What is the best learning program, website, textbook, etc. for learning a language from scratch? I've been reading reviews and almost all say RosettaStone is the best. As for free programs, Duolingo is my favourite. I use it everyday for Spanish. Does anyone else use it? The only downside is the selection of languages you can learn is rather small.

仕訳帳のエントリ I haven't uploaded a journal entry since... well my first entry, so I've decided to upload my hiragana practice exercises because that is pretty much all the Japanese I can do >.< Yeah I don't know very much.. So these are lyrics from a Japanese song that was origionally in romanji. These exercises kill two birds with one stone by 1. help me memorize kana and 2. memorize where they are on the keyboard because I don't have any more room for letter stickers(I already have 3 alphabets on by keyboard XP ) I always welcome corrections of course :D This one is short.. Versailles - Episode mabataki wo suru tabi ni kizuku まばたきをするたびにきず utsukushii mori no seijaku ni うつくしいもりのせいじやくに nagareboshi...oikakete... ながれべし...おいかけて... mabataki wo suru tabi ni utsuru　genjitsu to uragawa no sekai まばたきをするたびにうつるげんじつとうらがわのせかい nagareboshi...oikakete...hakanasa ni tokete ながれぼし...おいかけて...はかなさにとけて nagareboshi...oikakete... ながれぼし...おいかけは...

If a Kanji has no Kun reading does that mean I can only use it as a compound? For example 刑(punishment) on reading is kei. Can I use that alone or only as a compound?

Does anyone have any tips on how to memorize hiragana characters? There are so many and I feel it will take me forever to actually start recognizing any of them. Thanks :)

First noteboook entry: Introducing myself Привет! Миня завут Саша. Миня восемнадцать лет. Я живу в Америка.