ぁぃぅぇぉ

[ilikegir33]

Japanese, anyone? I'm taking Japanese at school right now and I must say it's difficult. But hey, it's worth it!


BTW those are the first letters in hiragana: a, i, u, e, and o.

[Kuro-Mizu]

I wish my school offered japanese but they are fascist villains and don't offer diversity of foreign language classes.... they used to have latin and french but this is the last year they will have either. Next year all you can take is spanish or german... SO LAME!! Good thing I'm graduating... >.<

[Okami]

I'm taking French this year

Japanese would be hard, good luck!

[Radical Dreamer]

I wish my school offered japanese but they are fascist villains and don't offer diversity of foreign language classes.... they used to have latin and french but this is the last year they will have either. Next year all you can take is spanish or german... SO LAME!! Good thing I'm graduating... >.<

Actually, practically speaking Spanish is the best language you can take in America. The second most commonly spoken language in the US is Spanish, after all, so it's probably a pretty good one to know. The only reason you'd really NEED Japanese is if you were planning to go to Japan as an ambassador, businessman, translator, etc., so from the school's point of view, I can definitely see why they'd rather offer Spanish than Japanese. It might be fun to learn the language from an anime fan's standpoint, but when you look at it on a larger scale, school isn't really about catering to fandoms so much as it is teaching you things that you'll actually need in life. XD

[samuraidragon]

I'm taking Japanese at my local community college. Seven hours a week and 15 hours minimum of study.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

If you want to learn Japanese that bad, then go take it in college, Vernhal.

Really, Japanese isn't too useful in the United States. Even Chinese or Korean would be more beneficial because there are a lot more of them in the states than Japanese people. Spanish is the second most spoken language in the United States, and knowing it can seriously nail you better opportunities at a job. Seeing that it's really hard to get a job nowadays, every little benefit will help.

[Doe Johnson]

Hehe, I'm tutoring someone in Japanese as I type. Woot for having strange hobbies.

Ganbare!!

[Dante]

Ganbare!!

you mean ganbate? (A phrase that really doesn't have an English equal generally meaning to work hard and do your best)
(Now you can pick on my silly and likely horrible Japanese and perhaps even counter my statement )

それはとてもすごいですね！私はＧＩ三十三が好きさん、日本語の勉強が好きですか。四年前に私は日本語が勉強しました。でも、たくさん日本語がわすれます。。。

パスーケル。。。きちがいな人。

[Myoti]

I haven't taken any classes since May, due to the fact that my school doesn't offer it, though I have been fortunate enough to find a few others here that do speak it relatively well (as in, they actually took the time to LEARN it and take classes as well).

I really should be studying it a bit more, especially since I sort of want to learn a few other languages, like Korean, and possibly some Hebrew or such. Not for any real 'useful' reason; I just want to learn them for the heck of it.

[Tenshi no Ai]

I'm taking French this year

Japanese would be hard, good luck!

Actually I found the other way around. With French, there was too much to memorize with he said/she said/they said/we said etc etc for EVERY verb to have a set of slightly different ways of saying things. Japanese isn't really about the masculine/feminine words (and even then it's not that the words have a 'gender', but the people that say them), and the only difference of a word you have to worry about is past/present tense. Trust me, japanese was eassssssy compared to French. Better with vocab than the actual grammar and order of words, but you can only learn so much from 3 years of school work and the rest on absorbing the language through anime^^ Kanji is a whole different story, but I'm still not too bad with recognizing characters. I still get confused with katakana chars for some reason though^^

[CreatureArt]

Actually, depending on your job interests, it could be a good move to take Japanese.

A lot of schools teach Japanese over here - perhaps because we get a lot of tourists from the country. But if you're looking into business, graphic design, teaching, politics, and technology then Japanese is useful to gain entry into a different market. It might even give you an advantage.

There's my two cents, anyhow. I know a little Japanese and I agree with Tenshi -- compared to french I found the basics a lot easier to get my head around. ^^;

[creed4]

I would like to learn Japanese, I have a friend who knows it

[EricTheFred]

To correct a previous poster, while Chinese is indeed the most common Asian origin, it is followed by Filipino as #2, not Korean. Indian comes in at #3, with Korean and Vietnamese just barely ahead of Japanese at #4 , #5 and #6 respectively. These are 2000 Census numbers, so they could be off by now, but it is unlikely that Chinese and Filipino have moved from the 1 & 2 spots.

Japanese would be a very good language to learn if you want to live or do business in Japan. It would also be a good language to learn if you simply want to master a foreign language, because, frankly, it is relatively easy. If you want a real headache, try to master Tagalog (I tried and gave up several years ago.)

I've studied a number of languages (as an amateur linguist. I've not mastered conversation in anything besides English.) Japanese and French are the only ones I can follow to any degree in spoken form, and I find Japanese actually a little easier than French. It has a much simpler, more forgiving grammar than any European language, and a phoneme set that is very easy for an English speaker to master (the only things I struggle with are 'r' and 'ry'.)

Naturally, it is very much the opposite in written form. I'm still struggling to master Hiragana (I could only pick out two out of five in your title) but French I can read about 50 percent without a dictionary, easily the best of all the languages I have studied.

[~darkelfgirl~]

I really want to take Japanese but my school and the colleges I'm planning to go to don't offer it -_-. My part of the continent is...sad when it comes to diversity in education.

[Kuro-Mizu]

Actually, practically speaking Spanish is the best language you can take in America. The second most commonly spoken language in the US is Spanish, after all, so it's probably a pretty good one to know. The only reason you'd really NEED Japanese is if you were planning to go to Japan as an ambassador, businessman, translator, etc., so from the school's point of view, I can definitely see why they'd rather offer Spanish than Japanese. It might be fun to learn the language from an anime fan's standpoint, but when you look at it on a larger scale, school isn't really about catering to fandoms so much as it is teaching you things that you'll actually need in life. XD

I understand your point. Spanish IS a very helpful language to know.

But I would like to go into some sort of art or video game related field and this is an area where knowing the Japanese language would be very helpful. So I don't want to learn it just because I am into anime.... that would be ridiculous.

I guess the real reason I am mad about my schools decisions is that they are only cutting programs like these (as well as some of our schools art programs) so that the sports programs will have more money >.<

They even changed the school mission statement... it used to say something like "...we are committed to helping our students do well acedemically (sp?)..."

but now it says something like this "...we are committed to helping our students do well acedemically (sp?) and atheltic(ally)..."

I can't remember the exact words but grr... it makes me mad. I mean how many students are going to become athletes for a living compared to the people who will need to know a diverse # of languages or art skills.

If you want to learn Japanese that bad, then go take it in college, Vernhal.

If the college I go o offers it I will most definitely take it.

I also study some japanese myself with some of my friends... It would be nice to get high school creidt for it though.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

To correct a previous poster, while Chinese is indeed the most common Asian origin, it is followed by Filipino as #2, not Korean. Indian comes in at #3, with Korean and Vietnamese just barely ahead of Japanese at #4 , #5 and #6 respectively. These are 2000 Census numbers, so they could be off by now, but it is unlikely that Chinese and Filipino have moved from the 1 & 2 spots.

My point was that from a business standpoint, Korean, Chinese, and even Indian would be more helpful in the States than Japanese.

[Myoti]

Really, in all truth, most of the languages I want to learn simply because I'm interested in the writing styles. I used to create my own "alphabets/syllabaries" for fun all the time, and these systems (Japanese, Korean, Hebrew, etc.) just fascinate me.

[samuraidragon]

Naturally, it is very much the opposite in written form. I'm still struggling to master Hiragana (I could only pick out two out of five in your title) but French I can read about 50 percent without a dictionary, easily the best of all the languages I have studied.

I find flash cards particularly helpful for me. I can recall from memory 20 Hiragana just from one weeks worth of flash cards. Try http://www.thejapanesepage.com/hiraganar.htm

[ShiroiHikari]

I've been studying Japanese on my own since I was 17 years old. I know how to pronounce things, can recognize a lot of random words and can understand some things just through intuition. I know hiragana and sort-of know katakana (I'm rusty because I don't practice enough right now-- it'll come back to me as soon as I start studying it again).

But I've gotten to a point where I need help to learn any more. I've tried learning particles and sentence structure on my own but it isn't really sinking in. Thankfully, I have a wonderful fiance who has very good Japanese and is willing to teach me. :3

[Doe Johnson]

you mean ganbate? (A phrase that really doesn't have an English equal generally meaning to work hard and do your best)
(Now you can pick on my silly and likely horrible Japanese and perhaps even counter my statement )

それはとてもすごいですね！私はＧＩ三十三が好きさん、日本語の勉強が好きですか。四年前に私は日本語が勉強しました。でも、たくさん日本語がわすれます。。。

パスーケル。。。きちがいな人。

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'.

Woah...a statement I can read all the kanji for! That's rare. Though I was confused for a while by peoples names...and I wouldn't use the same particle markers as you, but still, it's understandable. You crazy person...

Actually I found the other way around. With French, there was too much to memorize with he said/she said/they said/we said etc etc for EVERY verb to have a set of slightly different ways of saying things. Japanese isn't really about the masculine/feminine words (and even then it's not that the words have a 'gender', but the people that say them), and the only difference of a word you have to worry about is past/present tense. Trust me, japanese was eassssssy compared to French. Better with vocab than the actual grammar and order of words, but you can only learn so much from 3 years of school work and the rest on absorbing the language through anime^^ Kanji is a whole different story, but I'm still not too bad with recognizing characters. I still get confused with katakana chars for some reason though^^

I agree. I'm horrible at European languages. For the most part I can understand them, but conjugations are a pain. I always forget what I'm supposed to do. Japanese on the other hand actually makes sense to me. Even if I have to memorize way more vocabulary without similar latin/german roots, at least there aren't 5 or 6 different ways to conjugate something according to which people are doing it. Of course, I haven't started learning Keigo yet...most people make it sound scary. Kanji are fun, but intimidating, especially when there are other symbols differing by only one stroke. I think everyone I know forgets katakana from time to time. Not sure why, but we can write random things like "office worker" in kanji but we forget the katakana we need. O.o

Naturally, it is very much the opposite in written form. I'm still struggling to master Hiragana (I could only pick out two out of five in your title) but French I can read about 50 percent without a dictionary, easily the best of all the languages I have studied.

I find flash cards particularly helpful for me. I can recall from memory 20 Hiragana just from one weeks worth of flash cards. Try http://www.thejapanesepage.com/hiraganar.htm

Although I didn't have to since I was in a higher level and knew my kana, students in level 1 Japanese at my university in Japan were given 1 week to learn hiragana and then 1 week to learn katakana. It really is possible. Now, you might forget them quite a bit at first, but just use them whenever you can and they'll stay with you. Find random ways to practice. Write words that should be written in katakana with hiragana and the other way around. Just get the practice in there. Do strange things like, write out English conversations with your friends in kana, or do it over IM. Eventually you'll get to reading them without having to think about how each symbol is pronounced, it will just come to you naturally.

I also study some japanese myself with some of my friends... It would be nice to get high school creidt for it though.

I'm not really trying to promote the university here, but I took Japanese long distance in high school. BYU (yes, the Mormon university) has a bunch of high school courses you can take online or by paper. I think it costs about $100 per class (it was raising in price, maybe higher now) and there are 4 semesters total. My high school let me take it during a normal class period while I sat in the library. As a warning though, my friends who aren't good at taking classes without an instructor present did very poorly. So if you aren't good at distance classes, don't waste your money.

[EricTheFred]

I find flash cards particularly helpful for me. I can recall from memory 20 Hiragana just from one weeks worth of flash cards. Try http://www.thejapanesepage.com/hiraganar.htm

Very cool link!

[Alexander]

Atashii...wish I knew more. XD

I know about 30 words thanks to the countless Anime I've watched. I don't know whether I would like to take classes, but it is fun talking in a different language when others have no idea what your saying. XD

[Debitt]

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！

[ADXC]

I wanted to take Japanese, but they don't offer that language at my school. In fact they only offer Spanish, which Im on my second year of taking. They did at one time offer German, but not anymore. Spanish isn't a hard language to learn as opposed to immigrants or other non-english speaking people trying to learn English which is really hard I hear. The only thing you really have to worry about in Spanish is verb conjugating.

I tried to learn Japanese in my freshman year, but then once I got to my sophomore the only other subject I learned was spanish. Oh well, maybe college if I feel like it.

[TriezGamer]

I've just started taking Japanese (and I'm taking Chinese next year too), mostly just because I find the language fascinating. Only had about 8 hours in class so far, and I've got about have of katakana 'memorized'. And by that I mean that I can stare at it long enough and eventually remember what it is supposed to be.

[Okami]

What can I say? I find it much easier to sight-read a language with an alphabet closer to English than a 'symbol' language. If that makes sense. Plus I know a little Latin/Greek which will help a lot with my French studies.

I've tried Japanese out, it's how I got my nickname "Okami", but it's just too hard for me when it comes to Kanji and everything else...Now if it also went by a letter alphabet like French, it'd be that much easier for me

[Mr. SmartyPants]

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！

I think Debitt here is our resident Japanese expert. XD Nobody here tops her knowledge!

[ShiroiHikari]

Aw, I actually find the Japanese syllabary very easy. The sounds don't play many tricks on you like romance languages do. Very straight-forward. I personally find French to be extremely difficult. O_<

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Aw, I actually find the Japanese syllabary very easy. The sounds don't play many tricks on you like romance languages do. Very straight-forward. I personally find French to be extremely difficult. O_<

XD French is so annoying. I took it for two years in Middle School and there are so many rules and stuff. It's very "unstraight foward-y".

Though Latin was way harder for me. I understood literally nothing in the two years that I took it.

[Okami]

We have to know bunches of Latin for Choir, and I've found it to be really easy...

Maybe I'm just smarter than what I thought I was.