ぁぃぅぇぉ

[Doe Johnson]

私も日本語の学生です。三年生です！たくさん勉強すれば、上手になります！がんばれ！

私は日本語が下手です。上手になりたい！大学の三年生です（でも、四年生の時間がある）。高校の時に日本語を勉強しました。先学期、日本で勉強しました。大変でしたよ～！

Anywho, do your best ilikegir33! If you need any help or just want some practice, feel free to message me. My Japanese is horrible, but at least I can still help beginners. A really great site to use for practice is http://www.rikai.com/perl/Home.pl It will give you possible meanings and pronunciation of kanji you come across if you type in the address or just paste in a quote. Very useful!

[termyt]

No, I DID mean 'ganbare'. 'ganbatte' is sort of like saying 'please do your best' while 'ganbare' is more forceful. I think all of my Japanese friends actually used it more than I heard them use 'ganbatte'.

I was thinking that main difference was one of politeness. In the US culture, we all tend to be very familiar with each other, but there are subtle levels of politeness ingrained in Japanese.

I think “Ganbatteâ€

[Doe Johnson]

[quote="termyt"]I was thinking that main difference was one of politeness. In the US culture, we all tend to be very familiar with each other, but there are subtle levels of politeness ingrained in Japanese.

I think “Ganbatteâ€

[termyt]

Oh, I'd say we both have the potential to be right. You certainly are right, I may be.

Your assertion comes from personal, practical experience, which is never wrong (although one may be right for he wrong reason). Mine was one of grammar and usage from a more academic perspective.

In conversation, one can use proper grammar with out knowing the reason and in study one could know the correct grammar, but fail to use it appropriately.

[Nate]

I think termyt is right about the teaching thing. The fact is in this country it's just going to be a lot easier to find a teacher who can teach Spanish than a teacher that can teach Japanese. It doesn't have a lot to do with what languages are most helpful, or most common...it's mostly got to do with the teachers the school can find.

For the record, my school taught Spanish, French, and Latin.

[Debitt]

先学期、日本で勉強しました。大変でしたよ～！

今学期私の日本語の授業はとても大変そうですよ。日本語でいろいろな文法を忘れにくいです。

[ilikegir33]

私は日本語が下手です。上手になりたい！大学の三年生です（でも、四年生の時間がある）。高校の時に日本語を勉強しました。先学期、日本で勉強しました。大変でしたよ～！

Anywho, do your best ilikegir33! If you need any help or just want some practice, feel free to message me. My Japanese is horrible, but at least I can still help beginners. A really great site to use for practice is http://www.rikai.com/perl/Home.pl It will give you possible meanings and pronunciation of kanji you come across if you type in the address or just paste in a quote. Very useful!

Thanks!

[jon_jinn]

my school doesn't offer Japanese to freshmen (unfortunately), so i decided to take Spanish. i thought that Spanish would be the most useful for me since i'll be going on a missions trip to Mexico, and Ecuador next year...

[Dante]

私も日本語の学生です。三年生です！たくさん勉強すれば、上手になります！がんばれ！

Translation: I too am a student of Japanese. I am a third-year (student)! I often study japanese and practice it often. Work hard!

[Kaori]

今私は東京に英語の先生です。アメリカに日本語を少し習いました。そして、日本に少し勉強染ました。日本語と韓国語勉強したいですけど、今あまり忙しいです。

The slightly more detailed version of the above is that I took a 2-month Japanese class at a community college this summer and studied Japanese intensely in Japan for about a week and a half when I first arrived in Japan (four hours a day). When the school year started at the school where I teach, I had to stop taking the classes because the hours overlapped with my school day (also, as a first year teacher, I am fairly busy with lesson plans and things).

Neither my high school nor my college offered Japanese classes, which is why I ended up taking a community college course.

[Azier the Swordsman]

Give this website a shot: YesJapan

It is a paysite, however the huge amount of content they offer way overshadows the price. If you seriously want to learn Japanese but can't afford/find classes in your area, this is the next best alternative.

[Debitt]

I often study japanese and practice it often.

^-^; Actually, this part is off - I said "If [you] study hard, you'll become good [at speaking Japanese]".

[ilikegir33]

In my class we watched part of Laputa. Really!

[ilikegir33]

To add on to that, I'm only learning hiragana and katakana right now. I'll learn kanji next year.

[wingedfox]

Our high school is offering Japanese for the first time this year. it's going to be every other day in the second semester. But I can't wait till it starts. the teacher lived in Japan for 5 years and she's really awesome. We're not only going to be learning to speak it but we're also going to be leaning history and popular culture.

[Debitt]

D That's awesome to hear, wingedfox! Outside of language, Japanese history is easily my favorite area of study.