The Japanese Thread

squall24, when I was in Japan I read a truckload of manga and found it to be very useful. I read through all of Naruto and Death Note and learnt a lot of (perhaps trivial) vocabulary. Naruto was quite easy but some of the technical language in Death Note was challenging. The great thing about manga is that the artwork gives you the context which makes it very easy to read. I think if you can read Death Note and understand >80% of it then you should progress to short novels.

I agree with Mafoofoo in saying that of course if you buy it in the US (or via the internet) it can be expensive. Manga in Japan can sometimes be ridiculously cheap, i.e. less than a dollar for a volume for some older stuff like Love Hina or Chobits. Perhaps you should see if you can get a friend in Japan to buy the manga at a second hand store and send it to you?

I have 2 friends in Japan, but I don't know if I really want to bother them with something this trivial. I'm fine at $6 a book, in fact it's cheaper than buying new English ones. I also know of a place online that has a tiny collection of used manga. I believe I bought an original Rurouni Kenshin vol 2 for $2 and an original Dragon ball(1988, its really falling apart) for about $1.50. I have a decent collection of about 30 books, I even tried to translate some. You can check it out here www.geocities.com/conan2jimmy. My site is pretty bad, but I used it mainly to host my scans. I'm working my way up to death note. I can understand the basics, its just the in-depth conversations I have a hard time with. So I do simple things such as Magic Kaitou and work my way up. One of my Japanese friends told me death note was a little difficult to read if you're just learning, so I'm going to hold off a bit on that series though I already own 3 books from it.
And I just wrote a lot of stuff at 2:15 in the am, I should really be asleep.

Edit:I just checked only Bleach 21,23 and I think 24 have anything on them. I know these aren't perfect, but I did them as a learning experience.

I find it funny that so many people are willing to learn Japanese when there is only an infantesimally small amount of chance that they will end up living (or even going) in Japan. As such, I will leave you with this note:

"Toire wa doko desu ka"?

The toilet is in the bathroom, which is down the hall and the second door on the right
Anyway after I'm done with my 4 years of college I plan on enrolling into the JET program to teach English in Japan for a year or two.

Originally Posted by squall24

The toilet is in the bathroom, which is down the hall and the second door on the right
Anyway after I'm done with my 4 years of college I plan on enrolling into the JET program to teach English in Japan for a year or two.

Awesome. We'll see if you become like one of my dad's friends who came to Tokyo through the JET program taught for awhile and then married a Japanese chick.

I'm proud to be one of the few people I know who is both learning Japanese and completely and utterly hates anime. So shoot me.


Doesn't stop me from having a half japanese girlfriend who's obsessed with it, though. [/gloat]

Originally Posted by Misanthrope

I'm proud to be one of the few people I know who is both learning Japanese and completely and utterly hates anime. So shoot me.


Doesn't stop me from having a half japanese girlfriend who's obsessed with it, though. [/gloat]

Congrats...
I find the language to be interesting, liking some programming that it's is just an added bonus.
someone in my Japanese class was in the JET program and really liked it. It seems like a great way to really learn how people live, he has already stated how some things are completley different to things in America.

Originally Posted by squall24

The toilet is in the bathroom, which is down the hall and the second door on the right
Anyway after I'm done with my 4 years of college I plan on enrolling into the JET program to teach English in Japan for a year or two.

JET... okay. Have fun with that haha. You wont actually be teaching English, by the way. You'll be standing out the front of the class reading stuff out of a textbook as an Assistant Language Teacher for the actual teacher who will probably be Japanese.

It's not the best job, and it's not a great way to discover Japanese culture either. I think student exchange is the best way to get an inside look at the way of life and culture.

Originally Posted by Misanthrope

I'm proud to be one of the few people I know who is both learning Japanese and completely and utterly hates anime. So shoot me.

I don't particularly like anime either, although being here it is really hard to avoid. Even people that don't watch anime on TV will read manga all the time on buses, trains and at school.

Watashi wa ED san tu imas, wain wa arimasu ka.

Originally Posted by Evil duck

Watashi wa ED san tu imas, wain wa arimasu ka.

Ummm...Never say "san" after your name. It is a sign of disrespct, that is a terrible mistake.
Okay, allow me to fix up your spelling.

Watashi was Ed (what the heck are you trying to say with "tu?") imasu, (wain is suppose to be...?) wa arimasu ka.

Okay, I couldn't help because I couldn't tell what you were trying to say.

-------------------------------

For me, it has always been my dream to live in Japan. Which I will someday, I am overly persistant. I'm going this coming summer with my Mom, sister, grandma, grandpa, and my Aunt who will be our tour guide. Her name is Yasuko. I really want to go and visit Fukuoka, I just love the name of that city.

I am learning Japanese the best I can, I can read all of the kana, and I can at least recognize (not very much) 150 Kanji. I don't exactly know how to pronounce them when they are with different Kanji or alone, but I'm working on it. I find that Manga in Japanese, Anime in Japanese, and Japanese songs are very helpful for learning. Listening to a Japanese song while mouthing the lyrics, then saying them to yourself helps a lot. (Girl in Byakkoya 白虎野の娘 and Hitomi no Kakera 瞳の欠片 FTW)

Originally Posted by squall24

Congrats...
I find the language to be interesting, liking some programming that it's is just an added bonus.
someone in my Japanese class was in the JET program and really liked it. It seems like a great way to really learn how people live, he has already stated how some things are completley different to things in America.

I am part Japanese, only 1/8th, and I find the language to be very pretty. My Dad is always telling me to learn Spanish, but I'm sorry it is very boring and it is annoying. From all of the pictures I've seen of Japan and all the things people tell me, it sounds like a very beautiful country and I can't wait to visit.

Well, basically, I intend to go into a career in robotics (and had actually traveled to Japan thanks to an international robotics competition), and the fact that I already speak fluent English and French, and heavy amounts of Yiddish, German and Greek, I wanted to learn an East Asian language for financial purposes, but my school didn't offer Korean or Cantonese and Mandarin is just waaaay too complex for a roundeye like myself.

Originally Posted by Slur.exe

I am part Japanese, only 1/8th, and I find the language to be very pretty. My Dad is always telling me to learn Spanish, but I'm sorry it is very boring and it is annoying. From all of the pictures I've seen of Japan and all the things people tell me, it sounds like a very beautiful country and I can't wait to visit.

I took Spanish for 5 semesters. It is pretty boring, some of it sounds a little like English, while other parts don't. Spanish would probably be a more helpful language for where I live, but kit just doesn't interest me. Japanese and Italian do.

Originally Posted by squall24

I took Spanish for 5 semesters. It is pretty boring, some of it sounds a little like English, while other parts don't. Spanish would probably be a more helpful language for where I live, but kit just doesn't interest me. Japanese and Italian do.

I remember HAVING to take it in elementary school. It bored me to death, though I feel special when I understand bits of Spanish when someone is speaking. Spanish and Italian are similar.

My Aunt told me that Aho is Spanish for garlic. Is that true? Obviously it means Stupid, idiot, ect in Japanese.

Yeah, I don't know what "Aho" means is Spanish, it's been a couple of years since I took it. And I'm only interested in Italian because I'm 1/4 Italian.

Any way I think I kinda inderstand one of the posts above, the "tu imasu". I figure he was trying to say, "I call myself". Like in the basic foreinger question
日本語でなんといますか
At least I think that's right.

Originally Posted by squall24

Yeah, I don't know what "Aho" means is Spanish, it's been a couple of years since I took it. And I'm only interested in Italian because I'm 1/4 Italian.

Any way I think I kinda inderstand one of the posts above, the "tu imasu". I figure he was trying to say, "I call myself". Like in the basic foreinger question
日本語でなんといますか
At least I think that's right.

Okay I see then. Yeah I'm interested in the whole Japan thing because I am Japanese, I do Kendo, I like anime/manga.

Yeah, because I was staring at that going, "What the heck?" The "tu" threw me off, because well there is no true "tu" character.
What you just posted says: Nihongo de nan to imasu ka.
correct?

yeah that's what I posted
For example
"chair wa nihongo de nan to imasu ka?"
How do you say "chair" in Japanese
The answer would be
"Isu to imasu"
That is where I think he got his sentence from