Japanese 101

[TrigunX89]

Sugoi! Arigatou gozaimasu! XD

[indyrocker]

a good site for japanes lessons that are free is http://www.japanese-online.com check them out!

[Chichiri]

do You Kno How Desperate I Want To Learn Japanese????????!!!!!!!!!!! My Dad Is Taking A Long Time To Put Me In A Class!

Classes? Personally, I'd just wait till you're in college to start learning. Classes have a strict regiment and is a great environment to learn. If you can't wait, pick up a book and start self-studying.

As far as online courses like yes-japan goes.. meh. You don't have the interraction of a classroom to help reinforce ideas learned in a chapter, so it's easy to forget things if you are not using them to interract with people. Also, it's easier to learn things wrong, unless you keep asking someone, "is this right?"

Also, with an online class, you have to really push yourself to do it often and keep on a regiment, where as a class you have to go or you'll fail. I looked at yes-japan, and i didn't find it all that good except for the videos with keiko and george (which were interesting and pretty fun to watch. they did have some good stuff to pick up on). Yes-Japan isn't bad, but you could easily just pick up a book and do the same thing.

As far as using anime for references and learning new materials, it's good sometimes. It's good if you look up afterwards the exact romanization of it, the exact meaning, and the politeness level. Because just learning the words, isn't always good enough. You need to know the reason behind them.

I'll cite one of my stupidities by using anime. One word I learned from anime is the word "byouki", which means sick or sickness. One day my teacher seemed a little sick so I asked her if she was sick (in Japanese). She told me that just "byouki" was a little rude, and i should use "gobyouki" if i'm talking about other people's sicknesses.

Just some food for thought.

[TrigunX89]

Cool! I've actually been to japanese-online before, and I learned a little bit of stuff. I got up to the hiragana/katakana lessons, and then I kinda got stuck trying to memorize them.

Next year I should be going to college, and I plan on taking classes.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

ohaioh
ikedakimasu
hai!
nani?
yudusai!
Boh-Koom
Yahsook (probably because it the same in korean)
oh-deh-wah...

[Chichiri]

Cool! I've actually been to japanese-online before, and I learned a little bit of stuff. I got up to the hiragana/katakana lessons, and then I kinda got stuck trying to memorize them.

Next year I should be going to college, and I plan on taking classes.

Good for you man . I wish you the best. Does the school you plan on going to have a Japanese major there? Which college is it might I ask?

ohaioh
ikedakimasu
hai!
nani?
yudusai!
Boh-Koom
Yahsook (probably because it the same in korean)
oh-deh-wah...

ohayou... itte kimasu/itadakimasu... yudasai? Do you mean Kudasai? or yurusanai (not forgive)... oh-deh-wah? Denwa? or De wa (similar/same as Jyaa)

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Good for you man . I wish you the best. Does the school you plan on going to have a Japanese major there? Which college is it might I ask?



ohayou... itte kimasu/itadakimasu... yudasai? Do you mean Kudasai? or yurusanai (not forgive)... oh-deh-wah? Denwa? or De wa (similar/same as Jyaa)

yudusai

you know, it means "shut up" or "be quiet"

ohaioh (ohayou) ya know, good morning. Ohaioh gojaimasu!

itadakimasu, lol thats what i means

ohewah means... eh i forget

[indyrocker]

well today (dec. 14th) is Nan kyoku no Hior south pole day in japan!

[shooraijin]

> yudusai!

That's "urusai" (which literally means 'annoying') and is a somewhat rude way to tell someone to shut their yap. By the way, there's no "du" in Japanese (except in katakana, but that's mostly for foreign words and sounds, so that doesn't count).

[Mr. SmartyPants]

gah, i thought it was ohdehwah, but i just realized it is kodewah, lol

i suppose i thought yurusai had a d, is because of pronounciation, it sounds like it has a d.

[Azier the Swordsman]

gah, i thought it was ohdehwah, but i just realized it is kodewah, lol

Actually, it's 'kore wa'.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Actually, it's 'kore wa'.

YOU KNOW WHAT! FORGET IT

*signs up for Japanese classes*

okay not really

yeah, im misspelling eveyrthing aren't I?

[shooraijin]

> i suppose i thought yurusai had a d, is because of pronounciation, it sounds like it has a d.

Urusai (not yurusai).

The reason why is ... it sounds like the English /d/ in words like /ladder/ which is actually not a /d/ at all, but an apical flap against the alveolar ridge at the top of the mouth. That's the sound that Japanese speakers make for /r/ (and probably why you spelled it "kodewah" instead of kore wa).

[Mr. SmartyPants]

> i suppose i thought yurusai had a d, is because of pronounciation, it sounds like it has a d.

Urusai (not yurusai).

The reason why is ... it sounds like the English /d/ in words like /ladder/ which is actually not a /d/ at all, but an apical flap against the alveolar ridge at the top of the mouth. That's the sound that Japanese speakers make for /r/ (and probably why you spelled it "kodewah" instead of kore wa).

yupyup ^_^

[Chichiri]

ohaioh (ohayou) ya know, good morning. Ohaioh gojaimasu!

Yes, just sign up for classes.

yare yare... it's ohayou gozaimasu. not ohaioh. not gojaimasu =P

"ha" can often sound like "hai" in some cases. Ohayou is a good example of that.

The reason why is ... it sounds like the English /d/ in words like /ladder/ which is actually not a /d/ at all, but an apical flap against the alveolar ridge at the top of the mouth. That's the sound that Japanese speakers make for /r/ (and probably why you spelled it "kodewah" instead of kore wa).

I actually never had any problem distinguishing between r's and d's. I did however (itsu manabihajimeta..) always think it was "usai" instead of "urusai". If send fast enough, it always sounded like "usai" to me.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

the whole itadakimasu is weird. Because Naruto pronounces it Ikedakimasu! Either that or he says the first part incredibly fast. But everyone else says it normalls

[Chichiri]

the whole itadakimasu is weird. Because Naruto pronounces it Ikedakimasu! Either that or he says the first part incredibly fast. But everyone else says it normalls

Well.. i'm not at school anymore to check my videos to see what you are talking about, but I always heard itadakimasu. However, it could be that I just wasn't listening close enough.

It could be something he just says. Kinda like "Dattebayo". Doesn't really mean anything (from what I was told). It could also be a dialect. Dialect = students worst nightmare. You could be completely fluent in standard Japanese, hear some dialect (like Kansai-ben or Nagoya-area-ben is pretty weird) and completely throw you off and not understand what is being said. I hate dialects.

Either way, i'm on a very slow 56k so I don't feel like googling it to check it.

[TrigunX89]

Good for you man . I wish you the best. Does the school you plan on going to have a Japanese major there? Which college is it might I ask?

Meh, it's just a little community college is all. I don't think you will have ever heard of it. Thanks for the encouragement!

Uhh... This is an odd question. It's a racial question. I'm just wondering how many of the people here who speak or want to learn Japanese are Japanese. The reason I ask is because I'm white, and I'm probably going to look/sound like an idiot. Since I was like 9 or 10, I've wanted to go to Japan, learn the language, etc. It's kinda wierd. I'm just wondering if I'm the only one. I really don't care about what races people are, but there's a lot of people who do. I dunno, I guess I'm worrying too much about what people will think of me.

[Chichiri]

a community college has Japanese? Are you serious? That's a bit weird, but that's good for you I guess eh?

I'm white (German background). I was told that it is somewhat un-normal. My one friend who goes to Washington University and is in the 400 Japanese class level (meaning: he's practically fluent) said he has only 2 white boys in his class and everyone else is Asian ethnicity and that's how it usually was.

My class is completely white though. In our first semester, we did have a Korean guy, but he was just auditing (watching) the class, not really taking it.

I was told there was a Japanese girl in one of the lower classes this semester. Our teacher was pretty mad because she, obviously, had an unfair advantage. I think she ended up dropping it.

[indyrocker]

If i have to take a foren lang. for my gen eds ill take japanese cuz i know that the comunity college (Red Rocks Community College) has it plus japanese just sounds alot cooler thanany thing els out there.

[Chichiri]

yes, but at the same time, it will add a lot of time to the overall studying time (at least if the school's program is any good).

Also most schools, maybe not community colleges, go 5 days a week. it's definitely not something to sign up just because it sounds cool.

In our class, the people who joined because it sounded cool either: dropped it, did horribly, did not continue to the next level, or all of the above.

[indyrocker]

hahahaha now thats funny ive alredy started teaching myself how to speak the lang and i at the same time or use to help other students at my high school in the anime cub learn to speak it as well.

[Chichiri]

at the anime club? I can imagine how that is.

"Kawaii" "Baka" "Aho". I don't think that's going to be really that productive. I watched anime for 3 years before I ever took a class and I still learned more my first week of classes than I did those whole 3 years. also, it's easy to mispronounce stuff since anime can easily mislead you.

[John316]

I'd agree with chichiri. You need a good year or two of solid daily Japanese classes at least before you can start picking stuff up on your own in anime.

[indyrocker]

ya i know all ive picked up from anime was eta or howwver it is spelled but it means ow hahaha go love hina episoad 1. i was getting my teaching matiral from japanece-online.com

[Chichiri]

Well, I can't help you with any Japanese related sites because I don't particularly think they are better than a textbook.

However, I can help you somewhat: http://www.english-to-go.com/ .

[TrigunX89]

Thanks for the words if wisdom. Yup, my community college has it. I'm gonna give it a try, but it won't be for a little while. I learned a bit through japanese-online.com but I kinda struggled memorizing the Hiragana/Katakana characters... Anyone have any ideas for the 'best' way to learn them?

[Azier the Swordsman]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/4889960724/qid%3D1103808908/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/104-4230674-6218367

This is how I learned the Kana. YesJapan.com's method is a bit easier though.

[Chichiri]

Thanks for the words if wisdom. Yup, my community college has it. I'm gonna give it a try, but it won't be for a little while. I learned a bit through japanese-online.com but I kinda struggled memorizing the Hiragana/Katakana characters... Anyone have any ideas for the 'best' way to learn them?

you don't need any fancy book to teach kana. Our textbook just introduced them and had examples of words that use them. Even that is exceccisve.

All it takes for most people is writing them over and over again. Just find one, like "ke" and write it like 10 times. (ex: [char] = ke x 10). Then, put them down on flashcards and quiz yourself. Everytime you get one right, put it into one pile and the ones you get wrong go in a different pile. The ones you got wrong go over again. if you were REALLY clueless, re-write them again a couple of times to reinforce the idea. It's not really hard. I hate to see what kind of difficulty kanji will give you if kana turns out to be a problem.

Though, there are some people in my class who can't keep the kana straight after this time. They're idiots though, which I have a ton of in my class. I don't think you will have a problem with it.

[John316]

And once you start reading stuff the kana will stick permanently.