Can you speak japanese?

[Zudo]

I can speak a little Japanese, like the basics and a few phrases, what do you know?

[wrist cutter]

Enough to know that it's "kirei [i]na[/i] ookami".

[Zudo]

[quote name='wrist cutter]Enough to know that it's "kirei [i]na[/i'] ookami".[/quote]
Sorry, i'm still learning.

[AkaneGirl89]

Konnichiwa!

Hajime mashite? Nihongoga wakarimaska? I'm still in the process of learning japanese! So by the end of the year I should be pretty good at it!

Mata oai shimasho!

[InuyashaLvr]

well... I basically know only 3 words... Kawaii, Konnichiwa, and Arigoto (I don't even think I spelled them right) Oh well! I really want to learn so I'm trying! lol. Bye!

~vanna~

[Japan]

[COLOR=Navy]I am basically done with first year Japanese. I am going to take second year next year. I know quite a few things. If you want to learn Japanese, a good way is to watch a lot of subbed anime. That way, you get the Japanese words and accents down. Since the English translation is pretty much at the bottom of the screen.[/COLOR]

[Cahoots34]

I take lessons, but I'm not going to try to flaunt skill that I admit I don't have. (The fact that I was completely baffled by several phrases posted here is particularly discouraging...)

[ZakuSage]

Unfortionity, no. I've wanted to learn Japanese for a while (ever since the Dragon Warrior IV PSX remake was cancelled) now, but it'll still be a while before I take any lessons. However I do know 1 or 2 swears in Japanese. :rolleyes:

[Fyxe]

[size=1][color=darkblue]I only know limited things. Japanese is not a language selection you have in our schools, however I intend to take it in college. I have been able to pick up a few things from anime, manga, and of course online Japanese dictionaries. I mostly only know how to swear though. Oh how accomplished I feel. >>[/color][/size]

[Muad'Dib]

[COLOR=DarkOliveGreen]Lol, someone must tell me how to swear in japanese... anyway, yeah. I wish they offered japanese classes in our schools. However, there was this summer thing I went to for a week on japanese culture, so I know bits and pieces of the language. They taught us all the generic stuff... hello, I'm american, and so on.

It's a fun language though... especially if you can get the accent down.

Oh, by the way, you're right Inuyashalvr... it's spelled 'arigato'. So you're right that you weren't right... or something.[/COLOR]

[cinnamon]

I know a bit. It's my first year taking it in school, and I did another year through correspondance last year, because my elective subjects wouldn't allow for it.
Konnichiwa minnasan! Watashiwa Cinnamon-san. Doozo yoroshiku.
I'll laugh if some of that is wrong...I've had that drilled into my head from the word Go! Ahh well. If it is, blame the teachers :P
Sayoonara!
Cinnamon

[wrist cutter]

[quote name='FirePheonix727']Oh, by the way, you're right Inuyashalvr... it's spelled 'arigato'.[/quote]

No, it's not. It is spelled "arigatou", or some other way that indicates the long "o" sound at the end of the word. Just because vowel length isn't important in our language doesn't mean it isn't in others.

And what's the big deal with swearing in a foreign language? Honestly. Do you think you're being "creative" or "funny" when you say a foreign word in a terrible accent to someone who won't understand it? Do you think it's "insulting" to them? Do you think it makes you sound "smart" or "worldly"? Let me tell you, it has the exact opposite effect. I can't see any purpose for learning foreign swear words; there are far better uses of your time.

[Guest lavalamp]

I lived in Japan for four years and as a result speak a good deal. A few weeks ago I was talking to a friend in Yokohama though and some of the things she said completely confused me. No, you can't learn "Japanese" from anime. You can't learn "Japanese" from music, and you can't learn it from teach yourself tapes. Like any other language, it's constantly changing and phrases I used with my friend were joked about because of how dated they were.

Yes, "arigatou" is the correct romanization. Period. There aren't varied romanizations for that word because when you type Japanese, the correct hiragana combination comes out to be "a ri ga to u". Japanese is a fun language but people online make it seem so taboo.

[Sara]

[quote name='wrist cutter']No, it's not. It is spelled "arigatou", or some other way that indicates the long "o" sound at the end of the word. Just because vowel length isn't important in our language doesn't mean it isn't in others.[/quote][size=1]My friend Lori--she is from Taiwan--was trying to teach me to count in her language, and I was horrible at it. It took me a while to be able to distinguish two numbers (four and something else) from each other. To me, they sounded the same. I finally "got" it when she used hand motions along with the words.

Meanwhile, another exchange student was laughing disgustedly at how ignorant I was that I couldn't tell the difference between the sounds. She wasn't even from a "sing-song" country; she was from Germany, and she picked up on it right away. Then again, she might've just been good at that sort of thing. *shrugs*

You hear so many people pronouncing words differently all the time, you don't really notice it. It just seems odd that something as small as an "up" or "down" vowel sound could change the meaning of a word. I suppose there are examples of that in English as well...it's just a matter of what you're used to, I guess.[/size]

[wrist cutter]

Don't get me wrong. I'm no great master of Japanese enunciation myself. But "arigato" just isn't correct, whether or not you can say it.

As much as I dislike romaji, there is a wrong and a right way for the most part. Vowel length doesn't matter in English, but it does in Japanese. The word is a - ri - ga - to - u... as lava lamp said there's no two ways about it. It's a simple spelling issue.

Imagine if a Japanese person asked how to spell the name "Kelly". If one of his fellow comrades said, "Kerry", you'd think he was way off, right? Well since there's no distinction between R and L in their language, it doesn't seem important. But in our language it's entirely different.

[Roxie Faye]

[QUOTE=lava lamp]No, you can't learn "Japanese" from anime. You can't learn "Japanese" from music, and you can't learn it from teach yourself tapes. Like any other language, it's constantly changing and phrases I used with my friend were joked about because of how dated they were.

Yes, "arigatou" is the correct romanization. Period. There aren't varied romanizations for that word because when you type Japanese, the correct hiragana combination comes out to be "a ri ga to u". Japanese is a fun language but people online make it seem so taboo.[/QUOTE]
[color=#9933ff]I disagree. I used a "teach yourself" type of book to learn some basics last year (because I didn't use it, I forgot what I learned, lol), but I think it worked pretty well. When I had Japanese students over for dinner one time (school program), they said I had the basic idea, though, like you said, some of the words I used were a little outdated.

I also think I'm doing fine with my Japanese manga of Chobits. Not that I learned any Kanji from it, yet, but I have most of the Hirigana. ^^;;;; *sweatdrop*

I do agree, though, that romaji has to be written correctly, and paid close attention to. I think for anime fans who want to use Japanese (in sigs, banners, whatever), Romaji is like a godsend (because who spends hours looking up characters?), but yes, should be done correctly.

Someone a while asked why foreign swear words are appealing (I think it was wrist cutter); they just are. I mean, if people constantly use swear words in [i]English[/i], foreign languages are highly appealing to them. O_o;;; And, yes, I know this is a very very unlikely situation, but knowing them actually was convenient when a Japanese friend wanted to know what "jerk" meant. (Needless to say, I've forgotten all the swear words, because, again, I haven't used them. >.>;; )


Er... yeah. What was I going to say now? Oh yeah. I do know a little Japanese, but I haven't used it, so it's lost somewhere, in my brain's filing cabinet. Right now, all I remember is stuff like "Eigo ga wakarimasu ka." (was that even the right verb?) and "Roxie desu. Amerikajin desu." Well, "Oyasumi!" ^^;;;;;[/color]

[wrist cutter]

lava lamp is talking about actually speaking Japanese. Like, with Japanese people. Fluently. And he's right too (as always). You can begin learning the language through books, internet and what-not; but to really be able to speak the language you have to live there.

[Baron Samedi]

[size=1]I thought everyone could tell that. I mean, why else would he have the quotes around "Japanese" when he wrote it? He means real Japanese, not textbook Japanese. Same as people who have 'learnt' English speak differently, and often incorrectly. Anyway, I 'did' Japanese for 5 years or something in primary school, and got out of it as soon as I could. I can't speak anything worth knowng.[/size]

[oshi]

I've been trying to learn Japanese on my own since they cancelled it at the Tech . . . . It's not going particularly well, and I keep forgetting things that I learned. I took it for a year and a half basically as a college course, so I learned quite a bit. Two straight hours every week, taught by a genuine Japanese person; that'll do it.

The thing about learning other languages is that you just have to acknowledge that there will always be a wall between you and total fluency. It's possible to get almost to the top of that wall, but it always seems like you'll never get over it. Not unless you surround yourself completely with it until it feels like home.

It's like learning your own language through another person's eyes. Every word has a different meaning to everybody else. That's why even learning swearwords in another language is pretty much a waste of time. In English, the words "dork" and "jerk" mean different things, even though they are both insults and sound almost the same. How will you ever be aware of the specific connotations of these words if you have not been raised with them? Sure, you'll be able to get the basics. But that doesn't mean that you'll sound cool to anybody who knows Japanese.

I'm not saying foreign languages are a waste of time. Everyone should know at least one other language. But it'll take more than watching TV and listening to music to conquer the verbal communication of an entire people.

Right now I can read and write in hiragana and read some katakana, and I can speak and translate basic to beginner sentences. I have no one to reference any of it with, so I pretty much just take anything I say as possibly and probably incorrect, and dare not try to speak it around people who know what they're doing.

[Zudo]

I was just curious, no need to argue about it. Pronounciations are important yes but....

[Guest lavalamp]

[quote name='MistressRoxie][color=#9933ff']I disagree. I used a "teach yourself" type of book to learn some basics last year (because I didn't use it, I forgot what I learned, lol), but I think it worked pretty well. When I had Japanese students over for dinner one time (school program), they said I had the basic idea, though, like you said, some of the words I used were a little outdated.[/color][/quote]

It's not that it's impossible, but for me personally, I found that I was really overwhelmed when I went to Japan because I did have a background with the language. I used to be in the position of a lot of anime fans or whatever who spend hours online trying to learn Japanese from romanized pronunciation and what not.

Japanese people have extremely weird and varied ways of speaking. You really have to stick your head in to get the feel because they slur words together and exaggerate words for reasons that an English speaker like myself wouldn't understand.

I felt like an idiot because I constantly had to ask people to repeat themselves and when they used words that I was familiar with, they sounded completely different. This is especially a problem with people that become fans of the language through music, because Japanese music really makes the language much longer than it is if that makes sense. Music does that with every language but with Japanese it's just really extreme.

I thought I picked it up quickly but at the same time my Japanese will never be as good as a native speaker's and I really believe that's the case for all people trying to learn a language. The language is such a huge part of the culture and people; without all pieces of the puzzle you're screwed.

[Shiro_Ryuu]

I can speak Japanese pretty good. I learned with just a book and when I talked to a Japanese friend of mine in Japanese, he said that I spoke like someone who came from Japan, he even called me "Japanese". Nihongo o narau koto wa yasashii desu. Ore wa Shiro_Ryuu-sama desu. Saigo no samurai da. Nihongo o yoku dekiru ga nihonjin ja nai, amerikajin desu. Ore no nihongo o dou omoimasu ka? (How do you guys think of my Japanese?) I'm watching Japanese news regularly from the International Channel so I'm right now learning how to understand it. I am glad to know that I am now more able to keep up with the language than I was before I was learning but many of them speak fast, I can understand the people that speak slow very well. Looks like I'm on my way to Japan! :)

[Guest lavalamp]

[quote name='Shiro_Ryuu']I can speak Japanese pretty good. I learned with just a book and when I talked to a Japanese friend of mine in Japanese, he said that I spoke like someone who came from Japan, he even called me "Japanese". Nihongo o narau koto wa yasashii desu. Ore wa Shiro_Ryuu-sama desu. Saigo no samurai da. Nihongo o yoku dekiru ga nihonjin ja nai, amerikajin desu. Ore no nihongo o dou omoimasu ka? (How do you guys think of my Japanese?) I'm watching Japanese news regularly from the International Channel so I'm right now learning how to understand it. I am glad to know that I am now more able to keep up with the language than I was before I was learning but many of them speak fast, I can understand the people that speak slow very well. Looks like I'm on my way to Japan! :)[/quote]

So type that romaji mess in Japanese for me.

[wrist cutter]

[quote name='Shiro_Ryuu']when I talked to a Japanese friend of mine in Japanese, he said that I spoke like someone who came from Japan, he even called me "Japanese". Nihongo o narau koto wa yasashii desu. Ore wa Shiro_Ryuu-sama desu. Saigo no samurai da. Nihongo o yoku dekiru ga nihonjin ja nai, amerikajin desu. Ore no nihongo o dou omoimasu ka? (How do you guys think of my Japanese?) I'm watching Japanese news regularly from the International Channel so I'm right now learning how to understand it. I am glad to know that I am now more able to keep up with the language than I was before I was learning but many of them speak fast, I can understand the people that speak slow very well. Looks like I'm on my way to Japan![/quote]

As a foreigner who has been to Japan, I can tell you that they'll compliment you for anything even remotely "Japanese" that you can do. My host family was amazed I could use chopsticks at all. And say anything in Japanese (even just "hajimemashite" or something) and they'll give you all sorts of compliments. Don't take your friend's comment too far.

I count 4 errors in just 5 sentences there, bud. While I applaud you for knowing more than the typical guy-who-thinks-he-knows-Japanese, let's not go acting like you're on the brink of fluency. On top of that, the language you used is stilted and not natural at all.

And given by what you've shown us here I sincerely doubt you can follow along with a news program. And they're not speaking fast - they're news reporters, they're speaking at a normal newscasting rate which is usually slower than normal conversation.

[Guest lavalamp]

[quote name='wrist cutter']As a foreigner who has been to Japan, I can tell you that they'll compliment you for anything even remotely "Japanese" that you can do. My host family was amazed I could use chopsticks at all. And say anything in Japanese (even just "hajimemashite" or something) and they'll give you all sorts of compliments. Don't take your friend's comment too far.[/quote]

That is so true.

Good old Japanese candy coating.