How did you learn Japanese?

[Nurin]

Well, I have some alike situation, I know Portuguese, English, Spanish(though portuguese and spanish looks like in somehow) and now I'm learning japanese, Though I can understand a bit of french(but I'm suck to write, I need help).... and it isn't so hard for me... I'm just too lazy...

[Nongenius]

He's not boasting, his complaints are somewhat legit as we are pretty much forced to be bilingual here, though I won't say we are masters of either language except those who are more language-inclined. He's just saying that if he has time (or the will) to commit to learning Japanese, he should spend more time in getting his act together with the two compulsory yet vastly different languages (in all aspects) that he has to pass in formal exams here.

And learning Japanese does screw up my Chinese to some extent, as a substantial number of kanji mean different things and some even have miniscule differences in radicals/strokes that it can be easy to mix them up. If I'm still in school, it will definitely screw me up big time in the writing part of my Chinese studies.
However, Chinese can offer the following cheat codes for learning Japanese:
1. easy remembering of on'yomi of a kanji (since it sounds similar to the reading of its Chinese counterpart)
2. easy recognition of kanji (we don't get confused with characters that look similar or 'blurred' characters) (though knowing the meaning of the word may be another story)
3. and those kanji that are similar or identical in meaning to their Chinese counterparts get instantly memorized in terms of meanings (though remembering the reading-pronouncing/listening may be a different story unless they use on'yomi)

I'm just saying that's a shame for someone boasting to be a genius. I know he wasn't boasting in that post.

[MineRiko]

Seriously, I get that a lot.

Yeah, it's a shame that I don't have enough time...

[Cindynka]

Well,
I've been learning English since I was about 9 years old (in school but about three years ago I started using it and voilá!) and now I can understand most of it (I'm not perfectly fluent but I think it would be enough if I moved; I still misuse it though.). I can also understand (but mostly not speak) Slovak, which is pretty much as Czech (and also, my father is a Slovak, so I have it kinda easy). And I can also understand Polish, even though just a little because it differs.
For about already 4 years I'm learning French (again in school but now I'm determined to learn it better myself). It's about the time because I want to do my high school finals of this subject
And about Japanese - I learnt both kanas a year ago (and forgot so I had to re-learnt it again this summer). I can't really start learning kanji (I think I'll wait 'til I'll get better at French). I can understand some simple and often sayings from anime but this is not my goal, hehe.

[obsidian pegasus]

I'm self study,
started learning Kanji early 2013 and 9 months later have around 1000 down and 3-4000 言葉, but then it gets hard because you can read the Manga or LN but every 5th word uses some obscure kanji, or "have I seen that one in a while", or, "that looks familiar somehow". It's like the equation for light density, its gets harder with the cube of the distance from the origin. In the beggining, learning was easy, and just a little kowledge went a long way, now, learning a little only carries you onto the next word.

[Kouen no Ten]

Through university. My school has an ongoing program, which requires you to earn certain amount of credit hours to appear in JLPT. Depending on how much credit hours you have earned, you can apply for N5, N4, N3, N2, or N1 exam directly through school. I earned enough credits to appear in N1 and passed it about 15 months ago.

[obsidian pegasus]

So since you're all ahead of me since most of my words are all simply ones, (like tree, leaf, book, spoon....), what did you guys do to learn vocabulary? Sit there with a 辞書？読み continuously and hope the vocab comes? Or use a program like Anki to start rolling through it?

[cautr]

Sticky Study for iOS.

[Nurin]

So since you're all ahead of me since most of my words are all simply ones, (like tree, leaf, book, spoon....), what did you guys do to learn vocabulary? Sit there with a 辞書？読み continuously and hope the vocab comes? Or use a program like Anki to start rolling through it?

読み continuously and hope the vocab comes?

[Kouen no Ten]

So since you're all ahead of me since most of my words are all simply ones, (like tree, leaf, book, spoon....), what did you guys do to learn vocabulary? Sit there with a 辞書？読み continuously and hope the vocab comes? Or use a program like Anki to start rolling through it?

I've been immersed in Japanese media since I was about 14-15 years old, now I am 22 years old, so I've been involved with 日本語 for about 7-8 years.

I wasn't literate in Japanese until 2012, though I was able converse with Japanese friends in 日本語, and I was pretty much able to understand your every day conversations.

Though when I was studying for JLPT N1, I had to memorize about 3000 more vocabs.... I memorized them the same way as I recommended to other people here.

[Lery]

Well I'm following sometimes a course at Uni, when I've got time ^^''' And I'm using the "Genki : an integrated course in elementary japanese" 1 and 2 which - I think - are good books to learn Japanese.

I've also found a wonderful app for Android phone : JAsensei, which is really worth it, I think.

I've done so for over two years now, episodically, but I'm still far from understanding everything what's said in an anime. I think I lack a little bit of weekly practice.

[fenric666]

I learned via both self study and academic. Developed an interest in junior High school since i discovered anime. Became curious about what an anime series would be like if it was not dubbed. took classes in High school and college, watched a lot of japanese TV. now i can speak and read passably.