Hello! In learning Japanese I think your best option is to learn hiragana then katakana, and work your way up to kanji. I am a Japanese learner myself and when you get to the vocabulary and sentence structure you will know how to say things in Japanese, as well as write it. I have already mastered the hiragana letters, and now am working on the sentence structures and words while writing. I am a native English speaker as well, but speak other languages. The bottom line is that you should learn hiragana first then work your way up. You will understand things much better, than if you didn't. Hope this advice helped!

These are two interesting websites for learning Japanese:

http://www.tofugu.com/ ;

http://www.marugotoweb.jp/

I am also using the Memrise app which I find very helpful!

Good luck! :)

=^.^=

For beginers there are good videos on youtube named Waku Waku Japanese. I actually did not have intention to learn Japanese earlier, with all characters I thought it is difficult and I already was learning two languages. 

Then I found Waku Waku Japanese and JASensei aplication for phone. With those videos you can learn basic expressions using Romaji and in the same time using this app you can learn Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji.

I think that you should learn at least Hiragana and Katakana, beside learning to speak. It is not so difficult with all technology. Good luck! :)

I think this book may be good for you.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_in_Mangaland

 

Caitlin, I suggest you define your goals before looking for a method. For example, someone here told you to learn the alphabet, or hiragana and kanji. But what if you don't want to learn how to read, only speak? Than your method wouldn't suit your goal.

 

After I defined my goal it because much easier to search for the tools that would help me get there.

 

Good luck! :)