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Let's learn Japanese!

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moomoo
Posted: Nov 06, 2005 10:41 pm Reply with quote
さくらんぼ さくらんぼ
Joined: 06 Nov 2005 Posts: 31 Location: canada
yangirl wrote:
Seems to me like korean, chinese and japanese can learn these languages very well but romance languages and vice versa


I agree.. I'm Chinese, so kanji is almost no problem for me to recognize and memorize, although often Japanese kanji has a different meaning from Chinese kanji, but it's not that difficult to remember them. however, romance languages seems so much harder to me. i live in canada where you have to take French.. and it's my least favourite subject in school.. x___x i find Spanish much easier to learn than French. but romance languages are hard for me because of the different conjugations on verbs and other particles, and also the masculine and feminine verbs are so hard to remember.. x__x I like learning Japanese alot better.. ^^"
 
enlightened0ne
Posted: Nov 07, 2005 1:18 am Reply with quote
大好きだよ。 大好きだよ。
Joined: 13 Jun 2005 Posts: 231 Location: Australia
moomoo wrote:
I like learning Japanese alot better.. ^^"

So do I, which is funny, because I am not of asian descent, and I don't speak any other altaic languages (Japanese, Turkish, Korean etc..., but not Chinese)... I think that I just must be weird Shocked
 
khafre78
Posted: Nov 07, 2005 6:00 pm Reply with quote
さくらんぼ さくらんぼ
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 34 Location: Misawa, Japan
I do really enjoy learning Japanese. It is a fun language, the way it works. I can see how Koreans would find it not too difficult, but Chinese is so totally different. You have help with the vocabulary, but it is really the fluency that I find the most difficult. I spent a few weeks in Taiwan a little bit ago and it seemed to me that once the tones were handled that the fluency wouldnt be to bad with Mandarin. Fluency is where the romance languages are so easy. I just dont get how masculine and feminine and conjugations are that hard. There are a few rules to learn, in Spanish at least, that make it easy to tell what is mas/fem. I do find it difficult choosing which past tense to use, and I have no clue about what the subjunctive is for, but one can speak passable Spanish using present, future, and one of the past tenses. You can learn to spit something out at a reasonable pace even if it is wrong and then learn from then on. With Japanese often I think I know how to say something, but I am wording it wrong. It is fun though; it is like a game the way the language fits together.
 
enlightened0ne
Posted: Nov 08, 2005 3:02 am Reply with quote
大好きだよ。 大好きだよ。
Joined: 13 Jun 2005 Posts: 231 Location: Australia
I agree about Spanish; it is relatively regular. Subjunctive is used for expressing opinion and possibility Tongue (and other things)

The romance language that I have real trouble with is Latin. I can read and understand it, but speaking it is really difficult, as is listening to it. There is no set word order, and virtually no rules as to noun gender. In addition to this, there are 12 cases of noun, 5 declensions (each declension is declined differently, and there are irregular nouns too), and for each of the five conjugations of regular verbs, there are 136 "forms" of the verb. Then, there are irregular verbs, umpteen different agreements, and everything else. The sentence : "My postman bit the green evil dog" could actually mean, in latin, "My green dog bit the evil postman," which is okay in reading, because you can go back and check the agreement of nouns and adjectives, so that you can work out what it means. In speech, however...
See what I mean.

Still, I agree with you that romance languages are much easier to speak with a level of fluency. I can understand spoken french without much difficulty, even though I have done much less study than I have of Japanese. Talking is easy, although high-level speech with correct grammar usage requires study. Maybe I should learn Spanish instead of French and Latin Laughing
 
depressant
Posted: Nov 08, 2005 11:48 am Reply with quote
ネコに風船 ネコに風船
Joined: 11 Sep 2005 Posts: 507 Location: Malaysia
can someone explain to me what's the diff between Watashiwa and Kolehwa? Both means "I" right? I heard the word Kolehwa from Full Metal Alchemist's Edward Elric... I'm sure bout the spellings.

I wanna learn japanese..! I think as a chinese will be easy to pick up since they have some words in chinese...
 
khafre78
Posted: Nov 08, 2005 6:24 pm Reply with quote
さくらんぼ さくらんぼ
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 34 Location: Misawa, Japan
It seems to me that you are saying Kore wa. Kore means "this thing" or "this."

Kore wa nan desu ka?
What is this?

Kore de ii desu ka?
Is this ok?

Kore daijoubu.
This is fine.

There is also Sore (that), Are (that over there), and Dore (Which).
 
opal cho
Posted: Nov 09, 2005 3:42 am Reply with quote
金魚花火 金魚花火
Joined: 16 Apr 2005 Posts: 162
It is important to note that the particle "wa" of the sentence "kore wa nan desu ka" is this "は" and not "わ"
 
depressant
Posted: Nov 09, 2005 9:19 am Reply with quote
ネコに風船 ネコに風船
Joined: 11 Sep 2005 Posts: 507 Location: Malaysia
khafre78 wrote:
It seems to me that you are saying Kore wa. Kore means "this thing" or "this."

Kore wa nan desu ka?
What is this?

Kore de ii desu ka?
Is this ok?

Kore daijoubu.
This is fine.

There is also Sore (that), Are (that over there), and Dore (Which).


OK! thx for explaining. I got mixed up. Now i understand... thx a lot.
 
enlightened0ne
Posted: Nov 09, 2005 4:17 pm Reply with quote
大好きだよ。 大好きだよ。
Joined: 13 Jun 2005 Posts: 231 Location: Australia
can someone explain to me what's the diff between Watashiwa and Kolehwa?

Another interpretation of the above could be watashi and ore (the wa is a particle, not part of the word) In this case, the difference between watashi and ore is a matter of formality. Ore is a slang term meaning "I" used by males, and it is very informal. Watashi is the standard politeness level of "I" used by everyone. It is neither very polite, nor at all informal.
 
horizon180
Posted: Nov 10, 2005 7:22 am Reply with quote
SMILY SMILY
Joined: 26 Oct 2005 Posts: 495 Location: Manchester, UK
Quote:
In Japanese, words can carry a lot of hidden nuances specific to each gender. There are different versions of the first person pronoun for men and women in Japanese, and which word a person chooses to use carries information about how that person views himself. For women, the words for "I" are watakushi (in formal situations), watashi (neutral, slightly feminine) or atashi (very feminine and cute). If a girl is tomboyish she might use a "boys" word for I, boku, and if she's trying to project an extremely cute image, she might even refer to herself in the third person. My daughter, who is eight, calls herself "Rina-chan," although some women in their 20s do this, to the annoyance of many around them. Men will use watakushi (formal), boku (neutral, slightly polite), or if they want to project a "manly" image, ore (OH-reh). Words for "you" include anata (slightly formal, and a little romantic if used by a wife to her husband), kimi (used when talking to someone younger than you), and for men only, the masculine word, omae (oh-MY-ae). A common alternative to using a second-person pronoun is to refer to the person you're speaking to by his name, e.g. Tomo or Fujita-san, if you were talking to Tomo.


Taken from Peter Payne's J-List side blog.
Reference

I only just noticed this thread. I can help answer questions about Japanese if anyone has any .. ^_^ .. its cool that people are interested in learning japanese... im currently in the final preps for my JLPT2 Confused ... gaaa kanji will be my downfall Crying
 
michael90
Posted: Dec 27, 2005 7:02 pm Reply with quote
ネコに風船 ネコに風船
Joined: 06 Nov 2005 Posts: 504 Location: Singapore
Thanx for sharing now know more of the japanese language Giggle
who can post in more of these i wan to learn more Smile
this is very useful Nod


Last edited by michael90 on Dec 29, 2005 11:23 pm; edited 2 times in total
 
iipwn
Posted: Dec 28, 2005 1:21 am Reply with quote
桃ノ花ビラ 桃ノ花ビラ
Joined: 10 Sep 2005 Posts: 23 Location: singapore
this is really great. i learned a great deal here. a pity there isn't any update...T-T. hopefully someone would teach how to form sentences. w
 
enlightened0ne
Posted: Dec 28, 2005 8:14 am Reply with quote
大好きだよ。 大好きだよ。
Joined: 13 Jun 2005 Posts: 231 Location: Australia
Easy; Noun + particle + verb at end is the simplest sentence structure.
eg. sushi (noun) + wo (particle denoting object) + tabemasu (verb, to eat)
giving: sushi wo tabemasu Giggle
If you are really interested in this, though, take a look at the site that I think spirus posted earlier; it can take you through the process of learning Japanese grammar quite adequately. Have fun Smile
 
iipwn
Posted: Dec 30, 2005 2:10 am Reply with quote
桃ノ花ビラ 桃ノ花ビラ
Joined: 10 Sep 2005 Posts: 23 Location: singapore
wow thx alot enlightenedOne. That sure did help. hm..but i do not understand what a particle is? anyone mind explaining? at the mean time ill check it out myself.
 
ccb
Posted: Dec 30, 2005 3:50 am Reply with quote
金魚花火 金魚花火
Joined: 02 Nov 2005 Posts: 163
try look at wikipedia particle
 
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