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Do You Know Japanese? Are You Learning it?

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jmnixon95
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10 May 2011, 3:13 pm

MrLoony wrote:
Frickin' kanji, how do they work? Seriously, though. I know some of that (the kanji and the hiragana). Some, though, I've forgotten.


Like, perhaps the fact that there are also katakana? :3

MrLoony wrote:
The first sentence ends in "-mashita," right? and the second with "-ni shite imasu," right?


It's not necessary, but is used often in formal situations I believe, yes.



christian77
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10 May 2011, 3:14 pm

Sapporo is a nice city and the area around and Hokkaido in general is a very beatiful place. I can definitely recommend going there.



jmnixon95
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10 May 2011, 3:14 pm

pepperrose wrote:
i'm trying to learn but all i can use are free online lessons and the Japanese English dictionary at my school


You can buy books.



jmnixon95
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10 May 2011, 3:15 pm

christian77 wrote:
Sapporo is a nice city and the area around and Hokkaido in general is a very beatiful place. I can definitely recommend going there.


I am going to visit my friend there in the summer of '12 (she's here in America now.) Did you go during the wintertime? I know they have a huge snow festival around February...



christian77
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10 May 2011, 6:07 pm

jmnixon95 wrote:
I am going to visit my friend there in the summer of '12 (she's here in America now.) Did you go during the wintertime? I know they have a huge snow festival around February...


I know about the festival. Usually there is a lot of snow but I have never been there in winter time yet.



Beauty_pact
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10 May 2011, 7:35 pm

I understand some words, from having watched anime and played games, and can pronounce it properly, but I do not know it. :( Learning to read and write it just seems too difficult for me....

Maybe I could learn it, but be an analphabet in it.

Can someone tell me what 'dôdeska' means? I got brainwashed with this term when I played Shenmue II, years ago. :P It's from when you take a job for trying to get people to play a hazard game with a bouncing, hard little ball on a sort of table thingy.



Last edited by Beauty_pact on 11 May 2011, 2:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

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10 May 2011, 9:52 pm

jmnixon95 wrote:
MrLoony wrote:
Frickin' kanji, how do they work? Seriously, though. I know some of that (the kanji and the hiragana). Some, though, I've forgotten.


Like, perhaps the fact that there are also katakana? :3


My knowledge of katakana is pretty much non-existant.


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10 May 2011, 10:20 pm

I would be interested in learning Japanese at some point in time. I've always been very interested in Japanese history and one of my preferred methods of doing research is primary source reading, which is frequently in other languages, occasionally not translated. I learned German for this exact reason (World War I & II research). Though a lot of Japanese history of World War II is not very honest, I would still find it interesting to read it.


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Lilya
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11 May 2011, 8:35 am

Beauty_pact wrote:
I understand some words, from having watched anime and played games, and can pronounce it properly, but I do not know it. :( Learning to read and write it just seems too difficult for me....

Maybe I could learn it, but be an analphabet in it.

Can someone tell me what 'dôdeska' means? I got brainwashed with this term when I played Shenmue II, years ago. :P It's from when you take a job for trying to get people to play a hazard game with a bouncing, hard little ball on a sort of table thingy.


Dou desu ka = How? or How about it/this? or What do you say? (depends on the context)

Hanasemasu yo. Nihon ni kyukkagetsugurai sundeite kotoba wo benkyou shite, sono ato ha Nihon no kaisha de hataraite imashita. Nihon ni yoku ittari shimasu. Nihon no rekishi to bunka ga sugoku omoshiroi to omoimasu. Geemu mo daisuki nan desu ^^


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jmnixon95
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11 May 2011, 1:40 pm

Lilya wrote:
Beauty_pact wrote:
I understand some words, from having watched anime and played games, and can pronounce it properly, but I do not know it. :( Learning to read and write it just seems too difficult for me....

Maybe I could learn it, but be an analphabet in it.

Can someone tell me what 'dôdeska' means? I got brainwashed with this term when I played Shenmue II, years ago. :P It's from when you take a job for trying to get people to play a hazard game with a bouncing, hard little ball on a sort of table thingy.


Dou desu ka = How? or How about it/this? or What do you say? (depends on the context)

Hanasemasu yo. Nihon ni kyukkagetsugurai sundeite kotoba wo benkyou shite, sono ato ha Nihon no kaisha de hataraite imashita. Nihon ni yoku ittari shimasu. Nihon no rekishi to bunka ga sugoku omoshiroi to omoimasu. Geemu mo daisuki nan desu ^^


何でローマ字を使ったんですか？
Nande romaji o tsukattan desuka?



Lilya
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11 May 2011, 2:16 pm

jmnixon95 wrote:
Lilya wrote:
Beauty_pact wrote:
I understand some words, from having watched anime and played games, and can pronounce it properly, but I do not know it. :( Learning to read and write it just seems too difficult for me....

Maybe I could learn it, but be an analphabet in it.

Can someone tell me what 'dôdeska' means? I got brainwashed with this term when I played Shenmue II, years ago. :P It's from when you take a job for trying to get people to play a hazard game with a bouncing, hard little ball on a sort of table thingy.


Dou desu ka = How? or How about it/this? or What do you say? (depends on the context)

Hanasemasu yo. Nihon ni kyukkagetsugurai sundeite kotoba wo benkyou shite, sono ato ha Nihon no kaisha de hataraite imashita. Nihon ni yoku ittari shimasu. Nihon no rekishi to bunka ga sugoku omoshiroi to omoimasu. Geemu mo daisuki nan desu ^^


何でローマ字を使ったんですか？
Nande romaji o tsukattan desuka?


Kono keyboard de romaji shika kakenai kara... Okashii kamo ne, moushiwake arimasen.


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11 May 2011, 2:32 pm

Nah. I wanna learn German or Icelandic.



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11 May 2011, 2:39 pm

私は話すことができない、または日本語を読む。私が試したが、私は気とロシアを学んだん...

Googleは翻訳楽しいです

But normally Я говорю на русском.


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Beauty_pact
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12 May 2011, 9:56 pm

Lilya wrote:
Dou desu ka = How? or How about it/this? or What do you say? (depends on the context)

Hanasemasu yo. Nihon ni kyukkagetsugurai sundeite kotoba wo benkyou shite, sono ato ha Nihon no kaisha de hataraite imashita. Nihon ni yoku ittari shimasu. Nihon no rekishi to bunka ga sugoku omoshiroi to omoimasu. Geemu mo daisuki nan desu ^^


So 'How about it?' or 'What do you say?' is what makes sense, then... finally I know what that meant. :p

Meh... I'm jealous of your language powers. :(



jmnixon95
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13 May 2011, 12:03 pm

Jonsi wrote:
Nah. I wanna learn German or Icelandic.


Both of which are more difficult than Japanese.



RonWren
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13 May 2011, 8:27 pm

christian77 wrote:
I have been to Japan several times (Sapporo, Hokkaido) and hope to go there again. I attempted learning Japanese several times but always stopped or failed that. What I can think about is learning a few phrases for touristic reasons but the language, especially the writing, is just too complex for a non-native to learn. I have come to the conclusion that properly learning to read and write Kanji is almost impossible.

I am having a very good friend from Japan who is currenly working with me on the same projects and even he recommended not to learn Japanese. Because I am a native German speaker, I can recommend to learn German instead :-D and I promise it is easier.



Too complex for a non-native to learn? Really? REALLY? Impossible? Boy, you've got a lot to learn. Seriously, before saying a language is impossible for "non-natives" consider that fact that everyday foreign speakers learn languages, even ones with thousands of characters, with ease. You are obviously just approaching it wrong. No offense. But I hate the word impossible. Here, go to these sites, they bought me from nothing to near fluency in a very short time:
http://alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/
http://japaneseclass.jp/
http://jisho.org/kanji/radicals/
http://www.readthekanji.com/
http://www.youtube.com/
http://alc.co.jp/
http://www.surusu.com/
http://iknow.jp/