何でもないです。。。its just that some countries are having difficulty communicating with each other due to so many dialect and... ... wait,... I guess I don't have to extend the topic to that right? anyways just a point of view...

Hello everyone!

はじめまして。

Thank you for all your various posts and contributions. Reading them yesterday was most enjoyable and informative. Special thanks to Tatsuka Ito and others who have posted lesson material.

Last Thursday I was eating at a local restaurant and the waitress asked me 「決まりましたか。」 to which I replied 「ええ、決まりました。」. She then told me that I should have responded with 「決めました。」 instead, but wasn't sure why grammatically. Why is this? My initial thoughts point to 他動詞 and 自動詞, but I'm still not quite sure. If someone could confirm this, that would be greatly appreciated.

Oh, as an additional, unrelated note, I highly recommend the みんなの日本語 (Minna no Nihongo) series for beginners by the 3A Network. I picked up the first set late last year and have been slowly making my way through it on the subway to and from work and just started on the second set. It does assume knowledge of hiragana and katakana (which you can easily learn on your own within a week), and is a little lacking when it come to writing kanji, but it very solid all around. If anyone's interested, I'd be glad to write a more in-depth review.

どうぞよしくお願いします。

Thank you,

Ichiyo watashi wa Nihonjin dakedo... ma, Amerika ni umaretakara komakai mono wa wakarimasen... zannennagara. D;

I'm still learning Japanese too. ~__~

I can read hiragana, katakana, and only about 60+ kanji (not that I can write them anyway). ToT I'm trying to concentrate more on grammer and conversations.

I'm pretty good with "conjugating" verbs and adjectives, but my vocabulary is kinda bad, so I don't have many topics to talk about. Hehe...

I found talking with a native in only Japanese very helpful! I think it'd be more challenging if it was through IMs instead of e-mails, but it's worthwhile anyhow. ^__^

I recommend japan-guide.com to find a Japanese pen pal to e-mail, IM, or send airmail to!

agh, my japanese penpal was so mean. She stopped talking to me

Really? XD;; I guess I'm not the only one. That happened to me about twice. It's alright though! I have at least 4 that I can still talk to.

Why did she stop talking to you though? Lack of interest? ^.^; You seem to know plenty Japanese.

agh, my japanese penpal was so mean. She stopped talking to me :P

Why did she stop talking to you though? Lack of interest? ^.^;

She was all into western artists and i was like "*fake smile* yeah, i, um, "like", them too *cough cough*"

She was all into western artists and i was like "*fake smile* yeah, i, um, "like", them too *cough cough*"

While at first glance, these two groups may seem to match each other well, I'm finding that there is a rather narrow intersection.