Japanese Language discussion

[Aru Sakayama]

I decided to make this thread for Japanese Language discussion. There used to be a thread talking about how much Japanese you know, but it ended up derailed and locked. I'll be posting Japanese language learning products, Japanese news, questions and other stuff in this thread.

I'm a bit pressed on money at the moment (especially with Fanime around the corner and hotel fare guaranteed to suck me dry), so I'll probably be bringing up old stuff in terms of products.

[Glitch]

sounds awsome. I've been getting better at my japanese this last year, but it's always been off and on due to work and school. I look forward to this.

[Aru Sakayama]

Oh, and feel free to post about Japanese language stuff yourself, too. :D

DS APP REVIEW: 漢字そのままＤＳ楽引辞典 (Kanji Sonomama DS Rakubiki Jiten)

This DS application, going for about 50 bucks over at Play-Asia, is a pretty good resource for anyone who is studying Japanese and owns a DS (or DSi). Sporting over 240,000 entries in its 3 dictionaries (E-to-J, J-to-E, and monolingual), it serves as a vast and affordable portable dictionary with lots of functions, including a bookmarking system to save and review terms later on. English terms (represented with blue text) give Japanese translations alongside numerous examples in the case of most common words. Japanese terms (yellow text) does the same with English translations instead. The monolingual dictionary works like any other monolingual dictionary in any language.

Handwriting recognition, at least in Japanese, is seamless. Unless you have really bad Japanese handwriting (or "unorthodox" English handwriting for inputting English), what you write is most likely going to be what you get. English handwriting may be a bit tricky at times, and the dictionary does give you the option to use the touchscreen QWERTY keyboard to input English as an alternative.

This application is in all-Japanese, meaning no romaji for those that don't know how to read or write Japanese text. However, the more Japanese you know, the more you can get out of this dictionary, especially the monodic which can come in handy for terms not available in the J-E dic. There's also some easter eggs in there as well...and I'll leave you to find those out on your own time. ;)

[Stythys]

I recently found a really neat method for learning japanese [http://jouzu.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/japanese].. will be starting on it soon -^^-. I also have the quick reference guides and sentence pack for anyone who wants 'em [http://files.twilightlair.net/ajatt]

[Aru Sakayama]

I tried doing AJATT a couple of years back in my early junior year in high school, and after exploring the method for about a few months, I just ended up giving up on it in the end.

Of course, some things about AJATT, I still do (like listening to, playing, and watching Japanese content), but not at the levels AJATT expects you to do. The amount of time this method has you investing in Japanese immersion is, IMO, a bit unrealistic, but if it works for certain people, it works. It sure worked for Khatzumoto, but I'm just keeping in mind that everyone may be different and might find this approach rather demanding, if not a bit uncomfortable.

[JTchinoy]

Can someone tell me how to say:
"how do you do this"
how do you say "..."
how do you get there?

it's been bugging me for a while now.

[Aru Sakayama]

Can someone tell me how to say:
"how do you do this"
how do you say "..."
how do you get there?

it's been bugging me for a while now.

This assumes you know your hiragana and your basic kanji, but I'll give romaji at the bottom just in case.

これをどうやるの？（or これをどうやりますか。）
kore o dou yaru no? (or kore o dou yarimasu ka?)

「．．．」は何と言うの？（or 「．．．」は何と言いますか。）
"..." wa nan to iu no? (or "..." wa nan to iimasu ka?)

どうやって行くの？（or どうやって行きますか。）
dou yatte iku no? (or dou yatte ikimasu ka?)

The first sentences of each set are casual and mostly used for people you know really well. The alternative sentence is a bit formal and can be used if you don't know the person you're talking to yet.

[.::midnight.maiden::.]

I'm really bad at Japanese. I just finished my 2nd year of Japanese in high school. Hopefully I will be able to continue up to AP Japanese.
But I really am bad. There are some really talented people who take Japanese at my school. They almost glitter in their brilliance.

[JTchinoy]

sorry for the late reply, but i appreciate those sentences. =)
i'm talking to a few japanese people on mixi through messaging right now, and i refer to those when i need to ask about saying stuff.
if you guys have mixi accounts, it's great to practice and meet people.  i might meet a teacher for lunch in osaka. ^^

[animeangelfish]

You have your hobby on your side! Number one help for learning Japanese, in my opinion, is having an ear and eye for it. Continuously surround yourself with practice. Try watching anime subtitled (see how much you can pick up on just by doing that), and learn your hiragana and katakana. Write out post its and label everything you can think of that you will come across in the day. Eventually you will make the connection with items and the labels. Get a buddy to practice with/learn with as well.

Sorry I just like encouraging this. To be honest I've lost most of my Japanese but that's because I didn't continue to do those things i mentioned.

[Piccahoe]

I hate reading subtitle while listening to anything japanese because it confuse me so much. The structure of the japanese language seem to be really different from the English language.

[JTchinoy]

They're in very different language groups, that's why.  If you spoke Turkish (or was it austrian?), you'd learn Japanese fairly easily as they're in the same language group.  Same reason Chinese is the hardest language for native English speakers to learn and vice versa.

[Aru Sakayama]

Try watching anime subtitled (see how much you can pick up on just by doing that)

Once you get proficient enough, you can take it up a notch and just get rid of the subtitles to see how much you can understand without a translation. I think at about 3 years of college classes (according to an internet guy by the name of GaijinPunch, at least) and about a thousand of vocab words would be a good point to be searching for anime without subs. Oh, and don't forget to use a dictionary for words you don't know while watching. I'd rather you enjoy the show, then note down the words you don't know if you still remember them and study off those for a while. It works for me, at least.

I hate reading subtitle while listening to anything japanese because it confuse me so much. The structure of the japanese language seem to be really different from the English language.

It all depends on preference. Personally, I agree with you on this notion because it seems really difficult for me to technically multi-task between hearing Japanese audio and reading English text, all at fast speeds and rapid succession, too. Some people can pull it off, but IMHO, it more often than not hinders my enjoyment of the content I'm trying to watch.

Also, yes, the Japanese sentence structure takes some getting used to, but the key thing, according to Tae Kim, is that you can have a functioning sentence with just a single verb. The verb is usually the crux of the Japanese sentence structure, considering that almost every Japanese sentence usually ends with one. It shouldn't really take too long to get used to it, but I can't really speak for everyone when it comes to how fast certain people learn things.

[r3za1264]

I hate reading subtitle while listening to anything japanese because it confuse me so much. The structure of the japanese language seem to be really different from the English language.

well, most languages are same structure, its just that english is wierd.
just think of it as speaking like yoda though, they says their verbs last instead of first.
example "densha ni norimashita"
which is "the train i rode" in literal terms while it really is just "i rode the train" just like yoda right? xD

[boots01]

in english, our sentences follow the following format: subject -> modifiers -> verb -> modifiers -> alternate subject -> modifiers.
in japanese, the structure is a little different: subject -> modifiers -> alternate subject -> modifiers -> verb -> modifiers.

so where in english we might say i rode that train to tokyo, in japanese we would say I, to tokyo, that train, rode. or in romaji, watashi wa tokyo ni sono densha ni norimashita which broken down, reads: watashi (I) wa (particle used to mean is/am) tokyo (city) ni (particle used to mean by/to) sono (that) densha (train) ni (partical used to mean in/on) norimashita (rode - noru: to ride conjugated to norimasu: i ride and modified for past tense: shita).

[gr33nt3a]

Try watching anime subtitled (see how much you can pick up on just by doing that)

Once you get proficient enough, you can take it up a notch and just get rid of the subtitles to see how much you can understand without a translation. I think at about 3 years of college classes (according to an internet guy by the name of GaijinPunch, at least) and about a thousand of vocab words would be a good point to be searching for anime without subs. Oh, and don't forget to use a dictionary for words you don't know while watching. I'd rather you enjoy the show, then note down the words you don't know if you still remember them and study off those for a while. It works for me, at least.

I hate reading subtitle while listening to anything japanese because it confuse me so much. The structure of the japanese language seem to be really different from the English language.

It all depends on preference. Personally, I agree with you on this notion because it seems really difficult for me to technically multi-task between hearing Japanese audio and reading English text, all at fast speeds and rapid succession, too. Some people can pull it off, but IMHO, it more often than not hinders my enjoyment of the content I'm trying to watch.

Also, yes, the Japanese sentence structure takes some getting used to, but the key thing, according to Tae Kim, is that you can have a functioning sentence with just a single verb. The verb is usually the crux of the Japanese sentence structure, considering that almost every Japanese sentence usually ends with one. It shouldn't really take too long to get used to it, but I can't really speak for everyone when it comes to how fast certain people learn things.

Even if you can't understand what is being said, watching the anime with subtitles will still help your listening skills. I just got done with a 1 1/2 year Chinese course at the DLI and this was something we did a lot. My classmate and I watched close to a hundred Chinese movies and honestly just listening to the sounds, pronunciation, and pattern of the language will help you even if you can't understand it.

In the end my classmate and I were able to get an amazing score on our listening final so I know this will help! Just keep up on your vocabulary and little by little you'll be able to understand things.

[gr33nt3a]

Also...

I'm curious if anyone also knows Chinese here? I would really like to learn Japanese as well but I'm wondering how the sounds of the characters will affect this. I've learned the characters to mean one thing in Chinese, and it seems that they're usually pretty similar in Japanese but I'm not sure of hte sounds.

Does anyone have any tips for when I start getting into the language about this little issue?

[Aru Sakayama]

NEWS: Registration for 2010 JLPT in December is now open.

I'll be signing up for JLPT N3 (N2 if I'm really that audacious). Wish me luck, though I'm not expecting too much considering I haven't been hardcore studying for the tests lately.

[JTchinoy]

来週日本に行く。：）
楽しみですよ！僕の日本語はまだ上手じゃないけど大丈夫です。
日本人は分かると話せるなら、うれしいです。
どうして日本に皆は「そうですね」ってと僕の文をよく言えますか？

[kayv]

can some one teach me how to say

I would like to make your friend
I love you
I hate you
Life is simple than we thought