Phew, found out a few days ago that I passed my Japanese exam at university last month...relief doesn't even start to describe it. Tbh learning Japanese is something that I've never really become bored with even though studying the likes of French and Latin at school were some of the most boring times of my life. A good way to start off is first to learn a few phrases and useful words, just start with romaji and keep it simple for a few weeks/ months, I'm guessing most people just wanna learn Japanese for fun and in their own time so you can take as long as you want with things; just try and keep it simple at first. Once you've got a basic (I mean basic) understanding of pronunciation and the like then move on to hiragana, it's the best thing you can learn before even trying to bother with kanji. Obviously you'll pick up some kanji naturally along the way but hoenstly learning hiragana makes things so much simpler if it's done first. Reading along to subtitled videos and songs is always good and there's no doubt in my mind that various episodes of Hello! Morning and Morning Musume PV's helped get me through my early days in learning Japanese. I'm just going from personal experience here obviously but things seem to be working out pretty well for me so far; I' d say not to bother worrying about kanji or the actual grammatical structure of things until you've got hiragana in your head. After that I guess moving on to katakana and particles is the next logical step. If anyone does want any help with learning some of the basic stuff (I'm no teacher and don't pretend to be but I can always try and help with the things that I do have) I can scan some of the stuff I used to work from if anyone wants and help run through it or whatever. Like I say though I'm no teacher and don't expect miracles from me because things will probably go wrong before they go right with me!
Just moved into my dorm at the University of Sheffield, doing a Japanese degree. Since I intend to take this through to Masters, I'm going to be here 5 years! Daunting. It's freshers week this week so no classes, but I really want to just meet the class, see if anyone else has similar interests etc. Still, after 2 years of messing around in part-time courses making slow progress, it's great to be taking a dedicated intensive course!
I'm in my 6th year of Japanese but I'm always messing up particles. I keep messing up with で, に, and が. Anyone got any tips for me so sensei will stop handing my essays back completely covered in red ink?
I'm not a Japanese language teacher, so I can't tell good tips. で indicates done place AKB48シアターで公演が行われる done scene オーディションで合格した the method, means ガチャで当たった the materials 紙で作られている the state ふたりで出かけた the cause 急な発熱で休演した に indicates the place which exists 秋葉原にある the target of movement AKB48シアターに行こう the result of the change. 正規メンバーになった が indicates the subject of movement, operation 梨紗が泣いた the object of possible thing 英語が出来る wanted object サインが欲しい the object of likes or dislikes はるにゃんが好きだ
ez mod: に = "to" and "from" (like getting a gift from your father, or giving one). That's how I remembered it xO and its also the third (or in this case, first) that ossan already stated (and yes I still want anyone to correct me if I'm wrong ^^)
Thanks ossan! I printed out your list... its easier than attempting to flip through the textbook looking for the right particle to use.
So, some Japanese guy I don't know started messaging me on Facebook the other day, telling me that he found my profile on a language exchange group and he's coming to my city in December, so "let's language exchange." I found it all kind of adorable, though he doesn't have a profile picture and some of my LJ friends told me not to trust him. But I don't know xD. I replied to him partially in Japanese, but I still get a bit self-conscious about trying to form proper Japanese sentences when talking to native Japanese speakers. Must study more! My kanji test the other day went pretty well. It's a miracle what just studying can do! I want to study more kanji from now on, because it feels really good learning new ones.
I think i too feel self-conscious when i speak in Japanese to locals, while in Japan, even if i am speaking by what i memorized. I speak at times with wrong tense, grammar, but for the most part, i do believe that most Japanese would get a fair to good understanding of what i am trying to communicate. I think more Japanese skills will come more easier as you practice more, and the grammar structure will come together with more conversing with Japanese. I would like to expand on Kanji, and learn to understand the characters and their meaning. I thought of "Rosetta Stone" but quite frankly, it would be so much of an investment to purchase Japanese I, at $500 retail, that is about half the price of a plane ticket economy class to Japan. I perhaps think it would be cheaper taking a Japanese class, and or practicing if you are lucky enough to have a Japanese pen pal in Japan to talk on Skype with.
I've been taking Japanese classes for a year and a half now. I'm picking it up very fast, but I'm good with languages in general, so that helps. I overheard some Japanese tourist talking and I walked up to them and started a conversation! Really scary at first, but everything went really natural. I can't wait to actual go to Japan one day..
I am so confuse with japanese Grammar and the dirction in English, but i think i will be ok next year, i will going to Japan
now, on the proper thread, some says "aishiteru" and others say "ai shite iru" which one is correct????
^ They both mean the same thing. The only difference is how the syllables are separated on paper when using romaji. I personally use "ai shiteiru."
Both are correct. "aishiteru" (愛してる) is a contraction of "aishiteiru" (愛している). I've seen romaji lyrics for Japanese songs that represent this contraction like this: "aishte'ru" or like this: "aishite(i)ru" Also, when English speakers start writing in Japanese, they (we) naturally put spaces between parts of sentence (ai shite iru), because it is way we write in English. But in Japanese, entire sentences are usually written without any spaces. Instead, spaces are used after punctuation, although in song lyrics, they can appear between phrases. Hope this helps. Despite my user name, I've never been a teacher. It's just a nickname I picked up because I looked like one of the Japanese teachers in high school...I'd probably suck at being a teacher
@giddy: thanks so much for the trouble today @fosensei: thanks to for the further explntion so ai shite iru and aisiteru is the same, oh well, i prefer aishiteru, thanks again you guys^^
As for "aishiteiru" and "aishiteru", the nuance is slightly different. "aishiteiru" feels like "explanation". "aishiteru" is usually used if it whispers to the lover. Japanese language has kanji, so we can recognize the delimitation of the word without spaces.
^ ^ Yeah, I like that explanation too! On the other hand, that explanation doesn't work as well with other verbs, like itteru (言ってる) or kiteru (来てる). I've always thought that the -teru form was used mostly in conversation and informal writing (like blogs!), like contractions in English (can't, I've, we're), but that's based on personal experience. Is there a general rule about when it can or can not be used?
