Can you speak, or understand any Japanese?

[Anyamae]

I can speak a little but that is because my penpal from Tokyo teaches me. I hope on learning it in HS. I sure hope so. My friends also taught me a few curse words and I do use them sometimes ^_^ but not so often

[Otaku America]

[QUOTE=Hack Helba][FONT=Trebuchet MS][COLOR=DarkGreen]Eh, I'm not exactly sure the reasoning behind your thread's title. "Baka baka baka baka baka...". Does that have something to with Japanese? I have no idea, but I think it should be changed to something more suitable for this topic. I think to help support a discussion in this thread the topic should be more rather something along the lines of "Can you speak, or understand any Japanese?" That's more efficient than listing off words that you understand in Japanese; It's as simple as searching google and copy/pasting the words here.

As for me? I don't know any Japanese; what so ever.[/COLOR][/FONT][/QUOTE]

[COLOR=Navy]I disagree with the google thing. I don't know if it's only my browser but searching Japanese words or going to Japanese websites tend to turn out in a bunch of question marks.

As for the topic, Japanese is a pretty easy language to learn if you're dedicated enough. I would say a person who studies Japanese 6 times a week, 40 hours or more, can easily learn how to write & speak Japanese in 1 month. Of course it would take years of practice to have it stapled into your mind.

To me, learning German is a lot harder because of the way the words are spelled.
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[Stuart]

[quote name='Otaku America][COLOR=Navy']I disagree with the google thing. I don't know if it's only my browser but searching Japanese words or going to Japanese websites tend to turn out in a bunch of question marks.[/COLOR][/quote]
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That all depends on what you type in for a search. When I typed in "Japanese words", I was given quite a plentiful list of sites that list of common Japanese words and their meanings. Now if I were to type in "Japaness language" I would yet again, be supplied with many more websites concerning Japanese words and learning them. I didn't suggest going to a Japanese website, Silly lol. Now that! I can agree with you on.

Any language is too complicated for me to understand. Which is why I'm currently not invovled in any language courses. I think it'd be interested to learn Japanese some day in the future, but then again, I wouldn't benifet any from it. Not like I'm ever going to Japan now, is it? xP[/COLOR][/FONT]

[OtakuSennen]

I've been studying it on and off for a number of years now, and at this point I think I know a little bit more than the general stuff people seem to pick up from random anime. :P

Of course, that isn't saying much. I recognize all katakana, most hiragana, and a very limited number of Kanji.. I have a couple of good books that I've picked up over the years. For the more grammatical side of things, I use Barron's Educational Series' "Japanese Grammar," which discusses everything from sentence structure and particles to mood/tone, honorifics and clauses. For kanji (my biggest struggle, but I'm probably not alone in that) I have John Millen's "Kanji Power," from Tuttle Publishing, and "Kanji Pit-o-Graphix" published by Stone Bridge Press. Kanji Power is not very beginner-friendly at all- most of its instructions are written out in katakana or hiragana, so you need a pretty strong hold of those characters before you can use it. The other one has little pictures that are supposed to help you remember the shapes of the characters, but it doesn't have that official, text booky feel.

Though I find it hard to keep at it without proper motivation. I'm going to try to get into an official class as soon as I can, but for now it's just me sitting down with a couple of books every once in a while staring at kanji and trying to remember what the hell they mean.

[Otaku America]

[QUOTE=Hack Helba][FONT=Trebuchet MS][COLOR=SeaGreen]
That all depends on what you type in for a search. When I typed in "Japanese words", I was given quite a plentiful list of sites that list of common Japanese words and their meanings. Now if I were to type in "Japaness language" I would yet again, be supplied with many more websites concerning Japanese words and learning them. I didn't suggest going to a Japanese website, Silly lol. Now that! I can agree with you on.

Any language is too complicated for me to understand. Which is why I'm currently not invovled in any language courses. I think it'd be interested to learn Japanese some day in the future, but then again, I wouldn't benifet any from it. Not like I'm ever going to Japan now, is it? xP[/COLOR][/FONT][/QUOTE]

[COLOR=Navy]So, it's not only my browser then, lol. To be honest, I thought exactly like you about the Japanese language. I don't know how much you're into anime/manga/Japanese culture but when you start seeing edited manga or if you don't want to wait for an anime in your region, that Japanese buzz kicks in. I can't speak for others of course but this is just what happened to me.

My mind during that time was like "Japanese Impossible." Japan, nah "I'll never go there." The quote in my sig is what led me to believe.[/COLOR]. ;)

[Raiyuu]

[quote name='Otaku America][color=Navy']I don't know if it's only my browser but searching Japanese words or going to Japanese websites tend to turn out in a bunch of question marks.[/color][/quote] [font=Trebuchet MS]Sounds to me like you don't have Japanese fonts installed. They're not installed by default on most machines, so any website that tries to display Japanese characters just comes up as a mass of squares and question marks.

If you go to the Microsoft Download Centre and serach for 'Japanese Language Pack', you'll find a download that allows your browser and word processors to display Japanese letters.
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[Delta]

[COLOR=FireBrick][SIZE=1]Or, if you're using FireFox, you can go to [b]Tools > Options >Languages...[/b] and add "Japanese" in the list. Just be sure to move it to the top of the list.

Hey, have any of you guys tried [b]Ask Jeeves[/b]' Translator? Search [b]"japanese translator"[/b] and series of forms will appear at the start of the page. Pretty nifty tool; it also shows how words are written in Japanese.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Otaku America]

[QUOTE=Revue][COLOR=FireBrick][SIZE=1]Or, if you're using FireFox, you can go to [b]Tools > Options >Languages...[/b] and add "Japanese" in the list. Just be sure to move it to the top of the list.

Hey, have any of you guys tried [b]Ask Jeeves[/b]' Translator? Search [b]"japanese translator"[/b] and series of forms will appear at the start of the page. Pretty nifty tool; it also shows how words are written in Japanese.[/SIZE][/COLOR][/QUOTE]

[COLOR=Navy]Kool, thanks for that info, I'll install it tomorrow, lol. I only need it because I need to catch up with 2005 manga/anime/etc.

Japanese is my 4th language learned but it's clearly my 2nd language in terms of fluidity. Once you learn it, you'd be amazed on how well you can write words in Japanese.[/COLOR]

[Raiyuu]

[font=Trebuchet MS]Another useful site is [url="http://www.rikai.com"]Rikai[/url], which allows you to enter the address of a Japanese website, and then it takes you there, and when you hover over a kanji it tells you what it means. Helpful if you only know really basic kanji and come across a site with loads of field-specific ones.[/font]

[cunimimi]

[QUOTE=MirielleChan]What Japanese words do you know? (If you're fluent, list a couple that are important to know and haven't been listed yet)

Aka- Red
Akai- Red *insert object*
Arigato- Thanks/thank you
Baka- idiot (:p)
Gomen- Sorry
Hikari- Light
Kawai- cute
Kire- Slice/slash
Konichiwa- Good afternoon/hello
Ja ne- See you
Nihongo- Japanese
Neko- cat
Sakura- cherry blossom
Sugoi- Amazing
Tsubasa- Wing(s)
Tsuki- Moon

Aaaaaand that's all I know, really. :animeswea[/QUOTE]


Yes I do understand your Japanese ^ ^
coz... I'm Japanese !! but... It's my 2nd language --.--;
My first language is French ! :animesmil
If you need some help with Japanese (or french lol), please Pm me to mOtaku ^ ^ ! (Um... but bo translation please !! I'm not good in English ! ) :animeswea