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[Gacha-pin]

What IME are you using? There should be a option menu where you can customize your default input. Try right click on the IME bar.

I recommend Google IME. It's a free IME app, it's not best but better than MS IME for sure.
http://www.google.com/intl/ja/ime/

 

[Bomber Bob]

Yeah google IME is awesome

 

[Kilgore Trout]

I'm using Microsoft IME. Besides this recent issue I really haven't had an problems but I'll look into Google's. I did see change the input switch from alt+shift to ~ but there was nothing I could find about capslock.

 

[louis89]

Google's IME is the shit. I thought the Microsoft one was fine until I tried out Google's and I'm glad I did.

頑張ってね！

If you get stuck, just add in some そうですかs or some えとs to keep the flow going. Nothing like hearing someone in an exam say "私はum...大学生です...yeah."

I personally think that あの is a better choice.

 

[KtSlime]

I don't speak or read any Japanese and I just came in here to browse, but this is blowing my mind a bit.

Also used for grading papers ◯ full credit, △ part credit, × no credit.

 

[Angry Fork]

I've just started Remembering the Kanji and I have a question about stroke order/how to write the kanji. In the number/kanji for four it mentions you should write 'north to south, west to east, northwest to southeast'. But I'm not exactly sure what this means when there's more copmlex kanji with lots of different lines/hooks etc. Does it matter what stroke order you use or an 'official' way to physically write them?

When I see the kanji for four I basically see a box with a hook and right angle inside. Can I just draw a box how I normally would and then the rest how I feel most comfortable or should I strictly follow north to south on vertical lines, etc. things like that.

Should I follow this kind of guideline for kanji?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroke_order#General_guidelines

 

[Zoe]

It's fairly obvious to the trained eye when you're not using the correct stroke order.

Especially with a "box" kanji, it's not really a box. You should be able to see which line is continuous.

 

[Angry Fork]

What do you mean by continuous line though? How do you learn the correct stroke order? Does the wiki link explain it well enough?

If this is the right way to write the "box" for example, then it's not a continuous line since you have to lift the pen at some point to go west to east. By continuous line I'm assuming you mean an ongoing line without lifting the pen/pencil.

 

[Zoe]

What do you mean by continuous line though? How do you learn the correct stroke order? Does the wiki link explain it well enough?

If this is the right way to write the "box" for example, then it's not a continuous line since you have to lift the pen at some point to go west to east. By continuous line I'm assuming you mean an ongoing line without lifting the pen/pencil.

The second stroke is continuous. That's why I said which.

 

[Angry Fork]

oooh okay, yea I missed that sorry lol.

 

[Lostconfused]

Being left handed the stroke order screws with you even more than it usually does. Since all of it is based on brush strokes made with the right hand. Personally I won't worry about it until I decide to learn calligraphy with my right hand.

 

[nicoga3000]

So I've been looking into learning the language on and off for a few months...I noticed this thread the other day, read through the first post, but still have a question. If I'm completely new to the idea and want to slowly ease myself into self-teaching (for reading/writing/speaking), what is the first "resource" I should look into buying?

 

[Yami]

So I've been looking into learning the language on and off for a few months...I noticed this thread the other day, read through the first post, but still have a question. If I'm completely new to the idea and want to slowly ease myself into self-teaching (for reading/writing/speaking), what is the first "resource" I should look into buying?

Pretty much this for me as well hah. I've always toyed with the idea of learning for a few years, but I'm seriously thinking of doing the JET scheme from the UK so I'd really like to learn some stuff. I've heard stories of people getting by without learning much, or little Japanese, yet I'd ideally like to get a grasp of the language as so to better my opportunities. I'm in my final year of university, so it's basically a now or never haha.

I would love to start learning the Kanji but is that the best way to start more conversational Japanese?

 

[Gacha-pin]

Google's IME is the shit. I thought the Microsoft one was fine until I tried out Google's and I'm glad I did.

I looked up shit since I didn't understand your post and I thought you can use shit for only negative things.
Google's IME is the shit. グーグルIMEすげ～、マジやばい。
Google's IME is shit. グーグルIME、クソすぎる。
こんな感じのニュアンス？

I've just started Remembering the Kanji and I have a question about stroke order/how to write the kanji. In the number/kanji for four it mentions you should write 'north to south, west to east, northwest to southeast'. But I'm not exactly sure what this means when there's more copmlex kanji with lots of different lines/hooks etc. Does it matter what stroke order you use or an 'official' way to physically write them?

When I see the kanji for four I basically see a box with a hook and right angle inside. Can I just draw a box how I normally would and then the rest how I feel most comfortable or should I strictly follow north to south on vertical lines, etc. things like that.

Should I follow this kind of guideline for kanji?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroke_order#General_guidelines

You can write a character most beautifully when you follow the stroke order. There are not many patterns in stroke orders, once you learn the stroke orders of the basic kanji like 三, 口, 日, 木, 水, 字, 門, you don't have any troubles in kanji writing even when you write complex ones.

 

[sasimirobot]

if you know any thing about writing kanzi (and I am an expert) stroke order matters...

how long did I have to wait to use that joke?

 

[Mik2121]

First, it's not Fukuoka-ben, it's Hakata-ben. Second, it rocks, you just can't handle it . Especially coming from girls, really cute.



明太子かな。

あ、そうそう博多弁w　まあ、九州らへんあんま詳しくないし、ごめんなさい！
あと、明太子が名物か・・どうなんだろ・・w

Game company in Fukuoka? You mean Level 5?

Not Level 5, but still a big one. I have my last interview this Friday, hopefully it all goes smooth. I definitely wanna work there, and they seem to like the stuff I do!

 

[KtSlime]

*Posted in error

 

[Angry Fork]

Man when you write this stuff with a pen you have to do everything so tiny in order to make room for the multiple lines and curves, how do you guys do it? D: I end up feeling like I put a line too close to another one and it doesn't look like it's supposed to.

Also if you write a line and there's a tiny curvature at the end of the line (as if you're painting the stroke), do Japanese people emulate that with a pen or they just write a line without that little curve at the end?

For example, the red part I circled, does this matter when you're writing with a pen/pencil? Or do people just write a straight line without the brush stroke kind of look. How do you do the thick parts of the symbol with a pen/paper? if it matters I'm not sure.

 

[Kilrogg]

あ、そうそう博多弁w　まあ、九州らへんあんま詳しくないし、ごめんなさい！

いやいや、こちらこそ福岡に留学した経験がなかったら知らなかったかもしれないから。

あと、明太子が名物か・・どうなんだろ・・w

名物だけど、釜山の人には大したものじゃないらしいｗ。釜山には数え切れないぐらいあるんだ。

 

[scottnak]

I looked up shit since I didn't understand your post and I thought you can use shit for only negative things.
Google's IME is the shit. グーグルIMEすげ～、マジやばい。
Google's IME is shit. グーグルIME、クソすぎる。
こんな感じのニュアンス？

Haha. Yup, やばいis a pretty good parallel in how you can use '(the) shit'
You've got it spot on.

For example, the red part I circled, does this matter when you're writing with a pen/pencil? Or do people just write a straight line without the brush stroke kind of look. How do you do the thick parts of the symbol with a pen/paper? if it matters I'm not sure.

I think it's kind of important to keep that. It just looks weird without the 'kick up' in that red-circled zone... Just remember the 'flow' of the strokes it doesn't have to be as pronounced as the picture shows... (My thoughts though. heh)

 

[KariOhki]

I'm also a relative newbie at Japanese wondering where to start. I already pretty much know the hiragana and katakana from back when I took it in high school for two years (which was 6 years ago), but I'm stuck with knowing meanings of words, grammar, and of course kanji. Looking more to focus on reading/writing than speaking, if that changes anything.

 

[KidA Seven]

I'm also a relative newbie at Japanese wondering where to start. I already pretty much know the hiragana and katakana from back when I took it in high school for two years (which was 6 years ago), but I'm stuck with knowing meanings of words, grammar, and of course kanji. Looking more to focus on reading/writing than speaking, if that changes anything.

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar

Whenever there is a word in kanji you don't know, learn the kanji. Pretty soon, you'll know a ton of kanji.

 

[Deeku]

^Whoa nice site. Will be useful for remembering grammar structures, thanks!

 

[shanshan310]

Beginners! Welcome!
first thing's first - get hiragana down pat, and learn to write just your name in katakana. Don't try to learn both scripts at the same time, you'll probably get confused. Do learn katakana before you start on kanji though.
Buy a textbook with good chapters about different (useful) topics (eg. one on going places, one on time etc). Minna no Nihongo was pretty good. Its all in hiragana from the start, so you'll definitely need hiragana before you begin. If you can't find a good book that grammar guide is pretty good. Personally I need the structure of a book and word lists etc to study well , but its a personal thing.

I just wanted to add that you will need some kind of structure when learning vocab. Word lists are really important when you're just beginning. I know someone who decided to learn words by going through the dictionary. Learn words based on their usefulness! I learnt a lot of weird words in my studies but found myself stuck when I hadn't learnt simple vocab. Eg. When I arrived in Japan I could say "hibernation" and "evolution" but not "dirty" or "dangerous".

KANJI
I've used lots of kanji books, but this one is my favourite: http://bookclub.japantimes.co.jp/en/id/1349 BUY IT!!

Start trying to get more exposure to the language - watch some anime, listen to music, play games, podcasts (NOT the ones that are in English - Japanese ones for Japanese people) anything that interests you.

Being left handed the stroke order screws with you even more than it usually does. Since all of it is based on brush strokes made with the right hand. Personally I won't worry about it until I decide to learn calligraphy with my right hand.

I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem. I tried doing shodo but it looked really bad D:

Plus side: if you write with genkoyoshi you don't get the problems you do when writing English, like smudging the ink with your hand and not being able to see what you've written well.

 

[Valygar]

12 days since I started with Heisig, and 360 kanji so far! I'm a bit proud to be honest. The problem with Heisig is that I'm not learning the kanji by their usefulness, and I will need to learn at least 1000 to say I'm JLPT5-4.

I looked into Minna no Nihongo, but I recommend again Genki . It's more useful for self-study, everything is explained.

That kanji book is pretty neat, if anybody does not like Heisig, that's the other one that looked cool to me!

I can't wait to learn at least 1000 kanji, I'm a bit amazed at the fast pace I'm achieving. It's been less than two weeks and I've learned quite a lot of them. I think the key is Anki, if I forget a kanji I can just relearn it, and more importantly, keep track that I don't remember that kanji well. Very useful stuff.

Here is the result of a review session with anki:

My drawing-calligraphy skills are terrible. They are also terrible with our alphabet.

After 12 days, I study my 30 kanji in 2 hours or so (I could probably cut it to 1:30), and the review is usually between 45 minutes and 1 hour. Now it seems to have stabilized at 70 words to review and the 30 new to learn.

The problem is, I'm already wondering what I'm going to do when I finish Heisig. I'll probably switch after kanji 1000 to a slower pace (maybe 10 kanji per day) and continue with Genki 1, but once I finish all 2000 kanji I'm scared of forgetting them all. Should I use Anki to review them.... FOREVER?

 

[Angry Fork]

first thing's first - get hiragana down pat, and learn to write just your name in katakana. Don't try to learn both scripts at the same time, you'll probably get confused. Do learn katakana before you start on kanji though.
.

=( I was having fun with Remembering the Kanji. What is Hiragana and Katakana used for? I should learn both before moving on with Kanji?

 

[shanshan310]

=( I was having fun with Remembering the Kanji. What is Hiragana and Katakana used for? I should learn both before moving on with Kanji?

Hiragana is your basic alphabet. lol. When you get onto learning the readings of kanji they will all be written in hiragana, so it's fairly important. Hiragana can be fun too, so don't worry ^^ Katakana is only used for foreign words - names etc and words the Japanese have taken from English like "tenisu - tennis". You should probably go back and learn those first. They are probably going to be more useful than kanji right now.

 

[Zoe]

=( I was having fun with Remembering the Kanji. What is Hiragana and Katakana used for? I should learn both before moving on with Kanji?

This is why I don't like the programs that teach kanji first... When you're reading Japanese, it's not uncommon to see the majority of the sentence being in hiragana.

This isn't like Chinese where the kanji will be the only characters in a sentence.

 

[sasimirobot]

good start. try to center your writing a little more (make them fit the boxes with balance, in your case 4 squares) , and horizontal strokes from left to right should have a slight rising slant kinda like

the reason behind this aesthetic is that your kanzi should not look like they are "falling down" or weak.

 

[Valygar]

Thanks for the advice. I guess I'll try to repeat each kanji until I can fit it on a 2x2 box, or if the kanji has a lot of components, a 3x3, and look for that kind of details.

There are things that bug me though. The first kanji you show

I've seen it used on another kanji as a component, and the first vertical slash (of the inferior |_ ) didn't exist. It exists on my heisig book, but not in the Anki flashcart. I guess it's "drawing" vs "typography"

 

[Zoe]

I guess it's "drawing" vs "typography"

what?

 

[Lostconfused]

This is why I don't like the programs that teach kanji first... When you're reading Japanese, it's not uncommon to see the majority of the sentence being in hiragana.

This isn't like Chinese where the kanji will be the only characters in a sentence.

Well if you want to play games you don't have a choice. Some do have furigana but in majority of games you are going to run into a lot of kanji.

 

[Zoe]

Well if you want to play games you don't have a choice. Some games do have furigana but in majority of games you are going to run into a lot of kanji.

You're going to run into a lot of kanji in games, but you're also going to run into a lot of hiragana.

 

[Lostconfused]

You're going to run into a lot of kanji in games, but you're also going to run into a lot of hiragana.

Learning hiragana is quiet easy and it's the first step to learning. But it won't do you much good if you don't have the vocabulary or the grammar to back it up.

 

[Zoe]

Learning hiragana is quiet easy and it's the first step to learning. But it won't do you much good if you don't have the vocabulary or the grammar to back it up.

You don't learn grammar with the Heisig method though.

Doesn't seem like it teaches the concept of radicals either judging from the post above.

 

[Valygar]

what?

What I tried to say (very badly) is that I guess it's slightly different when it's a drawn kanji, and when the kanji is "printed" they cut some lines.

Here's the kanji: 植

Sometimes is shown this way:

and sometimes...

I advise to study a bit of japanese grammar and vocabulary before going into Heisig's method. Once you realise you should be studying some kanji, or remember more than 50, focus on Heisig. In reality if you are very commited to study japanese, you can learn the kanji first but it will be a bit weird until you know more japanese.

And no, Heisig does not teach radicals. Sometimes the components are radicals, but sometimes they are not.

And studying first the hiragana (and katakana) is a no brainer. If you study your vocabulary, lessons etc in hiragana/katakana you'll remember the kanas with no problem at all plus the vocabulary itself, killing two birds with the same stone.

 

[Zoe]

What I tried to say (very badly) is that I guess it's slightly different when it's a drawn kanji, and when the kanji is "printed" they cut some lines.

Here's the kanji: 植

Sometimes is shown this way:

and sometimes...

I think you've got that backwards considering that line is in the text you printed: 植

It may be omitted when handwritten, but not typed.

 

[Valygar]

I think you've got that backwards considering that line is in the text you printed: ¿¢

It may be omitted when handwritten, but not typed.

It's funny because I don't see the line when I copy the kanji to neogaf, but if I put it into somewhere else the line returns. But it's probably as you say, weird, but thanks! Heisig usually gives a warning when things like that happen, but this was not the case.

 

[NaughtyCalibur]

Quick question:

Friend wants to have this translated to proper Japanese so she can get it as a tattoo.

"A sound soul dwells within a sound mind, and a sound body."

Soul Eater fan, obviously.

 

[Zoe]

If it's from Soul Eater, shouldn't you just take the text from Soul Eater?

 

[shanshan310]

Well if you want to play games you don't have a choice. Some do have furigana but in majority of games you are going to run into a lot of kanji.

Well yeah, a fair amount. But not only are you also going to need hiragana more, you need to be at quite an advanced level to understand games. Things that beginners will be able to understand with their level of grammar and vocab will all be written in hiragana (ie childrens books, manga, textbooks etc). They sometimes have kanji but its all furigana-d. Some of the Japanese games I bought are all in furigana (unfortunately. it makes it very difficult to read...).

Quick question:

Friend wants to have this translated to proper Japanese so she can get it as a tattoo.

"A sound soul dwells within a sound mind, and a sound body."

Soul Eater fan, obviously.

the quote from soul eater appears to be

健全なる "魂"は、
健全なる精神と、
健全なる肉体に宿る.

It seems to be okay to me, but if anyone wants to double check that it is in fact good Japanese I don't have a very good eye for these things..

EDIT: If that is going to be a tattoo I'd take out the commas and inverted commas etc. Also in the anime its written going down instead of across, so you might prefer it that way.

 

[Zoe]

^ Yeah, http://www.souleater.tv/story/index.html

 

[Mik2121]

Hey! Just wanted to come by and say I passed my interview!! So I will be going to Fukuoka to work on that game company starting in January at the latest (all's up to when I get my working visa). I still don't know if I can say where I'll be working, but I can say it's a big place and it isn't Level 5

 

[KtSlime]

Hey! Just wanted to come by and say I passed my interview!! So I will be going to Fukuoka to work on that game company starting in January at the latest (all's up to when I get my working visa). I still don't know if I can say where I'll be working, but I can say it's a big place and it isn't Level 5

おめでとう！ 推測してもいい？
Polyphony?

 

[Mik2121]

I believe Polyphony was founded in Tokyo and it just has offices in Fukuoka? Either way, no, it's not that one .

 

[vas_a_morir]

Congratulations, Mik. I hope you do well.

 

[Kilrogg]

Hey! Just wanted to come by and say I passed my interview!! So I will be going to Fukuoka to work on that game company starting in January at the latest (all's up to when I get my working visa). I still don't know if I can say where I'll be working, but I can say it's a big place and it isn't Level 5

Nice! Congratulations.

If you're like me and the prospect of living in a really big city like Tokyo turns you off, you'll probably enjoy Fukuoka. There's not that much there in the way of entertainment if you ask me, but I still like it. Plus Korea is very close.

 

[Mik2121]

Thanks guys! Kilrogg, I do actually like big cities (I'm from Madrid and I've been living in Osaka for the last 5 years and a half). While I would actually rather go to Tokyo for all the things to do that it has, I know Fukuoka is probably the better place to live, plus I get to save more money (rent is cheaper).

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Thanks guys! Kilrogg, I do actually like big cities (I'm from Madrid and I've been living in Osaka for the last 5 years and a half). While I would actually rather go to Tokyo for all the things to do that it has, I know Fukuoka is probably the better place to live, plus I get to save more money (rent is cheaper).

I've always wondered Mik, how did you learn English so well?

 

[Mik2121]

I've always wondered Mik, how did you learn English so well?

Mainly watching movies and TV series in English without subtitles, listening to music while checking the lyrics, and posting online a lot. Oh, and games.

But yeah, studying didn't really do much for me. My teachers weren't quite the brightest out there and the students around me neither. I remember on my second to last year of High School (I think that's Eleventh grade in the US?) some students were still having problems remembering the colors... and I'm not even kidding