2007-07-07, 05:59 | Link #902 |
死神の血まみれ
Join Date: Feb 2007
Age: 32
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All this Japanese is very...um...mediocre.
I would correct most of it, but I'm afraid I'm busy. But... First of all... Desu is equivalent to is/am/are. Anata is the formal way of saying "you" Kimi is the informal way. So never say Kimi to strangers, or people you aren't close with. Or those who have higher authority. Or elders...etc. If you want to say "Do you understand English?" You can say... Eigo ga wakarimasu ka? Eigo=English (language) wakarimasu=understand ka=? wakarimasen=[negative form] not understand Eigo ga wakarimasen=Doesn't understand English. Languages: Eigo: English Nihongo/Nippongo: Japanese Furansugo: French Doitsugo: German Kankokugo: Korean If you want to say "American person" Simply add "-jin" to a country's name. Amerika-jin: American person Nihon-jin: Japanese person Furansu-jin: French person Kanada-jin: Canadian person (etc..) Families: Family: kazoku Father: otousan Mother: okaasan Grandfather: Ojiisan Grandmother: Obaasan Older/Elder Brother: Oniisan Older/Elder Sister: oneesan Younger brother: Otouto Younger sister: Imouto Uncle: Ojisan Aunt: Obasan Note* -The words for Grandmother/Father are not the same as Aunt/Uncle. The words for Grandmother/Father have extended vowel sounds. Also: "-san" is added to terms when referring to an elderly person to show respect. Name Suffixes: -San: Should be used after any name. Unless other suffix is necessary. Saying "Smith-san" is like saying "Mr./Mrs. Smith" -Chan: Used after the names of small children, especially when it's a girl, however, this can be excepted in certain occasions with a boy. (use this after a friend's name. If it's a girl) (ex: Amy-chan) -Kun: Is added after the names of boys. Also male classmates at a school. Or pets. (ex: Tom-kun) -Sensei: added after teachers. Or doctors...professors, etc. Any person of high intelligence/knowledge/philosophy. (ex: Makoto-sensei= Mr/Mrs/Dr. Makoto) *NOTE************** Never under any circumstances use a name suffix after your own name, it is considered rude. So don't say "Watashi no namae wa Bob-san desu." (My name is Bob) That's not polite. At all. In Japanese, their sentences follow a "SOV" format or grammar. SOV= Subject. Object. Verb. In English, we follow a "SVO" format. SVO=Subject. Verb. Object. I'm sure you get the point. For instance... If you were to say [in English] "He eats the apple." He=subject eats=verb the apple=object In Japanese it would be... "Kare wa ringo wo tabemasu." Kare=he ringo=apple tabemasu=eats (to eat) Note*: Japanese doesn't have "articles". Meaning, they don't use a, an, and the. So "ringo" could mean, "the apples." "apple" "an apple" etc. Japanese also have PARTICLES. Which are basically sounds they use to label each part of the sentence. They have no meaning. The particle "wa" shows that the subject of the sentence comes before it. So... "kare wa" shows that the subject follows "wa". This means the object of the sentence will come after it... Which is ringo (the apple). Kare wa ringo wo tabemasu Kare (he)=subject wa (comes after the subject) ringo (apple)=object wo (also a particle, comes after the subject and everything to show the verb comes after it) tabemasu (to eat/eats/eat)=verb That should be generically correct. All of it...mostly. Unless I got sloppy with the explaining. Ehh. Sorry for interrupting. Last edited by Xiithros; 2007-07-07 at 06:12. |
2007-07-07, 06:16 | Link #903 |
死神の血まみれ
Join Date: Feb 2007
Age: 32
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I hope everyone here knows that the pronunciation of Japanese is quite simple...?
In my explanation above... "kare" is pronounced "kah-reh". "ringo" is pronounced "rihn-goh" "tabemasu" is pronounced "tah-beh-mahss" the "masu" is not like "mask" without the 'k'. It's somewhat like "moss". With a distinct A sound...ehh i don't know! >.< |
2007-07-07, 23:35 | Link #904 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 67
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Hmmm, I'm going to *try* and not flame out here, but did you intend on insulting the whole thread and many people with years of experience in japanese or native japanese? Or were you just picking on a few beginners before the JP 101 introductory fragment?
Most people are just trying to be helpful and yes, some of them may have less than perfect understanding but that line and the very basic intro seemed a bit uncalled for.
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2007-07-09, 04:43 | Link #905 |
Junior Member
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I have learned Japanese for more than 1 year.
I don't think Japanese is very hard. Maybe some words in Japanese is same that in Chinese, so I think it's easy. I think Chinese is the hardest language and the second is Japanese. Ja, min na san, gannbate ne!^-^ |
2007-07-09, 10:50 | Link #906 | |
Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
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You know, I find it really pointless to type/learn the romanji version of Japanese. It's just... pointless, really. Just being able to speak and listen to a certain language is rather limiting, and it's really simple to enable winXP to type out Japanese characters, you know. |
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2007-07-09, 11:29 | Link #907 | |
Gregory House
IT Support
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2007-07-09, 23:55 | Link #909 | |
Junior Member
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I type romaji because here many people can't understand Japanese.....||= = みんなひらがながわかる?orz 私は始めでここに話しますから.... 確か、ローマ字は意味がない。。。。。 私の友達(日本語ができない人)、ときときローマ字を読む.....話すも、歌も。orz じゃ、ローマ字を輸入しません。 がんばってね。 |
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2007-07-10, 07:56 | Link #910 |
グ~…
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Pekoponsei
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Actually this is a learning Japanese topic, so I think it's better to write in Romaji so people with no experience at Japanese at least know what they are looking at. I would agree on writing with Japanese characters if this is a Japanese discussion thread, but it's not.
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2007-07-10, 11:30 | Link #911 | |
Dansa med oss
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Near Cincinnati, OH, but actually in Kentucky
Age: 36
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2007-07-11, 14:11 | Link #913 |
日本語を食べません!
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: San Francisco
Age: 42
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Those who are learning Japanese to read/write, should be off Roma-ji and onto kana as quickly as possible.
It depends on how you want to approach the thread -- for those who are dabbling in Japanese, roma-ji is perfectly fine and readable. For those who want to go more in depth...past 1st semester Japanese (once you pass 3-4 months of learning) chances are you won't be seeing any roma-ji at all, so might as well get used to it. I'd support using a very small amount of kan'ji, because you'll find comprehension rates all over the place. There will be some that only know fifty or so, and others who know 3,000. In that case, I'd rather cater to those who aren't as knowledgeable. |
2007-07-11, 14:21 | Link #914 | |
Evil Little Pixie
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This is true, however I think in the long run it's MUCH better to go with kana as soon as you can grasp them. I don't really like the thought of teaching completely in roomaji just because of the conjugations; what my sensei always did was teach completely in kana, but then would romanize whenever we were learning new conjugations (even then I found it unnecessary after a while though). I guess it just depends what program you're in whether you'll be seeing more roomaji or not, and I'm no expert, but I highly recommend learning kana and sticking with it once you've mastered roomaji. |
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2007-07-11, 14:33 | Link #915 | |
Dansa med oss
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Near Cincinnati, OH, but actually in Kentucky
Age: 36
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Of course, both of these tools require a basic grasp of the grammar and full knowledge of kana to be useful, so they're not for the beginning student. |
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2007-07-11, 14:46 | Link #916 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 67
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I tend to learn better if I don't have to keep converting from romaji to kana ... just learn the sounds for the symbols (like I did when learning to read in my native english) and later I'll grab chunks of characters and just "know" the word. Dabbling versus fluent is one reason -- also people are different types of learners, I just do better with immersion.
For kanji..... I have books that teach the kanji in non-traditional ways and such. But for reading manga, I've found it better to pick up a book that teaches kanji in the grade order that japanese kids learn it in. I'm FAR more likely to encounter those kanji in manga written for people under the age of 20/16/12/8. So that's been helpful. @risaa: "her sensei replied that it's easier to see how words are conjugated." ........ that's a TERRIBLE rationale when the phonetic changes are just as clear in kana. Yeesh. My son is applying to MIT -- that's good to know.
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2007-07-11, 15:22 | Link #917 |
Evil Little Pixie
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If you're interested in checking out the Yale book ahead of time then I recommend seeing if you can find it at your library - my local library had it, perhaps yours will as well? It looks like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Japa.../dp/0300001355 It was one of the first books I ever looked at when I started independently studying the language (even before taking classes), and I can tell you, I didn't make it five pages in. It was very confusing for me, but then again, at the time I had NO experience with the language at all. Maybe your son would have better luck with it (besides... I'm not MIT material!). Edit: lol... apparently some of the reviewers had *great* luck with it. |
2007-07-12, 15:40 | Link #918 |
Lost Member
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: On a mountain
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Lol, watching anime and reading mangas help....as you listen more and more while reading subs and such, you'll start to remember some basic words and sentences...while with manga, considering most are written in furigana, you are able to learn some kanji. Quite useful I say~
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2007-07-12, 22:36 | Link #919 | |
死神の血まみれ
Join Date: Feb 2007
Age: 32
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Furigana saves you from the intimidating Kanji. xD |
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hiragana |
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