Learning Japanese

[Magin]

From what I understand, and I could be wrong on this, radicals mostly help to give kanji their meanings. The radical that I know the best is the one for water.

[Yu Ominae]

I'm about to visit Japan again soon, except the first stop is Osaka. I'm wondering if there are differences since my Japanese (decent though) is not Osaka-ben for obvious reasons.

[RandomGuy]

So, I haven't been in this thread in a while. Usual excuses: work, children, etc. but I had a question about something I figured someone might have some experience with.

I'm attempting to teach myself Classical Japanese, and I was wondering if anyone had some advice / recommendations for study resources.

So far, my main comments are:

1. Conjugation/spelling is so much more regular, and irregularities in the modern language begin to make more sense (aogu, "to fan", vs. ōgi, "a fan", for instance). But there are so many conjugations to memorize....

2. Kakari-musubi is annoying to remember, and baffling to encounter, until you get used to it. Crops up surprisingly often in Meiji-era songs, though.

3. Verbs in their attributive form (rentaikei) can be used without a noun after to make a verbal noun of sorts (like "[verb] + koto" in the modern language). That's kinda cool.

[walkofshane]

Originally Posted by Yu Ominae

I'm about to visit Japan again soon, except the first stop is Osaka. I'm wondering if there are differences since my Japanese (decent though) is not Osaka-ben for obvious reasons.

If I may
You should not have any problems with your Japanese since you said it is decent enough. You will be able to get by properly on your standard Nihongo.
You will rarely encounter people speaking to you in Kansai-ben unless you happen to meet an elderly person. Happened to me once. An old lady smiled at me in the street and she started chatting away and pointing at my school. All I could manage was "hai..." ^_^;;
Enjoy your trip!

[Malkuth]

Well, unless you want to have a deep philosophical or political conversation, elementary school japanese are more then enough, and if you stay more than a couple of months, your language skills will improve dramatically beyond that level very quickly, anyway

[walkofshane]

yeah, nothing better than being surrounded by Japanese 24/7. Everything you hear is Japanese, everything you see in Japanese (well, not exactly but...).

[paulo.no.1]

日本語を勉強しているのから、誰かいい？教えてください！（I'm studying Japanese, so who's good? Please teach me more!)

[RandomGuy]

Originally Posted by paulo.no.1

日本語を勉強しているのから、誰かいい？教えてください！（I'm studying Japanese, so who's good? Please teach me more!)

先生として教えるのはちょっとアレなんだけど、何か質問あれば答えてみるよ。
(None too keen on doing actual teaching, but if you have a question, I'll try and answer.)

[hoshino_crimsonwings]

My biggest problem is Keigo, even after N1, it's so rarely used in media that I can't really pick it up again. (I live in Hong Kong) Anyone have a good guide?

[SummeryDreams]

Originally Posted by randomguy

先生として教えるのはちょっとアレなんだけど、何か質問あれば答えてみるよ。
(none too keen on doing actual teaching, but if you have a question, i'll try and answer.)

私も、日本語が一番好きから、でもちょっと難しいでしょう。。だから、助けてください。。。それより、あな たは日本人ですか？そして、お名前をおしえてもらえますか。お願いします！！

[RandomGuy]

Originally Posted by SummeryDreams

私も、日本語が一番好きから、でもちょっと難しいでしょう。。だから、助けてください。。。それより、あな たは日本人ですか？そして、お名前をおしえてもらえますか。お願いします！！
[rough translation by RandomGuy:] "Since I too like the Japanese language the best, but it must be a bit difficult. So, please save me... Or rather, are you Japanese? Then, could you tell me your name? Please!"

It's really not polite to just type in Japanese when not everyone who's on the thread can read it. Plus you need more practice.

Like I said before, I can help you, but I'm not going to be your teacher. I'm not Japanese (though my wife and children are), and I'm not a native speaker, but I am pretty fluent (passed JLPT Level 1 by a comfortable margin) and have a good grasp of the grammatical concepts.

So, what is it you want to know?

[Pink Cow]

I have a few questions regarding Japanese. It's more on how to say some sentence starters like...

Anyway,
By the way,
Well,
etc..

And how to say "maybe" or "probably".

教えてください～

[Magin]

I'm not sure about Anyway or By the Way, but I suspect that Anyway and Well can both be expressed using じゃあ

And I believe that maybe/ probably is たぶん (or as I usually hear it, たぶねえ)

[Seitsuki]

'Anyway' is probably just とにかく most of the time.
'By the way', ところで

たぶん certainly seems like the most common word used, but おそらく works too.

[larethian]

Originally Posted by Pink Cow

I have a few questions regarding Japanese. It's more on how to say some sentence starters like...

Anyway,
By the way,
Well,
etc..

And how to say "maybe" or "probably".

教えてください～

There are really many many different ways to say and convey the meanings of what you listed; it really depends on what you want to say and convey in your entire sentence.

[Malkuth]

anyway = とにかく
by the way = ところで
well = えと
etc = など

There are more, but these are my first choices. The choice also depends on context too.

[Pink Cow]

How about ちなみに?

I've read someone use this before as "by the way". What makes it different from ところで?

[Avatar of Dreams]

Originally Posted by Pink Cow

How about ちなみに?

I've read someone use this before as "by the way". What makes it different from ところで?

ちなみに derives from the verb ちなむ which means "to have a connection to" something. Therefore ちなみに is used when you want to bring up a topic that is related to what was being talked about beforehand.

For example:
I took my exams today. By the way you have one coming up tomorrow right?

In contrast ところで is generally used when you want to change the topic. This does not mean there aren't cases where both are acceptable but rather that the nuance changes slightly depending on which term you use.

[Pink Cow]

Originally Posted by Avatar of Dreams

ちなみに derives from the verb ちなむ which means "to have a connection to" something. Therefore ちなみに is used when you want to bring up a topic that is related to what was being talked about beforehand.

For example:
I took my exams today. By the way you have one coming up tomorrow right?

In contrast ところで is generally used when you want to change the topic. This does not mean there aren't cases where both are acceptable but rather that the nuance changes slightly depending on which term you use.

I see! Thanks! That really cleared that up for me!

[SummeryDreams]

Okay my thread got closed, so I guess we're back here xD So who still interested? 日本語がぜったいに勉強したいな！！！誰かいい？？？