Japanese

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by pokelda

Im quite confused over this. First you say speaking and learning Japanese is diffrent between here (im assuming america on this one) and there (and im assuming japan), then you go on to say they both use 12 hour day system as the norm.

Not being the norm does not equate to not being in use.

For example, you'd never see time denoted as "13 o clock" in America, yet the Japanese "equivalent" is just fine, even if it's not used the majority of time.

Originally Posted by Silvuh

When you say you like something, you use "noun がすきです。".

A time like this would be a good time to elaborate on the difference between "wa" and "ga" since a lot of people struggle to grasp the concept. I'd do it myself, but to be totally honest, I'm not 100% on the exact difference myself.

If you like two nouns you probably use "noun と noun".

If I were you, I'd be clarifying that that particle can only be used with nouns and that adjective/adverb conjunction requires another particle (that, incidentally, slips my mind at present).

April twenty-eighth is "四月二十八日" (しがつにじゅうはちにち). I forget if you put the day or month first...

Quick switch to Japanese mode on my computer tells me " 2008年3月12日". Incidentally, it also changed my time display to 24 hour format.

I'm not exactly sure how to say "My birthday is on [date]", but it's probably something more like "たんじょうびは四月二十八日があります。"... The を connecting a noun and a date like that doesn't seem right.

Shouldn't some kind of kanji be used for tanjoobi? That definitely looks like the word "yoobi" in there, so logically it should have that kanji there at the very least. And actually, I just put "birthday" in a google translate and it gave me "誕生日", so yeah, I'd say so.

Something else about yourself you could say is "I am # years old" or "私は＃さいです。", if I recall correctly.

That's correct, although the leading "私は" is not needed.

As for the colors in the opening post... 青い (aoi) is the adjective "blue" and 青色 (aoiro) is the color "blue". Just a note. "Ao" might work by itself, though. Not sure.

Yeah, I made comment of this. The "ao" reading is when it's used as a noun. For example, "my favorite color is blue" has the word "blue" as a noun, while "I have a blue car" is using it as an adjective. No different in English, but it is different in Japanese, although, to be honest, you could probably slip by anyway.

A list of the Kana isn't much of a lesson... Especially if all it is is a list. They way I started memorizing them is by associating sounds with pictures made from the Kana. For instance, the Hirigana "tsu" resembles a tsunami wave. After learning them like that, you eventually recognize them when you see them without having to think of the picture. Flash cards can help for beginners. Also, writing them out multiple times... People learn differently. I've found that using vocabulary in sentences helps me teach myself better than flash cards. But I use flash cards to help keep them memorized.
Oh, and pronouncing the Japanese syllables isn't hard at all. They're the same as the vowels in Spanish. "A" like the A in "water", "I" like the E in "me", "U" like the OU in "you", "E" like the E in "let", and "O" like the O in "go". All the consonants are pretty much pronounced like in English except for the "R", which sounds like a combination of R and L. I forget exactly how to describe it. I feel like I'm forgetting something here...

Actually there are some subtleties in other consanents, but they go mostly overlooked. Things like the fact that most Americans don't actually pronounce the T sound correctly, or little things like the difference between ぢ and じ (or how about the fact that じ is often oversimplified in a way that removes its similarity to the accented S group).

As for Kanji... jeeze, I looked at all the Kanji you need to know for the college Kanji proficiency test... So you should have them all memorized after 300 hours of College Japanese... I recognized about 90 of the first page of the list, but I couldn't, like, read and use all the ones I recognized. I don't think all Kanjis come from China. It seems reasonable that only Kanji with on'yomi (Chinese pronunciations) came from China. Kun'yomi are the Japanese pronunciations. Typically, on'yomi are shown in Katakana and kun'yomi are shown in Hirigana.

Actually, part of the definition of kanji is that the character's come from China. Not sure about where readings or meanings stand, but the characters themselves are Chinese.

Originally Posted by STD_Dimitri13

You can use そして(it's like a [sentence]. And, [sentence]) to join them, like: 私は さくらん(or whatever cherry is) と いちご が すきです。そして, 四月二十八日 に 生(うま)れた。

My understanding was always that so****e was more of a "and then" type of thing. More of a way to explain an order of events.

ps @ tattoo: does appear to be ginoza. What's the relevance? And by the way, since you seem to not be aware, that is katakana and even sharp beginners can read that.