Common Saying in Japanese

[chibi Jiraiya plushy]

Can you tell me how to say
"I'm not different, I'm special"

[Roots]

Originally Posted by chibi Jiraiya plushy

Can you tell me how to say
"I'm not different, I'm special"

Watashi wa chigaimasen. Tokubetsu desu.

I'm not sure if the context of different matches with chigaimasen in this case though. Might want a second opinion. If you want I can write it in Japanese characters too.

[MwyC]

now my japanese is horrible, and i have no idea whether this is right
but i think wa should be ga instead
as it places emphiasis on different?

[Roots]

wa is a subject marker partical. Since the subject is about one's self, I thought it would be most appropriate. I believe you are right though, that ga places more emphasis than wa. I can't remember though. Been too long since I took JPNS 101

[raikage]

I'm not sure if this carries the same cultural connotation - that is, if you say this, people might just stare at you blankly.

[hobobaggins]

Originally Posted by raikage

I'm not sure if this carries the same cultural connotation - that is, if you say this, people might just stare at you blankly.

people will do that anyway.

Watashi wa chigaimasen. Tokubetsu desu.
there is where to put the stresses...

[microlith]

Or if you want to be boastful (and are a guy):

"Ore ga betsu ja nee, tokubetsu da!"

俺が別じゃねぇ、特別だ！

[Roots]

Originally Posted by microlith

Or if you want to be boastful (and are a guy):

"Ore ga betsu ja nee, tokubetsu da!"

俺が別じゃねぇ、特別だ！

Nice I played the role of "Aniki" in a Yakuza skit in my Japanese class a couple weeks ago. Its so much fun talking like that and annoying all the politeness crap.

[Wandering A.I.]

Forget gangsta, let's go with the (conceited) little girl approach ^^:
atakushi ga chiagau mono ja nai mon! erai desu wa!

Edit: OK, I added conceited in parentheses. ;p As long as we aren't using the "Special Olympics" definition of special it seems to fit to me, hehehe.

[zalas]

Originally Posted by Wandering A.I.

Forget gangsta, let's go with the little girl approach ^^:
atakushi ga chiagau mono ja nai mon! erai desu wa!

That sounds like a cross between a little girl and a regal queen ^^;

[Blue*Dragon]

hello I have an question about japanese words

i see sometimes the - in the translated from how you speak the figure. what does that mean??

[hobobaggins]

It might mean you stress the aforementioned vowel more....

is it a "-" or a "~"

[Roots]

Originally Posted by hobobaggins

It might mean you stress the aforementioned vowel more....

is it a "-" or a "~"

- is making the vowel into a long vowel (in katakana)

~ is not really a Japanese character I think, but it is kind of like - but with more umm.....stress? Its difficult to explain without a contextual example

[7thMethuselah]

a - in japanese script actually means that the previous tone should be given twice the length. In japanese each tone has an equal length so the word daisuki which consists on the tones da i su ki would have a length of 4. When you use a - the tone gets lenthened so da becomes daa, ki would become kii, o becomes oo etc.

It's importance comes from a simple example

biru = bi ru has a length of two and means building
biiru (or bi-ru if you would write it in japanese) = has a length of three which means beer.

The - symbol is only used in katakana, in hiragana the streesed vowel gets repeated.

[Jinto]

I could hardly tell the difference if there was only the single word spoken. Often the use in context is necessary (at least for me)

[Roots]

Originally Posted by Jinto Lin

I could hardly tell the difference if there was only the single word spoken. Often the use in context is necessary (at least for me)

Yeah when Japanese speak fast the difference is barely noticable. Context is everything in Japanese.

[Lord Raiden]

Ain't that the gospel truth. That's one thing I'm really struggling with in my comprehension skills is how fast they speek. A lot of the time I have to go on as many keywords as I can pull out of the sentance to actually understand what the person is saying, so if I only catch 3-4 in a 20 word sentance, I'm perty bloody well screwed when trying to understand someone.

But I figure in time I'll be able to understand it as easily as I learned German. Speaking of which, I need to brush up on that again once I finish learning Japanese. Mein Deutsch wird rostig heutzutage.

[askingquestions]

it is very confusing i dont even get it its like not even the order of how we speak english hah. Maybe someone might wanna explain for me please?

[Lexander]

You need to worry about your english first. Your post is missing 2 vital periods.

[kj1980]

The grammar (the sentence structure) of Japanese is very simple:

English: SVO (subject-verb-object)
Japanese: SOV (subject-object-verb)

So long as you keep this in mind, the rest is just practice.