Are you interested in studying Japanese? There are a few things you should know before you get started. I go over it all in the slideshow. This is the first slideshow for the 'Learn Basic Japanese' course on Memrise: http://www.memrise.com/course/80119/learn-basic-japanese/

1. © Copyright 2015 JLPTBootCamp.com
Welcome to Learning Japanese
Photo by Tonko43

2. © Copyright 2015 JLPTBootCamp.com
There are a few things you should probably
know before you get started.
Photo by Urawara Zero

3. © Copyright 2015 JLPTBootCamp.com
First things first, I know roman letters are your
friends, but you are going to have to say
goodbye to them.
A B C
I thought we had
something special.
It's not you. It's me.
I have places I need to go.

4. © Copyright 2015 JLPTBootCamp.com
It's for the best really. But, don't worry, you
are going to meet some new friends called
kana, which represent sounds in Japanese.
あ え い お
Hello everyone!
Hey! Let's party!
All right! Whoot!

5. © Copyright 2015 JLPTBootCamp.com
There are two systems of kana. One called
hiragana, which is what we will learn in this
course.
あえいおう

6. © Copyright 2015 JLPTBootCamp.com
The other is katakana, which is used for
foreign words as well as some other
specialized uses.
アエイオウ

7. © Copyright 2015 JLPTBootCamp.com
Katakana's not covered in this course, but if
you'd like to practice it, you can click the icon
below and you will be magically teleported to
another course that does practice it.

8. © Copyright 2015 JLPTBootCamp.com
So, you might be wondering how in the world
you type kana (and kanji, etc...) with a
keyboard full of roman letters.

9. © Copyright 2015 JLPTBootCamp.com
Well, that's where an IME comes in handy.

10. © Copyright 2015 JLPTBootCamp.com
Most people prefer the Google IME. Although
all major OSes have some kind of default
IME.

11. © Copyright 2015 JLPTBootCamp.com
Taking the 2-3 minutes to install an IME will
give you a huge boost to your Japanese
studies.

12. © Copyright 2015 JLPTBootCamp.com
And the next time you are at a party, you can
impress your new friends with your awesome
skills.
Photo by Mircea
I installed an IME!
You rock!

13. © Copyright 2015 JLPTBootCamp.com
Also, you might run into some issues typing
words correctly in the course, making for a
somewhat sub-par experience learning
Japanese.
Photo by Eric Kilby

14. © Copyright 2015 JLPTBootCamp.com
For more info and links to some awesome
tutorials and other resources to get you
started, click below.