these books and CDs use pronouns WAY too much, especially watashi (I/me) and anata (you). Most of the time, I understand, Japanese people especially in conversation just leave those words out unless the context makes it unclear.

The one strong recommendation I have is lean toward Kanji as early as possible. It seems like a daunting prospect but it will pay off in the long run. And STAY AWAY FROM ROMAJI!!!!. It will suck your brain out through your nose. Don't want that.

T

Some really good sources that I used is:
Japanese for young people: pretty basic, has some dialogues, vocabulary lessons, basic way of learning japanese. Nice book.
Basic Kanji Book: This teaches you 500 of the basic Kanjis as well as their origin, which is very good to know when you?ll be studying far more difficult Kanjis with more strokes in the future. Has some examples and writing exercises as well, very good basic Kanji book.
Kanji Odyssey CD: This one gives a lesson of the first 2001 most common and basic Kanjis that you will encounter. Good lessons with stroke orders, examples, pronunciation exercises etc. Very good if your planning on increasing your Kanji vocabulary after the "Basic Kanji Book".

These were my top chooses of all the resources I?ve seen so far. Hope this helped.

Has anyone tried the Instant Immersion software? I got it for Christmas and used it for awhile but fell out of it and was thinking of starting again.