In an attempt to immerse myself in Japanese, I switched my gmail preferences to display in Japanese. It was a noble intention, I think, and I've gotten to the point where I can recognize maybe two katakana characters and the word nihongo. Other than that, though, I'm clueless. I have no idea how to empty my junk mail folder, though I've tried just about everything. And of course, I can't figure out how to get back into language settings.
Maybe when I get back from Japan in a year and a half I'll recognize enough kanji to be able to delete my spam.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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There are a couple good online translators that I use. It's funny when I get an error message and try to translate it and get something like "problem naijoshibu serve tokai jushidi deliver gone kukibo to please."
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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I know the names for my favorite types of sushi, I can count to 10, and I can say "thank you very much." What more is required?
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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I think you've pretty much got it down, Bob. The only other phrase you need to know now is "aisu kurimu o kudasai."
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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good for you. I have been restudying lately, going over the stuff I learned in the past. At work, while listening to Dir en grey I seem to think in Japanese and English and the same time and slowly I am beginning to understand it. Japanese is tasty and I like it.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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If I'd have said "aisu kuriimu" out loud, you would have totally gotten it.
That's the one nice thing about Japanese. If something was invented in the last hundred years, chances are you can say it in English with a couple vowels added in and get it right.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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And do it in that order - Hiragana should be learned before Katakana. Then Katakana's a piece of cake.
They're the books I used, and I love 'em to bits. They teach to write 'em, read 'em, and use 'em all at the same time.
Posts: 2689 | Registered: Apr 2000
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I HATE kanji, though. Stupid kanji. The most annoying thing is that now (~8 years later) I can't even read the stuff I wrote for the Japanese newspaper when I was living there. Well. I CAN read it if I choose to spend lots of time on it. I've got better things to do. For example, Celebrity Fit Club is on at this very moment.
Posts: 834 | Registered: Jun 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Liz B: I HATE kanji, though. Stupid kanji. The most annoying thing is that now (~8 years later) I can't even read the stuff I wrote for the Japanese newspaper when I was living there. Well. I CAN read it if I choose to spend lots of time on it. I've got better things to do. For example, Celebrity Fit Club is on at this very moment.
Aw I love Kanji... It's so nifty.
When it comes to Dir en grey, beware of some of their lyrics... But, still, I love those guys.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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It really is efficient. In Chinese and Japanese you have a lot of words that sounded alike. You couldn't just use roman letters or hiragana. It would confuse everyone. You just have to realize that kanji is not so bad... It has a simple system and once you learn it, it's a peice of cake. Even a kanji with 21 strokes can be broken down into a simple form. It's a thing of beauty.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I can vouch for the fact that Japanese written entirely in kana is very hard to read. For one thing, they don't put spaces between their words. For another, they have a lot more homonyms than we have.
I used to complain about kanji too, but you know what? Japan has a 100% adult literacy rate. Obviously it works just fine for them.
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Bob, if you can count to 10 using the various counters, I'll be impressed.
For example, you use a different word for 1 if you're refering to bottles than you would if you were refering to people. ippon bottle, hitori people, ikkai (if I remember right) for tickets.
Plus many counters are Irregular.
Japanese is such a joyous language. It makes my heart giddy.
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Plus the fact that the Kanji for 'egg' literally means 'Ball Child'. How can you not love that?
Posts: 2689 | Registered: Apr 2000
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I have to agree. Kanji is interesting because it combines different words into a compound word.
Annie, I can help you learn how to talk about hitting people and knocking them over. Otherwise, you're on your own.
Posts: 3546 | Registered: Jul 2002
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I forgot the bit of Japanese I learned. I once greeted my Japanese teachr years later with "Ohio Gozaimas" (Good morning). She said to friends of mine (who were in the same Japanese class with me) "wow! He remembers some of the stuff I taught him!"; which is fine, except the time was around 19:30 PM.
I also learned other phrases, though I forgot the meaning of them.
Good luck with your studies, Annie dear!
quote: Kanji is interesting because it combines different words into a compound word.
Park is two trees, forest is three trees, house is mother + child.
Posts: 2978 | Registered: Oct 2004
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I'm not saying that the Japanese shouldn't use kanji, or that it's not cool. The first 300-500 are a snap. After that I lost interest. Seriously, though, it was an interesting situation for me -- I'm very good at languages, so I could speak Japanese more or less fluently and write (with the assistance of a Japanese word processor) well also -- since the computer would come up with the kanji for me when I typed in the correct romanization. I never progressed to any kind of interesting reading, though. Survival reading, sure. Directions on the back of the pancake mix, bus schedules, OK! Books (even short stories and manga), not so much. Very different from studying Spanish, when I was able to read a novel during my senior year of high school.
Posts: 834 | Registered: Jun 2005
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My wife speaks Japanese (along with 4-5 others fluently), and knows a bit of Kanjii....if you send us a screenshot she might be able to help you change it back. Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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