 Return to the JAPANESE Archive | Forward to the Current JAPANESE Forum |
| tomoka | Thursday 30th of December 2004 03:32:50 PM |
| Japanese lesson - Japanese is written with a mixture of hiragana, katakana, kanji, romaji, etc As I believe the most important thing is to communicate, I make texts in Romaji(Roman letters). Im thinking about add the texts in Hiragana later. Please check this website, I'll update the lessons as possible as I can ;) http://www.geocities.jp/tomokajp2005/ These are the old version of my Japanese lessons: alphabet common expressions 1 common expressions 2 emotions and opinions conversation lesson1 ~introduction~ conversation lesson2 ~at a restaurant~ Ask questions hobby Japanese basic with a little bit grammar education when you fall in love enjoy learning ;) tomoka | |
| Duffie | Friday 31st of December 2004 02:22:49 AM |
| Wow - Thanks so very very much! ありがとう ございます | |
| Friday 31st of December 2004 03:26:26 PM | |
| - dou itashi mashite! (You're welcome) tomoka ;) | |
| tomoka | Friday 31st of December 2004 09:06:01 PM |
| you're welcome! - Dou itashi mashite! ;) (you're welcome) If you have any questions about the lessons, please post here ;) tomoka | |
| California_Wolf | Monday 03rd of January 2005 05:42:04 PM |
| - tomoka-sensei thank you for the welh of informaion you have on yor post please give us more is the alphabet you have pronounced the same as these http://www.genki-online.com/kyozai/hiragana.html how about family members i know onii-chan is big brother onee-chan is big sister (okasa) mother not shure what wold yo call little brother or little sister how abo father if im talking to a friend i call them tim-chan but if im talking to a senior at work i say linda-simpai if i am a manager and im talking to an employee i call them kohi right however what do i call my boss do i call him simpai aswell im sorry im just allover the place i promised myself i wouuldent go crazy bt im full of quuestions i promise ill probibly drive you nuts with questions but ill learn aswell thank you sensei | |
| tomoka | Monday 03rd of January 2005 07:53:49 PM |
| - Konnichiwa :) about your questions: little brother is 'otouto' little sister is 'imouto' mother is 'okaasan' father is 'otousan' you can call '-chan' for your friends, but for senior or not close friends, you'd better call them '-san'. Normally, '-chan' is used for kids or younger people, girlfriend or boyfriend. Senpai is rather used among students. If you want be polite, you just call them '-san' like yamada-san, tanaka-san. Normally, we use family name at work. To add '-san', you can show your politeness. Thank you for visiting my Japanese lessons ;) tomoka | |
| samip | Tuesday 04th of January 2005 02:18:00 AM |
| - Arigatou Tomoka-san, these lessons helped me a lot (especially the alphabet-lesson). I've also a few questions: 1.) What is the correct form of "thank you" ? Is it arigato, arigatou, arigatoo or what ? This is troubling me a bit :) 2.) If you are in a cafe, and you order a cup of coffee for example, do you say "Doomo" or "Arigatou" when you receive the coffee ? 3.) When you are introducing yourself, can you say "Sami-desu" to senior people ? 4.) When ending a letter or an email, what is a good word to use ? Something like the english word "Farewell", or "Best regards". Thank you again :) | |
| Psy | Tuesday 04th of January 2005 11:12:23 AM |
| - I'm not Tomoka-san, nor am I Japanese, nor am I a native speaker. So here goes nothing: 1) The correct form is actually ありがとう which, depending on how you romanize it, can be [i]arigato, arigatou [/i][u]and[/u] [i]arigatoo[/i]. Just as 東京 can be [i]tokyo[/i] and [i]toukyou[/i], and こんにちは can be [i]konnitiha, konnichiha, [/i]and[i] konnichiwa.[/i] There are several correct ways to spell Japanese in English, and the variety can get mind-bendingly confusing to those just starting out. This is one reason why it's a good idea to learn to read kana from the beginning. 2) I can't answer this one definitively, so it might be best to wait for tomoka-san to reply. But I'll try just for the heck of it: If you say it with sincerity, [i]doumo[/i] is more polite than [i]arigatou[/i], and to me seems proper for the situation. (but don't blame me if they throw the coffee in your face!) 3) In all but the most formal situations, this is fine. It's best to introduce yourself with either your full name or last name. Japanese people introduce themselves last-name-first, but we silly foreigners aren't expected to follow that custom. A formal way to introduce yourself is [i]**name** to moushimasu[/i], for example [i]Yamamoto Setsuko to moushimasu,[/i] "I am Setsuko Yamamoto." 4) By no means an exhaustive list, but I know [i]sousou,[/i] "with haste" and [i]keigu[/i], "sincerely yours." Any of that help? [i][b]*edit*[/b]Fixed some quotes and italics.[/i] | |
| tomoka | Thursday 06th of January 2005 04:31:23 PM |
| - Konnichiwa Sami-san, Psy-san :) Psy-san, thank you for the post! You would help Japanese lerners a lot! :D About Sami-san's questions: 1)Psy-san's explanation is correct. We have several ways to spell Japanese, and if you learnt Hiragana or Katakana at the same time, you wouldn't confuse. ありがとう= "a ri ga to u", so 'arigatou' is correct. However, when we pronounce arigatou, it may sound like arigatoo. When we pronounce "ou", it often sounds like "oo". 2)Psy-san said If you say it with sincerity, doumo is more polite than arigatou. Its a good suggestion. I think its good enough to say Doumo or arigatou with a smile at a restaurant. For your information: The most polite way is "Doumo arigatou gozaimasu", the second is "arigatou gozaimasu", the third is 'Doumo arigatou', and the last is 'Doumo' or 'arigatou'. 3)Psy-sans answer is PERFECT! 4)It depends how formal the letter or email is. For example, when we ask something to the person, we write Douzo yoroshiku onegai shimasu. in formal. In casual, we just say soredewa mata or matane (Its like see you soon). When we write sousou in the end of the letter, we have to start the letter zenryaku. Zenryaku and sousou are the set of the greeting, and the most polite way is to write with the set of haikei and keigu but this is only for the letters, not emails. If you have any further questions, please post again ;) tomoka | |
| samip | Friday 07th of January 2005 02:51:10 AM |
| - Konnichiwa tomoka-san and Psy-san Doumo Arigatou Gozaimasu ! Answering those questions helped me a lot. It's a shame that I cannot be taught japanese in my school, but fortunately I found this place :) Anyways, I have several questions again: 1.) What are "we", "our" and "us" in japanese ? What about "you", "your" and "yours" ? 2.) What are these words in japanese: What, When, Why, Where, How, Whose, Which and Who ? 3.) Should I learn hiragana and katakana as soon as possible, or should I wait until I know the basics ? 4.) Is "Neko wa Kuro" the correct way of saying "Cat is black" ? What about "I can speak finnish, so I can help you" , how is that in japanese ? Matane Tomoka-san ! | |
| California_Wolf | Friday 07th of January 2005 01:58:07 PM |
| - Samip you might want to check his link http://www.mni.ne.jp/~fishtail/Japanese%20lesson/Japanese%20basic%20with%20grammar.htm Sensei placeed that earlier at the beginning of this post but unfourtunatly some of your oher questions anrnt in there i belive from watching tomany animes we is (dont quote me) [wadii wadii] please dont blast me for spelling remember im still learning me and my brother always have a lot of fun when characters say that for some reason so we kinda learned that one now for my questions i have to go with samip where should i start should i memorize a whole bunch of words or is there a basic starting point should i learn he alphabetts or basic words thanks again sensei CW | |
| noxis | Friday 07th of January 2005 03:04:29 PM |
| - Konnichiwa Tomoka-sensei, Arigatou Gozaimasu--this information you post here is most helpful! I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions as well... Just recently it looks like I might be hired to a Japanese Resturaunt, and I am very intimidated! ^^; I'm an all english speaker, but would like to be prepared with some polite things to say in Japanese to greet the guests/to enjoy they're meal, etc... I have books that say various types of the above, they all seem different and confusing. I'm not exactly sure of the best phrases to use... I don't want to come across as rude to people my mistake of just greeting them wrong :\ (but I'm going to try my best !) What would be most important basic phrases or formalities I should use? (and so sorry for the long post ^^; ) Thank you~ | |
| tomoka | Friday 07th of January 2005 05:00:07 PM |
| - Konnichiwa minasan ;) (hello everyone!) Wolf-san, Im glad to know that you checked the whole lessons ;) Thank you for letting sami-san know the link :) I already wrote about some of them in the lessons though, I answer questions one by one today. 1.) What are "we", "our" and "us" in japanese ? What about "you", "your" and "yours" ? answer: we= watashitachi, our=watashitachi no, us=watashitachi ni you=anata, your=anata no, yours= anata no mono 2.) What are these words in japanese: What, When, Why, Where, How, Whose, Which and Who ? what= nani, when= itsu, why= naze, where= doko, how= ikani/donoyou ni, whose= dareno mono. Which= dochira, who= dare/donata 3.) Should I learn hiragana and katakana as soon as possible, or should I wait until I know the basics ? It depends on why you learn Japanese and how much time you have. Actually, its better to learn Hiragana and Katakana at the first stage. However, if you want to learn only conversation, you dont have to learn kana I think. It takes much time and you might lose the interest to learn Japanese if you have less opportunity to use it. It depends on you. Please think about whether you can enjoy learning one by one for a long time or not. 4.) Is "Neko wa Kuro" the correct way of saying "Cat is black" ? What about "I can speak finnish, so I can help you" , how is that in japanese ? Hai, sou desu.(yes, its correct) "Neko wa Kuro" = "Cat is black" Its better to say "Neko wa Kuro DESU" "I can speak finnish, so I can help you" = watashi wa finrando-go wo hanasemasu node anata wo tetsudau koto ga deki masu. Soredewa mata(See you soon) tomoka | |
| tomoka | Friday 07th of January 2005 08:39:27 PM |
| - Konnichiwa noxis-san :) It's nice to know that you work at a Japanese Resturaunt. You don't have to worry about speaking Japanese, your smile will make guests happy ;) Okay, I'll give you some easy Japanese words. at a restaurant: *welcome = irasshaimase *here you are = douzo *certainly = kashikomari mashita *enjoy your meal = goyukkuri douzo (In literaly, "enjoy your meal" is "oshokuji wo otanoshimi kudasai", but we just say "goyukkuri douzo", it means "please stay as long as you like".) *Please wait a moment = shou shou omachi kudasai *thank you very much = doumo arigatou gozai masu (this is the present tense, the past tense is "doumo arigatou gozai mashita") *yes, (sir), Right away = hai, tadaima I hope these words help you ;) ganbatte kudasai(take is easy) tomoka | |
| samip | Monday 10th of January 2005 03:55:48 AM |
| Konnichiwa minasan - Arigatou tomoka-sensei. I think I'll start studying Hiragana soon. I'm quite enthusiastic about learning japanese, so I'm most likely not giving up. | |
| tomoka | Monday 10th of January 2005 08:38:06 PM |
| Konnichiwa - Konnichiwa sami-san :) I let you know a website which you can learn how to write Hiragana :) http://www.kanjistep.com/en/online/hiraganasteps/ tanoshinde kudasai!(Have fun!) tomoka | |
| California_Wolf | Sunday 16th of January 2005 09:07:35 PM |
| - Ohiyo sensei we are droping down the list i cannot allow this hmmm what can i do i know ill ask qestions ::opens closet:: CRASH!!! ::picks out choice questions:: ::shoves rest of silly questions into closet:: ok what is doll festival and childrens day can we have list of household items and a few animals just to tide us over till the next set of lessons ahhh i asked youu about all those hing and i dident ask about son and daughter i have a litle boy do i call him (-chan) what is (-kun) for arrrg i better stop or ill overwhelm you probibly already did gomen nasai sensei CW | |
| Andhera | Monday 17th of January 2005 06:49:21 AM |
| - Arigatou gozaimasu, Tomoka-sensei. Your lessons were very clear and easy to understand. I just started learning japanese (in an attempt to understand un-subbed Anime) but the language is very fascinating and I think I'll actually continue learning it beyond the conversational stage. In that case, which of the three scripts would I learn to write first. Should I expose myself to more writing in the beginning or speak and listen more? What would you suggest? Thank you once more for the simple tutorials. Some of the beginners tutorials out there are an effort to dechipher and understand, so this was a welcome relief. And CW-san, I can attempt answering your questions. Of course, I'm not sure how valid my information is, for I too, am still learning. Doll festival I've never heard of, but Childrens' day is a national holiday in celebration of children. Families put out flags outside their house for the father and every son in the family. (I remember something about armor, but am not sure. So i'll leave it out). Animals? Well, there is a section in the Translation part of phrasebase. Neko and inu are the two that stick with me. ^__^ But the other's I need to look up constantly. Son - Mus(u)ko Daughter - Musumei I might have spelt it wrong, excuse me. Yes, you can call a little boy -chan. Even peers or older boys can be called -chan if you're very close with them. Many people use -chan for boys with cute nicknames. Like, a Yamato-san can be called Yama-chan by people younger than him who are close to him. Similarly, Yuuri-kun can becom Yuu-chan. It also depends on how the person in question takes it. Some boys might never want to be called -chan. -kun is for boys your age or younger. As far as I know, girls can not be called -kun, no matter how close you are with them. However, -kun is the informal suffix for a male. So, it can be used with boys older than yourself if they permit it. Of course, one would not call elders or seniors -chan and -kun as far as my knowledge goes. Like I don't think a 16 year old can call a 37 yr old -chan. I could be wrong though. I hope that helped, and I'm sorry for any mistakes. Sousou Andhera | |
| tomoka | Monday 17th of January 2005 02:06:37 PM |
| - Konnichiwa California_Wolf-san :) Thank you for the constant participation here ;) Konnichiwa Andhera-san, Your explanation was very good! Thank you for answering some of the questions! okay, as Andhera-san answered some questions, now I'll explain the rest of them for Wolf-san :) doll festival = hina matsuri (If you mean the Girls' Festival on March 3...) childrens day = kodomo no hi...(It's on May 5) son = musuko daughter = musume I'm adding Phrases on phrasebase. It takes some more time to finish all of them though please check 'Phrases' section. You can see even Japanese script there ;) about -chan: Even the person is older than you, we call each other '-chan' between boyfriends and girlfriends. It depends on the person, but among very close friends, we call each other '-chan'. I don't care when my younger friends call me 'tomo-chan' :) It sounds friendly, but be careful, only in the case we like the person. :D tomoka | |
| California_Wolf | Monday 17th of January 2005 10:12:33 PM |
| - Konnichiwa Tomoka-sensei Konnichiwa Andhera-Sempai out of curiosity why would you drop the last few letters off your name for ease of speach or just because on a side note Andhera i got those two events from anime me and my brother are big anime buffs as well and are learning japanese out of pure facination of the culture and to enjoy the animes better lol but there are referances in a couple shows but inpartiularly in a music video "the baka song" ranma 1/2 CW | |
| Andhera | Tuesday 18th of January 2005 05:09:30 AM |
| - Konichiwa Sensei, CW-san Nya~ Gomen, CW-san, I thought you were asking what the two events were in life, as opposed to the words. (I feel like a twit XD) Mm, the last few letters of the name are dorpped to make nicknames. LIke in the western world, many Samanthas become just Sams. Same with Alexandra and Alex and Nikita and Nikki. It's common in every language to depreive a nickname from the actual name itself. ^__^ To CW-san; Hai, I watch tonnes of anime as well. I saw Children's Day in one of the Tennis no Oujisama fillers. (Wonderful series<33) It nice to seem someone with common interest and goals. (&glomps j00) To Tomoka-sensei; Are there any particular tutorials we should go through? Like the few basic mandatory things one must know? (Besides yours of course ^^) I did the one at JOL, and it was quite helpful. So, I was wondering if there was a particular place to start for building a strong foundation. That is all for now. Jyanne~ | |
| tomoka | Tuesday 18th of January 2005 08:53:44 AM |
| - Konnichiwa, yes, Andhera-san is right. The last few letters of the name are dorpped to make nicknames. For example: If his name is "Yamada Takayuki"('Yamada' is his family name and 'Takayuki' is his first name.) If Yamada-san is older than you, We call them "Yama-san" or "Taka-san" If Yamada-san is younger than you, We call them "Yama-chan" or "Taka-chan" This way is used at office often. To call their family name like this at office shows their friendliness. It's a casual way so it's better not to use if you don't know the person much. tomoka | |
| California_Wolf | Tuesday 18th of January 2005 04:00:07 PM |
| - Konnichiwa Tomoka-sensei Konnichiwa Andhera-Sempai Andhera-Sempai you were correct in yor thought i was asking about the real events no need for appoligies and also i find it very intriging to meet a female anime fan i have only met one other unless its hidden by most ladies in wich i dont undersand why animes are butiful and captivaing i cant get enough of them strangly enough he one that got me intrested and still has a special place in my heart is tenchi i dont understand but i think that the reason that most people are turned away by anime is that any ttime they hear the word hey automaicly think of hentai its a bum wrap if you ask me im not gonna say i have not seen the hentai (even some of those hat are classified as such have captivating sttorylines) but if people would forget what they have seen and find a good story like farfnar en the azure they would see what anime is truly about ok nuf about that for now i dought that conversaion is gonna end any time soon so now for questions you keep saying family name so in the instance of to of the same family wold you then call them by there first name wold yo use the titles and still the family name in the situaion of talking to an older and younger sibling ie Tomoka-sensei Tomoka-chan titles of corse refering to diffrent people how about a list of vehicles gomen i told you i ask a lot of questions but oddly enough i learn best this way well talk to you all later CW | |
| tomoka | Wednesday 19th of January 2005 07:43:30 AM |
| - Konnichiwa CW-san :) among family, well it depends on the family though, normally the parents call their kid's name like Takayuki, Taka, or when their child is very young, they would call him 'Taka-chan', or 'Taka-kun'.('-kun' is only used for boys) about the title: Tomoka is my first name. Assuming my family name is 'Ono', normally students would call me 'Ono-sensei'. Because it's formal, polite way to call our "family name". When teachers and students became friendly, students may call their teacher's first name like 'Tomoka-sensei'. In kindergarten, kids often call their teacher's first name, but when they get old, they know the good manners and become calling their teacher's family name. Foreign students often call our first name like 'Tomoka-sensei', it sounds friendly so we don't care whether they use the first name or family name :) To call teachers as 'sensei' shows your respect, and to call the person like '-chan' shows your affection or friednliness. They are totally different so you can't call your teacher '-chan' if you are not friends. Sometimes it might sounds over-familiar to us. You can always say '-san' to elder people and younger people. To say '-san' is the common way. tomoka | |
| Andhera | Wednesday 19th of January 2005 07:54:32 AM |
| - Cw-san, I am surprised. Maybe I know a lot of fellow female fans because I'm a shonen-ai fangirl. But that doesn't stop me from knowing males who are equally into anime. www.gaiaonline.com is a great place to meet anime watchers. A nice friendly environment. ^__^ Ano... Tomoka-sensei, when it says that your are a language exhange partner, does that meant you teach the language to students like us? For I would love to learn from you. I understand everything you explain clearly, and it makes the learning process smoother and shorter. If you are taking on students, please consider me. I would be honored. Doumo Arigatou Gozaimasu. I must be off now. Sureshimasu. Andhera | |
| tomoka | Wednesday 19th of January 2005 08:22:14 AM |
| - Konnichiwa Andhera-san :) Thank you for asking me about taking Japanese class :) I had taught Japanese to some people in private, however, as for now, I'v been busy for doing the other things. (I'm adding Japanese Phrases to all phrase on this website and it'll take me for a couple months.) and also I'm working at office.) I've also been learning 'ikebana'(Japanese flower arrangement) to get a teaching licence :) I come here and help Japanese learners as possible as I can but I'm afraid I don't have much time to give private lessons for a while. Gomen nasai(I'm sorry) You made me happy to ask it ;) doumo arigatou gozaimasu! (Thank you very much) tomoka :D | |
| Andhera | Wednesday 19th of January 2005 08:40:31 AM |
| - Iie, daijoubu desu. If at anytime you decide to take on students again, please remember me. :) Till then I will continue with the tutorials and asking questions. I'm glad to hear you're working on filling in the Phrases on the site. They are a good reference for beginners. Only, most of the database is still to be translated. It gives us all something to look forward to. | |
| tomoka | Wednesday 19th of January 2005 10:51:19 AM |
| - Hai, ganbarimasu! (Yes, I'll do my best!) It's hard work to translate plenty of phrase though I'll do my best ;) tomoka | |
| California_Wolf | Friday 21st of January 2005 04:10:54 AM |
| - me too sensei ill love you forever i was trying not tto make yo feel overwelmed and run away thats why i dident ask | |
| tomoka | Friday 21st of January 2005 07:01:03 AM |
| - CW-san, Yasashii kotoba wo arigatou! (It's nice of you to say so ;)) tomoka | |
| California_Wolf | Friday 21st of January 2005 07:32:35 AM |
| - Andhera-simpai where do yo hang out in gaiaonline | |
| Andhera | Friday 21st of January 2005 07:38:09 AM |
| - Konichiwa minna-san! Ano, Sensei, in "Yasashii kotoba wo arigatou", "arigatou" is "thank you" but in your translation, there is no thank you. Why? What is the literal translation of the sentence? Eto.. CW-san, I usually hang out in my guilds. But you can ocasionally find me in the Anime discussions. Fell free to PM me. I am Andhera there as well. | |
| tomoka | Friday 21st of January 2005 08:10:42 AM |
| - Andhera-san, It's a good question :D If I translate the sentence literally, It's nice of you to say so = sou itte kureru no wa anata no yasashisa desu However, we never say like that. The Japanese sentence "yasashii kotoba wo arigatou" express "you're such a nice person to say so". In the sentence, the adjective "yasashii" suggests that "the person" is nice(yasashii), so I wrote "it's nice of you." This is a natural Japanese but I'm afraid it's difficult for non-Japanese... surely, I could say like: Thank you for the nice words! (yasashii kotoba wo arigatou) well, I like the English "It's nice of you~" ;) any further questions? :) tomoka | |
| California_Wolf | Friday 21st of January 2005 08:36:37 AM |
| - tomoko-sensei me and my brother were discussing the pronounciation of we in most instances in the animes that we watched the it was prononced "wadii wadii" can you explain this in your previous post you said we is [quote][i]Originally posted by tomoka[/i] What are "we", "our" and "us" in japanese ? What about "you", "your" and "yours" ? answer: we= watashitachi, our=watashitachi no, us=watashitachi ni you=anata, your=anata no, yours= anata no mono [/quote] Andhera-simpai your input is always welcome | |
| California_Wolf | Saturday 22nd of January 2005 01:34:54 AM |
| - ::sobbing:: Tomoka-sensei Andhera-Sempai you dont want to talk to me no more ::runs to little box and fells sorry for himself:: lol JK but i cant let our post get to far down the list we wont be able to find it i check almos every 3 to six hours im a litttle obsessed i think nah not really ii just really want to learn this talk to you later CW | |
| Saisoku | Saturday 22nd of January 2005 01:54:38 AM |
| - Hello everyone, I am new to this forum but I have been keeping an eye on this topic for a little while now and I love it. I have been studying Japanese for almost a year now and I belive I am on a slightly higher level than beginner, but not by much. CW I too watch a fair amount of anime and as far as your question goes, it reminds me of several movies where the fan subs are slightly off. Do you think the subtitles in that particular movie could be inaccurate? | |
| Andhera | Saturday 22nd of January 2005 05:18:02 AM |
| - Ohayou Gozaimasu Saisoku-san. Yoroshiku. (Pulls CW-san out of the box) I check back here frequently too, but my internet was being angsty ^^ Like Saisoku-san said, the fan subs could be a little off. Or, not everything on the fansubs is a literal translation. Sometimes, to make it understandable in english, they have to use completely different words to portray the meaning. Or, maybe Wadii (Wadii) was the name of the person. In anime many people refer to themselves in third person. So, if I were an anime character, it would not be abnormal for me to say "Andhera wa ureshii!" (Andhera is happy/I am happy) ...Of course, I could be completely off with that last one. ^__^ | |
| California_Wolf | Saturday 22nd of January 2005 06:03:41 AM |
| - Andhera-simpai Saisoku-simpai thats the meat of me and my brothers debate we both agree to the idea that it maby a litle off how ever the same term was used in another anime this is why i am slighly confused this is also one of the reasons we are trying to learn to speak and understand japanese for a little idea of what i am talking about he shows tthat i am talking about is fafner en azure and another instance i know of for sure is beserk now oddly enough fafner the festums refered tto them selves as a collective in the third person which i could see a possible missunderstanding in watashitachi wa where i could see ha slightly sounding lik wadii wadii bu there is to many extra syllables plus the words after the wa would almost have to be a dii hence making the missunderstanding almost to difficult Saisoku-simpai on a side note i am also a computer tech thogh a little out of date im trying to get back in but you know how muuch can pass in a year is like im learning everyhing all over again for instance when did amd become the best lol but hey i was always biast towards he one that never did me wrong and amd turned around and snuk up out of the blue figures cantt say i dident see it comming though thanks again CW | |
| tomoka | Saturday 22nd of January 2005 09:18:52 AM |
| - Youkoso(welcome), saisoku-san. The nickname 'Saisoku' makes me worried because 'saisoku' means 'hurry (something) up' :D ...j/k... ;) or 'saisoku' means 'fastest'? saisoku = さいそく = 催促 = huryy (something) up saisoku = さいそく = 最速 = fastest saisoku = さいそく = 細則 = detailed rules They are all 'saisoku' but in the different Kanji :) CW-san, gomennasai!(I'm sorry). I had to go out yesterday and I didn't have much time... about your question, I think "wadii wadii" is "ware ware"(we) sometimes on anime or manga, they talk in a funny way like twisting the words. as far as I know...here is some example: wade wade = ware ware = we/us uchi = watashi = i/me uchi ra = watashi tachi = we/us washi = i/me washi ra = we/us wate = i/me wate ra = we/us oira = i/me oira tachi = we/us These are not standard Japanese but they talk with accent, sonant or whatever they like in anime or manga. tomoka | |
| California_Wolf | Saturday 22nd of January 2005 09:26:20 AM |
| - ty so much for the explaination sensei dident think about the idea of an accent btt it is verry possible that it was ware ware and we herd wadii wadii ware ware makes a lot of sence doumo arigatou gozaimasu! CW | |
| makifu | Saturday 22nd of January 2005 11:31:38 AM |
| Whoa - Ok, so I've been real busy lately trying to learn too many things outside of school.... But I think after reading this all and being so excited about it I have a quick interest in trying to learn at least a basic competency in it.... So, I guess you've converted another person... I'm gonna study all that stuff ya posted. A lot of the basics I already know which is really nice. But I don't know anything about the characters because I've never studied it formally, only had to learn a few words to teach a martial arts class.... But this is great! Thanks so much for doing all of this. Doumo Arigatou gozaimasu Soredawa mata | |
| tomoka | Saturday 22nd of January 2005 12:58:14 PM |
| - Konnichiwa makifu-san :) Thank you for the post! a martial arts class sounds nice! Some of my foreign friends take the lessons of martial arts and they often asked me about the meanings of Japanese words like "osu!" or "rei!" :D tomoka | |
| California_Wolf | Saturday 22nd of January 2005 09:04:12 PM |
| - Tomoka-sensei Andhera-sempai Saisoku-simpai ok everyone i gave you all a break now i gotta pull out some more qestions ready for vocabulary how abot a list of office supplies and how would you ask for a bathroom how about a resturant hail a taxi ask his fare ok i think ill stop on that one ohh no i guess we need to do numbers soon talk to you all later CW | |
| Saisoku | Saturday 22nd of January 2005 09:18:38 PM |
| - Konnichiwa Tomoka-sensei Andhera-san Saisoku-san Tomoka-san, you are right when my nickname means fastest...Gomenasai, I am another one of those car guys ^_^. CW-san, as far as the computer stuff is concerned, I have been a big fan of the AMD cpu architecture. If you take a look at the benchmarks between the intel and amd processors you maybe surprised in what you find. To be honest I think it all boils down to the whole Microsux syndrome, meaning Some companies produce things the people need (AMD) and others produce things that they feel people want (Microsoft, Intel). Back to the fun stuff... The only phrase I know in you list is Doko wa Otearai desu ka? Which is, Where is the restroom? You have to know the essentials ;) | |
| Andhera | Saturday 22nd of January 2005 10:42:56 PM |
| - Konnichiwa minna-san~ Sensei, looking at your list, adding tachi to a word meaning 'I' makes it plural. So, since 'ore' is 'I', then is 'ore-tachi' us/we as well? CW-san, everytime I've heard "Where is the washroom?", the character always says "Toilet wa doko (iru)?" Of course, from the sound of it, it seems very informal, and I'd go with what Saisoku-san said. As for lists of things, they are available in the translation section. Why don't you check there, since tomoka-sensei is working hard to update those. It'll probably save her much work. ^^ As for numbers, I know a few... 1. Ichi 2. Ni 3. San 4. Shi 5. Go 6. Roku 16. Juu-roku 17. Juu-nana. Please excuse the random jump from 6 to 17. (I remember 16 & 17 from HikaGo. Sai says it many times. ^^) It might be safe to assume 7 = Nana, but I'm not sure. Those are the ones I know by heart. I'd doo a google search, to find up till at least ten, but I must be off now. Exams are on the horizon. Matta ne~ (P.S. Is it Sempai, ot Senpai. It sounds like senpai, but I've seen both.) P.p.s. Wai~ Watashi-tachi wa ... on the first page! (Haha, I can't complete that sentence. But i just had to type it out for the triple 'wa' sound. ^^ Help finish it, please?) We're second last (at least so far) under the 10 most viewed~ | |
| Saisoku | Saturday 22nd of January 2005 11:26:32 PM |
| - You are absolutely right Andhera-san when it comes to the number. I have never seen or heard oretachi before. That doen't mean it isn't right though. As for the numbers you are correct with 7 being Nana;however, 7 can also be Shichi depending on what you are talking about. 1-ichi 2-ni 3-san 4-shi-yon 5-go 6-roku 7-nana-shichi 8-hachi 9-ku-kyu 10-ju now from then all the way to 100 (hyaku) is simple math. 11-Juuichi 12-juuni etc 20-niju 21-nijuuichi etc As far as the Sempai/senpai thing is ...I always thought it was senpai. Ja ne! | |
| makoto | Sunday 23rd of January 2005 01:59:44 AM |
| - konnichiwa minnasan. C_W san , here there are some dictionaries on line that can be useful to improve vocabulary: http://spencer.blackmarket.net/dic_word_search.asp http://www.freedict.com/onldict/jap.html Andhera-san, you are doing well!! you know about numbers. now you can try to make a very basic sentence with numbers: For example = tatoeba: (subject)wa (age) sai desu. watashiwa sanjuuni sai desu. try to practice this structure changing the subject and age. Saisoku, welcome and thank you for helping with numbers. ja mata, | |
| Andhera | Sunday 23rd of January 2005 03:42:12 AM |
| - Wai~ Arigatou Makoto-san. I've been looking for good dictionaries to enhance my vocabulary. I have been using the second link for a while now, so the first one is a nice addition. Doomo Arigatou. Atashi wa juuroku sai desu. Ne, senpai-tachi, what is the sentence structure for "I have ___ number of (noun)." Also, while saying numbers, say it were 67, would the japanese translation be 6-10-7 as in rokujuunana/rokujuushichi or 6-7 rokunana/rokushichi. Looking at Makoto-san's sentence, I'm opting for the former style, but I'd like to confirm. Arigatou, ne. | |
| Saisoku | Sunday 23rd of January 2005 05:13:13 AM |
| - I'm sorry but I cannot help you with your sentence, but I can help with your number question. I hate not knowing things so I am eagerly waiting Makoto or Tomoka-san's reply. And you are correct by saying the literal translation for 67 would be 6-10-7, or rokujuunana. | |
| makoto | Sunday 23rd of January 2005 06:55:18 AM |
| - konnichiwa Saisokusan, Andherasan.I'm a student like you are, so I don't know if I can explain well: 1) about numbers: In Japanese language , the numbers structure is similar to English or Spanish. look: thir-ty five: 3 Thir (3)-- ty ( 10, ten) five (5) for-ty eight: 4 for (4)-- ty ( 10, ten) eight (8) In Japanese it's the same: san-juu-go: 3 san (3)-- juu ( 10, juu) go (5) yon-juu-hachi: 4 yon (4)-- juu ( 10, juu) hachi (8) 2) about I have (number) of (noun): It's too hard for me to give you an explanation about it. And I'm sure I'd make many mistakes. I'm afraid to give you an answer. I'm sorry. ja mata, Makoto | |
| Andhera | Sunday 23rd of January 2005 08:26:47 AM |
| - Arigatou futari-san. I'm a little clearer on numbers now. As Makoto-san suggested, I'll try to have a sentence structured '(subject) wa (age) sai desu' in all my posts. if I go wrong somewhere, please correct me. And, Ore-tachi is 'us'. ^^ I heard it in an episode I just watched. Ore-tachi no sensei wa nijuugo sai desu. (In no way affiliated to Tomoka-sensei ^^; ) Sumimasen is excuse me, ne. So, then what is Sureshimasu. The word is stuck in my head, but I can't remember off hand. Tasukete kudasai. Doomo arigatou. matta ne~ | |
| makoto | Monday 24th of January 2005 12:11:05 AM |
| - well, I think It'd be better talk about "counting" here. I add a listing of suffix added to numbers: nin: persons. hiki: fishes,insects. hon: elongated things. dai: machines. mai:flat things. satsu: books. hai: objects for drinking. mei: also for persons. wa: birds seki: ships. ko:small things like fruits. soku: pair things. Makoto | |
| Andhera | Monday 24th of January 2005 12:48:13 AM |
| - So, like the sentence "17 people are watching." would be as follows? juunana-mei ga miteiru. juushichi-nin wa miteiru. Is that right? And, what is the difference between ga and wa? | |
| makoto | Monday 24th of January 2005 05:10:42 AM |
| - hi, Andherasan. the sentence struture is this: 1)(subject)wa (number + suffix) (verb) hito wa juuroku-nin mite iru. hito ga juuroku-nin mite iru. 16 people are watching. juurokunin only means 16 (refering to humans). Besides, you must to add "16 of what" you are talking about ( doctors, teachers, brothers, thieves....). 2) difference "ga" Vs "wa". uffffff... very hard to explain... There's no rule fix ( no maths). The conversation situation and context is important to choose "ga" or "wa". If you talked about it before or It's something known by speakers the particle is "wa". In contary case is "ga". Makoto | |
| tomoka | Monday 24th of January 2005 12:00:26 PM |
| - Konnichiwa mina-san!(Hello everyone) It's nice to see you all help each other ;) It seems like some of questions were already settled. GOOD JOB, EVERYONE! Especially, makoto-san. You help Japanese learners a lot! I tried to put a post on this forum last night but I erased all of them by mistake :S It was too depressing to re-write them for me *sigh* Okay, as makoto-san worked hard here, I only add some explanations ;) Where is the bathroom? = Otearai wa doko desu ka? > formal Toire wa doko desu ka? > normal Toire wa doko? > casual About asking questions, please check the Japanese lesson4 (ask questions) Japanese lesson4 ore means I/me, which is used only by men, and atashi also means I/me but its used only by women. Both words are used only in casual situation, when talk to friends or family. About I have ~ number of (noun) Makoto-san added a list of counting :) arigatou gozaimasu!! Here is a example, when you actually use the words. I have three Japanese books. Watashi wa nihongo no hon wo san-satsu motte imasu. I need two pencils. Watashi wa enpitsu ga ni-hon hitsuyou desu. Could you send me some pictures of you? Shashin wo nan-mai ka okutte kuremasu ka? Also we have another way of counting general objects. (Its only from 1 to 10) 1 = hitotsu 2 = futatsu 3 = mittsu 4 = yottsu 5 = itsutsu 6 = muttsu 7 =nanatsu 8 = yattsu 9 = kokonotsu 10 = too Wed like to have one more room. (heya ga mou hitotsu hoshii.) She ate up the cakes. ( so, there is no cake here.) (kanojho wa okashi wo hitotsu nokorazu tabete shimatta.) hitotsu = one nokorazu = nokotte inai = to the last His son is 8 years old. (kare no musuko wa yattsu desu.) (kare no musuko wa hassai desu.) Id like to have two hamburgers and a coke. (hanbaagaa wo futatsu to koora wo hitotsu kudasai.) About shitsurei shimasu, It means Excuse me, Id better get going etc For example: ( at someones home or at a party ) Its late. Id better get going. (mou osoi node, soro soro shitsurei shimasu.) ( when you enter your teachers office ) Shitsurei shimasu. (Excuse me, sir. May I come in?) ( when youd like to talk to your boss while hes busy ) Shitsurei shimasu, ima yoroshii desu ka? (Im sorry to bother you, can I talk to you a few minutes?) Ive got to go now! Soredewa shitsurei shimasu! (Now, I leave here) Tomoka :D | |
| tomoka | Monday 24th of January 2005 03:49:02 PM |
| - To the hard workers! Since there are some enthusiastic learners here, :D I let you know some websites which can learn Japanese when you have time :) http://japanese.about.com/ This is a good site but you might be burned-out to learn such a plenty of contents :D I think only hard workers should go to this website*lol* http://www.geocities.com/jay3242000/mypage.html This is a very good site to learn basic Japanese ;) simple and clear http://www.nhk.or.jp/lesson/ This is for advanced Japanese learners though, why dont you try? (you need a real player I think) http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/stream/ click WMA or REAL, you can listen and watch Japanese news ;) I'm not sure whether I can add direct link to them or not, so when you go to the site, just copy the URL and paste it on the adress bar. ganbatte kudasai!(Do your best!) tomoka | |
| Samip | Monday 24th of January 2005 07:11:59 PM |
| - Konnichiwa tomoka-sensei. I studied some Katakana, and now I'm able to recognize all the 46 signs. I'm just wondering, should I learn the rest of them (kya, kyu, kyo and so on), or start study Hiragana ? :) Sami | |
| Monday 24th of January 2005 07:46:43 PM | |
| - Konnichiwa sami-san コンニチワ サミー サン It's great that you memorized Katakana so soon! Keep it up and start to learn Hiragana :) You can memorize such as kya kyu kyo like this: kya = ki（キ） + ya（ヤ）= キャ kyu = ki（キ） + yu（ユ）= キュ kyo = ki（キ） + yo（ヨ）= キョ so I think you'd better start to learn Hiragana. ganbatte kudasai!(please stand it out!) tomoka | |
| tomoka | Monday 24th of January 2005 07:51:39 PM |
| - Konnichiwa sami-san コンニチワ サミー サン It's great that you memorized Katakana so soon! Keep it up and start to learn Hiragana You can memorize such as kya kyu kyo like this: kya = ki（キ） + ya（ヤ）= キャ kyu = ki（キ） + yu（ユ）= キュ kyo = ki（キ） + yo（ヨ）= キョ so I think you'd better start to learn Hiragana. ganbatte kudasai!(please stand it out!) tomoka | |
| tylehu | Tuesday 25th of January 2005 01:17:44 AM |
| Sugoi! Arigato! - I just want to thank you all for the great site. It has really helped a lot! I just want to know, how did all of you get started learning Japanese? Are there any sites that I should go to? Any info would be appreciated! Arigato! | |
| IwishIwasjapaneseJoelle | Tuesday 25th of January 2005 05:32:04 AM |
| Hi. - Hi. I'm Joelle. I am REALLY interested in learning Japanese. I am moveing there when I turn 15. I know, some basics, but I still need lots of help. (I'm looking to learn Romaji) Arigoto! -Joelle C. L. P. | |
| tomoka | Tuesday 25th of January 2005 08:52:13 AM |
| - Konnichiwa tylehu-san(Hello, tylehu) maybe this website help you: http://japanese.about.com/ Konnichiwa joelle-chan, we often call '-chan' to younger people, especially for girls :) Your name is so lovely! You can write your name like this in Japanese Katakana: ジョエル (in romaji:jho e ru) Have fun to learn Japanese! ;) tomoka | |
| makoto | Wednesday 26th of January 2005 03:45:06 PM |
| - どうも ありがとう、 ともかさん！！ Your examples and explanations are very useful. You know how to teach very well. Well, I have a question about counting... the struture in sentecence in which counting subject and object like this: "three cats are eating four fishes". dewa mata, Makoto | |
| tomoka | Wednesday 26th of January 2005 04:14:15 PM |
| - Konnichiwa makoto-san, "three cats are eating four fishes" = san-biki no neko ga yon-hiki no sakana wo tabete imasu. fish or cat counts like 'hiki/biki/piki' 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (of animals) = ip-piki ni-hiki san-biki yon-hiki go-hiki rop-piki nana-hiki hap-piki kyuu-hiki jhup-piki wow it's trouble to memorize! well, but if you memorize the rule, the rest is easy. 1 = ichi >> piki, so 11 = jhuu ip-piki, 21 = nijhuu ip-piki 2 = ni >> hiki, so 12 = jhuu ni-hiki, 22 = nijhuu ni-hiki 3 = san >> biki, so 13 = jhuu san-biki, 23 = nijhuu san-biki two girls are asking for a date to a cool guy. = futari no onnanoko ga (hitori no) kakkoii dansei ni deeto wo moushikonde imasu :D The structure is: subject : '~' no (something/someone) ga obect : '~' no (somthing/someone) wo two girls = 'futari' no (onnanoko) ga a cool guy = 'hitori' no (dansei) wo soredewa mata ;) tomoka | |
| makoto | Wednesday 26th of January 2005 05:27:14 PM |
| - wakarimashita, Tomoka sensei. doomo arigatou gozaimasu. then, are right both structures? juurokunin no hito ga imasu" hito ga juurokunin imasu" makoto | |
| Aerahs | Wednesday 26th of January 2005 07:54:44 PM |
| Hello - Konichiwa everyone:) I just want to congratulate the work that you're doing here, I think it's very good indeed. I think Japan still hasn't lost the traditional magic, and for that it must be a wonderful country to visit. Maybe we could also talk about it's culture. I'm a big anime fan and I'd love to be able to understand it without subtitles. I have some questions: Anata is polite, but anta is rude(?) When to use "ga" or "wa"? Matane! | |
| tomoka | Thursday 27th of January 2005 04:57:00 PM |
| - Konnichiwa makoto-san, sou desu!(that's right) you can use the both ways. The point is this: Q1: how many poeple are there? A1: juuroku-nin no hito ga imasu. Q2: what are there? A2: hito ga juurokunin imasu. Konnichiwa Aerahs-san :) hai(yes), "anata"(you) is polite but "anta"(you) or "omae"(you) is rude. "anta" or "omae" sounds like looking down on others. If you say 'anta/omae dare?' to others, it sounds 'who are you?', if you'd like to say 'who is it?', you must to say 'donata desu ka? or 'anata wa dare desu ka?' ga is a subject marker. It marks the new subject of a sentence or the person doing the action. Q: dare ga imasu ka?(who is there?) A: makoto-san ga imasu.(There is makoto.) wa is a topic marker as for old information. Q: anata wa ima nani wo shite imasu ka? (what are you doing now?) A: watashi wa ryouri wo shite imasu.(I'm cooking now.) tomoka | |
| Samip | Friday 28th of January 2005 01:14:29 AM |
| - Konnichiwa! When do I have to use Hiragana, and when do I have to use Katakana ? Also, is Kanji mixed with Kana in casual writing? Let's say: "My name is Sami, and I live in finland" How would you type that with kana(+kanji) ? Sami | |
| youiscrazygurl | Friday 28th of January 2005 10:33:44 AM |
| - Konnichiwa! I'm Elana! I'm new here and am trying to speak and write Japanese. ^_^ Tomoka, what is my name in Japanese? I would like to learn how to write it so I can incorporate it into my artwork. ^_^ I listen mainly to Japanese music so I am used to the pronunciations now. Learning to understand it has proven to be a somewhat difficult task, although English is said to be one of the hardest languages to learn. Lol! I've seen many sites with basic Japanese language tutorials, yet most of them have no examples of written text. :( I'm glad that everyone here seems to be helpful to newcomers though. :P | |
| tomoka | Friday 28th of January 2005 12:16:16 PM |
| - Konnichiwa sami-san Katakana is used when writing down foreign names, places, or words of foreign origin. "My name is Sami, and I live in finland" 私の名前は、サミです。フィンランドに住んでいます。 in this sentence, 'Sami' and 'finland' are foreign name and country so you write them in katakana. It is said that there are about 2,500 kanji for dairy use. You can write 私, 名前, or 住む in hiragana though, as they are common kanji in Japan, we write it in this way. The good point of mixing kanji and kana is we can understand easily what you write. for example, if you write about you only in hiragana: わたしのなまえはさみです。ふぃんらんどにすんでいます。 It's a bit difficult to understand what you say, because we don't know which word is subject or so. This sentence is short so we could understand, but if it's long, it's maybe trouble to understand soon for Japanese what you said. youkoso Elana-san, I think your name is エラナ in katakana This is a writing tutorial site: http://members.aol.com/writejapan/ I hope this is helpful for you. tomoka | |
| Saisoku | Saturday 29th of January 2005 09:23:52 PM |
| - konnichiwa minna-san! Sorry I have been away for so long (work has been real crazy). I wish I didn't miss so much time on here, you guys went over alot of material. | |
| tomoka | Sunday 30th of January 2005 07:37:28 PM |
| - Konnichiwa saisoku-san! okaeri nasai!(welcome back) tomoka ;) | |
| freistiler | Monday 31st of January 2005 04:10:24 PM |
| sugei ze!! - konnichiwa tomoka-san, gokigen wa ikaga desu ka? Watashiwa toruko-jin desu, gakusei desu. Watashiwa nihongo wo benkyo-chuu desu. Nihongo ga daisuki yo! I'd like to improve my Japanese here and as far as I can see, you're trying to help everyone whose interested in Japanese! I appreciate that. I'll join you up here and ask my questions when I have any. Karada ni kiwotsuke te, Dewa mata frei | |
| tomoka | Monday 31st of January 2005 04:37:53 PM |
| - konnichiwa freistiler! youkoso!(welcome!) your japanese is very good! sono choushi de ganbatte!(keep it up!) soredewa mata(talk to you soon) tomoka | |
| freistiler | Thursday 03rd of February 2005 03:22:19 AM |
| - doomo arigatou gozaimasu,, I'll be catching you up in other posts, matane! frei | |
| makoto | Saturday 05th of February 2005 08:27:26 AM |
| Practicing Lesson 5: hobbies - Konnichiwa, minnasan! about my hobbies... Watashi no shumi wa supotsu wo suru koto desu. watashi wa tenisu ya sakka ya fuuteringu suru kotoga suki desu. watashi wa ryori suru no mo suki desu. "Paerya" ga dekimasu. watashi wa orenji ga suki desu. watashi no ken ni takusan orenji arimasu kara, takusan orenji wo tabemasu. watashi wa utau no ga suki desu. Demo shawaa no shita de shika utaimasu. watashi wa Pizzicato five ongaku wo kiki no ga suki desu. watashi no shumi wa rekishi no hon wo yomu koto desu. jaa mata, Makoto | |
| tomoka | Saturday 05th of February 2005 05:59:33 PM |
| - konnichiwa makoto-san, takusan shumi ga arimasu ne! (You have lots of hobbies.) watashi wa Paeriya ga daisuki desu! (I like Paeria very much!) shawaa no shita de shika utai masu. >> shawaa no shita de shika utai masen. when you use 'de shika'(only in/at...), you must say '~masen', "~shika" indicates partial negation so you don't say 'masu' after '~shika' :) onaka ga suite inai node sukoshi shika tabe masen. (As I'm not hungry, I only eat a little bit.) kinou ie niwa anata shika imasen deshita. (There were only you at home yesterday.) kiki no ga >>> kiku noga can I ask you what is the fuuteringu? :D tomoka | |
| Saisoku | Saturday 05th of February 2005 09:20:49 PM |
| - Watashi wa dorifuto ga daisuki desu yo! | |
| wikid | Saturday 05th of February 2005 10:13:22 PM |
| Practicing Lesson 5 (woot) - Konnichiwa Tomoka-san! unlike Makoto-san, I only have a few hobbies. watashi no shumi wa utau koto desu. furuto wo hiku ga suki desu. Watashi wa ongaku ga suki desu. watashi wa manga wo yomu ya manga wo kaku ga suki desu. watashi wa monogatari wo kaku no ga suki desu. Jaa! | |
| chad72 | Sunday 06th of February 2005 12:21:55 AM |
| sooo cool - im cant belive your setting up japanese lessons i can speak japanese well and i have inputs too my dream is to go to japan but i will soon for forgien exchange student. どもありがとごずぃます | |
| tomoka | Sunday 06th of February 2005 03:14:19 PM |
| - Konnichiwa mina-san!(hello everyone), youkoso chad ;) (welcome here, chad) saisoku-san wa 'dorifuto' ga suki desu ka? I think you meant 'dorifuto-soukou' by car :D wikid-san, furuuto wa 'fuku', gitaa ya piano wa 'hiku' wo tsukaimasu. play the flute = furuuto wo 'fuku' play the guitar = gitaa wo 'hiku' plya the drum = doramu wo 'tataku' I'm sorry there were some ways to say 'Play' and I didn't menthion all of them on the lesson. Your Japanese is very good but I give you some tip. watashi wa manga wo yomu ya manga wo kaku ga suki desu. >> watashi wa manga wo yomu koto ya manga wo kaku koto ga suki desu. when you say '~ga suki desu', " ~ " should be "noun/noun clause" so not 'manga wo yomu' but 'manga wo yomu koto' and not 'manga wo kaku' but 'manga wo kaku koto' こんにちわ、チャド(hello, chad) どうもありがとうございます = doumo arigatou gozaimasu ...so close! tomoka | |
| utsumi | Sunday 06th of February 2005 04:36:21 PM |
| Konnichiwa minna san - :-) Watashi no namae Anna da. Furansu ni sundeiru demo.. jissai ni watashi wa Madagasukara ni kimasu.Nihon ga suki dakara , jibun no nihongo wo benkyou shimasu. watashi no mirai no shigoto wa suchuwβdesu soretomo tsϋyaku ni naritai . Demo..watashi no nihongo wa dame dayo. Penfurendo soretomo nihongo no sensei wo sagashita kara , koko ni ikitta . Takusan koto ga aru de wakaranaiyo. lol junchτ dane. Demo , nihongo ga suki node , nihongo ga hanashitai :-D :-) messeji wo yonda kurete arigatou. ps:hanahadashii ayamari de gommenasai... Anna | |
| tomoka | Monday 07th of February 2005 08:13:22 AM |
| - Konnichiwa Anna(Bonjour Anna :)) watashi no namae wa tomoka desu.(Je m'appelle tomoka :)) messeeji wo arigatou!(merci pour votre message) da is used in a casual way and sometimes it sounds rough so in this case, you'd better to use 'da yo'. If you'd like to talk in a polite way, you can say 'watashi no namae wa anna desu'. when you'd like to say "my japanese is not good", you say "watashi no nihongo wa heta desu". no no, it was understandable! well done!! ;) I have lots of Japanese words that I don't understand. (wakaranai nihongo ga takusan arimasu) If you post, I or someone here would help you ;) matane(a bientot) tomoka | |
| utsumi | Tuesday 08th of February 2005 03:26:58 AM |
| watashi no messeeji wo yonda kurete arigatou - :) Konnichiwa Tomoka san:) Hajimemashite Anata wa furansugo ga hanasureru ne? Ikebana wa totemo kirei na shigoto desu yo ne. watashi wa Japan expo (manga no baiten aru , mangaka iru takusan koto aru) ni iku toki ni , KOsei no Hana ga aru sore kara KOsei no Hana wa totemo kirei dayo. :D ...Nihon ni iku naraba , Tokyo to Shibuya ni ikitai dakara shibuya wa Manga no machi desu. Sugoiii !!! Osaka mou ni ikitara , otera ni ikitai dakara , kirei daaaaaa (l)! terebi de takusan nihon no eiga to tanbou wo mitta .. sore de wa omoshirokatta desu ; samourai ya enbun ya takusan hanashi ga aru. nani ga suki desuka ? Arigatou gozaimasu Anna | |
| tomoka | Tuesday 08th of February 2005 06:16:01 AM |
| - konnichiwa utsumi-san :) hai, watashi wa furansugo ga hanase masu. (yes, I can speak French) I would appreciate if you could write in also English or French. It would be a good lesson for other Japanese learners ;) today's tip: Nihon ni iku naraba , Tokyo to Shibuya ni ikitai dakara shibuya wa Manga no machi desu it's better to say: shibuya wa Manga no machi dakara, nihonni iku nara Shibuya ni ikitai. (I'd like to go to shibuya because it's famous for manga.) when we use '~dakara'(because), normally, at first we mention the reason like "anata ga dai suki dakara, issho ni itai" (I want to be with you because I like you a lot.) because I like you = anata ga suki dakara I want to be with you = issho ni itai Japanese word order is often different from other languages. For example: I like you = watashi wa anata ga suki desu watashi = Subject, anata ga = Object, suki desu = Verb English order is "S V O" Japanese order is "S O V" We can understand if you say 'watashi wa sukidesu anata ga', but to speak natural, you have to learn the word order in japanese. I think basically utsumi-san know the word order, because you wrote 'takusan nihon no eiga wo mita' correctly :) tomoka | |
| kuzzywuzzy | Tuesday 08th of February 2005 07:49:49 AM |
| dakara - 日本語が好きだから日本語を勉強します。 にほんごがすきだからにほんごをべんきょうします。 Nihongo ga suki dakara Nihongo o benkyou shimasu. Would that be correct? Does it sound natural? If you split this into the two seperate ideas/phrases, which would dakara be in? Could you say: 日本語が好きです。 Nihongo ga suki desu. And then as an afterthought, add: だから日本語を勉強します。 Dakara nihongo o benkyou shimasu. And if so, could you just say: 日本語が好きです、だから日本語を勉強します。 Nihongo ga suki desu, dakara Nihongo o benkyou shimasu. or would that sound unnatural/incorrect? It seems to me that the translation of dakara might be closer to "therefore". "It is because of this...that..." is just a drawn out way of saying "This... therefore that...". But that's just from what I see here - maybe there are extended uses of dakara that would nullify that thought? ありがとうございます。 | |
| tomoka | Tuesday 08th of February 2005 08:15:19 AM |
| - konnichiwa kuzzywuzzy-san, your Japanese is perfect! all of your japanese sentence are correct and natural :) If I dare to add something, about this sentence: 日本語が好きです、だから日本語を勉強します。 (Nihongo ga suki desu, dakara Nihongo o benkyou shimasu) です(desu) or ます(masu) indicates the end of the line, so this sentence sounds like two separete lines. If we say like this, it sounds not fluent. However, when you want to place the stress for the 'action' not the 'reason', you can say 日本語が好きです、だから日本語を勉強します | |
| kuzzywuzzy | Tuesday 08th of February 2005 08:37:34 AM |
| - 分かりました。 Wakarimashita. ありがとうございますTOMOKAさん。 Arigatou gozaimasu Tomoka-san. TOMOKAさんはとても有用だから楽しんでいます。 Tomoka-san wa totemo yuuyou dakara tanoshinde imasu. | |
| tomoka | Tuesday 08th of February 2005 10:16:34 AM |
| - ありがとうございます、クズィーウズィーさん :) normally 'yuuyou' is used before "something", not 'someone'. kono lessun wa yuuyou desu. (This lesson is useful) yuuyou na jhouhou (useful information) Actually, we can say : 彼女はこの会社にとって有用です。 kanojho wa kono kaisha ni totte yuuyou desu. (she is very valuable for this company.) The word 'yuuyou' for the person is used only in formal situation. anata no lessun wa yuuyou dakara/nanode tanoshinde imasu. (I enjoy your lesson because it's useful.) これが自然な言い方です (This is a natural way) いずれにせよ、どうもありがとう！ anyway, thank you! tomoka :) | |
| kuzzywuzzy | Tuesday 08th of February 2005 01:05:01 PM |
| - 分かりました。 Regarding your example: [quote]anata no lessun wa yuuyou dakara/nanode tanoshinde imasu.[/quote] I was under the impression that あなた (anata) was generally not used because it sound very familiar (i.e. close friends or a wife to her husband). Would it be appropriate in this situation? I am probably mistaken. Would there be another "you" that is appropriate? おまえ (omae) is probably too informal, correct? Perhaps the safest way would be to use TOMOKAさん (Tomoka-san) rather than a pronoun? Lastly, does なので (nanode) generally follow the same guidelines as だから (dakara)? ありがとうございます！ | |
| tomoka | Tuesday 08th of February 2005 01:33:08 PM |
| - you = anata, kimi, omae, anta 'anata' is the most polite and 'anta' is very rude. when we call somebody 'anta', it means we are furious with the person. generally, we use 'anata' among friends, especially men say 'kimi' to women. among close friedns, men say 'omae' to their friends. between couples, men say 'kimi' or 'omae' to their girlfriends or wives. '-san' is polite so you can say it. well, to call our name like 'tomoka-san' sounds friendlier than 'anata' :) so you can choose it. a wife calls her husband 'anata' but it sounds old, young couples normally call each other by their first name like 'tomoka'. we use nanode a lot but it all depends, mou osoi node kaeri masu. (It's late, so I've got to go home.) hidoi ame datta node, zubunure ni natta. (Because it was raining hard, I get soaked to the skin.) it's not strange if you say kara/dakara instead of node/nanode, but in these cases, 'nanode' or 'node' sounds natural than 'dakara'. This is advanced case, I think you have to practice a lot to get to know which is which. | |
| kuzzywuzzy | Tuesday 08th of February 2005 02:14:11 PM |
| - 分かりました。 I'm sure over time I'll come to understand when to use から／だから and when to use ので／なので. I know that there are many nuances like that which will just require patience and practice ;) ありがとうございます！ | |
| tomoka | Tuesday 08th of February 2005 05:05:15 PM |
| - どういたしまして(you're welcome) 日本語の勉強がんばってください！ :) | |
| utsumi | Wednesday 09th of February 2005 12:36:13 AM |
| - Konnichiwa I'm sorry if i didn't write in english before , i wanted to know if my japanese was understandable. gomennasai :( Chocoreto ga suki dakara , mainichi watashi wa kono koto wo tabemasu. I eat chocolate everyday because i like it. Onesan wa nemitai dakara , kanojo wa heya no naka ni ikimasu. My sister goes to the bedroom because she wanna sleep. Onesan wa gakkou ni wa shika imasen deshita kara , uchi ni kaerimashita. My sister came back home because she was alone at school. Atsui dakara , tomodachi to isshoni pϋrϋ ni ikitai. My friends and i go wanna go to the swimming pool because it's hot. Hitobito wa resutoran no ryτri wa totemo umai to iimashita kara , kazoku to isshoni wa asoko wo taberu ni ikitai. We would like to eat in the restaurent because people said that the food was good. Is there another sentence where we can employ "dakara"? I have a doubt too with the use of "if" If you want me to go to the swimming pool with you ... Mosi watashi tachi to isshoni iku naraba... If i smoke , i'm gonna be ill. Watashi wa byouki ni naru , tabaco wo suu naraba . is this the same system as the use of dakara? for the order of the sentence? When do I have to use nara ? for example : shibuya wa Manga no machi dakara, nihonni iku nara Shibuya ni ikitai. thanks you Anna | |
| makoto | Wednesday 09th of February 2005 03:18:21 AM |
| - hi! konnichiwa minna san!! Sumimasen, Tomokan san. Obviously... I invented a new word "fuuteringu" :D .I did that mistake because I'm native-spanish. In spanish language, sometimes we take an English word into our own language, and the Spanish meaning changes from the original English meaning. It happens with the word "footing". We took that word from English, but the Spanish meaning is "jogging". So I meant: "jogingu ga suki desu. jogingu wo suru koto ga suki desu." Welcome Anna. Your Japanese is very good. dono gurai mae kara nihongo wo benkyoshimashita? ni nen mae ni Pari e ryokoo wo shimashita. Watashi niwa, chikyuu no naka de, Pari wa ichiban kireina machi desu. ( mada nihon ni ita koto ga arimasen) :D . (I traveled to Paris two yeras ago. I think Paris is the most beautiful city around the world. (Well... I haven't travelled to Japan, yet) I'm not sure, but It seems to me something strange in your sentences. Maybe I don't know yet. So I'll ask because I'm not sure: "Onesan wa gakkou ni wa shika imasen deshita kara , uchi ni kaerimashita." I don't know if it's right the sentence, but I'd have wroten: "Onesan wa gakkou ni hitori de inakatta kara, uchi ni kaerimashita." 1) hitori de -- "de" indicates "how" she was: alone (hitori) 2) imasendeshita (polite form) Vs inakatta (plain form). I think we must use the polite form just at the end sentence. Well, I'm not correcting what you wrote because I'm not sure about my explanation. It would be better wait Tomokasan's explanation and give a light. mata ato de, Makoto | |
| tomoka | Wednesday 09th of February 2005 12:33:18 PM |
| - konnichiwa mina-san :) makoto-san, jogingu ga suki nandesu ne :) (ah..you like jogging.) "Onesan wa gakkou ni hitori de inakatta kara, uchi ni kaerimashita." The makoto-san's correction is so close! "Onesan wa gakkou ni hitori datta node, uchi ni kaerimashita." or the best way is: gakkou ni dare mo inakatta node, oneesan wa uchi ni kaette ki mashita. daremo inai = nobody's (there) node = nanode/dakara/kara/ kaette kuru = come back anna-san, If i smoke , i'm gonna be ill. tabaco wo suu naraba, watashi wa byouki ni naru deshou. It's better not to put naraba/nara(if), dakara/kara(because), nanode/node(as/because) to the end of the sentence. woman:watashi wo aishite iru nara, tabako wo yamete! (If you love me, quit smoking!) man: wakatta kara, nakanai de! (okay, okay, I'll try so please don't cry) woman: karada ni warui kara, shinpai shite iruno. (because it's not good for your health, I'm worrying about you.) well, maybe this is a strange example :D tomoka | |
| KillingAlchemyx | Wednesday 09th of February 2005 10:33:42 PM |
| awesome. - arigatou. i just signed up here and this is the first place i visited. i have always been fascinated by the japanese culture and i've always wanted to learn the language but i didnt know where to begin.. so i was looking for sites, and found this. your lessons are very clear and easy to understand. arigatou gozaimasu. | |
| KillingAlchemyx | Wednesday 09th of February 2005 11:19:02 PM |
| - EDIT: nevermind i found it in one of the lessons. new question. how do you say "will you be my valentine?" in japanese? i think it'd be neat to ask somebody in japanese. | |
| Yadizu | Wednesday 09th of February 2005 11:36:58 PM |
| - Hi everybody! I'm new student here and also would like to learn to speak japanese. I started to go to lessons in this fall and study with book called "Japanese For Busy People". As one lesson in a week isn't enough, I decided to learn it in internet, the second best place after own teacher. Tomoka, your lessons have been great and I'm waiting for more! Arigatou. 1) Could you please tell more about using "anata", "watashi" etc. I don't want to be rude to japanese people and my teacher said I should not use those words because I don't know when I can use them. 2) Are there more pages where I could hear japanese news or something else japanese conversations etc.? | |
| tomoka | Thursday 10th of February 2005 10:15:36 AM |
| - konnichiwa KillingAlchemyx-san, Yadizu-san. youkoso!(welcome!) "will you be my valentine?"?*lol* do you have anyone to ask? :D "koibito ni natte kuremasen ka?" 恋人になってくれませんか？ we often say つきあってください"tsukiatte kudasai", tsukiau = kousai suru = keep company/go about together we avoid to ask directly because it's embarrassed if he/she says 'NO'. There is a joke: boy: つきあってください(tsukiatte kudasai) girl: いいよ(ii yo) boy: ほんと？(honto?!) girl: うん、で、どこへ？(un, de doko he?) the boy obviously meant "will you be my valentine?", the girl answered "okay", he was happy at a moment but soon she said "so, where do you want to go?" we tend to say indirectly so we have a problem sometimes :D "my teacher said I should not use those words": well, when we teach japanese, it's easy not to teach the subject like 'anata' or 'watashi'. actually, when I lived in the States, some Japanese teachers taught like that. However, I can understand what you feel. If you have to learn 'anata' or 'watashi' after a while, it's better to learn at the first stage. We omit the subject often while we talk, but it's better to know which word is omitted. 'anata' or 'watashi' is the formal way, so you can always say them. when somebody ask about yourself, you would reply like this: gakusei desu >> (watashi wa) gakusei desu = I am a student. 19 sai desu >> (watashi wa) 19 sai desu = I am 19 years old oniisan ga imasu >> (watashi wa) oniisan ga imasu = I have a big brother. you omitted (watashi wa) when you ask about somebody: oikutsu desu ka? >> (anata wa) oikutsu desu ka? = How old are you? sensei desu ka? >> (anata wa) sensei desu ka? = are you a teacher? itsu modori masu ka? >> (anata wa) itsu modori masu ka? = when will you come back? You omitted (anata wa) They sounds natural even though the subject 'anata' or 'watashi' is omitted. you know, '~desu', or '~masu' is the polite form. when you say '~desu', or '~masu', you can always say 'anata' or 'watashi'. for example: anata wa donata desu ka? (who is it?) >> this is correct omae wa dare desu ka? (who are you?) >> this is wrong because 'omae' should be used only among close friends, especially men, if you say omae(..rude) wa dare desu(..polite) ka, it sounds funny. If you want to be rude to the person, you must say : "omae wa dare da?" | |
| KillingAlchemyx | Thursday 10th of February 2005 10:52:19 AM |
| - konnichiwa tomoka-san. arigatou. i think i will stick with asking in english for now :D wow.. japanese isnt easy is it? haha. i guess i'll just have to work harder :D | |
| tomoka | Thursday 10th of February 2005 02:49:26 PM |
| - KillingAlchemyx-san, Please don't worry, it could be easy sometimes :) well, maybe I scared you to write a long post :D gomen nasai~(I'm sorry~) you can take only some tip which you need :) if you work /really/ hard, you might be burned-out. Take it easy! tomoka | |
| Maraja | Friday 11th of February 2005 01:43:19 AM |
| - Konnichiwa Tomoka-sensei! Arigatou for these great lessons, I've only read 1½ page in this thread and already learnt some. Really great. I always wondered why in the NGE-anime Shinji called Misato 'Misato-san' and she called him 'Shinji-kun' but now I know! ^^, I wish I could start studying Japanese right off, but I have to study for school stuff instead. (: I will return... Maraja | |
| Friday 11th of February 2005 02:39:06 AM | |
| - [quote][i]Originally posted by tomoka[/i] KillingAlchemyx-san, Please don't worry, it could be easy sometimes :) well, maybe I scared you to write a long post :D gomen nasai~(I'm sorry~) you can take only some tip which you need :) if you work /really/ hard, you might be burned-out. Take it easy! tomoka[/quote] Konnichiwa Mina-san! Genki desu ka? You are very right Tomoka-sensei. I have been studying Japanese for almost a year now and there were many times when I was burnt out and didn't think I could remember all the rules in Japanese. I still have hope that I will be able to speak the language fluently but that is still quite some time away. My question is what are some other ways to study while when we are not in the forum? I have a few books that I read on occasion, I watch anime and car videos that are in Japanese. I also have been known to listen to Jpop (Koda Kumi to hamasaki Ayumi wa cho saikou deshou!). The only other thing I can think of is find a Japanese girlfriend, but that won't happen in this town >.< | |
| Saisoku | Friday 11th of February 2005 03:00:52 AM |
| - Konnichiwa Mina-san! Genki desu ka? You are very right Tomoka-sensei. I have been studying Japanese for almost a year now and there were many times when I was burnt out and didn't think I could remember all the rules in Japanese. I still have hope that I will be able to speak the language fluently but that is still quite some time away. My question is what are some other ways to study while when we are not in the forum? I have a few books that I read on occasion, I watch anime and car videos that are in Japanese. I also have been known to listen to Jpop (Koda Kumi to hamasaki Ayumi wa cho saikou deshou!). The only other thing I can think of is find a Japanese girlfriend, but that won't happen in this town >.< | |
| kuzzywuzzy | Friday 11th of February 2005 08:58:31 AM |
| - TOMOKAさん I just read through your lessons on the first page. I didn't notice them before. ご免なさい！ よく出来ました！ オーディオファイルはとても有用です！ :D I hope you continue them! ありがとうございました！ | |
| tomoka | Friday 11th of February 2005 04:11:00 PM |
| - konnichiwa Maraja-san: hisashiburi, saisoku-san: homete kurete arigatou, kuzzywuzzy-san : (homete kurete arigatou = Thank you for the praises) :D saisoku-san, There are some ways to improve your Japanese though, the best way is going to Classroom sites and talk to Japanese people as possible as you can. It's interesting and you won't be bored. http://www.apricotweb.com/ you can listen Japanese pop's here: http://www.japanaradio.com/ The one thing I want you to know is, although sometimes you might be hurt by someone's words while you're talking to, please don't give up talking. They might be really mean, but sometimes it might be a misunderstanding. If someone was really mean, ignore them and leave there, next time I think you can meet nice people. kuzzywuzzy-san, みんなが最初のページを読むものだと思っていました(笑） minna ga saisho no peeji wo yomu monoda to omotte imashita! :D (I thought everyone would read the first page :D ) 気づいてくれてよかったです！ It was good you noticed it :) tomoka | |
| Griso | Friday 11th of February 2005 06:49:07 PM |
| konnichiwa tomoka-sensei - arigatou gozaimazu for your tips and advices... i'm new to this forum but i've always had a nack for foreign languages... this time it's nihon turn... however... I would really like to learn some writings too... and I don't really know if I should begin with Hiragana or elseway. Thanks for your help :D | |
| tomoka | Friday 11th of February 2005 07:54:18 PM |
| - hajime mashite(how do you do/nice to meet you), Griso-san I think it's better to start learning Hiragana at first. You can learn how to write japanese letters here. http://members.aol.com/writejapan/ Have fun! tomoka | |
| Maraja | Saturday 12th of February 2005 12:26:27 AM |
| - Konnichiwa Tomoka-sensei (: Watashi wa Maraja desu, Sweden-jin desu. Watashi wa 17sai desu. Watashi wa ongaku wo kiku no ga suki desu, anime wo miru, hon wo yomu, gogaku no benkyou wo suru! Sumimasen Tomoka-sensei but I think your dog is very cute, and I want to ask what breed it is. :D I would like to know some words like this: and, but, also, too, moreover, etc. I don't even know if you have words like that in Japanese. Arigatou, Maraja | |
| tomoka | Saturday 12th of February 2005 08:32:37 PM |
| - konnichiwa maraja-san, sore wa watashi no tomodachi no inu desu. (It's my friend's dog.) sore wa 'shiba-ken' desu. (It's 'shiba'.) ...'shiba' means 'brushwood' in Japanese :) watashi wa kanojyo ga daisuki desu! (I like her very much!) You can write Japanese very good! I would like to know some words like this: and, but, also, too, moreover... and = soshite but = demo, shikashi also = mata too = mo moreover = sarani for example: watashi wa ongaku wo kiku no ga suki desu soshite anime wo miru no mo suki desu, demo benkyou wa kirai desu. I like listening to music and I like watching anime too, but I don't like studying. :) | |
| Saturday 12th of February 2005 09:39:32 PM | |
| - Konnichiwa Tomoka-sensei, Arigatou! I try to learn Hiragana right now, I learn 5 characters every day, so since I started learning them yesterday I only know the first 5 ones now, haha :D . I made this, it's easier to learn with colours, if anyone want to use this little Hiragana 'map' you're very welcome. ^^, [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/Marajaja/Wallpapers/294b561c.jpg[/IMG] Oooh I should have known it's a Shiba, very old Japanese dog. (: Watashi wa suki 犬! Thank you for the useful words, so I don't have to repeat myself with 'watashi wa' so much. Maraja | |
| Maraja | Saturday 12th of February 2005 10:13:04 PM |
| - Tomoka-sensei, I made a post as a guest, and now I don't know where it went. Maybe you can see it, but I can't. ;P Anyhow, I would like to ask; how do I type Japanese with keyboard? I have it installed, but I can't type with it. ): | |
| tomoka | Sunday 13th of February 2005 01:53:15 PM |
| - maraja-san, It seems like if someone post on forum as a guest, it doesn's show up, we can only read it when we type the replies. If it doesn't bother you, it's nice to put the list again ;) Gomen nasai! I don't know about the keyboard system. I think somebody help you sometime soon here or you can serch on internet like 'writing, japanese keyboard" or such keywords... tomoka | |
| makoto | Sunday 13th of February 2005 06:07:27 PM |
| - Konnichiwa minna-san! Hi Maraja-san, I use a Japanese Word Processor to write kanji,hiragana and katakana caracters. I write on the processor screen and I do "copy-paste" on Prhasebase replaying screen. I don't know other way to write japanese. If anybody knows an easier way to type, please tell us. The software I use is NJStar Japanese Word Processor 5.0 and you can download freely here: http://www.gold-software.com/download8902.html http://www.softaward.com/8902.html You can learn to type japanese practicing "Tutorial". there are exercises. It's very good to learn vocabulary and conjugating verbs (there are a dictionary and generator verbs). I hope It could be useful for you, ja mata, Makoto | |
| kuzzywuzzy | Sunday 13th of February 2005 06:17:39 PM |
| - Maraja-san, Makoto-san gave a good alternative to the IME that is built into Windows 2k/XP, but if you run Win2k or WinXP, you may want to use that instead. I found some good instructions here. Installing East Asian Support: http://newton.uor.edu/Departments&Programs/AsianStudiesDept/Language/asianlanguageinstallation_XP.html Writing in Japanese (Getting Started): http://newton.uor.edu/Departments&Programs/AsianStudiesDept/Language/japanese_write.htm Good luck and let us now if you have any questions! | |
| makoto | Sunday 13th of February 2005 06:26:17 PM |
| - Kuzzy-san どうも ありがとう ございます！！ | |
| Maraja | Sunday 13th of February 2005 07:45:29 PM |
| - ありがとう kuzzywuzzy-さん :D Makoto-san, I already had everything installed. However kuzzywuzzy-san helped me with that Getting Started tutorial. :D Hmm it's a bit odd, I write in Hiragana but it wants to transform it to Kanji all the time. O.O Oh well, this is great anyhow. (: Arigatou! Maraja | |
| tomoka | Sunday 13th of February 2005 08:23:43 PM |
| - 皆さん、ご協力をありがとうございます :) Thank you for all of your help! tomoka ;) | |
| cokbg | Tuesday 15th of February 2005 12:00:58 AM |
| - Konichiwa Everyone, I just learned how to count one to ten in Japanese. I am very happy that the Japanese language has a decimal system for their numbers. I would be trying the sites mentioned here about encoding in Japanese characters. I hope I could use them. I envy Maraja-san, learn 5 characters a day. That's too big for me. Memorizing is not for me, that is why I try to compensate by trying to associate Japanese characters with other systems, like their chess (if that is correct, that is). Is there any specific pen that is useful for writing/practice-writing Hiragana? Or use a brush? I hope to find some appreciation in characters I write, but I simply cannot. Is it better to start with learning characters that are easy to write characters (like "ki") or according to order of the Japanese alphabet ("a," "i," "e" and so on and so forth)? Are there special procedures when writing punctuation marks in Japanese characters, like the inverted "!" and "?" before the sentences in Spanish? Last question (for this forum, that is, actually): Can anyone give me the basic sentence structures in Japanese? I know the Domo arigatou gazaimasu! | |
| Maraja | Tuesday 15th of February 2005 01:28:40 AM |
| - こんばんわ! cokbg-san, no need to envy me. It's easy for me now, but soon it will be difficult. To my advantage I have a very good 'image memory'. I posted this before, but it didn't show up so.. Yeah. Here's the little picture I use for learning Hiragana:  As you can see it consists of 5 columns, starting with the vowels, a , i , u , e , o , and then follows all other sounds, ka, ki, ku, ke, ko, etc. The 5 columns with characters you see to the right are actually just versions of the left ones. It's a changing of sound, and then it's added either two small strokes or a little circle. I have no idea how I will learn all of them, seeing as I have to concentrate really hard already. LOL. Oh well... http://merckel.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=2 ^On this site there's a game to check your knowledge of Hiragana. However, I always remember where the characters are placed, so I don't have a problem. o_O cokbg-san, I don't know if you have this saying in English, but in Swedish it goes something like "Repetition is the mother of knowledge." :p いま わたし は にほんご を はなす. すこし. ^^, かんがえる なに を, せんせい? *Sigh* That is just online translator... Sucks. Tomoka-sensei, I do not understand Japanese grammar at all. I have a few questions that I'd appreciate if you could answer. - In what order do you put the words? I have understood from your lessons that you structure like this: watashi wa gakusei desu. But is that only in the case of am/are/is? Or is it like that with all verbs, that you put them in the end of a simple sentence like this? - Do you have the same verb for all persons? watashi wa nihon-jin desu = correct. karera wa nihon-jin desu = correct too? - Do you have any articles in Japanese, like 'the' or 'a/an'? - Does male/female and plural things affect Japanese nouns, adjectives or verbs? (Don't really know how to form this question, but Tomoka-sensei, you know maybe how it is in French? They have male/female words, and that changes endings of words, etc.) I have many questions but this is what came to my mind right now. ありがとう, Maraja | |
| cokbg | Tuesday 15th of February 2005 02:31:41 AM |
| - Thank you for the responses. Maraja-san, thank you also for your empathy. It is challenging, learning Japanese considering that I have had a Western language orientation. Actually, Japanese is very much comparable to our native Tagalog. The original Tagalog is syllabary. It is like making a U-Turn in learning. Regarding the quotation that you mentioned, I think the proverbs I know that is somehow similar to that are "Practice makes perfect" and "Train hard, fight easy". Another is "Repetition is the mother of perfection." Arigatou! | |
| Maraja | Tuesday 15th of February 2005 03:28:15 AM |
| - cokbg-さん, you're flip? Mahal kita! :p That is how far my tagalog goes, except for some dirty words I don't want to say here. I have a couple of online friends from the Philippines. (: This was totally off-topic... Hmm hmm hmm. *Goes to learn next 5 hiragana and waits for Tomoka-せんせい to wake up and post a reply* By the way cokbg-さん, look what makoto-さん wrote a few posts up in this thread to see how to type in Japanese. I saw you asking about it in another thread. ;) Now I will post new songs in わたし の うた トピック (watashi no uta topitsiku = my song topic? hehe..). :D | |
| kuzzywuzzy | Tuesday 15th of February 2005 03:29:37 AM |
| - 皆さん、 Minna-san, I am sure Tomoka-sensei will add to this, and correct me if I am wrong, but here are some quick answers from my limited knowledge. Japanese basic word order is SOV - subject + object + verb. Giving this a default outline like: X は Y です。 (X = subject, Y = object, desu = verb (to be)) is okay, but it is just a starting point. For instance, using your example, Maraja-san: 私は日本人です。 わたしはにほんじんです。 Watashi wa Nihon-jin desu. Subject = Watashi = I Object = Nihon-jin = Japanese (person) Verb = desu = to be "wa" or は is the topic particle, and marks the "subject" when referring to SOV, but technically marks the topic of a sentence. "ga" or が is the subject particle and marks the subject. The difference between these is a very advanced subject, so we won't discuss that now. So we can translate this literally as: As for myself (subject), Japanese person (object) am (verb). Or more properly: I am Japanese. But once again, this is just a structure to begin with. As you progress, you will become familiar with exceptions and practices such as omitting the subject to make the sentence sound more natural: 日本人です。 にほんじんです。 Nihon-jin desu. (I) am Japanese. This sentence is more natural than the previous example. The subject (I) is understood from context, etc. わたしはすきやきをたべます。 － すきやきをたべます。 Watashi wa sukiyaki wo tabemasu. - Sukiyaki wo tabemasu. As for myself, I eat sukiyaki. - (I) eat sukiyaki. I eat sukiyaki. わたしはすきやきがすきです。 － すきやきがすきです。 Watashi wa sukiyaki ga suki desu. - Sukiyaki ga suki desu. As for myself, I like sukiyaki. - (I) like sukiyaki. I like sukiyaki. わたしはとしょかんへいきます。 － としょかんへいきます。 Watashi wa toshokan e ikimasu. - Toshokan e ikimasu. As for myself, I go to the library. - (I) go to the library. I go to the library. Of course this is all very basic grammar, and we have only mentioned polite, non-past verb forms. Japanese verbs DO NOT indicate number or gender. I think I'm getting lost, now ;) I hope I've answered some of your questions, and I'm sure Tomoka-san will expand and explain further. Good luck! | |
| kuzzywuzzy | Tuesday 15th of February 2005 03:46:16 AM |
| - [quote][i]Originally posted by Maraja[/i] cokbg-さん, you're flip? Mahal kita! :p That is how far my tagalog goes, except for some dirty words I don't want to say here. I have a couple of online friends from the Philippines. (: This was totally off-topic... Hmm hmm hmm. *Goes to learn next 5 hiragana and waits for Tomoka-せんせい to wake up and post a reply*[/quote] Nag-aaral ako ng Tagalog. Hindi ako masanay. I don't know if that's even correct ;) I wanted to add, Maraja-san, that I also have a very good "image memory", but that can be dangerous if you don't expand out from that. It's very easy for me to memorize the chart and then refer to the sequence, but if you only do that, it will be hard to utilize the knowledge. Make sure you also read hiragana and write the characters out of order to reinforce the knowledge outside the bounds of the chart :D | |
| tomoka | Tuesday 15th of February 2005 07:58:19 AM |
| - konnichiwa mina-san! It seems like you all help each other! Great! well, kuzzywuzzy-san explained very well about Japanese grammar, I have few things to add :D watashi wa nihon-jin desu = correct. karera wa nihon-jin desu = correct, too male/female or singular/plural doesn't effect on verbs, nouns or adjectives. It's the good point of Japanese language ;) - Do you have any articles in Japanese, like 'the' or 'a/an'? when we want to /specify/ about it, we say 'sono'(the) or 'hitotsu'(a/an), but normally, we don't mention it. for example: when you'd like to buy a car, you must know which car you want, like the color, type, price... SONO kuruma wo kudassai. (I want to buy THE car./I want to buy that car.) but if you want to buy meat or vegetables, you might think whichever it is, gyuu-niku wo kudasai. (I'd like to buy beef.) ringo wo kudasai. (I'd like to buy (an) apple.) If you have any further questions, please post ;) tomoka | |
| soldado_del_rey | Tuesday 15th of February 2005 03:07:45 PM |
| - こんばんは、ともかさん。 このレッスンは有用です。ありがとうございます。 私はベヌです、私たちがチャットルームに話しました。 音はとても有用です、日本語の発音が時々難しいです。 チャットルームに再々来りますか? あなたをどこに此の所見ませんでした。 I hope that's at least understandable, I often struggle to figure out how to phrase things, especially if the sentence I want to say is complicated. | |
| cokbg | Wednesday 16th of February 2005 03:46:45 AM |
| - Konnichiwa Minna-san, I read the message about the gender and number of the Subject of a sentence not affecting the verb. Whew! That's a great relief. It's one of the troubles I've had with Spanish - conjugation. Maraja-san, yes, I am a Filipino. Is there a forum here that discusses Japanese culture, politics... nation? Would like to learn more about Japan. It would help me learn more about the language. Of course, I could always ask Mr. Google, but I am thinking that a real person could provide a been-there-still-there-I'm-human information about the culture. I'll read in the thread of this forum about my question, but just in case there is none, I would like to know if there are equivalent tenses in Japanese for like Present Perfect, past Perfect, and other tenses? I only have read of past tense and negation regarding sentence structure. I love this place (how do you translate that to Japanese? in Romaji please.) | |
| kuzzywuzzy | Wednesday 16th of February 2005 06:10:36 AM |
| - cokbgさん、 Very close! It is ありがとうございます, or arigatou gozaimasu. (gOzaimasu rather than gAzaimasu.) And yes, it can be translated as "thank you very much". There is a forum that is meant to discuss Japanese culture, politics, etc. but I am sad to say it receives little or no traffic. Your best bet would be to start a topic in this forum and I'm sure Tomoka-san would answer, as well as anyone else who could provide insight. The other forum can be found here: http://www.phrasebase.c../../forum/board.php?FID=123 Regarding tense, there are two basic tenses in Japanese: past and non-past. The non-past tense is used to express present, habitual and future actions. There is a te + iru form that can be used to express mostly present/past continuous, but many other "tenses" as well depending on words, context, etc. But on a basic level, there is past and non-past. この所が大好きですよ！ このところがだいすきですよ！ Kono tokoro ga daisuki desu yo! I love this place! 私も！ わたひも！ Watashi mo! Me too! :D | |
| Aogin | Wednesday 16th of February 2005 09:05:34 AM |
| - how do you you say please speak slowly I am unable to understand if you talk too fast in Japanese? Thank is advance Ja | |
| Aogin | Wednesday 16th of February 2005 09:07:47 AM |
| - My apologies, my typing is terrible. Thanks in advance is what I meant to say. mata ne | |
| tomoka | Wednesday 16th of February 2005 09:44:48 AM |
| - konnichiwa mina-san! Hi Ben! フォーラムにきてくれてうれしいです！ (I'm glad you visit this forum!) この前はチャットルームで話して楽しかったね！ (It was nice talking to you on the Classroom room :)) 残念ながら、最近忙しくて、チャットルームに行く機会がありませんでした。 (I've been busy these days and I didn't have a chance to go there...too bad...) またいつかお話しましょう！ (Talk to you someday again!) cokbg-san, this website will help you: http://japanese.about.com/blgrammar.htm As I rather teach Japanese conversation, it's easy and clear for you to go there to learn grammar I think :) There are lots of things to learn. ganbatte kudasai! kuzzuwuzzy-san, I love this place = koko ga suki desu we omit 'basho'(place) in this case, instead of it, we say koko(here), this is a natural Japanese :) youkoso, aogin-san, (welcome aogin) please speak slowly = motto yukkuri hanashite kudasai もっとゆっくりはなしてください As I start learning English, I thought I need this word, but I didn't say it much, I rather said, Could you repeat it again? / Pardon? mou ichido itte morae masu ka? もういちど言ってもらえますか？ when I asked it, everyone repeated it slowly again and I didn't have to say yukkuri(slowly) :D tomoka | |
| Aogin | Wednesday 16th of February 2005 10:04:39 AM |
| - what is the literal english translation of hanashite? | |
| Aogin | Wednesday 16th of February 2005 10:08:31 AM |
| - [quote][i]Originally posted by kuzzywuzzy[/i] [quote][i]Originally posted by Maraja[/i] cokbg-さん, you're flip? Mahal kita! :p That is how far my tagalog goes, except for some dirty words I don't want to say here. I have a couple of online friends from the Philippines. (: This was totally off-topic... Hmm hmm hmm. *Goes to learn next 5 hiragana and waits for Tomoka-せんせい to wake up and post a reply*[/quote] Nag-aaral ako ng Tagalog. Hindi ako masanay. I don't know if that's even correct ;) I wanted to add, Maraja-san, that I also have a very good "image memory", but that can be dangerous if you don't expand out from that. It's very easy for me to memorize the chart and then refer to the sequence, but if you only do that, it will be hard to utilize the knowledge. Make sure you also read hiragana and write the characters out of order to reinforce the knowledge outside the bounds of the chart :D[/quote] If you would like I could teach some tagalog words. I know some words that I'm sure most of filipinos don't use because their too archaic. In turn I wanna speak nihonggo.So I can sing along while watching Love Hina. | |
| kuzzywuzzy | Wednesday 16th of February 2005 10:54:55 AM |
| - 今日は、皆さん！ Konnichiwa, minna-san! ありがとうございます、Tomokaさん！ Arigatou gozaimasu, Tomoka-san! Thank you for correcting me! Would it also be natural to use: こちらが好きです。 Kochira ga suki desu. I believe I remember learning that kochira/sochira/asochira/dochira can be used as a more polite replacement for koko/soko/asoko/doko, but I may be mistaken. Also, I seem to remember learning: もう一度ゆっくりお願いします。 Mou ichido yukkuri onegaishimasu. Please repeat slowly. Is this correct, Tomoka-san? Aoginさん、 ようこそ！ Youkoso! Welcome! 話してください Hanashite kudasai Please speak... "Hanasu" is the verb "to speak". The -te + kudasai form of a verb is used to make a polite request. For example: 食べる - taberu - to eat 食べてください - tabete kudasai - please eat 読む - yomu - to read 読んでください - yonde kudasai - please read Don't worry about forming the -te form of verbs too early in the learning process, but it doesn't hurt to understand one of its purposes. Also, I appreciate your offer. I am indeed interested in archaic Tagalog as well as contemporary or conversational, as I think that gives you a deeper understanding of a language. I can't promise you anything since I consider myself a beginner in Japanese, but I will help you as much as I can :D Please feel free to drop by the Tagalog forum here: http://www.phrasebase.c../../forum/board.php?FID=82 And feel free to PM me any time. :D | |
| Aogin | Wednesday 16th of February 2005 12:59:21 PM |
| - Thanks you-Domoo Arigatoo-Maraming Salamat. Nice to meet you-Hajimemashita(it is nice to meet you for the firts time)-Nagagalak akong makilala kita(formal tagalog)or just say "kamusta" when you meet someone for the first time. Similar to "como estas" in Spanish. Hope to see you again/til we meet again- Ja ne mata ne (I know it's not formal Japanese) I guess this means bye see you tomorrow-"Paalam"/"Sa susunod nating pagkikita" (formal tagalog) "Sige kita tayo bukas" (see you tomorrow) | |
| Aogin | Wednesday 16th of February 2005 01:00:10 PM |
| - Thanks you-Domoo Arigatoo-Maraming Salamat. Nice to meet you-Hajimemashita(it is nice to meet you for the first time)-Nagagalak akong makilala kita(formal tagalog)or just say "kamusta" when you meet someone for the first time. Similar to "como estas" in Spanish. Hope to see you again/til we meet again- Ja ne mata ne (I know it's not formal Japanese) I guess this means bye see you tomorrow-"Paalam"/"Sa susunod nating pagkikita" (formal tagalog) "Sige, kita tayo bukas" (see you tomorrow) | |
| kuzzywuzzy | Wednesday 16th of February 2005 01:30:23 PM |
| - Aoginさん、 I appreciate you sharing, but let's try not to take over the thread since it is about Japanese ;) Just to get back on topic, I'll point out a few errors in your Japanese. If you're serious about learning the language, you should try to begin memorizing hiragana as soon as possible. It will make avoiding errors like these much easier. You wrote: domoo arigatoo どうもありがとう Doumo arigatou is the correct way. Depending on the method of romanization, you might see doomo arigatoo, but domoo is incorrect. You wrote: hajimemashita はじめまして Hajimemashite is the correct way. This is an idiomatice expression used when first meeting someone. "Hajimemashita" would be the polite, past form of the verb "hajimeru" (to begin). But you're doing well, you were very close on these points. Once again, thanks for sharing, and keep up the studying! :D | |
| Andhera | Wednesday 16th of February 2005 07:58:09 PM |
| - Ohayou minna-san, Gomen ne, for being away for so long. I had to wrinkle out exams and other stuff which kept me away from the computer for a while. I'm still catching up on all the stuff that happened when I was away. So, many new lessons ^^ I don't really have questions for this post; it's just an I'm not dead yet declaration ^^; Hi to all the new people I have yet to me. Yoroshiku. Sore ja. | |
| tomoka | Wednesday 16th of February 2005 08:02:58 PM |
| - okaerinasai, andhera-san! :) (welcome back, andhera!) Kuzzywuzzy-san, こちらが好きです。 Kochira ga suki desu. hai, sou desu!(yes, exactly!) kochira/sochira/asochira/dochira can be used as a more polite replacement for koko/soko/asoko/doko, but I may be mistaken. Very good! but there is an error, achira is right, not 'asochira' ;) | |
| cokbg | Wednesday 16th of February 2005 10:44:51 PM |
| - Konnichiwa, minna-san, Wow, I've just been gone for less than 16 hours, and there were a lot of additions to the thread already. I have to keep up with the lessons here. Thanks for the people who ask and those who answer (of course!). I have listed some questions I have considered on my way to work. I hope anyone could answer them: * How do you say the following to Japanese: I have only started studying Japanese. You are my friend. For the second sentence, is "Anata wa watashi no tomodachi desu" correct? General questions about Japanese language: How are adjectives placed within a declarative sentence? In a question? Is it acceptable in "Romajization" (translating to Romaji, is this correct?) a particle (I've learned of this term from a friend here at work who helps me learn Japanese) to be attached to the preceding content word? For example, "Watashi wa" or "Watashiwa"? I also understand that in original Japanese writing, characters are written from top to bottom. How are spaces managed? Or how are spaces placed? Tomoka-sensei, thank you for the website. I'll go there just about now. Kuzzywuzzy-san, thanks for the answers regarding tenses. Another concern about languages for me, whew! (Like I would stop studying Japanese if it were... No way!) Aogin-san, salamat sa pagtatanong mo ng bagay na dapat ay inuna kong alamin! (Thanks for asking the question I should have thought of in the first place!) Minna-san, goshinsetsu ni arigatou! | |
| cokbg | Wednesday 16th of February 2005 10:51:25 PM |
| - Sumimasen deshita, minna-san. I forgot to ask this. Is there a forum where there is a test, and participants would answer (of course), and real people give corrections to the answers? I was thinking of searching for a website, but I figured that real people answering would give me the proper response, and point out intricacies of language which cannot be detected by computer. Domou arigatou! | |
| kuzzywuzzy | Thursday 17th of February 2005 04:00:38 AM |
| - Andheraさん、 はじめまして！(Nice to meet you!) Welcome back... I hope you did well on all of your exams. どうぞよろしく。がんばりましょう！(Please regard me kindly. Let's do our best!) Tomokaさん、 すみません！ I definitely must study harder and brush up on my basics! Thank you once again for correcting my mistake! ありがとうございます！ cokbgさん、 "I have only started studying Japanese." I will let Tomokaさん answer that one. "Anata wa watashi no tomodachi desu" is indeed correct! As for adjectives, it depends on their usage and what type of adjective it is. If an adjective is used preceding a noun (describing that noun), then you need to know whether it is an i-adjective or a na-adjective. This isn't really a beginner subject, but as a basic reference: i-adjectives stay the same and just precede the noun, na-adjectives (depending on the adjective) are proceded by "na" and then the noun. やさしい - yasashii - kind やさしいおとこ - yasashii otoko - kind man へん - hen - strange へんなひと - hen na hito - strange person When the adjective is alone in the object position (SOV), it can function in its normal form (on a basic level). あなたはやさしいです。 Anata wa yasashii desu. You are kind. あのひとはへんです。 Ano hito wa hen desu. That person is strange. Romaji - the romanization of the Japanese written language. What is acceptable and not acceptable in romanization of Japanese depends on the method that you use. That's why it's best to avoid romanization. In general, though, particles are usually seperated. As for a website with testing and correcting, I don't know of one. Maybe we can do something of the sort here. It would of course need to be material that has been covered, though, so I'm not sure how that would work. I'll think about it and maybe I can figure something out ;) | |
| scorpiogrrl | Thursday 17th of February 2005 06:52:48 AM |
| thanks :) - its so interesting to learn another language, and you make it easy to learn, im just a beginner, and im hooked, keep it up....:) | |
| raxid2 | Thursday 17th of February 2005 11:04:34 PM |
| Thanks - Thank you so much for the good piece of work you have done for people like me who wish to learn Japanese in a very short period of time. | |
| tomoka | Friday 18th of February 2005 10:15:32 AM |
| - konnichiwa mina-san,(Hello everyone) youkoso(Welcome), raxid2-san, scorpiogrrl-san, kuzzywuzzy-san, Thank you for the hard work here! :D You're a very good advisor to everyone! I think your explanation is better than mine :) sugoi desu!(excellent!!!) I have only started studying Japanese >> watashi ha nihongo no benkyou wo hajimeta bakari desu 私（わたし）は日本語（にほんご）の勉強（べんきょう）を始（はじ）めたばかりです。 'just started' or 'only started' is "hajimeta bakari" in Japanese. originally, 'only' is translated like だけ'dake' though... for example: I 'only' know some words. (watashi wa ikutsuka no kotoba wo shitteiru 'dake' desu.) It's only you. (anata 'dake' desu.) それでは、また :) (talk to you later) tomoka | |
| makoto | Friday 18th of February 2005 06:27:54 PM |
| - Konnichiwa minna-san!! Congratulations Tomoka san. Your lessons are succesfull, just have to see how many views your thread had. They are useful not only for begginers, but everybody who is learning Japanese language. Kuzzywuzzy-san, thank you for your explanations. Tomoka san is right. I think you always give the best advices for learning japanese. And your explanations are clear. I'm improving my English reading your explanations. Thank you very much. I think some points of view are very useful ( explanations from native japanese and non native japanese). Well, by now, no questions, just wanted to say thanks. dewa mata, Makoto | |
| Aogin | Saturday 19th of February 2005 07:43:18 AM |
| - Knonninchiwa minna san. I have another questiion why does the Japanese langugae have two different words which describes exactly the same thing? I forgot some examples as I don't have my book with me (I believe that's, Watashiwa no hon desu. This is My book.) To cite some examples. | |
| Aogin | Saturday 19th of February 2005 07:44:11 AM |
| - Gomenasai, my typing is really bad. Konninchiwa minna san. I have another questiion why does the Japanese langugae have two different words which describes exactly the same thing? I forgot some examples as I don't have my book with me (I believe that's, Watashiwa no hon desu. This is My book.) To cite some examples. | |
| kuzzywuzzy | Saturday 19th of February 2005 08:56:21 AM |
| - TomokaさんとMakotoさん、 どうもありがとうございます！ I appreciate the kind words, but it's really nothing! I'm just resourceful ;) The people to truly thank are Tomoka先生 and all of those who contribute and spur the discussions on! :D 皆さん、ありがとうございました！ Aoginさん、 The truth is, languages don't have words that mean the same thing. Whether it is because of the evolution of a language, a nuance that cannot be properly translated, words specific to time periods, etc., words are coined for a reason. If it seems that a word is the same as another, it is most likely because it is not easy to express that word in the language you are studying it in. If you could provide examples, then perhaps we could give a better explanation regarding that word, but it's something that would need to be done on a case by case basis, most likely. So let us know if you come across any! ;) | |
| Psy | Saturday 19th of February 2005 09:04:57 AM |
| - Beat me to the submit button, kuzzywuzzy! Indeed, there are synonyms-- dinner, supper, [i]yorugohan[/i], [i]yuushoku[/i]-- but as kuzzywuzzy wrote, indeed every word has it's own nuance and etymology. However, I see no such instance in "this is my book," [i]korewa watashi no hon desu.[/i] Unless you're refering to pronouns, which hold their own grammatical purposes, I cannot help you. | |
| tomoka | Saturday 19th of February 2005 09:23:27 AM |
| - Konnichiwa minasan, makoto-san, itsumo yasashii kotoba wo arigatou! saikin nihongo no benkyou wa dou desu ka? (Thank you for the nice words! How's your Japanese study lately?) :) Aogin-san, As kuzzywuzzy-san and Psy-san mentioned, we need examples what you want to know. tomoka :) | |
| RedSamurai | Tuesday 22nd of February 2005 05:09:57 AM |
| Arigatou gozaimasu - Ohayou minna san! I'm new here, and i just wanted to thank you for your efforts! I've been auto-learning Japanese for like 6 months through internet free lessons, but it's hard to get better since each site uses its own teaching method. I learned the Hiragana "writing and pronouncing", and learned some basics on grammar "ichidan & godan verbs..." Anyway, I hope I can improve my Japanese with you and exchange cultures. Once again thanks very much ! | |
| cokbg | Tuesday 22nd of February 2005 07:00:07 AM |
| - Konnichiwa minna-san! I bought a Japanese comic book (manga, as I understand), to help me in learning (actually, I consider it a goal. If I get to read it and understand it, I believe I would be able to communicate better). How do you distinguish space between words, considering that the writing is from top to bottom? Is the dash (--) also vertical instead of horizontal? | |
| kuzzywuzzy | Tuesday 22nd of February 2005 08:33:24 AM |
| - Cokbg-san, That's a good goal with a nice reward :D In Japanese text, there aren't really spaces between the words, so it's just a matter of being familiar with the language. Different types of words have different types of endings, whether the word is Hiragana/Katakana/Kanji or a combination, etc. These types of things will help you recognize the individual words. It's the same with left to right text, actually. As for the dash, it depends on which one. The vowel lengthening dash from Katakana （コーヒー） will usually be written vertical, I believe. A hyphen will most likely be written vertical, as well. There is also a Kanji （一月）that looks similar, but will be written horizontal (because that's the stroke). Tomoka-san can confirm/correct and expand on this. Good luck! :D | |
| tomoka | Tuesday 22nd of February 2005 11:37:07 AM |
| - youkoso(welcome), RedSamurai-san :) please have fun here ;) hai(yes), kuzzywuzzy-san is correct. This is a normal form in japanese writing: あなたの説明は正しいです。 (your explanation is correct.) With a combination of Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana, we easily recognize which is the subject or object or else.. あなたのせつめいはただしいです。 This is not east to understand soon even for Japanese. If I cut the sentence a word by a word: あなた の せつめい は ただしい です。 あなた = you あなたの = your せつめい = explanation せつめいは = explanation is ただしい = correct ただしいです = (is) correct I think you have to expand your vocabulary or to learn easy Kanji as soon as possible to read correctly. The sounds with long vowels are represented by a horizontal stroke in Katakana: コーヒー koohii coffee ビール biiru beer スーパー suupaa super 一 = one in kanji ー = dash yes, these are very similar :D | |
| RedSamurai | Tuesday 22nd of February 2005 06:05:11 PM |
| - cokbg-san, I too think reading mangas can help a lot developping one's skills! Still, I have a question about kanji: As far as I know, kanji are Chinese characters that express an idea and have most likely two differnt readings. So, will a Chinese (chugokujin) read the kanji (on a mangas for example) the same way a Japanese (nihonjin) will? | |
| tomoka | Tuesday 22nd of February 2005 08:08:42 PM |
| - RedSamurai-san, There is a difference between Japanese and Chinese when we pronounce kanji. We have two ways to pronounce Kanji in Japan: 音読み(on-yomi) the Chinese reading of a character 訓読み(kun-yomi) the Japanese reading of a Chinese character. for example: The Kanji 山 can pronounce 'san' in on-yomi and also 'yama' in kun-yomi. 山本 is a common family name in Japan, it's pronounced やまもと, this is kun-reading, not 'san hon'(it's on-yomi). (There are lots of rules which should we pronounce, on-yomi or kun-yomi...) "bitter" can pronounce 苦い(nigai) in japanese. 苦 can also pronounce 'ku'. In Chinese, bitter is 苦的（ku de） in this case, I'm sure we can understand it. Actually we can read some of Kanji each other and some people can guess what they write but I think it's hardly to say we can understand well. | |
| makoto | Thursday 24th of February 2005 04:31:48 AM |
| - konnichiwa mina san!! Tomoka san, I have some problems to open lessons files. I don't know if I'm the only one who can't see your lessons or somebody else have the same problem. I wish to read your updating lessons. Thanks. kiwo tsukete, dewa mata Makoto | |
| tomoka | Thursday 24th of February 2005 09:16:12 AM |
| - konnichiwa makoto-san, I checked the lessons on another computer but it seems like it has no problem... could anyone let me know whether you can open and read the lessons which I updated the other day or not? Thanks, tomoka | |
| kuzzywuzzy | Thursday 24th of February 2005 12:18:16 PM |
| - Tomoka-san, They seem to open fine for me as well. Perhaps it was just that day or something. Maybe they will work fine for Makoto-san now :D | |
| makoto | Thursday 24th of February 2005 05:55:37 PM |
| - Ohayoo minasan! Kuzzy-san, Tomoka-san, thank you. Today seems, there's no problem to open and read the lessons. Thank you. I'll practice the update files. dewa mata, makoto | |
| tomoka | Thursday 24th of February 2005 08:17:40 PM |
| - Konnichiwa kuzzywuzzy-san, makoto-san, Thank you for the reply. anshin shimashita!(I'm relieved to hear that) doumo arigatou! tomoka | |
| Maraja | Thursday 24th of February 2005 10:06:59 PM |
| - Konnichiwa minna-san. I've been slacking lately.. Well. I have been too stressed. So I have not studied any Japanese lately, and forgot the Hiragana I had learnt. )= [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/Marajaja/Emoticons/c9a645dd.gif[/img] [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/Marajaja/Emoticons/3044317d.gif[/IMG] tomoka-sensei, konban hima? (Just kidding, sumimasen.) I love the new lesson about being in love! But I totally misunderstand something. You have put blue and pink for men/women. But if it says there in blue, does it mean I should say it to a man, or a man should say it? *Confused* Kuzzy-さんさびしいよ. | |
| tomoka | Friday 25th of February 2005 08:12:51 AM |
| - こんにちわmarajaさん gomen nasai!(I'm sorry) men should say in the blue and women should say in the pink in the lesson(when you fall in love). for example: I like you men: kimi ga suki da women: anata ga suki (nano) in the casual situation, men say '-da', '-da na', '-da ne', '-da yo', '-yo'... women say '-ne', '-da ne', '-da yo', '-yo', '-yo ne'... 1. men: kimi wa suteki da ne!(you're cool!) women: sonna koto nai yo...(well, I don't think so...) 1. women: anatatte suteki ne.(you're cool!) men: sonna koto nai yo...(well, I don't think so...) 2. men: nidoto gomen da!(never again) women: doushite yo?(why not?) 2. women: nidoto gomen yo!(never again) men: doushite da yo?(why not?) I think you would often learn 'da' is the normal form and 'desu' is the polite form in Japanese while you teach japanese by yourself. However, 'da' sounds a bit rough when women say it, so if you're a woman, you'd better say 'da ne', 'da yo' or '-ne'. These '-ne', '-yo' and else express agreement, emphasis, doubt, hesitation, or the other feelings, but it depends on the conversation. Some of them are common and some of them are used by only men or women. The obvious thing is, when women talk, they never use 'da' at the end of the sentence. maraja-san, konban wa isogashii desu :D (I'll be busy tonight.) paatii ni ikimasu node...(because I'll go to a party) muri wo shinai de ne!(take it easy~) tomoka ;) | |
| utsumi | Friday 25th of February 2005 06:55:34 PM |
| different way to use "tsuite" - Konnichiwa minna san o genki desuka ? I would like to know if the word " tsuite " has different sens because i have a doubt. would it be right if i say : kono hon ni tsuite jibun no atarashii hon wo kakemashita it is about this book that i wrote my new book. Is this word can be use in different way ? I would like to know too if i wanna say for example : I like this book so much. I have to use in japanese to translet "so much" , the word "konna ni , sonna ni.." and where do i have to place it in the sentence? I read some sentences with the word " noka " but i didn't really understand how to use it because there were different sentence with this use and it didn't work for me. -_- how and when would i have to use this word ? Is " nara " the same as "naraba" ? Thank you for reading my message :) Mata ne Anna | |
| Maraja | Saturday 26th of February 2005 03:12:43 AM |
| - konnichiwa Anna-san! :) arigatou tomoka-sensei. (: That is good explanation, I will try to remember. tanoshii toki wo sugoshi ta ka? Is that correct to ask "Did you have fun?" at the party? :D I am not so good at learning languages, because I am not bothered to learn the basics. I should. :P muzukashii.. Maria | |
| chad72 | Saturday 26th of February 2005 09:02:59 AM |
| KONICHIWA! i am chado-san - こにちわわたしのなめあわちゃどです。 はじましてどぞよろしく。あまりはなせません、すこしだけはなせます。hi tomoka im really happy cause i finally could learn more japanese on RB but i was learning japanese since i was in grade 4 and i wanna be a exchange student when im 15 years old and go to high school in Kyooto or Tokyo. i am really good but i dont know evrything but i know lots, i take japanese lessons on online and books. i am in grade 7 and im 12 yaers old well i will take your japanese games and other stuff. 度持 蟻駕戸 ごずぃ間死手 | |
| tomoka | Saturday 26th of February 2005 08:13:07 PM |
| - konnichiwa mina-san! anna-san, kono hon ni tsuite jibun no atarashii hon wo kakimashita it is about this book that i wrote my new book. This is correct :) I want to know about you. (anata ni tsuite shiri tai desu.) like this, about = '(~ni) tsuite'. however, if it's "tsuite iku/kuru", it means follow: Please follow me. (douzo tsuite kite kudasai.) I like this book so much. (watashi wa kono hon ga totemo suki desu.) I don't like this book much. (watashi wa kono hon ga amari suki dewa arimasen.) I can say you should totemo or amari before verb. ...in an affirmative sentence, much = totemo, but in a negative sentence, much = amari (~nai) about 'noka', ii noka douka wakaranai. (I'm not sure this is good or not.) noka(= ka) indicates 'or (not)' nara = naraba = if :) Maraja-san, hai, tanoshii toki wo sugoshi mashita :D (Yes, I had a good time.) It was correct but it sounds a bit rough because you asked 'shita ka?', the polite way is 'shimashita ka?' or the casual way is 'shita?' Polite way: tanoshii toki wo sugoshi mashita ka? "Did you have fun?" at the party? Casual way: tanoshii toki wo "sugoshi ta"? or "tanoshi katta"? ;) chad72-san, こんにちわ。 I could understand what you tried to say >> 度持 蟻駕戸 ごずぃ間死手 :D you tried to type "doumo arigatou gozaimashita" in Kanji, right? ;) we normally say it in Hiragana so you could say, どうもありがとうございました (when you write them in Kanji like that, it makes no sense) どういたしまして dou itashi mashite (my pleasure/ you're welcome) tomoka :) | |
| utsumi | Saturday 26th of February 2005 10:12:21 PM |
| - Konnichiwa minna san :) Arigatou gozaimasu Tomoka san. I tried to make a new sentence with "noka (or) and tsuite about)and nara (if)" and i would like to know if it 's right : Watashi no bun wa ii noka warui desu , watashi wa kore ni tsuite shiritakatta desu. I wanted to know if my sentence was right or wrong. mosi anata wa atashi to isshoni eiga ni ikitai nara , hayaku junbi shite kudasai. If you wanna go to the cinema with me , prepare for going there quickly. .... " ... ni" or "no tame ni" (for..) we use "...ni" when we wanna someone to do something or we wanna do something to someone. I would like you to come with me in the garden because i would like to show you something. Anata ni nani ga misetai kara , watashi to isshoni niwa e ikitai desu. I would like to know when i would have to use "tame ni" in the sentences. I made a sentence to show you how i use it : Kono puresento wa teburu no ue ni wa anata no tame ni wo agemasu. This present on the table is for you. use of "konna ni .. sonna ni" Watashi wa konna ni hon ga suki de wakaranaiyo... I don't know why i love this book so much... Do we have to replace "kono"(this) by "konna ni.." to emphazise the sense of the sentence ? watashi wa sonna ni otoko no ko ga suki dayo I love this men so much. Tomoka san , i would like to know if you find that I would speak enough correctly in japanese if i go to Japan in a family . lol :$ Thank you for reading my message. watashi no messeji o yonda kurete arigatou Anna | |
| cokbg | Saturday 26th of February 2005 10:26:48 PM |
| - Konnichiwa, minna-san! Can anyone please translate this passage for me? Gashi! watashi gozen "name of person", naraba tamae nanitozo, watashi nodoka , seppun temae (K) I could only translate that "watashi," but the "gozen" particle or word I could not find. I do not have a dictionary yet - I could not find a dictionary which has Hiragana or Katakana characters, Romaji and English. I'll look for online dictionaries. Please? | |
| RedSamurai | Monday 28th of February 2005 05:46:27 AM |
| - Konnichiwa minna-san! Thank you Tomoka-san for your explanations! It was really helpful :) As for Cokbg-san, if you're looking for a good japanese english dictionary here's a place where you can get JDIC ,one of the best bidirectional dictionaries in my opinion : * To get The JDIC: http://mirrors.nihongo.org/monash/jdic26.zip * To get the EDICT (used by JDIC): http://ftp.monash.edu.au/pub/nihongo/edict.zip * To get KIJIS16.FNT (Used by JDIC, found in winjdic.lzh): http://mirrors.nihongo.org/monash/winjdic.lzh I hope this will help you in your Japanese studies ;) One last question: Do you think that the best way to improve my spoken Japanese is to get a homestay with a Japanese family ? | |
| cokbg | Monday 28th of February 2005 07:59:43 AM |
| - Konnichiwa! Arigatou gozaimasu, RedSamurai-san. It was really helpful of you. Regarding your question about improving Japanese is to staying with a Japanese family - well, it is the best, for me. You get to "practice" or rather apply what you want to learn - you may have heard of "What I hear, I forget. What I do, I remember"? I have a question about "spelling". In a single word, is it possible that that one word would have characters from not just one system? I mean, are words which are "spelled" using not just Hiragana, but combined maybe with Katakana or Kanji? I understand that that is possible within a sentence, but within a word? Also, a lot of people here are expressing closing remarks which I do not understand. I'll read them, but could you please give me a more or less identifiable list of closing remarks, with their meaning? Thanks again! | |
| tomoka | Tuesday 01st of March 2005 09:49:50 AM |
| - konnichiwa minasan :) ni san nichi onsen ni itte imashita. (I went on a trip to hot springs for a few days.) takusan shitsumon ga arimasu ne! :D (There are many questions.) okay, at first Anna-san's question: 1. I wanted to know if my sentence was right or wrong. (anna-san's Japanese sentence) Watashi no bun wa ii noka warui desu, watashi wa kore ni tsuite shiritakatta desu. (the correct answer) >>> watashi no bun ga ii noka warui noka shiritakatta desu. Watashi no bun ga = subject ii noka warui noka (wo) = object shiritakatta = verb 2. mosi anata wa atashi to isshoni eiga ni ikitai nara , hayaku junbi shite kudasai. >> This is perfect! well done! ;) (If you wanna go to the cinema with me , prepare for going there quickly.) 3. I would like you to come with me in the garden because i would like to show you something. (misetai mono ga aru node, issho ni kite hoshii no desu.) we normally don't say 'nanika'(something) clearly, the phrase 'mono/koto ga aru' is a common way. I'd like to show you something = mise tai mono ga aru I'd like to give you something = age tai mono ga aru I have something to ask you = tanomi tai koto ga aru I'd like to say something = ii tai koto ga aru mono = things that you can touch or see koto = things that you can't touch or see like feelings 4. This present on the table is for you. >>> teeburu ni aru kono purezento wa anata ni desu. This is for you = kore wa anata ni (desu) ...in this case, you don't have to say 'tameni', just saying 'ni' is fine. 5. I don't know why i love this book so much. >> doushite konna ni kono hon ga suki nano ka wakari masen. in this case, so much = konnani. 6. I love this men so much. (anna-san's sentence) watashi wa sonna ni otoko no ko ga suki dayo. ...this sounds you like /every/ boys, not a special one. (the correct answer is) watashi wa kono hito ga sugoku suki nano. men = dansei, but we often say just 'hito' the word 'dayo' isn't bad while you talk to someone, i mean depends on the conversation, but the ending 'nano' sounds lovely for young women than 'dayo'. *attention* men never say 'nano' anna-san, I think you can communicate with them when you live with a Japanese family. The one thing I advise you is to learn lots of short sentences. If you learn the structure of a short sentence with a grammar, you can improve your Japanese very well. ganbatte kudasai ;) cokbg-san, It seems like the Japanese sentence doesn't make sense. I think it's an old japanese way of saying by using samurai(in anime or manga, they speak like that), but I'm not sure what it means... RedSamurai-san, To get a homestay with a Japanese family is the best way I think :) To live in Japan would be great but if you don't have japanese friends, you'll feel lonely and get sick and tired of staying in Japan. I recommend a Classroom with Japanese, especially a voice Classroom. You may find some good pals and even visit them after a while you talk online. tomoka :) | |
| manekiedo | Tuesday 01st of March 2005 08:34:36 PM |
| ?? - cokdg,I knew someone whose brother did the same thing & it is the best way to learn.Is it a family of a friend or is thier a program that families join to have a foriegn visitor.Do you have to be in school?How can I participate?Where can I find or contact families who would like to have a overseas visitor? | |
| tomoka | Wednesday 02nd of March 2005 02:14:26 PM |
| - Konnichiwa manekiedo-san, You can serch on internet about homestay programs to Japan, for example: http://gojapan.about.com/cs/traveltools/a/homestay.htm It takes some costs and the cost depends on the agents. The best way is to ask to public organizations in your city I think... I'm sure there are bad private agents, so public is better I guess. some schools have exchange programs and it's absolutely safe but if you're not a student at the school, you can't join it. Some of my foreign friends met japanese online and after a while they became friends. Some of them visit Japan and they could stay at their online friend's house. This is a very good example but things always can't be so great... kou un wo!(Good luck!) | |
| RedSamurai | Wednesday 02nd of March 2005 07:03:57 PM |
| - おはよう ございます そして どうも ありがとう みんなさん! ( Good morning and thank you everybody! ) ようこす マネキエド-さあん ( Welcome manekiedo-san) tomoka-sensei, cokbg-san I read a lot about the homestays in Japan, and it's (as you said) the best way to develop ones communication skills. However i read also about a lot of problems that could happen within the homestay: some talk about some kinds of misunderstandings, here's the link : http://athome.nime.ac.jp/ ヱブサイツ みて ください. (Please take a look on the website.) I hope it's correct :D I found it extremely interesting!! So i wanted to ask you tomoka-san if this is how you (as a Japanese) would react in that same situation. However, I think Peter is a bit wrong because he should be a little more respectful (even not told to) towards the Sasaki's...Don't you think so? じぁあ... おなか が すきました! ( Well...I'm hungry ;) ) でわ また こんご ( See ya later ) | |
| tomoka | Thursday 03rd of March 2005 08:42:49 AM |
| - こんにちわ、レッドサムライさん It was a really interesting website! Thank you very much to post the link, RedSamurai-san! :) I recommend reading the website to understand our different way of thinking. This is a common, good sample of a homestay. As I had lived in a foreign country, I wouldn't act like the host family. I can understand the gap between us. However, they're quite normal because they're not used to having a homestay program. Most of Japanese who is willing to have a foreign guest at their house are kind and friendly, but to be honest, we're not flexible at the bottom of our heart. We don't normally say 'NO' clearly for the others. Even if we say 'okay', we would think like "it's not okay, you'll notice it by yourself because it's a common sense." It's the Honne(the truth) and Tatemae(what we say) of Japanese. We often say the word "atarimae", it means "natural, common, normal, of course...". When we think it's "atarimae", we don't say it. There are some cases like "atarimae" for Japanese on the tutorial, so the host family didn't tell them to Peter. It's the fault of the host family. On the other hand, Peter should help the host family something if he appreciate their kindness. The common sense depends on the country. I think we have to talk a lot to understand each other. Thank you for the great topic ;) I mentioned about the difference of "mina san" and "minna san" before though, I explain about it again. in this case, "mina san" みなさん is correct. "minna" is used in a casual situation, so when you add "-san"('-san' is a polite way to call someone), you have to say "mina san", not "minna san". correction: ようこそ = welcome さん = san (sa = さ / n = ん） ウェブサイト = website ではまた = See ya later いいリンクをありがとうございました。 (Thank you for the good link.) tomoka | |
| bitt | Thursday 03rd of March 2005 11:13:02 PM |
| Yβ ^^ - hi!! watashi wa mai-asa roku-ji-han ni okimasu sore kara (ore) ko-hi o dorinku (desu). hachi-ji goro asa-gohan o tabemasu. I try to write 10 parts of my day to check how much i know japanese alredy and to improve it. Can you tell did i spell that right? and by the way, is greeting "yβ" right or is it writed differently? ps. your exercises were a lot of help arigatou gozaimasu ^^ | |
| tomoka | Friday 04th of March 2005 10:13:53 AM |
| - Yaa, bitt :D Thank you for the post. やあ(yaa) means 'Hi' or 'Hey', this is used in a casual situation. However, we don't normally say 'yaa' in Japan. When you happened to meet your friends, you may say: "Hi, Tom! How are you doing?". ...in Japanese we omit 'Hi' and just say "Tom! genki?", or men say "oo", "yo" often instead of "yaa" like "oo, Tom! Genki?", "yo, Tom! Genki?" and women say "a" like "a, Tom! Genki?" These are used in a casual situation for friends or family. If you want be polite when you visit Japan, it's better to say "konnichiwa"(hello) :) bitt-san's sentence: watashi wa mai-asa roku-ji-han ni okimasu sore kara (ore) ko-hi o dorinku (desu). hachi-ji goro asa-gohan o tabemasu. the correction: watashi wa mai-asa roku-ji-han ni okimasu sore kara (watashi) wa koohii wo nomi (masu). hachi-ji goro asa-gohan wo tabemasu. I drink coffee = watashi wa koohii wo nomi masu in this case, you can't say "desu". When you say "..wa ~desu", the subject should be equal the predicate. for example: watashi wa gakusei desu. (I am a student.)...correct watashi(I) = gakusei(student) "desu" watashi wa 18 sai desu. (I'm 18 years old.)...correct watashi(I) = 18 sai(18 years old) "desu" I study Japanese. watashi wa nihongo wo benkyou "desu"... (not correct) watashi wa nihongo wo benkyou shi "masu"...(CORRECT) To write Japanese sentence as possible as you can will be a good practice for your Japanese. Please post again, and it would be better if you write them also in English for other Japanese learners :) ganbatte kudasai ;) tomoka | |
| RedSamurai | Friday 04th of March 2005 10:51:09 PM |
| - おはよう みな さん! ;) ( Morning everybody! ) ようこそ ビツ さん :) (Welcome Bitt-san) トモカ せんせい , たくさん きょうせい を ありがとう ございました! (Tomoka sensei, thanks for your many corrections !) I'm not sure about it :D Tomoka-san, how are you? I hope you're doing just great ;) I wanted to ask you - sorry if i ask too much - about the differnce between the makers "は"(wa) and "が" (ga) , because i'm learning to make compound sentences using more than one verb, and i kinda know that both が (ga) and は (wa) will be used in the same sentence. So how can I say for example: * Traveling to Japan will make your Japanese better. More complex version: * Traveling to Japan will help you improving your Japanese. ほんと に かんしゃ する! (Thank you VERY much!) I heard it in an anime... ;) では また :) (I'll see you later) | |
| tomoka | Saturday 05th of March 2005 08:40:34 PM |
| - Konnichiwa Red-samurai-san, Hai, watashi wa genki desu. (Yes, I'm fine, thanks.) thanks for your many corrections = iroiro to shuusei wo arigatou many is 'takusan' in Japanese. but in this case, iroiro(various) is better I think. Generally, は(wa) is a topic marker as for old information. (the hiragana は(ha) pronounce 'wa' after noun/noun clause) Q: anata wa ima nani wo shite imasu ka? (what are you doing now?) A: watashi wa ryouri wo shite imasu.(I'm cooking now.) が(ga) is a subject marker. It marks the new subject of a sentence or the person doing the action. Q: dare ga imasu ka?(who is there?) A: makoto-san ga imasu.(There is makoto.) (Generally) traveling to Japan will make your Japanese better. (Nihon he ryokou suru koto 'wa' anatano nihongo wo jhoutatsu saseru darou.) If you ask me 'WHAT is the best way to improve your Japanese', I'll answer, Nihon he ryokou suru koto 'ga' anatano nihongo wo jhoutatsu saseru darou. (This 'ga' indicates the emphasis for WHAT) kore wa oishii desu. (This is delicious.) kore 'ga' oishii desu. (This is delicious among all of the dishes.) tomoka | |
| utsumi | Sunday 06th of March 2005 07:41:25 AM |
| - Konnichiwa minna san ( hi everyone ) o genki desuka ? ( how are you ?) Tomoka san , arigatou gozaimasu hum... today , i have listened to japanese frases sounds , and watched japanese learning videos (Georges and Keiko) It was really great i can say lol. Do you know their show ? It was really difficult at the beginning because i didn't understand anything else (they spoke too fast) lol but later my hears started adapting . I wonder if i would understand japanese when i'll go there loool ^^" it is a little bit embarrassing.^^"" use of "mae ni" and "ato de" (before and after) i would like to know if the use of those two words is correct and if the tense are correct too : Before eating , i wash my hand taberu mae ni , te wo araimasu Before going to the cinema , i have to do my home work Eiga wo mite ni iku mae ni , jibun no shukudai o shinakereba naranaiyo After having watched Tv , I go to bed terebi wo mitta ato de , beddo ni ikimasu After having eating and drinking with friends at the restaurant , i go back home resutoran de tomodachi to isshoni tabeta ya nonda ato de , uchi ni kaerimasu use and meaning of " tsumori da " (in present, past and futur) and "hazu da" I have a doubt of the meaning of the word tsumori da when using in different tenses. example : I'm sure that my brother is at home Ani wa uchi ni itte tsumori da how can we express that in the past , in the futur ? The use of Hazuda also make me confused. It seems to be the same translation as Tsumorida but it seems to be used in different way that i can't see. use of "motte iru" and "ga aru" (to have) sometimes , i wanna use motte iru and sometimes ga aru. But how to choose?? example : I have a project for tomorrow watashi wa ashita no yotei ga aru / motte iru I don't know what i have to choose between them. ^^" well , thanks for reading my message :) Messeji o yonda kurete arigatou :) A bientτt , see ya , mata ne ^^ Anna | |
| Monday 07th of March 2005 07:42:53 PM | |
| - こんにちわ アンナ さん! (konnichiwa Anna-san) Salut Anna! Sorry if I interrupt your question, but I just wanted to get your attention on a little detail on your message: * As Tomoka-sensei said before: when used next to "さん" "san" , "みんな" "minna" is used instead of "みな" "mina" ;) Well that's pretty much it :D あなた の にほんご わ いい です よ! (Anata no nihongo wa ii desu yo!) Your Japanese is really good ;) Ok, goodbye... :) じぁ, さよなら... :) Au revoir... :) | |
| adshap | Tuesday 08th of March 2005 05:42:25 AM |
| - こにちは ともこさん。いい先生です。ところで、何をすんでいますか。ニュウヨオクにすんでいます。日本はとてもきれいだと思います。七月いきます。 (Hello Tomoko-san. You are a good teacher. By the way, where do you live? I live in New York. I think Japan is very beautiful. I will go there in July) I've been watching these posts for a while, and I think what you are doing is great. It gives people a really good chance to learn and practice. I am currently a lvl 2 student of Japanese at my college, and try to get as much exposure to it as possible. I have a long way to go. I really wish I had more speaking practice though. Anyway, I have a quick question about short form. Let's say you are trying to say the sentence (it is cold) and you want to use ne or yo at the end. Is it feminine to use da, or is it feminine not to use da. For example, ("samui da yo" "samui da ne") or ("samui yo""samui ne") Which one would a guy use? ありがとうございます。 -アダム | |
| KillingAlchemyx | Tuesday 08th of March 2005 07:05:39 AM |
| haven't been here in a while :( - question.. about your "when you fall in love" lesson... blue ones are for guys saying to girls, correct? | |
| tomoka | Tuesday 08th of March 2005 08:03:18 AM |
| - Konnichiwa adshap-san, message wo arigatou! (Hello adshap, thank you for the message) Watashi wa miyagi-ken ni sunde imasu, miyagi ken wa honshuu ni ari masu. (I live in Miyagi prefecture, which is in the Main land.) where do you live = doko ni sunde imasu ka? 何(nani) = WHAT, どこ(doko) = WHERE New York = ニューヨーク koukan ryuugakusei toshite nihon ni kimasu ka? (Will you come to Japan as an exchage student?) ganbatte kudasai :) (I hope you'll enjoy staying in Japan, good luck!) about the sentence "It's cold"(samui): about the temperature like samui, we don't add '-da' like 'samui da', we just say "samui"(in a casual way) or "samui desu"(in a polite way). as the same, we say "atsui"(It's hot), "suzushii"(It's cool), "mushi atsui"(It's humid). It's complicated, but 'da', 'ne', 'yo' and else are used in various ways. We can say 'samui ne' or 'samui yo'(but never add '-da' like samui da ne) but it depends on the conversation. the emphasis or the agreement: A: Kyou wa samui ne! (It's cold today!)... it indicates emphasis B: un, samui yo ne. Kogoe sou..(yeah, I'm freezing.)... it indicates agreement the emphasis and the objection: A: Samui yo! mado shimete. (hey, close the window! I'm freezing.)... it indicates emphasis or complaint B: zenzen samuku nai yo. (It's not cold at all.)... it indicates objection In these conversations, it doesn't matter weather A or B is a man or a woman. On the other hand, it's different to add "ne" or "yo" or else after the word "sou"(right). A: Samui ne. (It's cold, isn't it?) ....men and women say it B: Sou ne(absolutely) ... only women say it A: Samui na. (It's cold, isn't it?) ... men say it B: Sou da na. (absolutely)... men say it Generally, only men say '-na/da na' and only women say '-wa/wa yo/-ne'... well, there are so much cases, so you have to learn various ways. Please write lots of Japanese sentence and get used to saying them :) -------------------------------------------------- Anna-san, Your way of writing "mae ni" and "ato de" (before and after) are correct :) well done! I'm sure that my brother is at home >>> ani wa uchi ni iru hazu da. (present tense/ future tense) ani wa uchi ni iru hazu datta. (past tense) I'm going to stay here >>> watashi wa koko ni iru tsumori da.(present tense/ future tense) watashi wa koko ni iru tsumori datta. (past tense) hazu >>> use to guess other's action tsumori >>> use to say your action tomoka | |
| tomoka | Tuesday 08th of March 2005 08:04:16 AM |
| - KillingAlchemyx-san, Yes, you're correct! | |
| Maraja | Tuesday 08th of March 2005 10:20:59 PM |
| - Just dropped by to post this link [url]http://flcl.lain.sk/japanese.htm[/url] in case some of you didn't see the topic I started about it. I think this will be great help for me (and you) when learning Japanese, since it's a whole book. :D Tomoka-sensei, I see you have new photo, nice! I have not been so devoted to my Japanese studies lately... Regular school is taking too much of my time. I'm in toughest semester of high school right now, although I know I should not complain, since I know Japanese pupils study a lot more. | |
| RedSamurai | Wednesday 09th of March 2005 04:55:12 AM |
| - こんにちわ みな さん! (hello everybody !) げんぎ いて ほしい I hope you're doing just well ;) (Is it correct?) トモカ せんせい, かいせつ を ありがとう ございました :) (Tomoka-sensei, thank you for your explanation) ここ に いて います こと は にほんご の ぎじゅつ ほんと に あがります よ! Being here, really improves my Japanese skills! ( I used "は" (wa) since i think it's a general idea ;) ) These days, i've been watching a Japanese TV channel (JSTV i think) and the way the news are presented got my attention: Since the only thing in Japanese I ever watched is Anime, I was kinda surprised by the tone of the speaker. I found it a little bit strange! So i wanted to ask Tomoka-san if it's a common way to speak in TV in Japan :) P.S: Sorry if the question is somehow outside from the classic language questions :) ぼく の しゅくだい へ かえなければ なりません, さよなら! I must get back to my homework, Goodbye ;) | |
| tomoka | Wednesday 09th of March 2005 09:22:06 AM |
| - Konnichiwa maraja-san :) Hisashiburi!(long time!) :D wow~it was the great link! Thank you for your post! I can fully understand that you've been busy for school works. High school students in all over the world must be really busy to study. Ganbatte kudasai! こんにちわレッドサムライさん みんなが げんきに してると いいな minna ga genki ni shiteru to ii na. (I hope you're doing just well) ...this is a casual way... ～（だ）といいな = I hope / I wish in a formal way, みなさんに げんきで いてほしいです minasan ni genki de ite hoshii desu. ...ほしい(hoshii) is normally translated as "to want", but in this case, to express the feelings of "I hope", I translated "げんきでいてほしい" I hope = 'watashi wa kibou suru' in literally However, to make the phrase natural, we just say （～だと）いいな (~dato)iina in a casual way. If we say like this, it sounds unnatural: watashi wa anatatachi ga genkina koto wo kibou shimasu. (I hope you're doing just well) This is correct but it sounds too formal. Normally we don't say "kibou shimasu"(I hope), we just say "~dato (iina to) omoimasu", it's still unnatural a bit though... Your way of using 'は(wa)' was correct! ;) ここにいることは にほんごのぎじゅつを ほんとうにかいぜんさせる Being here, really improves my Japanese skills! or the natural way in Japanese is: ここにいると にほんごのぎじゅつが あがる (While I'm here, I can improve my Japanese skills) Thank you for the compliment :D On TV, they speak very formal while they read news, I can say it's a common way on business in Japan. On the other hand, in anime, they talk very casual and they express their feelings very much. Because of it, it's no wonder you're surprised to watch Japanese News on TV :) I must get back to my homework = shukudai ni modora nakucha. back = "kaeru" and also "modoru" OK: ie ni modoru(kaeru), shukudai ni modoru NG: shukudai ni kaeru Normally, 'kaeru' is used only when you talk about 'place'. | |
| utsumi | Wednesday 09th of March 2005 05:17:05 PM |
| - Konnichiha minna san (i everyone) genki desuka ? ( how are u ) thank you very much Tomoka san for your help :) I wanted to know if you knew the group " Spitz " It should be a great success in Japan with their beautiful songs . What do you think about ? U know yesterday mother and i went to the Hotel ( in Paris) to give something to aunt (who 's hostess) and we were waiting for her in the hall . Suddenly , There was a Japanese Tourism group who came next to us. alalala looool :d i was so happy loool i tried to understand what they said lol ...(but anything) maybe 2 or 3 expressions lol -_- . I admire your people . It is sooo wise.^^" :$ I don't know if it was impolite to wish them a welcome like that...so i didn't say anything lool -_-""... it was impressive . yet I always see japaneses loool -_-... After that .. maybe 20/30 minutes later, they went upstairs to their bedrooms .. and there was still an old woman and old man. They were searching for something ( certainly how to go to their bed room) ... erf ... -_- i wanted to help them speaking in japanese lool... in my dreams lool my mother said me to go to ask them if they needed something-_- i couldn't .. well, lool sorry to bother u with this ^^" Do you know somes youth Hotels in Tokyo ? I read that Spring and Autumn were the 2 better saisons for coming to Japan . Spring must be really comfortable and beautiful with Sakura Hana :D do you like it ? what is your favorite saison ? well , thanks for reading Yonda kurete arigatou Mata ne Anna | |
| tomoka | Wednesday 09th of March 2005 08:08:07 PM |
| - Anna-san, Watashi wa Spitz ga daisuki desu! Karera no kyoku wa totemo kirei desu. (I LOVE Spitz! Their songs are so beautiful!!) You should have taken courage in talking to the Japanese people. Your Japanese is understandable so they would have appreciated your help... Normally we Japanese don't talk to strangers, but we would appreciate your friendliness or kindness. We're kinda shy but it doesn't mean we don't want to talk to people, especially while we travel around. matane!(see you soon) tomoka | |
| makoto | Thursday 10th of March 2005 05:06:02 AM |
| - konnichiwa minasan!! I've read recent post and I'm learning a lot. Thank you very much. Questions are very interesting, and Tomoka's answers are really clear and useful. Minasan, doomo arigatou gozaimasu. And thank you very much Tomoka san for the information in last post. Next week many people from around the world will come to my city,Barenshia niwa hi no matsuri ga arimasu kara. It's the only time in the year I have chance to speak japanese in my city. But my case is very similar to Anna. I understand very well what hapened to you. I'm afraid to look rude or bother someone. In the other hand I would like to speak japanese. I don't know what to do. Well, now I'm studing difference between: "doa ga shimatte imasu" VS "doa ga shimete arimasu". To see the difference between these sentences is a little hard to me. arigatou gozaimasu, dewa mata Makoto | |
| RedSamurai | Thursday 10th of March 2005 06:04:06 AM |
| - こんにちわ みな さん! (Hi everybody!) トモカ さん, ふつご べんきょう します か ? (Tomoka-san, Do you learn French?) なにもの しゅつだい を もてば, かねない ください! (If you have any question, please don't hesitate!) ;) あなた を たすけて いる こと わ ぼく を とても うれしい させる よ! (Helping you would make me very happy) :) Well, that would be all for sentences in Japanese; I think I made enough mistakes :D Anna-san, I personaly had the same problem with the first contact with a Japanese. And I've gotta say that I hesitated a lot before going talk to him, but then you feel how kind, honest and communicative Japanese people are (Tomoka-san, it's not a compliment! It's the truth);) So I think it would have been good if you have talked to those two Japanese tourists. Anyway since you meet a lot of Japanese people, be sure to go talk to them especially that your Japanese is GOOD ;) Okey everybody, see ya later! また ね! | |
| tomoka | Thursday 10th of March 2005 08:17:33 AM |
| - Minasan, konnichiwa!(Hello, eveyone) makoto-san, "doa ga shimatte imasu" VS "doa ga shimete arimasu" Both of them indicate the state "to close", the difference is: doa ga shimatte imasu: It just indicates /the state/, "the door is closed" doa ga shimete arimasu: 'shimete aru' indicates /SOMEONE/ was closed the door. "I" was closed the door. To call someone's attention or to reconfirm, we often say "~shite arimasu", for example: child: dekakete mo ii? (Can I go out?) mother: shukudai wa 'shite aru' n deshou ne?! (Make sure you finish your homework.) child: chanto shite arimasu! (Sure, I already finished it.) A: doa wa aite imasu ka? (Is the door open?) B: iie, bouhan no tame ni shimete arimasu. (No, I always close the door to prevent crimes.) RedSamurai-san, Je parle le francais un peu, mais j'ai oublie que j'ai etudie... In Kanji, we write 仏語(futsu go), but when we talk we say フランス語(furansu go). If you have any question, please don't hesitate>> nanika shitsumon ga attara, enryonaku kiite kudasai. to hesitate = chuucho suru, so in leterally, "please don't hesitate" is "douzo chuucho shinaide kudasai" in japanese. However, enryo naku(not to reserve) is better :) As I thought you omitted "to ask" after the word 'hesitate', I added "kiite(to ask)", thus "enryonaku kiite kudasai" = "Please don't hesitate to ask" :) tu as compris? :D (wakari mashita?) (I'm sorry as I normally talk with 'tu' form, I don't know 'Vous' forms much...) ありがとうございます(arigatou gozaimasu) :) tomoka | |
| Honoumaru | Sunday 13th of March 2005 05:33:52 AM |
| - Konnichiwa Tomoka-sensei While watching many anime, I've noticed, in a series called "Bleach", the term for "death god" was "shinogami". I was wondering when would one know when to pronounce certain letters in certain ways? What I mean is that instead of "shino[u]k[/u]ami", they say "shino[u]g[/u]ami. arigatou gozaimasu | |
| utsumi | Sunday 13th of March 2005 07:34:48 AM |
| - Konnichiwa:) (Hello) o genki desuka ? (how are u ?) shumatsu (no) wa dou datta/deshita ka ? (how was your week end ?) Doyobi wa , Nihon no machi (Paris no naka ni aru yo^^ Louvres bijutsukan chikaku ni wa)ikitta node , takusan nihon no resutoran ya tokoya mou , omoshiro hon'ya nado ... jissai ni wa , (if it wasn't the first time ) (sorry^^") noni , ureshii odoriki datta lol (it was just the second time i went there lol^^"2 years ago) Saturday , as i went to the japanese town (in Paris near the Louvres museum) , there were a lot of restaurants , hair dressers , book shop ^^ it was really interesting , and even if it wasn't the first time i went there ( it as the second time ) it was a great suprise ^^" RedSamourai san , lol ^^ Furansu ni sundeiru ka ? minna san , "nobody knows" eiga wo mitta koto ga aru n'desuka? (have u ever seen the movie " nobody knows " ?) nani wo koto wo omotteiru ka ? (hum..i have a doubt) (what do you think about ?) hiiki no eiga ichiban suki wa nan desuka ? (ure favourite movie is?) .... Before going to shool , i clean my room gakkou ni iku mae ni , heya no souji o shite okimasu. kτhξ wo irette okimasu I prepare cofee. The use of "okimasu" is clear but sometimes its hard to know if we have to use it or use another form. Can we say : Heya ni iru mae ni , kutsu wo nukitte okimasu (before entering in the room , take off your shoes) or heya ni iru mae ni , kutsu wo nukitte kudasai (before entering in the room , take off your shoes) .... Keiko: Yuri kun , Coca cora no bin wa doko ni aru no ? Yuri: ..ano.. sumimasen ga, cora wo nonde shimattayo Keiko: e! -_- paati no tame ni atta -_- Yuri: sumimasen :( Keiko: Yuri kun , where's the coca cola bottle ? Yuri: well, i'm sorry but i have finished all the coca ^^" Keiko: what ! but it was for the party -_- Yuri: i'm really sorry :( Does the little dialogue sounds correct with the use of "te+shimau"? .... Yuri: Kei chan , kitte kudasai (kei chan , come on) Keiko: un, nani shiteru no? (ya, what happened?) Yuri: iie, nandemonai ga , kore wo mitte , kono tsukue wa kirei ne ? katte ! (nothing but look at this table , isn't it cute? buy it!) Keiko: sou ne , kirei keredomo, chotto taka sugi nai kashira... (yes it is , but a little bit expensive) Yuri: ano...kore ni wa amari takakunai ne sono ue , totemo kirei ne (hum... and this one is less expensive and really beautiful , isn't it ?) Keiko: sou ne , katte !^^(ho yes, buy it) ^^" well , i wish it was understandable lol messeji wo yonda kirete arigatou thanks for reading my message Mata ne ! | |
| gelsk | Monday 14th of March 2005 12:28:18 AM |
| hajime mashite - i'm new here..i just found out about this site today.first of all, my name is george..i'm from malaysia..can someone tell me where can i get a good site to learn japanese..i found one...but it is an advanced site..if any of you are interested..you can logged on to //www.nhk.or.jp/english from there you go to "learn japanese" button on the top. | |
| kantasan | Monday 14th of March 2005 06:14:41 AM |
| - konnichiwa. My name is christoffer and i`m new here. I am very eager to learn japanese, and i hope i can learn much from you tomoka-sensei. my interrest in the japanese language started when i watched anime for the first time. i fell in love with the language and culture at once. i know a little bit of the language but not much, and therefor i hope i can learn much here. | |
| tomoka | Monday 14th of March 2005 11:40:05 AM |
| - Konnichiwa minasan!(Hello, everyone!) Youkoso(Welcome) Honoumaru-san, george-san, christoffer-san :) Honoumaru-san, shinigami（しにがみ）is the right way to read 死に神（死神） 神（かみ） is pronouced 'kami', but it turns "gami" when the Kanji 死(it means 'death') is added before the Kanji 神(it means God). george-san, you can learn Japanese from basics in this website: http://japanese.about.com/mmore.htm Anna-san, Hai, watashi wa genki desu.(Yes, I'm fine, thank you.) I have to take an ikabana practice exam once a month and it was on the last Saturday. Because of it, I was a bit busy. what do you think about it = sore wo dou omoi masu ka? what is your favorite movie? = suki na eiga wa nan desu ka? heya ni hairu mae ni, kutsu wo nuide kudasai (before entering the room , please take off your shoes.) 'shite okimasu' indicates "in advance", "beforehand". We mention the reason why we do it beforehand, when we say 'shite okimasu'. yoru dekakeru node, shukudai wo ima shite okimasu. (I do my homework now, because I'm going to go out tonight.) Dosoku genkin to kiite iru node, koko de kutsu wo nuide okimasu. (We hear this place is 'No outdoor shoes allowed', we put off our shoes here.) it was for the party = paatii no tame datta yes, the use of "te+shimau" is correct. "te shimau" indicates the past perfect. | |
| RedSamurai | Monday 14th of March 2005 07:45:30 PM |
| - こんにちわ みな さん ;) (Hi everybody) ひさしぶり だ な! (Long time no see!) ようこそ キリストハー さん, ほのうまる さん と ジョージョ さん! (Welcome christoffer-san, honoumaru-san and george-san) ともか せんせい, もう いちど ありがとう ございました ;) (Tomoka-sensei, once again thank you very much) アンナ さん, (Anna-san) はい, ふらんす に ご ねん まえ すんで いました (Yes, I was living in France 5 years ago) ふらんす わ とても きれい だ よ ;) (France is really beautiful) ジョージョ さん, (George-san) Here's a list of sites ,I used to stop by, that may help you in your Japanese studies: * www.japanese-online.com (Good for conversation skills) * www.freejapaneselessons.com (A good one for grammar) * www.timwerx.net/language/jpverbs/lesson1.htm (I just found it today :D It's huge, and contains much more than basics) * www.japanese-about.com (As tomoka-san listed it before) I hope I helped a little ;) この おかしいな サイツ を みて ください: (Take a look on this funny site: ) http://www.uebersetzung.at/twister/ja.htm I also wanted to ask you Tomoka-sensei about the use (present,past...) of ござる (gozaru). I've seen it used frequently in Anime, so is my use of it correct: なぜ あなあ わ かなしい で ござる か? (Why are you sad?) しょあ... また ね (well then...See ya!) | |
| tomoka | Tuesday 15th of March 2005 10:54:01 AM |
| - Konnichiwa minasan :) RedSamurai-san, ひさしぶり is better than ひさしぶり だな -だな sounds very casual or a bit rough for us :) well, it's not bad because you're a man though... christoffer = クリストファー george = ジョージ site = サイト about ござる (gozaru) :D This is really old Japanese way to say "です(desu)" Mainly, it was saying by samurai during Edo-period. Yes, it is = そうでござる or さようでござる Why are you sad = なぜあなたはかなしいでござるか？ well, it sounds funny even it's an old saying, but in anime or manga, the characters often talk funny or strange to create the original world in the story :) じゃあまたね！(then, see you later) | |
| samoansamurai | Friday 18th of March 2005 08:47:31 AM |
| atarashii seito - minnasan hajemimashite. boku no namae ha Saimon desu. Nuujirando kara kimashita. ima nihon no fukushima ken ni sunde imasu. ichi nen han nihon ni sunde imasu. nihon ni kuru no toki ga nihongo wo benkyou shite hajemimashita. nihon to nihongo ga daisuki desu. mainichi ni nihongo wo benkyou shite imasu kedo ima, watashino nihongo ha maamaa dato omoimasu. sumimasen. Tomoka sensei he, anata ha subarashii desuyo. takusan me-ro wo kotaemashita. taihen desune! takusan shitsumon ha kantan dato omoimasu, kareraha intaneto de shiraberu bekki desu. hidoi dato omoimasu. dakara anata ga isogashii dayo! dakedo, anatano oshie ha jouzu desuyo, arigatou gozaimashita! itsuka, watashitachi ha au kotoga dekimasu. watashitachino ken ha chikaku desu. watashino okaasan ga sendai ni sunde imasu, kanojo ha eigo no sensei desu. ima watashi to chuugakkou no eigo no sensei desu, kono shigoto ga daisuki desu yo. ima watashino reberu ha 4kyuu desu kedo, sugu 2kyuu no testo wo shitai, kore kara takusan nihongo wo benkyou shite imasu. katakana to hiragana ha kantan dato omoimashita kedo, ima kanji wo manande imasu. honto ni nihongo ha daisuki desu. yorushiku onegaishimasu. simon. [samurai to yonde kunansyou] | |
| samoansamurai | Friday 18th of March 2005 08:59:13 AM |
| to new learners of Japanese - It is a great idea to learn words and phrases, this is obviously for communication and watching or listening to Japanese. However, the best thing I can say to you is that you should really learn Hiragana and katakana, they are really not that difficult! It took me only about 3 hours solid study to learn each script, so 6 hours in all. Then I did a lot of practice after that. But here is the secret to my success. I used a really good book, actually two books the first is called "Hiragana Gambatte" and the other was called "Katakana Gambbatte" their system is that you make word associations with each of the characters, it's really simple. For example a is for artist, if you can imagine the artist with a paint brush that goes along, then the platter going down, then the fancy artists curve that goes around like a loop, there you have it! and it goes on. All you do is build little pictures in your mind which prompt you into remembering the character. Then I made sheets using excel to help me write them out a lot of times. Hiraga and katakana will help you out a whole lot, you can't read kanji, but if the kanji has furigana (small hiragana next to it) then you can read it. You will severely limit yourself if you don't learn these two simple scripts. Also, don't bother to learn the za, ba, pa and jya type lines. they are just combinations of others, so just learn the basic lines first, the rest will come. Sit down one Saturday morning and by dinner time, you'll have the two scripts sussed!. Gambatte kudasai. | |
| tomoka | Friday 18th of March 2005 12:44:17 PM |
| - Konnichiwa Saimon-san :) Is it better for you to call Samurai? :D Thank you for the post:) It's good to see you here. watashi wa nyuujiirando ga daisuki desu!(I LOVE New Zealand) It's amazing that you speak Japanese so well inspite of living in Japan only for a year and a half! korekara mo ganbatte kudasai :) (Keep doing the good job!) tomoka | |
| monkeytamer | Sunday 20th of March 2005 06:17:19 PM |
| - Watashi wa nihongo o benkyo shita. Demo rainen taisetsu na shiken ga aru node kurasu o yamemashita. Sore de.. sukoshi mondai ga aru. Ima benkyoshinai dakara nihon go wo wasurenai no yoo ni nani wo shinakereba narimasen? Sore kara... kanji wo naraitai kara nani ka ichiban ii hoohoo desu ka? Gomenasai ne... watashi no nihon go ga mada mada jozu desu. | |
| hanyou_girl | Sunday 20th of March 2005 11:36:50 PM |
| can you find it in youre heart? - konnichwa Tomoka-san! My name is keyana.i wanted to know, if you could find it in youre heart to give some time to maybe personnally teach me japanese. maybe on msn or something! DOUZO! I have seen youre tutorial, and i have show many people, and they are excited to learn aswell. i will have you know i would work very hard, and do my very best! you see, i want japanese lessons, but where i am, they are not available! DOUZO! please teach me! be my sensei! -hanyou_girl | |
| Andhera | Monday 21st of March 2005 05:37:39 AM |
| - Ohayou minna-san! ogenki desu ka? Hanyou-san, tomoka-san has already been requested (by me and a couple other people) to be a personal sensei, but unfortunately she doesn't have the time. She is actively completing the translation database on Phrasebase, and is occupied with other things in her life. Maybe all of us beginners could find one person willing to give out a group Classroom lesson and learn from him/her collectively, ne? (Her response to a similar question is lurking around page 2/3/4-ish if you wish to check it out.) On the topic of lessons, I have a request of someone who is somewhat fluent in japanese. Although I don't have much of a hard time memorizing grammatical rules and vocabulary, it is quite different when actually implementing them into sentences. Can someone please help me get started off with creating fairly basic conversational sentences and translating japanese sentences into english? It would be very helpful since I am not fully sure if I'm making correct sentences, since i get mixed up with some verb and adjective conjugations, etc. We could co-ordinate it through e-mail, MSN, AIM, and perhaps even Yahoo. So please, would anyone be interested in helping me? Arigatou gozaimasu. | |
| KillingAlchemyx | Monday 21st of March 2005 12:52:50 PM |
| - so, I watched this movie from Japan. It was REALLY awesome. and it was subtitled but I could still understand a few words that I learned here ^_^ it was fun. oh yeah the movie was "Casshern". WONDERFUL movie. If you haven't seen it, ORDER IT AND SEE IT ^_^ | |
| tomoka | Monday 21st of March 2005 01:22:01 PM |
| - konnichiwa minasan! Ogenki desu ka? (Hello everyone, how are you?) monkeytamer-san, kore wa kaku koto wo manabu noni ii website desu yo :) This is a good website to learn writing. http://www.kanjistep.com/en/jlinks/ We need to keep using the language which we learnt, if not, we easily forget all of them. Why don't you teach Japanese to biginners? :D It'll be a good practice for everyone :) Andhera-san, Hisashiburi!(long time), benkyou wa dou desu ka?(How's your study?) I hope you all can find a good partner to improve japanese! Konnichiwa Keyana-san :) As Andhera-san mentioned, I don't have much time at this moment...I'm sorry... gomen nasai... I sent you some good links to learn Japanese from basics, so if you have any questions, please post here :) When I'll be available, I'll let you know here when we'll have online lessons on yahoo or something :) KillingAlchemyx-san, Casshern is the story of a cyborg, right? It was an old story but now it revived :) tomoka | |
| utsumi | Tuesday 22nd of March 2005 05:26:52 AM |
| Use of "koto" - Konnichiwa minna san o genki desuka ? (how are u ?) shumatsu wa dou deshita ka ? (how was your week end ?) Makoto san, We had a good Classroom last time ! Tanoshii kaiwa datta ! Speaking japanese everytime is a really good way to improve the langage . We also learn new vocabulary ! it's really practise ^^" i think that for every beginners like me , it's difficult to really know how to use "koto" .. Tomoka sensei , as you said us , "koto" is use for something which we can't see/ for feelings for example . But sometimes , we have to use it and we're lost because we don't really know when to use it . for example : I promise you that i'll show you my picture Watashi no shashin wo okuru koto wo yakusoku shimasu How to know that we have to employ it . When ? lol ^^" messeji wo yonda kurete arigatou Mata ne ! Anna | |
| tomoka | Tuesday 22nd of March 2005 09:42:00 AM |
| - konnichiwa minasan, anna-san, I promise you that i'll send you my picture (Watashi no shashin wo okuru koto wo yakusoku shimasu) okuru koto is the "action(koudou)", not the "thing (mono)" among "that I'll send", that indicates 'koto'. "koto wo/ga" indicates object/the objective case. I like you = watashi wa anata(no koto) ga suki desu ...(no koto) is omitted... I = watashi wa = subject like = suki desu = verb you = anata (no koto) ga = object There are some other cases so you have to get used to it. tomoka | |
| KillingAlchemyx | Tuesday 22nd of March 2005 01:59:46 PM |
| - Konnichiwa Tomoka-san right. "Casshern" is based on a 1973 anime. It's about a guy reincarnated with an invincible body to fight an 'iron devil'. | |
| tomoka | Tuesday 22nd of March 2005 02:50:25 PM |
| - nantonaku kanashii eiga datta no wo oboete imasu. (I remember it was somewhat sad movie.) This is a website of casshern. You can watch some preview on it before buying it :) I think it's cool. http://www.casshern.com/ tomoka | |
| RedSamurai | Tuesday 22nd of March 2005 08:42:16 PM |
| - おはよう:) (Hi!) ようこそ みな さん ;) (Welcome everybody!) しけん を すました ばかり :D (I just finished my exams) ともか せんせい, (Tomoka-sensei) おげんき です か? (How are you?) おうとつ を して すまない :( (I'm sorry for my roughness) RedSamurai-kun = ばか ばか ばか :D このことろ, にほん の えいが を みました... (Recently, I watched a Japanese film...) なまえ は "ざこいち" でした と おもいます (I think It's called "Zatoichi") しゅたい げいにん: きたの たけし が ほんと に いい でした よ!! (The main actor: Takeshi Kitano was really good!) I really liked this film ;) And if i'm not mistaking, this movie won two awards: * People's Choice Awards (Toronto Film Festival 2003) * Special Director's Award (Venice Film Festival 2003) I recommand it for all the Anime otaku!! にほんご に みて ください ;) (Please watch it in Japanese ;) ) One last question: How can I compare two things in Japanese? * Ex: A is (adj + er) than B また ね!! (See ya) | |
| tomoka | Wednesday 23rd of March 2005 11:47:10 AM |
| - Konnichiwa, minasan :) Red Samurai san, おうとつ を して すまない(I'm sorry for my roughness)>>> well, I think you mean ざつで すみません or ぶさほうで すみません :) このところ sounds a bit old, さいきん is better I think ;) さいきん よく ねむれません (Recently I can't sleep well.) The main actor = 主演俳優（しゅえんはいゆう） にほんご で みて ください (Please watch it in Japanese) about the question: How can I compare two things in Japanese? * Ex: A is (adj + er) than B A は B よりも （ ～ ） A wa B yori mo (adjective) for example: You are taller than me. あなたは わたし よりも せがたかい 'Zatouichi' is better than 'Last Samurai'. ざとういちは ラストサムライ よりも いい My salary is worse than yours. わたしのきゅうりょうは あなたのきゅうりょう より（も） わるい | |
| monkeytamer | Wednesday 23rd of March 2005 06:33:05 PM |
| - arigatou tomoko san! (thank you Tomoko-san) Tomoko san wo ageru rinku wa taihen benri desu. (The link tomoko-san gave me was very useful) Nihon go no tame ni watashi wa isshokenmei ganbaru! (I'll try must best to learn Japanese) Watashi no nihon go ga heta dakara moshi watashi wa burei sou sumimasen (I'm sorry if I sound rude because I'm not too good speaking in Japanese) | |
| tomoka | Wednesday 23rd of March 2005 07:36:26 PM |
| - konnichiwa monkeytamer-san, I'm sorry if I sound rude >>> moshi shitsureini kikoetara sumimasen no, no...you don't have to worry about it ;) ganbatte kudasai! tomoka | |
| tomoka | Wednesday 23rd of March 2005 08:14:17 PM |
| - This is a very good site to learn Japanese. You can learn Japanese in various languages here. http://www.nhk.or.jp/lesson/ It must be difficult for beginner, but it makes a good listening I think. | |
| Hamish17 | Wednesday 23rd of March 2005 08:57:52 PM |
| Learning Katakana/Kanji - Konichiwa Tomoka-san! Hajimemashite, watashi wa Hamish desu. i've been trying to learn japanese for a while now, thankfully i recently stumbled upon 'phrasebase' site, so far it's been really useful. i can speak basic phrases and i'm reasonable at reading hiragana, although i'm fairly slow ;) i was wondering if you had any suggestions for the best/easiest ways to learn/memorise katakana and kanji symbols? domo arigato | |
| greygin | Thursday 24th of March 2005 02:01:22 AM |
| - Hi there!! I'm a new member and I have been wanting to learn japanese...good thing I've stumbled upon this site and this forum becasue it's really helping me with the basic of learning japanese. I actually want to say thank you to tomoka-san for helpong..it's very helpful...:D | |
| bono_212 | Thursday 24th of March 2005 06:45:27 AM |
| konnichiwa - Hello I have been taking japanese for three years and I was really excited that on this post I am capable of not only understanding the Japanese, but also learning things to. You are truly great for doing this doomo arigato gozaimsu __ ( ) __ Ashley | |
| tomoka | Thursday 24th of March 2005 08:18:11 AM |
| - Konnichiwa minasan(Hello everyone), minasan no messeeji wa watashi wo shiawase na kimochi ni shimashita :) (Your messages made me happy.) Doumo arigatou!(Thank you very much) Hamish-san, Konnichiwa. well, I'm a Japanese so I get used to see Hiragana or other Japanese letters since I was a child. The best way is to use it everyday though, maybe other japanese learners give you a tip about your question ;) greygin-san, Please try to use some words you learnt like "Konnichiwa(Hello)", "Arigatou(Thank you)" :) It's good to memorize ;) Ashley-san, Dou itashi mashite(You're welcome) If you have any suggestions to beginners here, please post on japanese forum. It would be help for them :) tomoka | |
| bono_212 | Thursday 24th of March 2005 10:27:53 AM |
| - aw :D thanks :D If anything I would say that it does help very much to learn Hiragana and katakana, pretty much because romanji makes my eyes hurt :D and also, there are so many different ways to write romanji that it gets confusing. There's only one way to write and read any hiragana or katakana character. Another thing that helps if you want to learn the two alphabets is to make out flash cards for your self and get help from someone with them. That's what my nihongo no sensei(japanese teacher) had us do and it worked beautifully. Ashley | |
| tomoka | Thursday 24th of March 2005 01:38:32 PM |
| - Doumo arigatou, Ashley-san. in addtion to Ashley's comment, this link might help you. http://www.apricotweb.com/bbsClassroom/joycha_e.htm go to 'Learn Japanese' on the left, and check 'Basic Hiragana & Katakana' tomoka | |
| makoto | Friday 25th of March 2005 05:21:53 AM |
| - youkoso Hamish-san. Thank you very Tomoka san for asking about learners point of view about the question of how to learn japanese characters. Well, now I'm learning Kanji, but what I'll recommend is valid to learn Hiragana and katakana too. I think trying to do a visual memorizing is not the best way because we can miss some strokes on a character even we can recognize them. I think the optimize on learning to read hiragana and katakana is writing, writing and more writing. and It could be a simply thing, but the right order stroke is important to fix characters on our mind. At the beginning is hard, and in my case, I was very lazy to write. But you'll see is best way to fix on our mind. So don't try to memorize just reading, but writing. I hope it could be useful, Hamish. please tell about your progress on hirarana and katakana. Makoto | |
| caramelili | Saturday 26th of March 2005 06:29:26 AM |
| Thank you so much - Tomoka-sensei thank you so much for the information you provided at this site. I am sort of a linguistic and am trying to learn japanese before i set foot in Tokyo(you know, not to sound stupid to natives) and i want to learn more in order to be fluent. Thus i appreciate your help and look forward to visiting your site when you add more info to it. Thanxx ^_^ Lily | |
| tomoka | Saturday 26th of March 2005 07:46:50 PM |
| - Konnichiwa makoto-san こんにちわ、マコトさん (Hello, makoto!) Thank you for letting us know your point of view ;) "the right order stroke is important to fix characters on our mind"... Yes, exactly! When we start learning how to write Kanji, teachers teach us like that :) Lily-san, messeeji wo doumo arigatou!(Thank you for the message!) Hai, ganbatte lessun wo tsuika shimasu! (Okay, I'll do my best and add some more lessons.) tomoka | |
| bono_212 | Sunday 27th of March 2005 09:12:17 AM |
| - I accidently left that part out. On the flash cards he always has us write on the back the stroke order, the reading, the meaning (for kanji), and a compound word (also for kanji) It is very, veRY, VERY important to know the stroke order. Just wanted to let you know I agree with you ;). Ashley | |
| RedSamurai | Monday 28th of March 2005 12:53:05 AM |
| - こんにちわ みな さん ;) (Hello everybody) まこと さん, ひさしぶり :) (Makoto-san, long time no see) おげんき です か? (How are you?) ともか せんせい, (Tomoka-sensei,) あまい めっせえじ を ありがとう ございました ;) (Thank you for your sweet message!) Here are some sentences I made with "よりも" (yorimo) and some other expressions: * あなた の えいご は わたし の にほんご よりも とても いい :D (Your English is much better than my Japanese.) * にほん へ この なつ いけば, ふじ やま を たずねる つもり ;) (If I go to Japan this summer, I'm planning to visit the Fuji mountain). One last thing: I'd like please to know the diffrence between "いただく" (Itadaku) and "もらう" (Morau) :( I really don't know when to use one or the other, all I know is that いただく is more polite than もらう... また ね :) (See ya!) | |
| Andhera | Monday 28th of March 2005 06:12:21 AM |
| - Ohayou minna-san~ Ogenki desu ka? Recently I've learnt that "de irrashaimasu" is a more respectful way of saying "desu". Does that mean I can replace desu with de irrashaimasu anywhere? Like, is "Ogenki de irrashaimasu ka?" a proper question? Secondly, a friend and I have been struggling to find the meaning of a word "Shouganai". We assume it's a negation like shouga+nai. But we can't find the meaning of shouga. then we thought maybe shou+ga+nai, but we couldn't find the meaning of Shou either. As far as my experience i sort of translate it to "Can't be helped" or "there is no choice". Can someone please help us figure it out. Arigatou, ne. | |
| RedSamurai | Monday 28th of March 2005 08:00:41 PM |
| - Konnichiwa andhera-san! Genki desu yo! Arigatou gozaimasu :) About the word shouganai, you are right since it means "can't be helped" or in another ways "it's inevitable" "it's no use"... If I remember well, I read somewhere that it's an abreviation of "shikata ga nai" and that it's oftenly used in Japanese. Here's an example -that I found- of the use of "shouganai": * Monku ittatte shouganai yo! (It's no use to complaint!) If you need a good online dictionary, I recommand you this one: [url]www.csse.monash.edu.au/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/jwb/wwwjdic?1C[/url] It's a really good one ;) I hope I helped a little :) Jaa mata... | |
| tomoka | Tuesday 29th of March 2005 01:09:00 PM |
| - minasan, konnichiwa~ :) Red Samurai-san, Moshi kono natsu nihon he iku nara, Fujisan wo mini iku tsumori desu. もしこの夏（なつ）、日本（にほん）へ行（い）くなら、富士山（ふじさん）を見（み）に行（い）くつもりです。 (If I go to Japan this summer, I'm planning to visit the Mt.Fuji.) It sounds nice. I think you like the mountain scenery :) About the diffrence between "いただく" (Itadaku) and "もらう" (Morau): Yes, you're right. "itadaku" is more polite than "morau". Both of them mean 'receive', 'get', 'take', 'have'... The Keigo(honorific)"itadaku" express "accept (something) gratefully (with thanks)". Before we have meals, we say "itadaki masu!", the word "itadaki masu" express "we appreciate various things or people which gave us foods". Even in the casual situations, we don't say "morai masu" before eating. (at a shop) Can I have a carrier(shopping) bag? Normal: fukuro wo morae masu ka? Polite: fukuro wo itadake masu ka? "morau" sounds like "I take it for granted to have ~ ", on the other hand, "itadaku" sounds "I'd like to have ~ " (at friend's house) A: Does anybody want this CD? (dare ka kono CD hoshii?) B: Nope(iie) C: me, neither. (watashimo iranai...) D: okay then, I take it. (jyaa, watashi ga moratte oku.) "moratte oku" express "(I don't want it much but anyway) I take it." Andhera-san, "shouga nai" is a casual way to say "shikata ga nai" shikata = 'the way'/'how to', so "shikata ga nai" means "no way", or... yes, it can't be helped. "irasshaimasu" is a honorific. It's very polite way and normally it's used in business. When you talk to people in dairy life, you don't have to say "irasshai masu". tomoka | |
| Maki | Wednesday 30th of March 2005 10:44:13 PM |
| - Andhera-san, hajimemashite. I accidentally found your post. [quote][i]Originally posted by Andhera[/i] Secondly, a friend and I have been struggling to find the meaning of a word "Shouganai". We assume it's a negation like shouga+nai. But we can't find the meaning of shouga. then we thought maybe shou+ga+nai, but we couldn't find the meaning of Shou either. As far as my experience i sort of translate it to "Can't be helped" or "there is no choice". Can someone please help us figure it out. [/quote] I do think you made a really good guess. "Shouganai" is originally "Shiyou ga nai". (If I write it with Kanji, "仕様がない". I hope you can find it in your dictionary.) However, as you know, it is often pronounced like "Shouganai" and even written like that too. | |
| TJ_Anime | Thursday 31st of March 2005 06:58:49 AM |
| umm.. - Konnichiwa Tomoka-san...I have read your lessons, study for a few days and practiced with a friend...I've also been through many websites before I discovered Phrasebase.com and learned a little of this and that, but I've never seen a site break down the basics and tell me how I should start studying and actually learn. Can you help me? | |
| rahulchan | Thursday 31st of March 2005 06:19:30 PM |
| - minasan, わたしはあたらしめまぶるです。 ちょっとはなしってください。 どぞうようろしく。 ありがっとございました。 | |
| tomoka | Thursday 31st of March 2005 07:42:43 PM |
| - Konnichiwa, maki-san, TJ-anime-san, rahulchan-san, and minasan! TJ_Anime-san, How about this website? http://japanese.about.com/blbegin.htm | |
| RedSamurai | Saturday 02nd of April 2005 01:20:39 AM |
| - Konnichiwa mina-san! (Hello everyone!) Youkoso maki-san, TJ-san to rahulchan-san ;) (Welcome maki-san, TJ-san and rahulchan-san) romaji de kakimasu, watashi no laptop ni kana o arimasen kara :D (I don't have kana on my laptop, so I'll write in romaji ) Tomoka-sensei, I really appreciate your help! I'll never thank you enough for what you're doing... Anou... Ikebana no benkyou wa dou desu ka? (By the way... How are the Ikebana studies going ?) --------------------------- I was happy to see that I could understand more and more of the spoken Japanese on Anime :) But lately, I was kind of scared when I watched a movies in Japanese "Battle royale" -That I liked by the way ;)- God! They spoke so fast that the only thing I got from a sentence was the first and last words :D So, I was wonderng if that's how people talk in daily life? If that's the case, then I have to think seriously about improving my Japanese "reception skills" :) I also wanted to ask you please if it's hard to get a 1 month tourist VISA to Japan? | |
| tomoka | Saturday 02nd of April 2005 06:27:53 PM |
| - konnichiwa Red samurai-san, I don't think it's difficult to stay in Japan as a tourist for a month though, it's better to ask for the Japanese embassy in your country by email ;) In the movie "Battle royale", people speak so fast because the situation is unusual. It's natural you can't understand what they say. We don't speak Japanese like that in daily life :D Thanks for asking! My ikebana study is going well. I changed my job lately and it makes me busy...*phew* minasan, ogenki de! (take care, everyone!) tomoka | |
| bono_212 | Sunday 03rd of April 2005 01:05:57 AM |
| - you are studying ikebana? That's really cool (we just learned about that in Japanese class last week :D) Anyway, thanks for all you've done, it's greatly appreciated ____( )_____ | |
| tomoka | Tuesday 05th of April 2005 08:11:52 PM |
| - Konnichiwa :) If you're interested in ikebana, this is the website of Obara-ryuu(Obara style) ikebana. http://www.ohararyu.or.jp/english/index_e.html dou itashi mashite! (you're welcome!) tomoka | |
| TJ_Anime | Wednesday 06th of April 2005 06:07:01 AM |
| Konnichi wa...again - As well as studying the grammer, and such on the website you provided me, I also looked at the katakana and hiragana to side study writing in Japanese. What I found most difficult was determining which words would be written in hiragana, and which in katakana. Might you have advice on this? | |
| tomoka | Wednesday 06th of April 2005 08:30:47 PM |
| - Konnichiwa TJ-anime-san :) Katakana is used for "words of foreign origin" for example, coffee = koohii = コーヒー America = amerika = アメリカ shopping = shoppingu = ショッピング koohii wo nomu ...(to drink coffee) コーヒー を のむ Amerika ni iku ...(to go to America) アメリカ に いく | |
| utsumi | Wednesday 06th of April 2005 08:50:19 PM |
| konnichiwa minna san ! - hisashiburi ne :d genki desuka ? (how are u ):) Tomoka san no messeji de domo arigatou. ( thank you for your message Tomoka san)It helps us a lot :) And thanx for all the message you write here people XD REALLY HELPFULL !! For all student in japanese , i 'v bought mangas and i can say that it's really helpfull too to learn japanese even if it's really difficult to translet lol^^" but if you have bases , i think it's possible. For example "i's" from Mazakasu , is a good manga , funny , love story between students etc... :-) of course you should buy the japanese version and have the book in your langage lol^^" and a dictionary . it's really amazing to translet it !! :d Anna | |
| TJ_Anime | Thursday 07th of April 2005 01:42:45 AM |
| Oh! - Thats so obvious, I should have seen it sooner...also one more question... How do you determine which word is a foreign word or native? For example, lets use 'coffee', how would someone know to write it in hiragana or katakana if they had no idea if it is native or not? You've been a really great help! (Do you know if theres any site I could go to, to get software to type in japanese?) Arigatou, TJ | |
| RedSamurai | Thursday 07th of April 2005 10:36:20 AM |
| - Kombanwa mina-san! (Good evening everybody!) Tomoka-san, Ninmu kanryou! (Mission accomplished!) I contacted the Japanese Ambassy by phone, and they were very kind to me. They said that a tourist Visa to Japan isn't hard to get especially if it's for a period less than 1 month. I'm already picturing myself in the hot springs :D --------------------------- Anna-san, I really liked "I's" the video game. I didn't know that there was also a "I's" manga :) Anyway, I hope that the manga is as good as the game ;) What about your Japanese studies, Is it going well? ----------------------------- konnichiwa TJ_Anime-san! About your questoin on how to make the difference between foreign and native word, It's just about the prounciation of that word in Japanese: if it's pronounced like in the original language then it's a foreign word and thus shoud be written in Katakana ;) Example: * Coffee = Koofii = Koohii (In Japanese, Fi and Hi are the same) * Website = Webusaito As for the tools to use to type in Japanese try this link: [url]http://osdn.dl.sourceforge.jp/efont/10087/sazanami-20040629.tar.bz2[/url] All you have to do is to install the fonts from that link. Once done your browser will be able to read Kana & Kanji. If you want to type, you can use the "characters table". Start menu -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Character Tables. :) Well, I hope I was of some help ;) -------------------------------------- Sumimasen mina-san, honto ni nemui desu :D (Excuse me everyone, I'm really sleepy) Oyasumi nasai ;) (Good night!) | |
| tomoka | Monday 11th of April 2005 07:24:43 PM |
| - Konbanwa minasan!(good evening, everyone) Red Samurai-san, It's good to know you got the information that you need :) Also, thank you for answering the questions of TJ-anime-san. I couldn't come online for a few days, so I'm relieved to read your post. Doumo arigatou!! totemo nemui desu.(I'm very sleepy.) oyasumi nasai... (good night) tomoka | |
| Andhera | Thursday 14th of April 2005 05:19:59 AM |
| Practise - Ohayou minna~ Ogenki desu ne? Sumimasen. It's been so long since I've dropped by. Actually, I've picked up a course on tape and have been caught up with that as weel as school. The course is very helpful in teaching formal speaking and basic vocabulary. However, I feel I need a lot more practise to actually get all the concepts to memory. So, I was wondering if any one could recommend a few ways I could practise, since I do not have any japanese speaking friends to carry out conversations with. I'm a do-things type of person, and learn better with practise. So I look forward to your suggestions. ^__^ Arigatou~ Andhera. | |
