AnimeSuki Forum - Learning Japanese

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Excellent. Thanks for that. Looks like my self teaching is starting to pay off. I can actually understand some of the stuff in animes. Still along way off though, I've not even started to learn kanji yet, which seems like it will be extremely difficult though I figure it's best to start on that once I've properly got my Hiragana and Katakana learnt(about 3/4s of the way there).

urusai (annoying)
kare (he)
kanojo (she)
kanera (they - refering to a group of males)
kanojora (they refering to a group of females)
choushi - Contion
choushi wa dou ? hows are you doing?

I'm still learning too =)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mephisto2k

Is there maybe a usefull homepage to learn few easy basic japanese suited exactly for anime/fansub fans?
for those who are not able/willing/motivated enough to take classes but who think it might be cool to know a lil bit more japanese than the few unconnecte words they pick up watching fanssubs.
A page with just simple phrases and words used in animes explained with romanji. I assume anime japanese might not be as complex as when you talk with a real japanese.
And i assume that you wont be able to understand a raw completely with that kind of simple lessons, but maybe that kind of simple lessons are enough so that you can understand a lot without subtitles and have a basic idea of japanese and are maybe able to get the most important facts and the rough plot without subtitles.
Simply lessons to support and improve the simple animejapaneseknowledge everyone gathered though watching tonns of fansubs. But a bit more advanced than just a simple dictionary and not as advanced as learning kanji and katakana.
Easy basic fast lessons made to give the average animefan a greater japanese understanding.

Is there such a homepage/book/possibility/whatever, or am i just dreaming?

I'm sure being able to understand anime is actually much harder than having a casual conversation with a Japanese person. Unless you want to get into a debate about some obscure topic.

Generally, you just have to know the language, culture and slang to be able to understand stuff on TV. Anime is about anything and everything and the difficulty varies from show to show. To have a better understanding, learn the slangs and such as school textbook stuff just seem to focus on really formal sayings and not stuff you'd ever use with your friends or family.

Those textbooks also teach stuff like 'anata' since it makes it easier for an English speaker to follow, but 'anata' is honestly not a very polite way of addressing someone. It's always best to either use their name or title or nothing at all if possible. And also the failure to note that 'yasahii' also means kind and not just easy, even though 'yasashii' to mean kind is the more common use of that word.

I have a little question concerning the age in Japanese...
20-years old, can be にじゅっさい but often はたち is used.

Is hatachi only for 20 years old or do you make combinations with it such as はたちご as you would do with にじゅうごさい?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Syaoran

Hatachi is special for 20 years old. There was something culturally significant about being 20 which is why it has a special word for it... but I forget what right now...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quarkboy

Hatachi is special for 20 years old. There was something culturally significant about being 20 which is why it has a special word for it... but I forget what right now...

20 is when you become an adult. can vote, drink, smoke, etc.

Second monday of January every year is Adult's Day. it's a day for everyone who turned 20 in the past year, or upcoming year i can never remember which, to celebrate turning 20.

Ok :)
Thanks for your advise.

For anyone who doesnt know..but I'm sure most people do..Um if you need help with translations you can get Japanese to english dictionarys for like six bucks and it has the kanji and katakana(sp) it helps me tons.

got a question about sa. the memorization chart i got from my sensei shows it as 3 strokes. but anytime i see it typed it looks like 2.

さ <-- the swoosh at the bottom of the downstroke leading into the final bottom stroke. it looks like one solid stroke in this, but on the chart it is 3 the swoosh it not solid.

edit: oh and i can't figure out how to type the second character ッ as she used it in my last name.. ブッシュ (Busch)

Quote:

Originally Posted by sorvani

One of the few subtle differences between typeset hiragana and hand written hiragana. The "standard" fonts like MS Mincho have "sa" and "ki" with 2 and 3 strokes respectively. But when written by hand, the lower part that looks like a "c" is drawn with 2 strokes. There are similar differences in hand written kanji and typeset kanji (not to mention stroke counting strangeness) where things have more strokes than they seem to or vica verca. This is all because of the slow evolution of writting styles and simplification of characters, so some things (like stroke count) actually count the OLD way of writing things... well, in the end, you jst have to memorize it :).

*never mind*

Can someone delete this ?

Question is gone so now gone with the answer.

Hi,

I got our reply by email notification... Thanks.

After I had been thinking a little about the best way to start with it, I got rid of the question actually. It's like you said... I'm gonna focus on the ones from section 2 instead of trying to learn all the others as well. I'll probably pick up the meaning of the others if they come along often.

I'm sorry if I offended you by removing the question m(_ _)m

Could someone please tell me if there is any significant difference between doo shite and nan de when used as an interrogative "why"? Would one be prefered over the other for general usage? Thanks!

"doushite" is more formal, like "why is that so?"
"nande" is more like WTF

In essence　they are synonyms, although "doushite" is much more flexible than "nande".

And yes, one is more formal than the other, although the difference is more subtle than "why is that so" vs. "WTF".

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fel

"doushite" is more formal, like "why is that so?"
"nande" is more like WTF

Hmm, if I had to articulate it, other than sheer formality differences,

doushite is an in inquiry as to why. it does not presuppose any bias towards the situation. it does not imply any prejudgement by the speaker.
nande is also an inquiry as to why, but it implies that the speaker is also questioning the validity/purpose of the situation. i.e. they don't understand why, and have a predisposed feeling that the situation wasn't neccesary in the first place.

Example: A-san: I got a job at Macdonald's yesterday!
B-san: doushite? (politely asking why... does not pass judgement)
or B-san: nande? (asking why, what for? perhaps B-san hates macdonalds, or A-san has plenty of cash and doesn't need a job. )

correspondingly, "nande" sounds more surprised than "doushite".

Fel, Luminare and Quarkboy - Thank you all for your replies to my question. I do appreciate the help!

Why is Katakana used for character names in Japanese Anime? I was taught that Katakana was used for Japanese words that had an origin outside Japan like Kanada and Amerika.

Is it always used ?
Often you get to see the names in Kanji.

Maybe when it's a silly one like Gohan or Ichigo, to avoid confusion with the actual thing it represents?