Japanese Help

[Eddosan]

Sorry for the double post, but I thought I should add this.

http://ichi2.net/anki/

This is FREE flashcard software that can be used for any language, but it's especially useful if you're learning Japanese. Very useful to start learning sample sentences and memorizing kanji.

[Wave]

Ok I'm going to try some Kanji on my mac
赤　青　緑　黄色　
(aka ao midori　kiiro)
[red, blue, green, Yellow]
Ok, I just figured this out. For those of you who have mac with OSX you can type in Romaji and then select the proper kanji character for the word you are trying to say.

Cheers.

ワヴェ。(wave.)

[Wave]

Double post! I though I'd try some more. It took me a long time to figure out 9 and 10

一　二　三　四　五　六　七　八　九　十
(ichi ni san yon go roku nana hachi ku juu)
[one two three four five six seven eight nine ten]

wave.

[Eddosan]

Ok I'm going to try some Kanji on my mac
赤]
Ok, I just figured this out. For those of you who have mac with OSX you can type in Romaji and then select the proper kanji character for the word you are trying to say.

Cheers.

ワヴェ。(wave.)

Just to clarify, you first need to enable Japanese fonts by going into System Preferences > International > Input Menu and check-mark "Kotoeri". Also, check-mark "Show input menu in menu bar". Now you can select Romaji, Hiragana, Katakana, and Half-Width Katakana input options from any application, by going to the input menu.

Thanks for pointing this out Wave.
かっこいいですね。

[Wave]

Apparently I set this up so long ago that I did not even remeber that it nead to be done. The other thing that make switch between Kanji and stander
English easy is to check the "Show input menu in menu bar" Then just click on the American flag and select the language you want.

Wave.

[Hitokiri]

Ah, it's been a while. I remember there was a thread (maybe in GD) where you could speak Japanese. Where did that go?

And so it's on-topic, I can help anyone who needs any help. I consider myself average (my focus is on kanji ).

Oh and sorry if this is gravedigging ><

[Wave]

So... Is it grave digging? This is a help thread after all. Can I have a modes opinion on this.

[Hitokiri]

I don't know.

I am very interested in getting a active Japanese language thread/Japanese tutor thread going. Either in this one or a new one. Is anyone else interested.

Just a place where those who know Japanese can use their conversation skills and writing skills for improvement and also a place for beginners in Japanese to receive help in their exploration of the Japanese language.

If you are interested, please let me know!

[Eddosan]

それで、今皆さんは何をしていますか？
sorede, ima mina-san ha nani wo shite imasu ka?
(So, what's everybody doing now?)

[Midori]

There's a really cool Firefox extension called rikaichan that gives you a pop-up japanese dictionary, that'll translate words just by hovering over them. It's been really useful in my study.

[Wave]

I'm interested. (I don't know how to say that in Japanese.) By the way I have two recourse right now that I'm using to study Japanese, Rosetta Stone, and a Japanese Step by Step, by gene Nishi. Oh I also have a Japanese to English Dictionary.

wave.

[Hitokiri]

Ok, I had some thoughts concerning a way how we can do this:

For starters, how many people here are fairly confident in their Japanese? Anyone who is confident and would like to be a tutor please send me a PM. As or right now, 3 others (including myself) will be sufficient. Of course, other help is always welcomed.

Likewise, anyone who has begun or is interested in starting the Japanese language, PM me or just say so in a post. So far we have one person who is interested in tutoring.

最近漢字と沖縄弁と関西弁と廣島弁と敬語を勉強しました。

saikin kanji to okinawa-ben to kansai-ben to hiroshima-ben to keigo o benkyoushimashita.

Lately I have been studying Kanji, Okinawa Dialect, Kansai dialect, Hiroshima dialect, and Keigo (honorific).

何くろないさ。

Nan kuru naisa.

Everything will be ok.

「何くるないさ」は沖縄弁です。

「nan kuru naisa」 ha okinawa-ben desu.

"Nan kuru naisa" is Okinawan dialect.

So if anyone is interested, please let me know.


Oh, wave.

私は興味があります。

Watashi wa kyoumi ga arimasu.

I am interested (in standard Japanese). Kyoumi meaning "interest" and "aru" to "have or be".

There is other ways to say it but that is the most simple, straight forward, and correct-to-standard-Japanese way of saying it.

[Eddosan]

I don't need a tutor as much as I need someone to practice with.

But I've been trying to learn Japanese in bits and pieces for almost ten years now, by myself, and haven't gotten very far. So I do need a tutor.

[Kura Ookami]

I also need a tutor. I've got two things I'm using to study too. Japanese from Zero and Let's Learn Japanese Basic. It's hard to find a good book on learning the kanji, however.

[Eddosan]

チューターはどこですか？

w

[oro!]

こんばんはみんなさん、

はじめまして。I am studying 日本語　at my university. 私は一年生です。
安濃、わかりません。。。大学の先生はいいです。

[Hitokiri]

日本語の文法はどんな習いたいですか。
nihongo no bunpou ha donna naraitai desu ka.

What kind of Japanese grammar do you want to learn?

Eddosan, can you help with tutoring?

[Hitokiri]

Well, I will start it off and post a grammar point. BTW this is just a practice run to see how well this does. By no means should this be a template or a way how it should be done (tutoring wise). This is more of a "let's see where everyone's skills are at" type test.

Occurred Before and After:

For a refresher or a introduction, [SIZE="3"]まえ（前）[/SIZE](mae) and [SIZE="3"]あと（後）[/SIZE](ato) represent before and after. There is a way to say something came before or after a certain event.

For example:

[SIZE="3"]海外旅行の前に大きいスーツケースを買った。[/SIZE]
kaigairyokou no mae ni ookii suutsukeesu wo katta.
Before I went on my overseas trip, I bought a large suit case.

In [SIZE="3"]前[/SIZE] you put a [SIZE="3"]に[/SIZE] at the end. [SIZE="3"]まえに[/SIZE]。　　However with [SIZE="3"]後[/SIZE] you place a [SIZE="3"]で[/SIZE] after wards.

When you are using a noun before [SIZE="3"]前に[/SIZE]　Ａｎｄ　[SIZE="3"]後で[/SIZE] you put [SIZE="3"]の[/SIZE]。　　

[SIZE="3"]学校の前にいぬを散歩しました。　　[/SIZE]gakkou no mae ni inu wo sanposhimashita. Before school, I walked the dog.

However, when using a verb, which is usually the case, you make it the -ta form. If you are not quite sure about -ta forms we can go over that.

In this case, making the verb into -ta form makes it a regular, dictionary past form. 、[SIZE="3"]食べた、飲んだ、泳いだ、行った、買った、話した[/SIZE]。　tabeta, nonda, oyoida, itta, katta, hanashita. ate, drank, swam, went, bought, talked.

We will use the [SIZE="3"]後で[/SIZE]　form next along with -ta + verb.

[SIZE="3"]日本の歴史を勉強した後で寝ました。[/SIZE]
nihon no rekishi wo benkyou shita ato de nemashita.
After I studied Japanese History, I went to sleep.

I encourage anyone who does not know this grammar to try this. You may use either hurigana/katakana/kanji or romanized Japanese. However, I encourage using hurigana/katakana/Kanji.

Vocab used:
[SIZE="3"]歴史[/SIZE]　>　　rekishi > history
[SIZE="3"]寝る[/SIZE] > neru > sleep (verb)
[SIZE="3"]泳ぐ[/SIZE] >oyogu > swim (verb)
[SIZE="3"]勉強する [/SIZE] > benkyou suru > study (verb)
[SIZE="3"]散歩する[/SIZE] > sanpo suru > walk (verb) take a walk different then aruku
[SIZE="3"]海外旅行[/SIZE] > kaigairyokou > overseas trip
スーツケース > suutsukeesu > suitcase

As well, i encourage anyone to correct me since I am learning to!

[Eddosan]

Eddosan, can you help with tutoring?

I can answer questions for some basic Japanese. That's mostly it...

iknow.co.jp is an AMAZING resource, by the way. I'm using it.

[Kura Ookami]

That link you gave eddosan seems good and I'm already using Anki to memorise the hiragana, katakana and kanji.

ookii and inu are really the only two words i know from the example sentences. My vocab level is probably at around one hundred words, or ひゃく。　I think that i know only two verbs. One is: です(desu).

I think to put です　into the past form you change す　to し(shi) and add た(ta) giving でした(deshita). Does that mean you change the last character to it's "i" form and add ta for the -ta form so for yomu, to read, it would be よみた(yomita)?

I've learned the hiragana, but I'm not confident with it and I only know a handful of kanji and katakana.
The trouble with a class type thing is that the slowest person will hold up everyone else and I don't want to hold everyone else up, but I might be the one with the least knowledge of Japanese at the moment.

I do agree with using kanji/hiragana/katakana. You don't want to have to learn words three times. First with romaji, second with hiragana and third with kanji.

[Hitokiri]

[quote="Kura Ookami (post: 1271420)"]That link you gave eddosan seems good and I'm already using Anki to memorise the hiragana, katakana and kanji.

ookii and inu are really the only two words i know from the example sentences. My vocab level is probably at around one hundred words, or ひ]

Yeah, I was just throwing that grammar point out there. My advice for hiragana and katakana is to obviously practice writing them out. What I can do is I can provide kanji form of the sentences and then kana form of the sentences if they would be more helpful.

As well, do not feel like you are holding anyone down.

As for the ~ta form, yes some verbs do end with ~ta but others end with ~da. It may sound confusing for their are ways to remember that.

Any verbs that end with ぐ　、　ぬ　Ｏｒ　む end with ~da. However, To answer your question, よむ　would have a ~da ta form. However, ぐ　and　む do are different in using ~da.

When using ぐ, you put ~ida. Some examples include: およぐ＞およいだ、こうぐ　＞こいだ、つなぐ　＞　つないだ

With the む~ ta form you use the ~nda:　しずむ　＞　しずんだ、のむ　＞のんだ、　よむ　＞よんだ、いどむ　＞　いどんだ

The ぬ ta form acts like む　by adding ~nda.　　しぬ　＞　しんだ.

It is also important to note that verbs that end with すalways use　し so なおす＞なおした, はなす　＞　はなした。 Therefore です goes to　でした.

Other verbs that end with う、く、つ、る、ふ、す all act the same by using the usual ~ta form. たべる　＞　たべた、いく　＞　いった、かう　＞かった、　なおす＞なおした。

Vocab:
およぐ > oyogu > to swim
こうぐ > kougu > to row
つなぐ >tusnagu > to fasten
しずむ > shizumu > to sink
のむ > nomu > to drink
よむ > yomu > to read
いどむ > idomu > to defy, challenge
しぬ > shinu > to die
たべる > taberu > to eat
いく > iku > to go
かう > kau > to buy
なおす > naosu > to repair
はなす　＞hanasu > to talk

[Wave]

Konnichi wa! on nami wa?

Yah I know that was random. I think I just said "Hello! You name is?"
Sorry I felt like I had to post something, any thing because I really do what to get involved in this. I just been really busy. I'm in the middle of moving. Now if I could just remember how to say My name is Wave. We'd be getting somewhere.

Yush!! (I think this means something like "lets do it".)

wave.

[ShiroiHikari]

It's actually "onamae wa". Oh, and "yoshi", which comes out sounding more like "yosh". To say "my name is Wave", you could say "watashi no namae wa Wave desu".

[Kura Ookami]

I've got the hiragana down now except for ね(ne) and　れ(re). I get the two confused with each other when I'm reading. Is there any way to easily remember which one is re and which is ne?

I've been listening to the songs at: http://www.genkienglish.net/genkijapan/menu.htm
There's also games. It makes learning japanese fun.

Wave: To say "My name is Wave." you could also say "boku wa namae wa Wave desu", or simply "Boku wa Wave desu."
That would be ”ぼくのなまえはWaveです。”　or ”ぼくはWaveです。”　in hiragana.

[Hitokiri]

びくは denotes a sense of familiarity between the speaker and the listener I believe. While close friends would not go around saying ぼく, you may hear refer to himself as ぼくは with someone they know to the point that it is casual.

As well, I believe it is a muscular term (not saying girls do not say it haha).

[Stanton21]

Hi guys. Hope any of you can help me out on a quick grammar-related question:

I would like to know what is the general usage of the "temo" form in Japanese?

In the textbooks that I am using (Nakama I + II), there are a few of sections that relate to the "temo" form of a verb (which is the 'te' form plus 'mo'). The textbooks only mention specifc areas to which you can use it; such as asking for permission on something, as well lack of a social obligation (stem + 'nakutemoii'). But it doesn't go as far as to explain it what it means in the general case.

Thanks in advance!

[ShiroiHikari]

Wow, I...have no idea. I don't think I've heard of that one before.

[Stanton21]

Wow, I...have no idea. I don't think I've heard of that one before.

Ah, I see. Right now I am in the middle of my second year studying the language at my college (so I think my question falls in the 'lower-intermediate' level of grammar).

My apologies if the question seems advanced for any of you here.

[ShiroiHikari]

Heh, I'm mostly self-taught so I'm learning new stuff all the time. XD

[Stanton21]

Heh, I'm mostly self-taught so I'm learning new stuff all the time. XD

Indeed. The self-teaching method is definitely the best way to learn Japanese if it's at your own, leisurely pace.

Learning grammar points on a weekly basis in college seems a bit unnatural for me to learn a language, even though those quizzes and tests basically 'force' you to learn the material (whether one likes it or not).