i'll stick with my kana lessons for now ono

hhahah that is a good thing to do~ I just need vocab re-taught, then maybe some sentence structure

x3 I read some of the momotarosu story out loud once.. i sounded horrible xD

hahaha i think i can pronounce things pretty well except sounara... can't even spell it right >w<

sayorana? the one for good bye?

YES! see how bad i am with that.. it was one of the first words we learned and i still could not say it right! i even had a disk i listened to over and over again and i just couldn't get it~

I get the words, that have like similar sounding sounds right after the other, all mixed up xD

「さようなら」。 "Sayounara."

Also: Stroke order is easy. It's the same for every kanji. You write the sections ("radicals") left-to-right, top-to-bottom, and in each section you write the strokes left-to-right, top-to-bottom. The top and right strokes of box-like shapes is a single stroke (like writing the number 7). The only tricky part is knowing when the left and bottom sides are one stroke (like the example below) or two (as in a box) -- and that's just a matter of practice; usually you can tell by the shape of the character. Once you get used to thinking of it this way, you'll be able to write unfamiliar kanji without even thinking about it.

Let's look at this character (tatsu, "dragon"). Looks scary! But it's not. First you do the five-stroke piece on the top-left, then you do the four-stroke piece on the bottom left. Then the really scary-looking part on the right goes in this order:
* Short vertical stroke
* First horizontal stroke
* Second horizontal stroke connected to short vertical bit
* Third horizontal stroke
* Long vertical stroke connected to tail at bottom
* Fourth, fifth, and sixth horizontal strokes

I had a feeling there was a u in that.. ._.

oh thank you coda~ you are so helpful sometimes~~ *hugs* thanks

still need to learn how to say sayounara

._. And stroke order isn't even all that important. I mean, it's useful somewhat when you have to look up a kanji, but order-wise? Eh, I don't usually stick to it. It's only used cause it's supposed to make the kanji look more balanced, but I don't always get them balanced with it so eh.

My Japanese teacher actually has said that basically Japanese people will be able to tell if you wrote the strokes out of order and they kinda twitch at it. XD In English we really don't care if you write your 8 as a 'S' with a slash or a 'snowman' but apparently Japanese people are OCDish about it owo; (Or at least that's what I've heard)

Yeeeeah...
Maybe older people, but at least all the Japanese people I've met? They couldn't care less about it.

I like to learn the stroke order ouo *knows the order of her hiragana* x3

why wont katakana stick to me ;n;

It's more important than you think. When you're using a computer, obviously it's meaningless, but when handwritten it's more than just "good handwriting". Understanding the stroke order of a kanji is often the ONLY way to read calligraphy. Since the individual strokes aren't clearly defined when writing like that, the stroke order determines the shape and flow of the lines. You get it wrong, it's completely unreadable.

it also helps you remember the kanji. at least thats what has helped me remember day, moon and some of the others ouo

awhh dk you will get it soon~~ if you need some help maybe i can find my old pockets and scan them into the computer for you, but if you want them it would be an all day thing for me to do tomorrow~ so let me know by tonight, okay?

and STROKE order is very important! and what ult said is true that will twitch at you... trust me teacher did the twitching for us and then me and my friends twitched once we were helping out the firsters~ it is horrible to do the stroke order wrong!

I would love more stuff ouo

I need to go print out stuff.. should go do that now xD

okay! i will see what i can do~ >has all three years of work<

oooo 3 years worth
that will keep me even more busy x3

It's important to know WHY the stroke order is important, though, or otherwise just saying it's bad is meaningless.

Older Japanese people are worried that such finer points of culture will be lost as youth do most of their writing on computers. Already young people are losing their kanji vocabulary; while they can read them when they encounter them, they can't think of them in handwriting because the computer automatically converts the kanji for them. (They call this ワープロ馬鹿 "wa-puro baka" -- "word processor fool" -- because they depend on their word processors to do their kanji for them.) So a focus on stroke order to them is just clinging to their cultural heritage.

But the real loss is the ancient art of Japanese calligraphy, which as I mentioned requires an innate understanding of stroke order to be able to read -- and younger Japanese people are finding it increasingly difficult to read older poetry.

I know that they would have a calligraphy club, right? or do they not offer that in most schools?

@dk: yes... i am a pack rat when it comes to information~

I always wanted to learn Japanese calligraphy ouo

my friend knows how to do it, in fact he would do that station for our Japan night~

Japan night? =0

@_@ I know it's important when it comes to calligraphy, I do know that. But, mmm... again except for my senseis (who are both older and supposed to be teaching us the stroke order anyway) no one I've come across has really cared, or noticed if I write my kanji in a different stroke order. Although granted usually it is the correct stroke order, the ones that aren't it doesn't bug them. Just throwing that out there.

XD I'm not even Japanese Coda but I have the same problem. I can read a lot more kanji than I can write, or bother to remember how to write. Although my reason is more because "it takes too damn long to write it" than anything.

*sniffles* i cant print out the papers az sent me <,.>

o.o why not?

also: did you understand everything I wrote? mean, did you have any questions? I tried to explain it in as much detail as I could.

I has no ink in either of my printers ;n;

and I under stood what I've read so far. you're really good at explaining things ^-^

^^ Awesome. <3 When you understand and remember those, let me know and I'll type you up some of my 111 (the few I have) and 112 notes, okay? <3

Why don't you write them out in a notebook instead? ^^ It helps you remember things. I always copy my notes 2-3 times.

OH, if anyone wants me to email them copies of what I sent DK about dictionary form, plain form, and te-form just let me know ^^

I don't have to many notebooks and I already have them for other things ono

Yes, i was in Japanese club for the full three years i was taking the class and we did all sorts of things! the first year i was just in it, the second i was treasurer, and the third year i was vice president~
We did a japan night for parents to leave the littler ones with us so they could get early holiday shopping out of the way. WE would sell things that our sensei would buy from japan and other little japan goodies, and our biggest thing was doing tables, were each kid would get to do something and learn about Japan, we would have folk tale(me and my friend), Tea ceremony, Calligraphy, Clothes, and Toys, those were the ones we had every year, but we had a few others like sports day, and origami. Each station would let them get something from it so they can take it home with them. I remember the one year we gave them bracelets, for they found treasure in one of our stories~
boy do i miss those days~

waa that sounds like fun ono

oh it was and since me and my friend ran it we got to run the whole thing for the last year with our sensei. it was really nice, i can only hope that i can get to go again one year~

I would love notes on all the forms, Azzy. I was thinking of trying to learn Japanese again this summer while I have all this free time. But I've forgotten almost all the grammar. D:

I'm such a slow learner x.x

As am I... ;)

it's ok everyone! we can do it! we can learn Japanese!