[Demonskid]

My japanese learning thread.. the people who used to post in there don't post no more ;o;

I want to take these lessons I have from japanese pod 101 and put them in there >x< but I dun want the thread to die D;

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Ah. Well, outside of some sushi terms my Japanese sucks, not that I've actually tried to learn it so I shouldn't complain.

[Demonskid]

=w= wanna be my selfstudy partner? we can bring back the thread since i has new lesson/infos =w=

[Quiet Man Cometh]

I think Mandarin might be more useful where I am (or Cantonese. Not sure which) but I'm not averse to picking up new words and phrases here and there in any language. My snag is sticking with things long enough to actually become fluent. I dropped off my self study in Swedish so I'm forgetting a lot of basic stuff. Need to make up some lists of vocab and refresh my grammar terms.

[Demonskid]

OuO I'll go resurrect the thread then ^-^ I has Hiragana lessons for beginners.

silly tentens and marus ><

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Hiragana?

Oh, can I common grab the white belts jeans?

[Demonskid]

Hiragana one of the Kana :3

Kana have hiragana and katakana

then there is Kanji ^-^ I posted *jumps on cat* is that the only item from common grab?

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Pretty much so far, yeah.

Umm, I have an idea of Kanji as caligraphy of sorts, or symbols. I'm really feeble when it comes to anything Japanese. What I have picked up has come from menus, magic cards, fanfiction and anime, and naturally I don't put much trust in any of it.

[Demonskid]

Menu's could be ok if it is a true Japanese place.

Um *stole this from yahoo:

Kanji, are the characters of Chinese origin that actually represent things or words. Kana don't, they're just phonetic symbols telling you what sound to make, and although they are derived from kanji, they themselves have no meaning.

And yes, you can write most things with kanji - although it often has a hiragana suffix. Anything that can be written with kanji can be written just with hiragana, or even katakana, although that's not usual.

:3

I prefer the internet for my japanese learning. A lot of anime/manga you can't trust on proper structure and what not ^^,

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Ah, I get it. When I've come across "kanji" it has usually refered to spells or marks of power (fantasy reading for instance) or as symbols for something. It didn't seem to me like something that would be used in every day communication, but this is hardly an educated opinion. ;)

[Demonskid]

Hehe :3 I used to think that because of Dragon Ball Z x'D

I'll put some samples of the Romaji/Kana/Kanji up in the other thread

[Quiet Man Cometh]

In one of the novels for the Magic the Gathering Kamigawa card set the main character could do something called blood kanji, which was what it sounds like. Symbols written in his blood that would cast spells. Another character was learning Kanji but not good at it. I remember she send a note to the main via kanji written on a piece of paper and it flew like a butterfly, but it was tattered and ripped when it got to him since she wasn't good enough at it yet.

The stuff I picked up with that magic card set I've sort of cross-referenced with other dubious sources to sort of pick out some meaning. For intance, kami appears to mean something like spirit, since it's used to refer to the spirit world critters that are invading the human world because the humans pissed them off. One card, "hanakami" depicts a flower spirit, and while looking up the Cherry Blossom Festival on Wikipedia I encountered the term "hanami" which refers to "flower viewing" apparently, so it appears that "hana" means flower or blossom. That's pretty much how I've been picking things up.

Not totally reliable, is it? ;)

[Demonskid]

Actually that is correct ^^,

Kami = Spirit/God
Hana = Flower


I have some of that set and plausibly a book or two from that series xD I don't have all the books so I haven't read it yet ._., But yea those translations are correct.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Good to know. :).

I wrote a haiku named "Hanami," I'd have loved to take the Asian literature course as my school but it was full up with a waiting list by the time I was able to register. -.-

[Demonskid]

x'D yea you'd be surprise on how correct some stuff are then turn around to something else and BOOM its soooo wrong it makes you wanna set something on fire D;

[Quiet Man Cometh]

It's the terms I see scattered all over fanfiction and chat speak that I usually wonder about. Things like "kawaii" "chibi" "bishounen" and such. I've read there and there about some Japanese terms being used commonly in North America in fashions not totally accurate, like Bishounen being used for young men when it is apparently supposed to refer to young boys like elementary school aged? There is apparently another word for older boys or young men.