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[test_account]

Yeah, that drives me up the wall whenever I see it.

Do you mean because of the different spelling methods?

Seriously, Romaji is the devil. Avoid at all costs.

Ye, i try to avoid romaji, but i dont know how to activate a japanese virtual keyboard on my european Playstation 3 so i dont have to write with romaji :\ Is it possible by the way, does anyone know?

 

[Zoe]

Ye, i try to avoid romaji, but i dont know how to activate a japanese virtual keyboard on my european Playstation 3 so i dont have to write with romaji :\ Is it possible by the way, does anyone know?

You'd have to change your system language to Japanese to get the Jp keyboard.

As for the underscores, it might be faster for the person than typing in spaces.

 

[test_account]

You'd have to change your system language to Japanese to get the Jp keyboard.

Ah ok, i will try that, thanks for the tip!

EDIT: I tried it now and it worked fine I think that this is actually the first time that i've actually typed with a japanese keyboard setup, before i have only read in books and written on paper. It is pretty cool i must say, thanks again!

As for the underscores, it might be faster for the person than typing in spaces.

Ah yes, that might be why I just checked this person's PS3 trophies and i saw White Knight Chronicles in that list (i think that was the game at least), so i guess that this person is japanese after all Sorry for the missunderstanding.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Ah ok, i will try that, thanks for the tip!

EDIT: I tried it now and it worked fine I think that this is actually the first time that i've actually typed with a japanese keyboard setup, before i have only read in books and written on paper. It is pretty cool i must say, thanks again!



Ah yes, that might be why I just checked this person's PS3 trophies and i saw White Knight Chronicles in that list (i think that was the game at least), so i guess that this person is japanese after all Sorry for the missunderstanding.

The PS3 (and PSP) keyboard isn't really an accurate representation of typing in Japanese as you probably would on a QWERTY keyboard. The Playstation virtual keyboard is set up more like a Japanese mobile phone pad.

Regarding the "spellings" of romanized Japanese words, as has already been mentioned there are many ways to display the same sound. Unfortunately there really isn't a unified method for romanization and this leads to confusion for a lot of students (especially those in English speaking countries) because a lot of the time textbooks will only teach romaji that makes the most sense from an English perspective. Therefore し will always be "shi", ち will always be "chi", etc...

However, you can also display ち as "ti" and し as "si". "zi" for じ and "syo" for しょ are other examples of the various ways you can display Japanese sounds in Romaji. There are also no specific rules for spacing, so the whole thing can be very confusing unless you are already used to reading Japanese. Romaji (or Romazi!) is useful and definitely worth learning, but try to move onto actual Japanaese writing as soon as you can.

 

[test_account]

The PS3 (and PSP) keyboard isn't really an accurate representation of typing in Japanese as you probably would on a QWERTY keyboard. The Playstation virtual keyboard is set up more like a Japanese mobile phone pad.

Ye, you are right I havnt really checked a japanese keyboard too much before, but when i compare the PS3 virtual keyboard to a picture of a japanese keyboard that i found with a Google search, i see that the hiragana are lined up on different keys on the keyboard.

I have a norwegiankey keyboard connected to my PS3, and when i write in romaji (which the keyboard is "built" for (or what i shall say) the hiragana automaticly comes up, and when i press the spacebar key, then i get the kanji up (i hardly know any kanji yet, so i dont know if the kanji that comes up is the correct kanji).

But ye, as you say, it doesnt seem to be an accurate representation of typing in japanese on the PS3's virtual keyboard.

Regarding the "spellings" of romanized Japanese words, as has already been mentioned there are many ways to display the same sound. Unfortunately there really isn't a unified method for romanization and this leads to confusion for a lot of students (especially those in English speaking countries) because a lot of the time textbooks will only teach romaji that makes the most sense from an English perspective. Therefore し will always be "shi", ち will always be "chi", etc...

With confusion, do you mean how the words are pronounced or so when only reading the romaji? It is a pity to hear that there arent any unified method for romanization :\ But i think i will be ok with it now that i know it, hopefully i wont have any problems with it when i keep on studying the japanese language

However, you can also display ち as "ti" and し as "si". "zi" for じ and "syo" for しょ are other examples of the various ways you can display Japanese sounds in Romaji. There are also no specific rules for spacing, so the whole thing can be very confusing unless you are already used to reading Japanese. Romaji (or Romazi!) is useful and definitely worth learning, but try to move onto actual Japanaese writing as soon as you can.

Ah ok, so ち can be pronounced as "ti" in some words, or am i missunderstanding? By the way, i tried to write "syo" on my PS3 and しょ did indeed come up like Zoe said above here I had no idea ther wasnt a unified method for romanization as you mentioned, it is nice to know this! About spacing, as you say, there are no specific rules about spacing, but is there any way of writing that are more common? Is spacing used at all in the japanese language?

Ye, when i write with pen and paper to practice in my japanese studies i so to say always write in hiragana and katakana, and hopefully soon kanji when i get to that part I wrote in romaji earlier here since it was the easiest for me, or else i would have to use some online romaji to hiragana/katakana/kanji converter. Maybe i should do that the next time i write here, or is there any easier way instead of using a romaji to hiragana/katakana/kanji converter?


EDIT: I added some text.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Ye, you are right I havnt really checked a japanese keyboard too much before, but when i compare the PS3 virtual keyboard to a picture of a japanese keyboard that i found with a Google search, i see that the hiragana are lined up on different keys on the keyboard.

I have a norwegiankey keyboard connected to my PS3, and when i write in romaji (which the keyboard is "built" for (or what i shall say) the hiragana automaticly comes up, and when i press the spacebar key, then i get the kanji up (i hardly know any kanji yet, so i dont know if the kanji that comes up is the correct kanji).

But ye, as you say, it doesnt seem to be an accurate representation of typing in japanese on the PS3's virtual keyboard.

Most people just type using Romaji and convert it into Japanese as they go along. For example to type out 「学校（がっこう）に行（い）きました」 you would type out on a keyboard "g-a-k-k-o-u-n-i-i-k-i-m-a-s-i-t-a" and press the space bar to convert for the proper Kanji. It is kind of difficult for me explain how it works, but it is easy to understand if you ever get a chance to try it.

With confusion, do you mean how the words are pronounced or so when only reading the romaji? It is a pity to hear that there arent any unified method for romanization :\ But i think i will be ok with it now that i know it, hopefully i wont have any problems with it when i keep on studying the japanese language

I don't mean that words are pronounced differently depending on the Romaji, I meant to say that certain Japanese sounds are able to be written in different ways in Romaji.

Ah ok, so ち can be pronounced as "ti" in some words, or am i missunderstanding? By the way, i tried to write "syo" on my PS3 and しょ did indeed come up like Zoe said above here I had no idea ther wasnt a unified method for romanization as you mentioned, it is nice to know this! About spacing, as you say, there are no specific rules about spacing, but is there any way of writing that are more common? Is spacing used at all in the japanese language?

ち is always pronounced as ち, but it can be written as either "chi" or "ti". The pronunciation remains the same.

 

[test_account]

Most people just type using Romaji and convert it into Japanese as they go along. For example to type out 「学校（がっこう）に行（い）きました」 you would type out on a keyboard "g-a-k-k-o-u-n-i-i-k-i-m-a-s-i-t-a" and press the space bar to convert for the proper Kanji. It is kind of difficult for me explain how it works, but it is easy to understand if you ever get a chance to try it.

Ah ok, it seems to be kinda simular on the PS3 then I just write in romaji, and while i write the romaji get automaticly converted to hiragana. If i just write for example "gakkou", then it will automaticly display が, then っ, then こ and in the end うinstead while i am typing. If i press spacebar as you say, then i get the kanji 学校

How do you get this to work in Windows XP by the way? Do you need a japanese version of Windows XP?

I don't mean that words are pronounced differently depending on the Romaji, I meant to say that certain Japanese sounds are able to be written in different ways in Romaji.

Ah yes, if someone that dont know japanese reads konnitiwa instead of konnichiwa, they might think that konnichiwa is pronounced with a "ti" instead of a "chi", did i understand it correctly? I am not sure if "konnitiwa" is used while typing romaji though, so i dont know if this word is an good example, but i just took a word as an example

ち is always pronounced as ち, but it can be written as either "chi" or "ti". The pronunciation remains the same.

Ah ok, i understand Thanks alot for all the help!


EDIT: I added some text.

 

[Carton]

How do you get this to work in Windows XP by the way? Do you need a japanese version of Windows XP?

Go to the 'Regional and Language Options' under your control panel and set it to Japanese. You can then switch between Japanese and English with a simultaneous press of Alt and ~.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

How do you get this to work in Windows XP by the way? Do you need a japanese version of Windows XP?

As Carton said just go into "Regional and Language Options" and you should be able to find an option that lets you install "East Asian Languages" or something like that. The install will take up about 250MB I believe if you didn't install them when you first installed Windows and it may require you to insert the Windows disc. If you happen to already have the languages installed you just need to add Japanese as one of your languages (there should be a keyboard icon somewhere on the menu). You always might have to activate what is called a "language bar" from where you can select Japanese as your input language. It will probably be easiest just to set Japanese as your default input language and use "alt + ~" to switch between English (roman characters) typing and Japanese typing modes.

Sorry for the vague explanation, but I haven't touched an English copy of Windows XP for a long time, so I don't remember the steps exactly.

 

[leroidys]

Sorry, I didn't see it anywhere else in the thread, but are there any kanji learning games (not dictionaries) that people can recommend?

 

[test_account]

Go to the 'Regional and Language Options' under your control panel and set it to Japanese. You can then switch between Japanese and English with a simultaneous press of Alt and ~.

As Carton said just go into "Regional and Language Options" and you should be able to find an option that lets you install "East Asian Languages" or something like that. The install will take up about 250MB I believe if you didn't install them when you first installed Windows and it may require you to insert the Windows disc. If you happen to already have the languages installed you just need to add Japanese as one of your languages (there should be a keyboard icon somewhere on the menu). You always might have to activate what is called a "language bar" from where you can select Japanese as your input language. It will probably be easiest just to set Japanese as your default input language and use "alt + ~" to switch between English (roman characters) typing and Japanese typing modes.

Sorry for the vague explanation, but I haven't touched an English copy of Windows XP for a long time, so I don't remember the steps exactly.

Great, i got it to work! It seems that i already had the japanese language support installed, i cant see that i had to download anything at least. I also tried to hit the spacebar key and i see that i get up kanji then as you (Zefah) mentioned in a previous post here

And just to test: ありがとう　ございます！Seems to be working great!

Thanks alot for the help to the both of you, Carton and Zefah!

 

[Arctic Feather]

Random Japanese-related question for you lot.

I signed up for Japanese Pod 101 and when I play the MP3s in WMP the "lyrics" display at the bottom as they should, but the Japanese characters are just gibberish and aren't much use.

Oddly the tracks in my library with Japanese titles/artists display fine, anyone know how I might fix it? I tried changing the default lyrics to Japanese, but it hasn't done anything

Failing that is there a different media player that will display embedded Japanese lyrics as I listen to the MP3?

 

[BuRT!]

Yo, so I pulled a sentence from the new FFXIII trailer (the first sentence), and I haven't been able to find what form this word is using:

The word is 始まりだった. I realize it means somethig like "was the beginning," and I'd previously learned 始まる・始める. (I think)The past tense for those would be 始まった・始めた, so I'm wondering where the り comes in play here.

始まり comes up on yahoo and JDIC as a noun, but since its not on sanseido I'm assuming its a conjugation of some sort...

 

[Love To Love You Baby]

It's funny - I don't give two shits about anime/manga/whatever, haven't owned a videogame console since I was 14 (yeah, don't ask me how I ended up on a gaming forum, I don't know either - even if I exclusively visit/post in the OT), don't really have a strong interest in Japanese culture, don't have a fetish for Japanese/AZN men and hate most Japanese food. But lately I've just become obsessed with the idea of visiting Tokyo, so I might participate in this thread a little bit.

I used my recent trip to Paris to really beef up my French and I'd like to have at least an intermediate grasp on a number of languages, so a Tokyo trip would be a good excuse to semi-learn another language.

 

[Cheesemeister]

My grief with certain Romaji conventions is that they're completely wrong in terms of indicating pronunciation.

The offenders...

しゃ = sya, しゅ = syu, しょ = syo, et. al.
し = si
じ = zi
ち = ti
ぢ = di
つ = tu
づ = du

With this insanely stupid scheme, you can turn 社長（しゃちょう） into syacyou, rather than the more proper shachou.

始まり comes up on yahoo and JDIC as a noun, but since its not on sanseido I'm assuming its a conjugation of some sort...

Indeed, changing a verb to end in i makes it into a noun. Another example: 終わり = the end.

 

[bigcheese]

My grief with certain Romaji conventions is that they're completely wrong in terms of indicating pronunciation.

The offenders...

しゃ = sya, しゅ = syu, しょ = syo, et. al.
し = si
じ = zi
ち = ti
ぢ = di
つ = tu
づ = du

With this insanely stupid scheme, you can turn 社長（しゃちょう） into syacyou, rather than the more proper shachou.



Indeed, changing a verb to end in i makes it into a noun. Another example: 終わり = the end.

That's definitely not how we learned to write them in Romaji. We learned the right way, and as a result, my pronunciation is pretty good.

 

[Jake.]

That's definitely not how we learned to write them in Romaji.

me either. to me しゃ is sha, しゅ is shu, しょ is sho etc.

 

[BuRT!]

Indeed, changing a verb to end in i makes it into a noun. Another example: 終わり = the end.

ohhh, ok cool. So that must be what this means when its at the end of some definitions on sanseido.net: "(&#27966(&#65374り" (for example, it's at the end of 始まる and 終わ&#12427

p.s. I also learned しゃ・しょ・しゅ, etc. as sha sho shu..

 

[Deleted member 17706]

My grief with certain Romaji conventions is that they're completely wrong in terms of indicating pronunciation.

The offenders...

しゃ = sya, しゅ = syu, しょ = syo, et. al.
し = si
じ = zi
ち = ti
ぢ = di
つ = tu
づ = du

With this insanely stupid scheme, you can turn 社長（しゃちょう） into syacyou, rather than the more proper shachou.



Indeed, changing a verb to end in i makes it into a noun. Another example: 終わり = the end.

It is only "wrong" in terms of pronunciation coming from an English language perspective. Many languages use roman characters and they don't always share the same pronunciation.

 

[RevenantKioku]

It is only "wrong" in terms of pronunciation coming from an English language perspective. Many languages use roman characters and they don't always share the same pronunciation.

Isn't that mostly vowel sounds, though? There is a lot of overlap in the consonants, albeit there are obviously going to be some differences.
Now, I am a big believer in romaji should be ignored for learners, but for non-learners it should be easy for the majority and that at this point is English speakers. Plus, you're just going to get closer with spellings like kanji and Chiho instead of kanzi and Tiho.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Isn't that mostly vowel sounds, though? There is a lot of overlap in the consonants, albeit there are obviously going to be some differences.
Now, I am a big believer in romaji should be ignored for learners, but for non-learners it should be easy for the majority and that at this point is English speakers. Plus, you're just going to get closer with spellings like kanji and Chiho instead of kanzi and Tiho.

I agree totally that Chiho and Kanji are much easier to understand compared to Tiho and Kanzi, but that may be because I am a native English speaker. I would imagine that someone who isn't familiar with English pronunciation rules at all wouldn't fine either variation any better than the other, though.

You are probably corect that the majority of Japanese learners are English speakers or have at least studied some English. It would be nice if one form of romanization was made the official one just to clear up confusion.

 

[RevenantKioku]

I get that. I speak a bit of German, and there you don't win in either case of kanji/kanzi. The thing is you're never going to get it completely right for everyone, hence the majority rules kinda thing.
Help as many people as you can.

 

[Hitokage]

That's definitely not how we learned to write them in Romaji. We learned the right way, and as a result, my pronunciation is pretty good.

If you learned it the right way, then what letters you used weren't as important because you understood their pronunciation in japanese wasn't the same thing as their use in english.

Hell, moreso than German, Pinyin laughs at Americans who cling to their own phonetic ruleset.

 

[Talka]

I'm going abroad to Kyoto in the Spring for six months. I've taken two years of University level Japanese and I got to be kind of decent, but never all that great. And then I slacked off for a year and now I'm very rusty.

For anyone who's ever been to Japan for a study abroad program, how fast did your Japanese improve? I'm going to be living with a Japanese family and taking another class, and presumably I'll be interacting with Japanese people and speaking the language as much as possible. But I've never done anything immersive like this before and don't know how much I can expect to improve from it.

 

[RevenantKioku]

I mean, there is a certain benefit you get from it, but I know people who have been here for almost two years and still can't recognize the kana. I'm sure there are worse cases.
You just have to put out the effort.

 

[FINALFANTASYDOG]

Okay, thanks to using a modified version of the method in this thread, I've gotten to the point where my reading skills are more then Where I'm happy with them,

But my speaking skills are insane(in a rather not good way). I'd really like to be able to keep my reading/essay skills vocab, while being able to speak in a coherent manner.

(skip this part if you are busy)
{
Due to how I learned the Vocab and Kanji, From reading and not from listening, I have a weird dyslexic trait of switching around kanjis and end up saying 同憂 in conversations when I meant to say 誘導. Not too mention all the times I have ちょう and ちゅう wrong for words, or that I find out I've actually been reading the kanji wrong the entire time. Plus I have a great tendency to use 漢語 in conversation, When any normal human being would use 和語 in the situation. My reps are filled up with 漢語 never used in normal conversation

Plus most vocab(aka all of my sentences), while I have no problem understanding it, just refuses to come out in conversation, my conversational skills have actually gotten worse since I started this program, due to my mind searching for vocab/kanji

I think part of the problem might be that for many years I was just happy with my every day conversation level of Japanese and the vocab I had from those years. So Incorrect grammar and the vocab from that time just flows freely.
}


How do you adjust this method to work on your speaking skills, what are your sentences like?
Should I Stop adding in sentences that are only for reading vocab? I'd like to be able to keep my essay reading skills.

I think part of my problem is that these next 2 sentences are pretty representative of 75% of my 5000 sentences. I just can't stand not knowing vocab.

従属節の部分を１っのまとまりでとらえよう。
計画的に商品を選び出し、「意図的に陳列するしかけ」で　はじめて衝動買いがおきるのである。

Should I just gut all my sentences(which would hurt) and start over?

 

[Masked Man]

Yo, so I pulled a sentence from the new FFXIII trailer (the first sentence), and I haven't been able to find what form this word is using:

The word is 始まりだった. I realize it means somethig like "was the beginning," and I'd previously learned 始まる・始める. (I think)The past tense for those would be 始まった・始めた, so I'm wondering where the り comes in play here.

Isn't that a great feeling? I love when I can understand things without thinking too much.

And, for reference, I believe the full sentence is
「目覚めてから１３日、世界の終わりの始まりだった。」
("Thirteen days after we woke up, it was the beginning of the end of the world.")

 

[BuRT!]

yea, it is pretty cool being able to understand things, eventhough it isnt very much yet ;P

 

[Hitokage]

My grief with certain Romaji conventions is that they're completely wrong in terms of indicating pronunciation.

The offenders...

[...]

With this insanely stupid scheme, you can turn 社長（しゃちょう） into syacyou, rather than the more proper shachou.

I completely forgot to mention old/nonstandard kana readings! Where under your system romanizing けふ as "kefu", きう as "kiu", and ならむ as "naramu" would be wrong.

Or you can ignore all that and just take notice of 言う/いう.

 

[suffah]

Can anyone point me to some videogame related podcasts?

 

[RevenantKioku]

I've only found Kojima's. All my other podcasts are news related. "/

 

[Askia47]

Finished RTK 1 on the 10th, after 3 years of having the book im finally fucking finished. I still need to work on my retention of some kanji, but its great to be finished for the most part.

Any idea of where to go or what to do next?

 

[Link1110]

Quick question, How do I translate "room 148" into Japanese?

 

[Shirokun]

Quick question, How do I translate "room 148" into Japanese?

１４８室

or

hyaku yon jyuu hachi shitsu

(hachi and shitsu might be combined, like "hasshitsu" but I can't remember for sure)

 

[Link1110]

１４８室

or

hyaku yon jyuu hachi shitsu

(hachi and shitsu might be combined, like "hasshitsu" but I can't remember for sure)

Thanks.

 

[Shirokun]

Can somebody explain how exactly the ～えば conjugation is used? I was taught that it means "if" ,and we were told in my class to use it with よかった to imply that "I wish I had done something". For example:

食べなければよかった。

But how is it used otherwise? Is it different from ～ったら　which I understand has a cause-and-effect sort of meaning?(If A ったら　then B)

Somebody, please explain.

 

[Akira]

This is somewhat related to this thread, but are there any films about the Japanese Imperial Court? Modern or period piece, doesn't really matter. I'm curious to hear "Court Japanese", the 4th and highest level of Japanese honorifics. I'd like to read about it also.

 

[RevenantKioku]

不合格

29 points! 29 POINTS!!
A 52% is more than I did last time, though. And it's not like I really can judge anything by the test. Even if I got a 100% my Japanese isn't where I want it to be.
Still, this is motivating at the very least.

 

[KTallguy]

Are you talking about the Proficiency Exam? What level?

I was trying for the longest time to pass 1 kyu, but then my boss said the stuff you study is pretty useless in general, and definitely not useful at work, so I ended up quitting and just reading books.

 

[suffah]

不合格

29 points! 29 POINTS!!
A 52% is more than I did last time, though. And it's not like I really can judge anything by the test. Even if I got a 100% my Japanese isn't where I want it to be.
Still, this is motivating at the very least.

You took the 1級 right?

 

[Cheesemeister]

I wonder if my 1級 results have arrived yet... I managed to get upwards of 56% last summer. Anything over 60% would be great.

EDIT: Apparently the language school I attended last summer received it today.

 

[RevenantKioku]

No, I took 2級.
Failed 20 kanji so far today (out of 68 so far). Just not having a good day when it's coming to Japanese studies, haha.

 

[Masked Man]

不合格

29 points! 29 POINTS!!
A 52% is more than I did last time, though. And it's not like I really can judge anything by the test. Even if I got a 100% my Japanese isn't where I want it to be.
Still, this is motivating at the very least.

;_; お疲れ様でした。
でも記憶さんがまだ若いし、大丈夫ですよ。「明日があるさ」ということをよく覚えて下さいね。
(And you improved! Moreover, you actually had the courage to take the test in the first place, which is a huge feat. Kudos to you!)

(Also, not to trivialize your situation, but I kind of got excited when I could read your first line and understand it completely, both in terms of the literal meaning / reading, as well as what you were talking about.)

Quick question, How do I translate "room 148" into Japanese?

My teacher just uses the hall name and then each individual numeral, i.e.

Peters 305 -> Peters (ピーター&#12474 の ３０５(さん・まる・&#12372.

Can somebody explain how exactly the ～えば conjugation is used? I was taught that it means "if" ,and we were told in my class to use it with よかった to imply that "I wish I had done something". For example:

食べなければよかった。

But how is it used otherwise? Is it different from ～ったら　which I understand has a cause-and-effect sort of meaning?(If A ったら　then B)

Somebody, please explain.

I've heard that this is the second-most common question after "What's the difference between は and が?" I'm not experienced enough yet (my seven-month anniversary of beginning my studies was yesterday!), but I'll 調べてあげる later.

One of my favorite usages of 〜ば, though, is（動&#35422〜ば(動&#35422ほど, which equates to "the more I [verb]..."

EX: 考えれば考えるほどもっと落ち込んでしまうのです。(The more I think about it, the more depressed I get.)

(Also, if that's a poor usage and/or construction, 直してくれて下さいね.)

 

[BuRT!]

残念ながら本当じゃ..いい噂、悪い噂

In this sentence, what is the じゃ used for?

I can read a few words in the definition on my DS saying that its some speaking style or something, but not enough to make sense of it ;p

 

[Mœbius]

Just got my JLPT 3 results... I passed . Really happy and surprised considering I only started learning Japanese from scratch last March. Glad I decided to go for 3 and skip 4 too - it pushed me much harder and I'd recommend it for other beginners.

 

[Masked Man]

残念ながら本当じゃ..いい噂、悪い噂

In this sentence, what is the じゃ used for?

I can read a few words in the definition on my DS saying that its some speaking style or something, but not enough to make sense of it ;p

じゃ as an ending particle is, from what I understand, a form of the copula used primarily by elderly people. So, the sentence would read something like:

"Regrettably, it's true... Good news and bad news."

(噂 here would be taken as "news," but still maintains the implication that it was hearsay or some kind of news that was spreading around like a rumor.)

Just got my JLPT 3 results... I passed . Really happy and surprised considering I only started learning Japanese from scratch last March. Glad I decided to go for 3 and skip 4 too - it pushed me much harder and I'd recommend it for other beginners.

Oh, awesome! I'm happy that things worked out so well for you. I just started back in July, and I'm considering doing the same thing. Then again, I'm going to be in Japan from September through May, so I might just forego the 3級 this December and go for 2級 or something a little later.

 

[RevenantKioku]

Hey, I've been asked to do a round for a pub quiz that would be more geared to the Japanese players, so I was thinking of maybe doing a Kanji quiz, i.e. having teams do the readings and meaning (to keep all the English speakers being somewhat useful in this round, haha).
Anyone know a good resource of difficult kanji compounds that I could use to trick a few people? I don't want anything impossible but a challenge would be nice.

 

[Hitokage]

Hey, I've been asked to do a round for a pub quiz that would be more geared to the Japanese players, so I was thinking of maybe doing a Kanji quiz, i.e. having teams do the readings and meaning (to keep all the English speakers being somewhat useful in this round, haha).
Anyone know a good resource of difficult kanji compounds that I could use to trick a few people? I don't want anything impossible but a challenge would be nice.

Define 'trick'.

 

[RevenantKioku]

Define 'trick'.

Well, something that people might easily confuse. I don't want it to be full of things that you'd have to know ridiculous amounts of stuff to answer, but I don't want everyone to 100% it either.

 

[scottnak]

I find some things like country names or animal names in kanji are interesting little puzzles to solve... Probably can't read it, but if you break down the individual kanjis you might be able to figure it out.

Like (animal) 熊猫 =

Spoiler

panda

, 袋鼠　=

Spoiler

Kangaroo

or (country) 宇柳具=

Spoiler

Uruguay

, 新西蘭 =

Spoiler

New Zealand

Pretty cool, at least I think... haha.
Though I think this is purely reading chinese - japanese style... so if there's any chinese people in the mix they might have a unfair advantage.