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[I'm an expert]

In the center is the symbol for matsuri, or festival. These kind of hachimaki are worn during various events in life, this one obviously for celebrating a festival. This festival is most likely being done in collaboration with the local shrine, as the name of the shrine is on the left side (Hikawa) as well an archaic reading for sairei (a religious festival or ceremony). On the right side is the name of the town organization/group also helping organize the event, in this case for the town Minami Tosaki.

edit: ah nevermind, guess you didn't need that much detail

 

[LeroyPantwether]

In the center is the symbol for matsuri, or festival. These kind of hachimaki are worn during various events in life, this one obviously for celebrating a festival. This festival is most likely being done in collaboration with the local shrine, as the name of the shrine is on the left side as well an archaic reading for sairei (a religious festival or ceremony). On the right side is the name of the town organization/group also helping organize the event, in this case for the town Minami Tosaki.

Thanks for the detailed explanation!

 

[Rael]

I've got a few questions if anyone could help me out.

1. Erika is very good at making friends.

I wrote...

えりかさんは友達を作るのが上手です。

Where exactly would I fit とても into this sentence?

2. トムさんはゲームをしに来ますか。どうしてですか。

What's going on in the first sentence? Why is します cut off short? I learned a grammar concept that was similar to this, I think, but it included using a location with に as well.

Also, I don't really even understand what's being asked. Maybe something like...

Is Tom coming in order to play games? Why?

3. Anybody have any advice for listening practice? Genki is getting hard to understand, mostly because of the speed. Sometimes, even if I listen to a segment over and over, I still can't understand it. I've tried listening to podcasts but I can't understand pretty much anything so it doesn't help me out much.

1。　えりかさんは友達を作るのがとても上手です。

2。　Your translation is spot on. I think your confusion comes from the verb used in this case being する and as you may know that is one of the very few irregular verbs in Japanese. One of only 2 I think. Anyway if you were to see this form with another verb I think it would make it a bit more obvious.

わたしの家に食べに来るの？
You gonna come eat at my place?

いいえ、Raelさんとラーメン屋に食べに行くよ。
Nah, I'm gonna go eat with rael-san at a ramen spot.

します is cut off short just cuz that's how する is conjugated in this situation. Its a common phrasing so you'll pick it up fast. Its just verb stem + に来る is come do that verb. And verb stem +　に行く is go to that verb.

3。This one is a bit hard to answer succinctly, especially in text format. The simplest way to put it is the more you listen the sooner you will hear. However there are tricks you can enlist to help speed up your ability to notice things. This mostly involve utilizing accompanying texts with any audio and repeated listening of audio chunks. Do you have transcripts available for any of these podcasts or textbook dialogues?

 

[Cranzor]

I can only answer 2 kind of. You basically have it にThere signifies purpose. You remove the ます and add, in this case 来ます。 it means to "come and play". I've learned it with 行く also, so "to go and ..."

Okay, cool! It was hard to recognize because there wasn't a place in the sentence, but it makes sense now. Thanks!

1。　えりかさんは友達を作るのがとても上手です。

2。　Your translation is spot on. I think your confusion comes from the verb used in this case being する and as you may know that is one of the very few irregular verbs in Japanese. One of only 2 I think. Anyway if you were to see this form with another verb I think it would make it a bit more obvious.

わたしの家に食べに来るの？
You gonna come eat at my place?

いいえ、Raelさんとラーメン屋に食べに行くよ。
Nah, I'm gonna go eat with rael-san at a ramen spot.

します is cut off short just cuz that's how する is conjugated in this situation. Its a common phrasing so you'll pick it up fast. Its just verb stem + に来る is come do that verb. And verb stem +　に行く is go to that verb.

3。This one is a bit hard to answer succinctly, especially in text format. The simplest way to put it is the more you listen the sooner you will hear. However there are tricks you can enlist to help speed up your ability to notice things. This mostly involve utilizing accompanying texts with any audio and repeated listening of audio chunks. Do you have transcripts available for any of these podcasts or textbook dialogues?

Genki has transcripts for the dialogue, but not for much else as far as I can tell. The transcripts really help. This website has dialogue you can listen to that reads the article aloud which is also really helpful. I think my biggest problem is that it's tough for me to catch conjugations as I'm listening.

Unfortunately you're banned now. Hopefully it's not permanent. Thank you for the help!

 

[Shizzlee]

I'm sorry for bothering anyone, but I received a message on PSN and I can't read it. Could someone translate?

If more information is needed. I was playing Max Anarchy/Anarchy Reigns during the time when most of the Japanese players are on. I was playing Team Battle mode. I was the leader for my team, and we won against the team this person was on. I guess this message can't be good.

 

[MadraptorMan]

I'm sorry for bothering anyone, but I received a message on PSN and I can't read it. Could someone translate?

If more information is needed. I was playing Max Anarchy/Anarchy Reigns during the time when most of the Japanese players are on. I was playing Team Battle mode. I was the leader for my team, and we won against the team this person was on. I guess this message can't be good.

Something like "yea run away fucker/small fry," I think. Also tells you to die.

EDIT: Apparently he thinks you kept running away during the game, or something cowardly like that?

 

[Shizzlee]

Something like "yea run away fucker/small fry," I think. Also tells you to die.

EDIT: Apparently he thinks you kept running away during the game, or something cowardly like that?

Well, in Team Battle mode only kills on the Squad Leader count. Since I was the leader, I'm supposed to run away because I have to make sure I don't die. I had managed to kill the other leader twice and we had a two point lead so I didn't want to take the chance. Ah well. Thanks for your help.

 

[scottnak]

I'm sorry for bothering anyone, but I received a message on PSN and I can't read it. Could someone translate?

If more information is needed. I was playing Max Anarchy/Anarchy Reigns during the time when most of the Japanese players are on. I was playing Team Battle mode. I was the leader for my team, and we won against the team this person was on. I guess this message can't be good.

ガン逃げ＝He called you a camper basically. You wait until you can make your shot and then run away. I guess you can think of it as "Gun and run"
(Edit: I guess the explanation of the game makes this a lil' more clearer... heh)

死ね = go die
雑魚 = (zako) Not sure what the right word for this is, but they're like insignificant characters. For example... in Mario, the Koopa Turtles and the Goombas are called this.

 

[Mandoric]

hurr.

 

[DMB4237]

Hey guys. I have a problem.

I'm trying to write: I am Canadian I am also American.

I imagine it's something like this

Canadajin desu.

Amerikajin demo arimasu.


A book told me to use demo arimasu but I'm confused as to why I would use arimasu and not imasu since I am a living person. Any help?

 

[Deleted member 17706]

ガン逃げ＝He called you a camper basically. You wait until you can make your shot and then run away. I guess you can think of it as "Gun and run"
(Edit: I guess the explanation of the game makes this a lil' more clearer... heh)

死ね = go die
雑魚 = (zako) Not sure what the right word for this is, but they're like insignificant characters. For example... in Mario, the Koopa Turtles and the Goombas are called this.

ガン逃げ isn't the same as a "camper." It's just short for ガンガン逃げる（人）, meaning someone who constantly runs away. I've only ever seen the term used in fighting games to refer to people who run away the whole match with a highly mobile character after doing enough damage to be ahead.

I wouldn't take 死ね so literally, either. It really lines up with something like "fuck off."

雑魚 is probably best equated to "noob" or something similar.

So, "Stop running, you fuckin' noob." would be my best effort on this one.

 

[Fugu]

Hey guys. I have a problem.

I'm trying to write: I am Canadian I am also American.

I imagine it's something like this

Canadajin desu.

Amerikajin demo arimasu.


A book told me to use demo arimasu but I'm confused as to why I would use arimasu and not imasu since I am a living person. Any help?

でもある is literary and comes from である, which is, itself, a literary form of です。である, unlike ある, is not restricted to inanimate objects.

There are a number of ways you could approach this. One would be （私は）カナダ人とアメリカ人です。Another way -- keeping in line with your current structure but using です instead of the more flowery である -- would be （私は）カナダ人です。アメリカ人もです。

 

[Deleted member 17706]

でもある is literary and comes from である, which is, itself, a literary form of です。である, unlike ある, is not restricted to inanimate objects.

There are a number of ways you could approach this. One would be （私は）カナダ人とアメリカ人です。Another way -- keeping in line with your current structure but using です instead of the more flowery である -- would be （私は）カナダ人です。アメリカ人もです。

The bold would be wrong. It would be the equivalent of saying, "American also are."

I don't have any issues with using でもある、であります、etc. in speech. It's not strictly for writing. I think DMB4237's initial idea would get the point across.

「カナダとアメリカと両方（りょうほう）の国籍（こくせき）をもっています。」 would probably be a better way to say it without leaving any room for confusion.

 

[MadraptorMan]

Yea there's no way to make that sentence without using the word 国籍 as far as I can tell.

 

[Superflat]

Superflat RTK update:

I slowed down my learning a bit, because the kanji was getting more difficult and It's harder to see progress so motivation is waning a teeeny bit. But I'm still getting every review done and learning at least 10 cards daily (40-50 at most).

Reached 750 today! I'd like to get to 1000 by next Friday (I could do it if I push like I did when I started) but we'll see :T

 

[lastplayed]

Hey guys, quick question: how do you pronounce "hien" 飛燕 - from here.

 

[Cranzor]

Hey guys, quick question: how do you pronounce "hien" 飛燕 - from here.

Like the word "he," and then the letter N.

 

[lastplayed]

Sweet, thanks.

 

[Cranzor]

Sweet, thanks.

No problem!

 

[John Rabbit]

working ahead in my book while i have the summer off between classes. quick question

スマート = slender??

seems like it means smart/stylish/thin/slender depending on context?

 

[shanshan310]

working ahead in my book while i have the summer off between classes. quick question

スマート = slender??

seems like it means smart/stylish/thin/slender depending on context?

Yeah, pretty much means all of those things.

 

[makingmusic476]

I've started the Heisig method today, and I'm trying to use Anki to reinforce what I'm learning.

Do you guys have any tips on how to use Anki in such a way that its decks evolve as I progress? I've only gotten through about 50 kanji so far, and the included Heisig deck is throwing kanji from way in the middle of RTK at me. I can't seem to find anyway to get it to focus on kanji from the beginning of the text.

At first I decided I'd just start my own deck and build it up as I progressed, but I can't seem to figure out how to get kanji symbols into the flashcards. Typing them with IME is obviously out of the question, given I don't know how to read them yet!

Tips?

Edit:

Aha! Reviewing the Kanji! This seems perfect.

 

[bigmit3737]

Hey guys.

I'm looking for a Japanese-Japanese dictionary app for the iphone. Any recommendations?


I'm also looking for a really good Japanese-English (vise versa) dictionary with audio to pronounce the Japanese words. At the moment I use Midori which is pretty good but some words are missing or the meaning of words are not as in-depth as I would like. Imiwa, is good for the price(free) but lacks a lot of functions that Midori has, so I don't prefer it.

Thanks!

 

[Cranzor]

I've started the Heisig method today, and I'm trying to use Anki to reinforce what I'm learning.

Do you guys have any tips on how to use Anki in such a way that its decks evolve as I progress? I've only gotten through about 50 kanji so far, and the included Heisig deck is throwing kanji from way in the middle of RTK at me. I can't seem to find anyway to get it to focus on kanji from the beginning of the text.

At first I decided I'd just start my own deck and build it up as I progressed, but I can't seem to figure out how to get kanji symbols into the flashcards. Typing them with IME is obviously out of the question, given I don't know how to read them yet!

Tips?

Edit:

Aha! Reviewing the Kanji! This seems perfect.

In the deck that was already made, you can go in and suspend every card in the deck so they can't show up. Then, when you review, you unsuspend the new kanji that you learned. If you go to "browse," select the deck on the left, "edit," "select all," and then click "suspend," it should suspend all of them. Also, if you go with making your own deck, this spreadsheet is really helpful. And yeah, Reviewing the Kanji is great for stories and such. I didn't use it for a very long time, but I'm glad I use it now.

Can anyone help me out with this question?

来年も日本語を勉強しますか。

Maybe something like...

Are you going to study Japanese next year as well?

It's a singular question all by itself, so the も is throwing me off.

 

[Zoe]

The implication is that you've been studying Japanese this year.

 

[Cranzor]

The implication is that you've been studying Japanese this year.

Okay, I thought that might be it but I wasn't sure. Thanks!

Lin Siniang, regarding music, I like Asian Kung-Fu Generation a lot. They're a rock group. Check 'em out!

 

[Adamm]

I really need someone who has done AJATT's help.

I just started. I've dumped my non-Japanese. I'm listening to only Japanese radio/news/music.

I can't dump English television - I don't watch too much tv anyways - because there are CRUCIAL things that are impossible for me to drop (Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Breaking Bad;etc) without me feeling culturally isolated. However, I'm making up for it by watching a ton of Japanese (non-subbed) television and film.

For practical reasons, I can't COMPLETELY dump non-Japanese books, however I'm upping my Japanese reading from zero to sixty in the form of Japanese video games and novels (getting a Song of Ice and Fire in Japanese).

I'm currently learning kana. I want to learn by srs but I'm not sure how srs even works. I know you do spaced out short sessions, but I'm not sure how often. Once a day? Multiple times a day? I also am not fond of certain srs programs like Anki. The program is utterly confusing. Maybe I'm thinking of this in terms of traditional flash cards, I don't know. But Anki utterly confuses me. I keep wanting to redo a part over and over again like I'm used to. Currently I'm on S hiragana (sa, shi, su;etc) but it keeps going. I'm just confused how to work this thing and the UI is god awful and all over the place.

After learning kana (I'm working on 10 a day) I plan on moving on to RTK1.

What is some good Japanese music? I don't like much jpop, but I'm fond of about every musical genre from folk to country to hip hop, pop, to especially genres like rock and jazz and blues and electronic.

Right now I'm listening to FM Odawara 78.7 found here: http://tunein.com/radio/FM-Odawara-787-s97644/

I'm still confused on how to use anki. Well, i'm getting better. Today, I did some kana for 30 minutes. 10 new characters a day, so far I'm up to 29 characters. On a lot of them I've clicked "again" because i don't haven't memorized them yet. On ones I've slightly memorized but would like to return to them soon i click "good" and on ones I instantly recognize I hit "easy".

Is that how I use it?

My results so far:


Hee hee, look at my "agains"!

I got down my cards today and finally understand Anki. The mobile UI is so much better.

I might not be the person you want to reply to this, as I did not try AJATT's method because frankly I don't think i could stick it. (It has been discussed many times in this thread, so I don't really want to bring up pro's & con's of it and start another huge discussion)

I am taking from what you wrote that you know no Japanese at all (apart from the few kana you have learnt)

But either way the AJATT method seems very extreme, i think its suppose to simulate living in Japan without actually living there, to force you use Japanese every waking hour - it may work, but I think its a bit much and i personally I don't think i have that much dedication to do everything in Japanese so early on in the learning process.
Especially if you dont any japanese at all, most of the speech in the films or TV would just be white noise.
But having said all that, listening to japanese radio or TV shows is great way to improve your listening skills, so if you can stick with it, good for you

With Anki you shouldn't really be able to do it more than once a day, assuming you get every card done in one session. If you are selecting every card over and over as again then it sounds like you haven't learnt them. And you should probably go over them again before using Anki.

I did not use Anki to actually learn Hiragana/Katana/Kanji/Vocab I used it as a tool to go over things I have already learned.
I would learn the Hiragana by going over it and over it, maybe even write it down until i remembered it and then go Anki the next day (or later that evening) and then go over the Hiragana i learned.
I would only select again if I couldn't remember it at all, and if i had to select again a few times on the same thing then I would go back and learn it again.
In regards to what choice (hard, good easy) to pick when you recognize them, is up to you.
Personally if its something i learned that day or the day before I would always choose hard, no matter how quickly i recognized it, because hitting easy wont show it to you again for about 4 days, and by that time i may have forgotten it. So when its something new I want to see it each day until i'm sure i will remember it. Then after a few days if im still recognizing it instantly then I would probably pick good or easy.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=415699 is a good thread for Japanese music

 

[Adamm]

Ok, clearly I don't understand completely what AJATT is then.  I was under the impression the idea was to change everything possible to be Japanese instead of English, so it forced you to use Japanese all the time (hence the name).
But if you're telling me when it means is trying to replace some things with Japanese alternatives then fine, as you said, anyone who is serious about learning a language will probably try to do this anyway. 

Although don't fool yourself into thinking watching some Japanese TV is a good replacement for proper learning, its akin to people thinking watching loads of Anime will make them fluent.

But anyway, I was only trying to offer some (wrong?) advice, seems you have already chosen your method and I hope you stick with it

 

[Cranzor]

Glad it's working out for you.

I've been using Lang-8 (which is awesome), but I'm having a little trouble with some of the corrections and a comment I got. It seems like some of the grammar is beyond me. Can anyone help me out? For context, in a segment of my post, I talked about how when there were no clouds out at night, I can see the stars and the moon, and I talked about how when it's raining, I can't see the sky but the rain is beautiful too.

Here is what I originally wrote.

何時雲は空を隠しません、星と月を見ます。

Here are the two corrections I got.

空に雲が出ていない時、星と月を見ます。

雲が空を隠さないとき、星と月が見えます。

I think I get the first one a little, but the second one isn't making much sense to me.

Here's another segment I wrote.

何時雨が降ります、空を見ませんが、雨もきれい。

And the two corrections.

雨が降ると、空は見えませんが、雨もきれい。

雨が降るとき、空は見えませんが、雨もきれい。

These are very similar, but in both, I'm not sure what's going on with 雨が降る.

Also, a comment I got.

これから梅雨の時期。雨を楽しむのもいいですね。

"After this rainy season, you can enjoy the rain." I'm not sure if that's right.

Help would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[I'm an expert]

Man, I had to reread your post like 3x before I got what was going on lol. I some how kept skipping over the part where you wrote the English of what you wanted to say..kept thinking you're asking for the time for when all that stuff happens. I have no idea what lang 8 is, but if you're tellin me there's programs nowadays where you type in broken stuff and it fixes it for you, that's awesome. Times sure have changed.

Anyway, your use of that "when" is mistaken and not used the way it is in English. The suggestions it gave you like yadiblah時 and yadiblah(&#12384と or other things like (to a lesser extent) yadiblahたら and yadiblahなら can all express the idea of "when this happens.." or "if when" or simply "when". If you're confused about why 降る is 降る, you're gonna have to look into studying dictionary form and drop all the -masu stuff.

Oh, and your comment just says "from now on it's rainy season. you can look forward to/it's great to look forward to rain as well". Rainy season in Japan begins end of May/beginning of June. It pours like a mother.

 

[Cranzor]

Man, I had to reread your post like 3x before I got what was going on lol. I some how kept skipping over the part where you wrote the English of what you wanted to say..kept thinking you're asking for the time for when all that stuff happens. I have no idea what lang 8 is, but if you're tellin me there's programs nowadays where you type in broken stuff and it fixes it for you, that's awesome. Times sure have changed.

Although that'd undoubtedly be cool, it's a little bit different than that! The website supports a ton of languages and allows you to post things and have native speakers correct it. You can correct others in your native language as well. Those corrections I got came from native Japanese speakers.

Anyway, your use of that "when" is mistaken and not used the way it is in English. The suggestions it gave you like yadiblah時 and yadiblah(&#12384と or other things like (to a lesser extent) yadiblahたら and yadiblahなら can all express the idea of "when this happens.." or "if when" or simply "when".

I was kind of doubting if I was using "when" correctly, so I'm glad I know now. And I'm not familiar with any of those really, except maybe 時, so I guess I'll have to work on them a little.

If you're confused about why 降る is 降る, you're gonna have to look into studying dictionary form and drop all the -masu stuff.

I'm familiar with some different instances where the dictionary form is used, but I'm not sure why it was used in that instance.

Oh, and your comment just says "from now on it's rainy season. you can look forward to/it's great to look forward to rain as well". Rainy season in Japan begins end of May/beginning of June. It pours like a mother.

Looks like I was a bit confused there then. これから threw me off, I think.

Thanks a ton!

 

[I'm an expert]

That sounds very cool indeed. Though I can see how someone can get lost if there isn't an actual explanation to the fixes. Anyway, -masu can work in most of the instances dictionary form is being used in, but it's polite and context-sensitive, while dictionary form is just informal and casual. So don't put too much thought into why they might have changed it other than "the hypothetical situation didn't call for politeness". I usually frown upon learning -masu first, but whatever. The rest hopefully you figure out on your own.

 

[Mandoric]

I'm amazed at how much I've accomplished in one week.

It's amazing how just learning kana transforms the language gap in Japanese into something tangible.

I've watched Dragon Quest VII 3ds videos and Shin Sangoku Musou 7 videos, and following the dialogue with Japanese subtitles is a surreal, outstanding, and almost tear worthy feeling. Instead of cracking out books and paying 1000 for a class, I study my kana and then go watch a subtitled Japanese video game movie on youtube and see if I follow the dialogue with my limited character set. I'm learning new words, I'm learning new characters by way of common sense (i.e. Ah, yeah, that has to be that character, it makes sense in this context" and it's really helping me with the dakuten kana.

I'm listening to songs that I couldn't really fully make out earlier this week with clear as day hearing. I don't know what all the words mean, but I am able to know what exactly what they're saying.

It's surreal and amazing. I will never take a language class ever again.

Classes are for giving you the discipline you'll need at some point, and for keeping you from being that guy who can say "Pulling the raid boss, buffs up erryone" and "Three mobile suits approaching from starboard at 180 klicks!" but not "Where is the bathroom?"

And, of course, kana in a week is standard pace for a class.

 

[Cranzor]

That sounds very cool indeed. Though I can see how someone can get lost if there isn't an actual explanation to the fixes. Anyway, -masu can work in most of the instances dictionary form is being used in, but it's polite and context-sensitive, while dictionary form is just informal and casual. So don't put too much thought into why they might have changed it other than "the hypothetical situation didn't call for politeness". I usually frown upon learning -masu first, but whatever. The rest hopefully you figure out on your own.

Explanations can be included, but they're optional. A Japanese explanation for Japanese, containing parts that I probably am confused about as well, might make me cry. But I bet it'd be helpful anyway!

Ah, okay. I thought the way it was corrected was some sort of grammatical thing. Maybe Japanese isn't as consistent with forms as I think it is. I noticed that I forgot to put です after きれい a few times and no one corrected it, so maybe that's a similar situation.

 

[Perfect Cha0s]

Does anyone have some recommendations for good beginner-intermediate level listening? I feel like my reading is starting to come together, but when it comes to understanding spoken speech, stuff like Japanese radio has a lot that goes in one ear and out the other.

 

[Raelson]

Classes are for giving you the discipline you'll need at some point, and for keeping you from being that guy who can say "Pulling the raid boss, buffs up erryone" and "Three mobile suits approaching from starboard at 180 klicks!" but not "Where is the bathroom?"

And, of course, kana in a week is standard pace for a class.

If you manage to have discipline with just self study, going to class is a huge waste of time.
In my opinion, the only use of language education is to motivate the students. You can't learn a language by just going to class. I've studied Chinese at the university and from a learning perspective that was some of the most useless classes I've ever attended.
And as someone who already was motivated it completely sucked the fun out of learning. I just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible and study by myself.

I just think the myth that you need to go to class to learn a language keeps a lot of people from enjoying learning languages.

 

[shanshan310]

I really need someone who has done AJATT's help.

I just started. I've dumped my non-Japanese. I'm listening to only Japanese radio/news/music.

I can't dump English television - I don't watch too much tv anyways - because there are CRUCIAL things that are impossible for me to drop (Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Breaking Bad;etc) without me feeling culturally isolated. However, I'm making up for it by watching a ton of Japanese (non-subbed) television and film.

For practical reasons, I can't COMPLETELY dump non-Japanese books, however I'm upping my Japanese reading from zero to sixty in the form of Japanese video games and novels (getting a Song of Ice and Fire in Japanese).

I'm currently learning kana. I want to learn by srs but I'm not sure how srs even works. I know you do spaced out short sessions, but I'm not sure how often. Once a day? Multiple times a day? I also am not fond of certain srs programs like Anki. The program is utterly confusing. Maybe I'm thinking of this in terms of traditional flash cards, I don't know. But Anki utterly confuses me. I keep wanting to redo a part over and over again like I'm used to. Currently I'm on S hiragana (sa, shi, su;etc) but it keeps going. I'm just confused how to work this thing and the UI is god awful and all over the place.

After learning kana (I'm working on 10 a day) I plan on moving on to RTK1.

What is some good Japanese music? I don't like much jpop, but I'm fond of about every musical genre from folk to country to hip hop, pop, to especially genres like rock and jazz and blues and electronic.

Right now I'm listening to FM Odawara 78.7 found here: http://tunein.com/radio/FM-Odawara-787-s97644/

I guess I don't really understand how this learning style works, but it seems like you have limited vocab knowledge and reading abilities so I'm not really sure what you're going to get out of having the Japanese version of a song of ice and fire. Without vocabulary comprehension you're basically just familiarizing yourself with how the language looks and sounds no? And although there's definitely a lot to be gained from that without comprehension I guess I just don't know how much you can learn, especially for reading.

It's surreal and amazing. I will never take a language class ever again.

Eh, they can be pretty important. Better to have a teacher answer questions and correct mistakes before bad habits set. Although language classes alone (no outside contact) are usually a waste of time yeah.

 

[Brawly Likes to Brawl]

You might want to give the Core 2000/6000 decks a look too once you're finished with Kana. Its good that you're trying to get into reading early. Too many people make the mistake of spending forever sticking their noses in textbooks and putting off reading native material.

 

[Brawly Likes to Brawl]

Yeah, most manga geared toward kids have furigana next to any Kanji so you know the readings.

Core decks are for vocab. There's a particular series of Core decks on anki that include images and audio. Even if you only know Kana you'll able to use Core.

 

[Twin Drive System]

This might help a little.

それ　は　とつても　いい はなしだ。

それ　は　とっても　いい　話　だ。
それ　は　とっても　いい はなし だ。

わたし　は　えお　みる　の　がすき　です。

私　は　絵　を　見る　の　が　好き　です。
わたし　は　え　を　みる　の　が　すき　です

If you use firefox or chrome, you should get the Rikaichan (Rikaikun) add-on. It will help you a lot in breaking apart the sentences.

 

[Jintor]

tottemo, とっても。

 

[Twin Drive System]

Forced stop means double consonant.

It's tottemo instead of totemo.

If you just type it out like that, the っ will naturally come out.

If you want to get the っ by itself, it's either xtsu or ltsu. Same thing applies to other smaller versions of certain characters. Just add an x or l in front.

 

[Cranzor]

Are you planning on using a textbook or anything? I'm assuming you're doing the sentence method from AJATT, right? This is just my personal experience, it might not be the same for you, but I tried the sentence method before I started using a textbook and it didn't work for me. Absorbing grammatical structures through reading sentences doesn't make much sense to me. Even looking at your second sentence, there's no way I would be able to read that if I didn't understand the sentence structure for that kind of statement.

But, like I said, that could just be me. Making keep trying it for a little bit and see if it's effective for you.

 

[Jintor]

Still easier than kanjiiiiii

 

[bigmit3737]

(._. ) -（ かたかな　。。。）

Katakana is kinda tough so far for me, but I can get it. Still, I'm surprised after the relative ease of Remembering the Hiragana.

Yeah katakana was tough for me as well when compared to hiragana - the characters just looked strange to me, more like symbols as opposed to an alphabet.

 

[Cranzor]

If what you're doing is working then by all means go for it. I just don't want you to get discouraged, but your learning style seems way different than mine and I hope it works out for you!

And yeah, katakana is tough. I really need to take a few days sometime to practice writing with it because I still have trouble with that.

 

[shanshan310]

Are you planning on using a textbook or anything? I'm assuming you're doing the sentence method from AJATT, right? This is just my personal experience, it might not be the same for you, but I tried the sentence method before I started using a textbook and it didn't work for me. Absorbing grammatical structures through reading sentences doesn't make much sense to me. Even looking at your second sentence, there's no way I would be able to read that if I didn't understand the sentence structure for that kind of statement.

But, like I said, that could just be me. Making keep trying it for a little bit and see if it's effective for you.

Yeah, I tried and failed as well. Without understanding of the grammar it was just impossible for me to pick up its meaning (I remember having a lot of trouble with various ようs in particular). AJATT makes sense to me for an intermediate level learner, but I just don't understand how it would work if you don't have a basic grounding, especially in grammar. I'm curious (and hopeful!) to see how it goes for Lin, but my advice would be to at least get basic grammar down first. There isn't that much to learn, even including more advanced N1 type grammar.

 

[CornBurrito]

Yeah katakana was tough for me as well when compared to hiragana - the characters just looked strange to me, more like symbols as opposed to an alphabet.

Technically hiragana is a syllabary not an alphabet.

But katakana seems odd to me. I've been slacking and still don't know a few of the hiragana. I can also read more of it than I can write.

Speaking of reading, does anyone know some Japanese websites where I can practice reading hiragana/katakana and Kanji?

I remember finding a Japanese competitive Pokemon website and want to revisit it. The use of Pokemon names and moves would help me learn.

Also the "h" sounds. Why is "ha" sometimes pronounced "wa" or am I mistaken? Why is "he" sometimes pronounced with a silent h? Is "hi" ever pronounced with a silent h?

 

[KidA Seven]

Technically hiragana is a syllabary not an alphabet.

But katakana seems odd to me. I've been slacking and still don't know a few of the hiragana. I can also read more of it than I can write.

Speaking of reading, does anyone know some Japanese websites where I can practice reading hiragana/katakana and Kanji?

I remember finding a Japanese competitive Pokemon website and want to revisit it. The use of Pokemon names and moves would help me learn.

Also the "h" sounds. Why is "ha" sometimes pronounced "wa" or am I mistaken? Why is "he" sometimes pronounced with a silent h? Is "hi" ever pronounced with a silent h?

ha は is pronounced as wa わ　only when used as a particle. Some words will use haは to be pronounced as wa わ　as well because the ha is being used as a particle. Those are very very rare though. Konbanwa こんばんは　is an example that will use haは.. I think only the greetings will use it that way.

Heへ is pronounced as eえ only when used as a particle. There isn't any words that will use he with the particle sound e.

Wo を is pronounced as o お because it is a particle and will only be used as a particle.

Everything is straightforward and those 3 are the only exceptions.

Sometimes the U in す、く、etc... will not be said, but that is up to the user (most likely be omitted). For instance, you'll notice in desu, the u is dropped and sounds more like des. Or with Yuusuke. It will sound like Yuuske. Another example is 好き　「すき」. It will sound like ski instead of suki. The u was dropped or rather, slurred. The slurring of words will be more noticeable as you become more familiar with the language.

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

 

[Necromanti]

I feel like I've plateaued with my Japanese for a while now, especially because I haven't been taking classes for a year and haven't had time to work out a proper approach yet. (Taking several lab classes simultaneously will do that to you.) Can anyone recommend any good lesson plans for kanji/grammar for someone who has finished with Genki I/II?

I honestly don't know where to go from here. I'd say that kanji is definitely my greatest bottleneck right now. And I definitely know that I need some form of structure to stay motivated.