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Yes.（はい）

26 (83.9%)

No.（いいえ）

5 (16.1%)

Total Members Voted: 31

Voting closed: December 09, 2010, 12:35:27 am

[Errol]

I've got some basic proficiency with Japanese, but would really like to get better...

わたしはベールリンにはんがついきました。にほんごのげんきゃうをしました。

(I had to look up two words, and use a questionable construction, but other than that...)

...I blame 90% of my kanji knowledge on Touhou Project, including but not limited to the characters for east and direction.

[Il Palazzo]

I'm in! My self-teaching got stuck after having learned kana and some kanji. I'd love to get another(different from my books) approach to the grammar-y bits.

[Itnetlolor]

From what little experience I have in the language (via some Rosetta Stone and maybe a language game for the DS; kudos to my laziness), I know enough to know that "no" can be applied as a way of describing something as an adjective form. I also recall that similar to Spanish, there are masculine and feminine pronunciations that can affect the wording/possession of the term.

My Romaji is better, and I know pathetically little Kana/Kanji. (EDIT: I intended to also learn the character sheet so I'm not Romaji-exclusive.)

I've had interest to learn Japanese, not only so I won't need to rely on translators (subs/dubs), but also because it would be interesting to have another language in my head. I know basic Spanish on the side. Unfortunately, to a 2nd level High School level. I know the basics, but I understand enough Latin context to guess some terms that come across. Can't translate phrases on the spot, but can spot specific words if mentioned. Unfortunately there as well, I'm not the quickest translator. Kinda what sucks about language, to get better, it takes experience.

EDIT:
One thing I can't get out of my head, which will help for only that word, is an accidental association I made when playing the Learning Japanese game on the DS. Basically, I can never see or hear of Ringo Starr again without thinking of him with an apple for a head. Ringo = Apple, If I understood that correctly. I figure John Lennon and Yoko Ono had some fun screwing around with him after realizing his name was equal to apple.

EDIT EDIT:
Thanks for offering some lessons, in case nobody else has said so already.

Also, in my quest for more shows to stockpile in my computer, I just realized while skimming through titles; one show was Kaze no Youjimbo. Yojimbo = Bodyguard; seeing as Kaze already means wind (recalling from Kamikaze (Kami = Divine)), and then the 'no' for the grammar portion. I realized it all further since my memory clicked back to FFX as well, and the name served it's purpose. The Aeon was a bodyguard (who had to be paid).

Kind of a heads up, this is how my mind tends to connect things and lock terms/words/phrases into place. Sorta wish I had more mental foundation to fasten things in place with. Maybe I do, and don't realize it yet?

[ein]

Yeah, ringo is apple.
Also, ichigo is strawberry, hence half the jokes about Ichigo's hair in Bleach.
As for no, it's a particle that denotes a possessive.
It can be used for adjectives, but usually they'll use na or i, depending on what kind of adjective it is.
No can also be used in family names, denoting a family of great power and/or wealth.
For example, Fujiwara no Mokou would be Mokou of the Fujiwara family.
Like the da in certain Italian names, such as Lionardo da Vinci.
It's Leonardo of the town Vinci.
Masc/fem differences exist in very few words and phrases.
Most of it is just women enunciating vowels after voiceless consonants.
The u is desu is a great example.
It's considered much more feminine (or melodic, I've heard male singers do this too) to enunciate the u.
More boyish girls will often avoid this or even use male phrases, such as boku for I.

[Errol]

...wasn't Ichigo also some sort of counting word for... something? Persons?

God Japan's counting systems are stupidly complex. I can only remember -mai for flat objects, and I blame that on too much YGO anime intake. (kaado nimai sette etc etc etc... like half of the speech is blatant anglicisms. Or "What?!", or calling names, or... you get the picture...)

[Sean Mirrsen]

Ichigo, to my memory, sounds like one-seven. I can only remember some of the numerals, and the fact that the correct form of their usage tends to wander around like a drunken elf, especially in the case of "one" and "two".

[Keita]

Totally in! Would love to learn the language, have tried sevral times on my own but I'm failing a lot. Hell I can use this for when I'm planning on going uni and taking classes there.

[ein]

Ichi is one, and go is five.
They don't count like that, though.
Fifteen would be juugo, or ten and five.
Twenty-five is nijuugo, or two tens and five.
Ichi, ni, san, yon/shi, go, roku, nana/shichi, hachi, kyuu.
Juu is ten, hyaku is hundred, sen is thousand, and man is ten-thousand.
After the ten-thousands, it repeats with ones, tens, etcetera again.
Sambyaku gojuu man en.
Three hundred fifty ten thousand yen, or 3,500,000.
Those are the easy numbers.
The other ones are the counters, and are the really complex ones.
Hitotsu, futatsu, mitsu, yotsu, itsutsu, mutsu, nanatsu, yatsu, kokonotsu, too.
The tsu on the end of each (except ten, because ten is weird) is called the general counter and is used for things without a specific counter.
If a counter exists, you replace tsu with the counter.
So yeah, mai is the counter for flat things, so 5 flat things would be itsumai.

[fqllve]

ein, your knowledge pyramids are kinda weird, and yet endearing.

I'm going to refrain from asking you endless questions about "count situations" and the "count mass distinction" and the "relationship to ordinals." Because you don't need that, and I don't really need to nerd out anymore.

Anyway, yeah, I think you should do this. Which I'm sure has been adequately established.


So, do you have any recommendations for good books on learning kanji? Because that's what I need. More books.

[PenguinOverlord]

Huh. This seems neat. I wonder if anyone here knows Mandarin.

[ein]

So, do you have any recommendations for good books on learning kanji? Because that's what I need. More books.

Shounen manga.
The kanji will have the pronunciation.
And when you don't know what that kanji means, look it up.
Sensei has a good book that gives kanji meanings and is sorted by stroke order and radicals.
I'll get the name of it tomorrow.

[ragnarok97071]

Sure.
Have wanted to learn the language for a while, but no opportunity.
I know a little mostly that there is different sentance structure (for example names are backwards and ___ of ___ is backwards from english. also a few things from anime themes and some songs that I heard on youtube.

[Blargityblarg]

Huh. This seems neat. I wonder if anyone here knows Mandarin.

Wo hui shuo yidianr zhong wen.

(I know how to speak a little bit of Chinese.)

[Tellemurius]

i would love to learn japanese, last language i studied was Spanish but no hablo espanol anymore and i wanted to learn german in high school but my dad was a dick.

[Keita]

i would love to learn japanese, last language i studied was Spanish but no hablo espanol anymore and i wanted to learn german in high school but my dad was a dick.

That happened to me but I was learning french instead XD. I just don't like the english language (says the man who lives in that UK), there's all the rules, odd spellings and such also the the fact that some of it you have to straight remember it becaue there isn't a reason for being how it is other than, because it is -______-