Hey guys, just letting you know... next time you think doing something unproductive like video games sounds like more fun, forget it and do some more study. More study = more fun.
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Anonymous2011-01-10 10:07
>>643
I do both by playing RPGs in Japanese. In fact.... everyone SHOULD play games and read shit in Japanese because it's a good break and practice.
>>644
My cousin that lives in Japan sent me some manga in JP for Christmas. Pretty fun trying to translate it.
inb4 weeaboo
also, trying to get the Harry Potter series (books) in JP. Does anybody know of a place where I could DL a pdf of the HP series in JP?
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Anonymous2011-01-12 5:25
Where can I find books or sites that have like articles, news or anything in Japanese and then English translations so I can check if I understood correctly.
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Anonymous2011-01-13 2:48
>>644
What's good RPG/simgame with easy to understand Japanese one can play?
I know only Elona. And Recettear.
>>647 pdf
This shit is painful. Half of the times, was compiled by clueless moron, so when you'll try to copy-paste from it instead of moonrunes you'll get "PDgS" (because author decided that it's easier to change font for letters, then to actually change letters)
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Anonymous2011-01-14 14:50
If you're using the te form to join verbs in a single sentence, how do you put something in the past tense while keeping it in the te form?
For example, "When I was a kid, I played baseball and listened to music."
子供の時野球をして音楽を聞きました。
Does it even require a modification or can you just leave it like that since it's prefaced by 子供の時?
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Anonymous2011-01-15 5:25
>>649
Fortune summoner
It's really easy-to-understand Japanese game
Back again, nevermind; found the answer after a shit-ton of google searching. Posting the answer for anyone who may show up with the same question.
The -te form of a verb which does not have a tense or mood combines with other verb forms. It may be formed from the plain past tense by changing the ending -ta to -te. When the -te form is used to link two sentences where it may be translated as "and", the verb at the end of the sentence shows the overall tense of the sentence.
土曜日の朝に東京へ行ました。新しいスーツを買いました。
Doyoubi no asa ni Toukyou e ikimashita. Atarashii suutsu o kaimashita.
On Saturday morning I went to Tokyo. I bought a new suit.
土曜日の朝に東京へ行って、新しいスーツを買いました。
Doyoubi no asa ni Toukyou e itte, atarashii suutsu o kaimashita.
On Saturday morning I went to Tokyo, and bought a new suit.
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Anonymous2011-01-15 15:20
I've been learning kanji for the last month or so using kanjidamage and a simple program I wrote asking me questions from the website. So far I've fully remembered the first 220 entries and maybe one reading from another 100 or so kanji (because of the jukugos). Having watched hundreds of anime over the years I can tell the meaning of a lot more words if I can get the reading.
Now my question is, I'd like to get some japanese-english (paper, not online) dictionary with the most common words (maybe 10,000 or 20,000 words but having more is not an issue). I've looked around and every dictionary I find sorts the words according to their reading. This doesn't help at all if I encounter a word I can't read. Are there dictionaries sorting words by kanji ? (using the radicals probably, the same way it's done on kanjidamage) If there are, is it a good thing to get one of those ? If not, what is a good kanji reference book ? (I would expect it to have the meaning, different readings and jukugo examples for 2000 kanji or so)
I don't specifically know of a paper Japanese-English dictionary sorted by kanji radicals. I'm not sure why you would need this when WWWJDIC is easily accessible, though.
Actually I never checked out WWWJDIC before, which is kind of stupid since I use a chrome extension adding furigana/translations from this website on a daily basis. Thanks for mentioning it, it's a great website and I'll definitely use it.
The main reasons I'd like to have a paper dictionary, aside from the obvious fact that I can use it offline, are because I like holding books in my hands, and I'd like to simply browse it at random. Also, I get the feeling a book written by a group of professionals will be more accurate than a random website (kanjidamage for example, while great for learning is full of little mistakes here and there).
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Anonymous2011-01-18 18:50
STOP USING ANOTHER LANGUAGE TO LEARN JAPANESE!!! IT'S STUPID!!! YOU DON'T LEARN A LANGUAGE USING ANOTHER ONE, YOU LEARN A LANGUAGE BY USING THE LANGUAGE!!!
>How are you supposed to learn a language using a language you don't know?
How'd you learn English, bro?
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Anonymous2011-01-20 10:34
>>657
Exactly what >>659 said. Were you born miracurously with the ability to speak your native language? NO! You LEARNED it, you had no notion whatsoever of a language.
The only think you can use now (without using your native language) is the fact that you know what things are, you know a car is a car, you know red is red... so you don't have to re-learn what is what, but you should still learn a language, using the language, not another one, your brain will still learn it and you will be closer to native-like since your brain will not try to translate a word first in your native language, it will come to you naturaly. If that makes sense.
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Anonymous2011-01-20 22:26
Hi guys. What does そーゆーワケにもいかん mean? I can't find out what Ikan means for the life of me. and is (wake) katakana for wake(as in wake up?)
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Anonymous2011-01-21 8:46
>>659
I learnt English exactly like >>657 said, using a language that I already knew. So what?
Except by "You LEARNED it" you mean "You needed 10-14 years to LEARN how to formulate sentences more complex than 'I love my cat. My cat is white. Her name is Lucky. Lucky loves to play with her tail. Her tail is very long and beautiful'".
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Anonymous2011-01-21 9:59
>661
そういうわけでもいかない
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Anonymous2011-01-21 17:39
>>660
Immersion and using prior experience as a base to build a more complex understanding of Japanese or any other language is paramount to becoming "fluent". The difference is that you don't have to act like a sensory deprived 2 year old, stumbling around vocab you don't know and pounding it in your head through mindless repetition before you suddenly "learn it" and become "fluent". Comparing the language comprehension and acquisition of a developing mind to that of a grown one by assuming there is no difference is also completely idiotic. The years it takes for someone to actually become fluent in a language after the language sector of their mind has completely developed can be halved if they use what they already know and augment it to compliment a new paradigm.
A quick example: you constantly see and hear the word 棚, you know its component kanji, you know how to write it, you know how to pronounce it, but you don't know what it MEANS. Which is better, waiting until you happen upon an explanation or continually use context clues that only give you a partial understanding, or simply using the language you already know to COMPLETELY understand that it means "shelf" and then attribute the meaning of 棚 to the same removed, mental estimation of the physical body your mind already understands as "shelf" and be done with it?
Your native language is not a crutch; it's a tool. As you gain a higher understanding of Japanese, you should obviously work with it more but that does not mean abandoning the wealth of knowledge in your native language and starting from scratch.
I'm all for immersion and listen to Japanese for hours and hours each day, but using English (or another language) can still help in making things make sense. I tend to look up words I don't know in both an English-Japanese dictionary, and a "kokugo jiten", that is, a Japanese dictionary in Japanese. The former helps me get the right idea, the latter helps me "get it", if that makes any sense.
While it's certainly possible to learn a new language without using an old one, it's going to be easier to connect concepts you already know with new words by using the words you already know. As the words you already know starts to include more and more Japanese words, you can easily nativise (I just made that word up) your ability with Japanese.
tl;dr don't make things too complicated for yourself
tl;dr 2 ゆっくりしていってね！
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Anonymous2011-01-22 20:59
I'm looking for audio I can listen to while driving to help me learn. Something which says random sentences in Japanese, then repeats them in English.
There's your mistake. Japanese and English have very little in common, and the grammar is often reversed, so unless you have enough of a grasp on the language to determine which words are nouns, verbs, adjectives, grammatical particles, etc... that won't help you very much.
But... lets say you do. I'm not really sure of anything that matches your description. Personally, I'd reccomend finding some Japanese music you like (pref music where the words are not distorted or something). Listen to a few songs, then later when you get a chance, look up the translated lyrics.
Also nice get.
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random rant2011-01-23 3:03
Today I learned that bottom-right part of 様 is written not like 水, where left part is written in one stroke shaped liked katakana ﾌ. Instead in 様 it's written with 2 strokes. WTF.