Japanese

I need some help with Japanese. I know a few words like
I Watakashi
You Anata
Cat Neko
Cat ears Nekomimis
Idiot Baka
Winter Fuyu
Yes hiia
How are you Ginki Deska
and I think that's it can you help me out?

yeah,i need this help too

i'm going to japan

p.s. i learned 1-10 in japanes but i only remember 10 since it was sooooo long ago

10 =jew

I don't think an internet forum is the best place to learn a foreign language, especially not one so radically different like Japanese. Take a class, or buy some books, or something.

Originally Posted by Aeon

yeah,i need this help too

i'm going to japan

p.s. i learned 1-10 in japanes but i only remember 10 since it was sooooo long ago

10 =jew

1 - Ichi .......... [ee-chee]
2 - Nii ............ [nee]
3 - San .......... [san]
4 - Shi (Yon) .. [she] (Yawn)
5 - Go ............ [Go]
6 - Roku ......... [Rock(u)]
7 - Shiichi (nana) ... [she-ee-chee] (na-na)
8 - Hachi ......... [ha-chee]
9 - Ku ............. [koo]
10 - Ju ............ [jew]

If you're wondering why there are alternate readings for 4 and 7, it's because "Shi" is a homonym for "Death."

I Watakashi
Yes hiia
How are you Ginki Deska

Watakashi - Watashi (no "ka")
Hiia - Hai (only one "i", and it's after the "a")
Ginki Deska - Genki Desuka (leave the "u" in)

Originally Posted by Scott

I don't think an internet forum is the best place to learn a foreign language, especially not one so radically different like Japanese. Take a class, or buy some books, or something.

I've got to second Scott on this. If you actually Google anything like this anyone who actually speaks Japanese will tell you to learn it at a community college or something. Clyde says it well himself on his personal site. This is a professional translator, you've probably watched a couple of his translations, he's translated some of Dragonball, a huge chunk of the Beyblade series, Tenchi Muyo GXP. That article states that the best way is to get a good book, and go to a good class. All this crap that comes out of most people's mouths when they want to study Japanese is so they can understand anime, which is cool in itself. But not a good reason to learn an incredibly complex language. Hai, or yes, can mean more than one thing in Japanese, it can be used in the same way as we say yes, or for affirmative and that's just a few things that I, a non-Japanese student, can remember. Not to mention the pronunciation, which is very different to almost all of the Western languages, as Japanese isn't traditionally Latin based, unlike most of the modern languages that we study today in schools, like French, Spanish, German and alike.

Not to mention their written language is disgustingly complex, four forms of writing, with short hand for certain words that can mean two things. 愛蘭 is the short hand version of the country Ireland, and yet most Japanese people would look at it and think that it means some sort of flower. Not to mention that there are also traditional and modern forms of kanji, romanji, Hiragana and Katakana. Very hard indeed. Some of those have over fifty letters in their alphabet, others literally are words for their symbols, and then there is their own form of grammar and punctuation which is again very different to ours.

So, definitely enrol in a local class, and get some good books on the subject.

I thank Link315 for him teaching me some words and I respect what you others have to say, but I have some books that teach me japanese words but they're just to hard to understand. My schools don't offer classes for this stuff either just French and Spanish.

Have you tried your local community college or an adult education course? They're not cheap, usually, but if you can't understand the books, then it's going to be incredibly difficult for you to understand the majority of the language that you're trying to learn. Simply because Japanese is a complex language.

Also, if your books aren't beginner level, try getting a beginner level book. Or a helpful Japanese Phrase book that tourists take with them on holiday. It may seem daft, but those are generally aimed at people who aren't super smart, so it should be a nice starting point for you. They tend to contain phrases like Watashi wa name desu (my name is name) and things like that.

[Japanese] Commonly Used Words in Animé/Manga

^ Mercutio made that thread ages ago. I guess it might help with what you're asking, but if you want to learn Japanese fluently, it won't do you any good.

Originally Posted by Archaic Sage

Have you tried your local community college or an adult education course? They're not cheap, usually, but if you can't understand the books, then it's going to be incredibly difficult for you to understand the majority of the language that you're trying to learn. Simply because Japanese is a complex language.

Also, if your books aren't beginner level, try getting a beginner level book. Or a helpful Japanese Phrase book that tourists take with them on holiday. It may seem daft, but those are generally aimed at people who aren't super smart, so it should be a nice starting point for you. They tend to contain phrases like Watashi wa name desu (my name is name) and things like that.

If you'll read his profile, you'll notice the number "11" under his age. I don't think CC will work too well.

There's computer programs out there for language learning, though I don't really know how effective they are.

Thank you guys I appreciate it.

i know some japanese if u need help...

So do I.

Some computer programs that you can get are pretty good, whether are just downloaded ones from the net or others that you pay a substantial amount of money for. Personally, I would reccomend against those ones as you can usually find the same material either in another shop for 1/10th the price, or online for free.



...OMG that is insane.... I was just looking back at that thread that Merc made, and I'm one of the posters on the first page. I'm talking about how I'm just starting to learn Hirigana & Katakana. That was like two and a bit years ago. After studying (using the term loosely) most days, watching lots of anime, listening to lots of Japanese music, making many Japanese friends, going to Japan twice and living there for two months I feel that my Japanese has substantially improved since that time. Here's a word appropriate to this moment:

Normally/普通は：懐かしい
Hiragana Only/ひらがなだけ：なつかしい
Romaji/ローマ字：Natsukashii
English/英語： *said when feeling nostalgic*

EDIT: Btw, after reading that guy's guide to learning Japanese I've found out that I've learnt it largely the wrong way according to him, lol. Well, in the beginning I apparently did anyway.