Miyako (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} gokugirl) wrote,@ 2009-07-01 20:38:00 |
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Japanese Lessons
I want to become fluent in the Japanese language so I decided to search for websites to help me with that. One of the best ones that I found is The Japan Page, which has games, articles, videos, and other good stuff. However, the best videos I've found online are by Genki Japan. The Japan Shop's videos are also helpful. I have a YouTube account just to bookmark videos. Unfortunately, this looks like I've joined the "Web 2.0 revolution." I detest social networking so you can understand my frustration.
The videos are excellent with helping you to learn vocabulary but that's it. You're essentially learning vocab in a void. Without learning how to construct sentences you have to pantomime when it concerns anything that's not a greeting or a verb. I've taken a Japanese course so I know how to construct basic sentences and am able to figure out to construct more advanced ones. No matter how good you are at remembering what certain words are in Japanese, if you can't use it in a sentence then your skill is pretty useless. I've heard that "Japanese for Busy People" is good if you want to learn how to say useful things like "Where is the bathroom?" (Toire ga doko desu ka. toire = toilet, ga = subject particle, doko = where, desu = sentence ending particle when there's no verb, ka = question marker particle) My sensei used it for a spoken Japanese language course one year.
I found another series of videos called "Pretty Intense Japanese," which are created by a girl who is fluent in the language. Her other (supposed) qualifier is that she's half Japanese. Her videos are different because she gives sentence examples, but she doesn't explain what each part of the sentence means, only what the sentence means as a whole. You might also have a tough time spelling things because the words aren't displayed. Also, her vocab from the first lesson were words a four-year-old would know: neko (cat), ringo (apple), sushi (sushi). Not particularly useful nor very "intense." She also seems insincere because her eyes don't reflect the smile on her face. What I do think is neat (besides the sentences) is the fact that she uses the correct intonation. I wouldn't have been able to tell that she wasn't a native speaker by listening to her.
Author's Note: I apologize in advance if the non-Roman characters don't show up correctly. You may have to have Japanese language support in your operating system. It's free to add for Windows, by the way.
Watashi wa kyou ringo tabemashita. (わたしはきよりんごたべました。) = Today, I ate an apple. Watashi = gender neutral polite "I", particle wa indicates the topic, which is different from the subject (ga); kyou = today, tabemashita is the past-tense affirmative form of taberu (to eat). The way I was taught, there would be an "o" after ringo (to indicate that it's a direct object), but we learned the ultra-polite speech.
Ano neko wa ringo tabemashita. (あのけこはりんごたべました。) = The cat (over there) ate an apple (her meaning: That cat just ate an apple.). Ano = "that" when used directly with a noun (otherwise it's are wa). I would have used "ga" instead of "wa" because the cat is doing something.
Sometimes, while I walk around Georgia Tech's campus, I think about Japanese sentences. I want to know if I can remember how to construct sentences since I took the class in winter 2008. I'm eager to take the next but I can't until winter 2010, unfortunately. I'm going to buy the Rosetta Stone software for the rest (I think just level 3) because the second level courses (intermediate) are hardly ever offered due to lack of interest.
Neko ga toshokan de mimasu. (けこがとしよかんでみます。) = (I) saw a cat at the library. Particle de indicates an action taking place, mimashita is the past-tense affirmative of miru (to see). The "I" is in parenthesis because you can leave it out if talking about yourself. Otherwise it would be Watashi wa neko ga toshokan de mimasu (わたしはけこがとしよかんでみます。).
The grammar is more straightforward than English, which is a plus, and there are usually standardized pronunciations (regional dialect alters things a little). Yes, the writing can be intimidating. Hiragana and Katakana aren't that bad but kanji gets complicated quickly. You don't need to know kanji to communicate in writing, but to read magazines, newspapers, etc. you should know the roughly 2,000 kanji in daily use. I wonder if the Japanese writing would be more simple if China hadn't influenced them with their written characters.
Author's Note: I don't know many kanji. I can recognize a lot more than I can write from memory. I know I (watashi) 私, Japan (Nihon) 日本, Japanese people (Nihon-jin) 日本人, Japanese language (Nihon-go) 日本語 (the language part is excessively complicated), book (hon) 本, tree (ki) 木, forest (hayashi) 林, fire (ka or hi) 火, water (mizu) 水, and person (hito) 人. Book, tree, and forest are remarkably similar to each other as are person and fire. The kanji for "Japan" includes "book" as one of its kanji but I can't remember why.
Something only semi-relevant to the above: Tuesday means "Fire Day" in the Japanese language (Mars is also associated with the day). Tuesday = Kayoubi (火曜日) in Japanese. Wednesday is "Water Day" (also associated with Mercury) but Wednesday in Japanese is Suiyoubi (水曜日) not Mizuyoubi.
And that concludes today's lesson. I may do one about anime names/words and what they mean. This can already be found in multiple places on the Internet, though. Maybe I'll just do the more interesting ones (like Tsukino Usagi). To look at kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana on your own, I recommend a very good (though complex) online dictionary called Jeffrey's Dictionary Server. There's an option to automatically load the kanji and kana (so the terms aren't written in Roman characters at all). I think it's great because it forces you to remember things. The definitions are always written in English. To enable it, click the link in the sentence "If your Netscape does have Japanese support, check here." Then click the first link in the table labeled "try this link." This works for Firefox, Opera, IE 7 (not sure about earlier versions), and probably Safari automatically.
Oh, Wikipedia & Wiktionary have neat Japanese language guides (grammar, particles, and basic words). Kanji and kana are included.
I want to become fluent in the Japanese language so I decided to search for websites to help me with that. One of the best ones that I found is The Japan Page, which has games, articles, videos, and other good stuff. However, the best videos I've found online are by Genki Japan. The Japan Shop's videos are also helpful. I have a YouTube account just to bookmark videos. Unfortunately, this looks like I've joined the "Web 2.0 revolution." I detest social networking so you can understand my frustration.
The videos are excellent with helping you to learn vocabulary but that's it. You're essentially learning vocab in a void. Without learning how to construct sentences you have to pantomime when it concerns anything that's not a greeting or a verb. I've taken a Japanese course so I know how to construct basic sentences and am able to figure out to construct more advanced ones. No matter how good you are at remembering what certain words are in Japanese, if you can't use it in a sentence then your skill is pretty useless. I've heard that "Japanese for Busy People" is good if you want to learn how to say useful things like "Where is the bathroom?" (Toire ga doko desu ka. toire = toilet, ga = subject particle, doko = where, desu = sentence ending particle when there's no verb, ka = question marker particle) My sensei used it for a spoken Japanese language course one year.
I found another series of videos called "Pretty Intense Japanese," which are created by a girl who is fluent in the language. Her other (supposed) qualifier is that she's half Japanese. Her videos are different because she gives sentence examples, but she doesn't explain what each part of the sentence means, only what the sentence means as a whole. You might also have a tough time spelling things because the words aren't displayed. Also, her vocab from the first lesson were words a four-year-old would know: neko (cat), ringo (apple), sushi (sushi). Not particularly useful nor very "intense." She also seems insincere because her eyes don't reflect the smile on her face. What I do think is neat (besides the sentences) is the fact that she uses the correct intonation. I wouldn't have been able to tell that she wasn't a native speaker by listening to her.
Author's Note: I apologize in advance if the non-Roman characters don't show up correctly. You may have to have Japanese language support in your operating system. It's free to add for Windows, by the way.
Watashi wa kyou ringo tabemashita. (わたしはきよりんごたべました。) = Today, I ate an apple. Watashi = gender neutral polite "I", particle wa indicates the topic, which is different from the subject (ga); kyou = today, tabemashita is the past-tense affirmative form of taberu (to eat). The way I was taught, there would be an "o" after ringo (to indicate that it's a direct object), but we learned the ultra-polite speech.
Ano neko wa ringo tabemashita. (あのけこはりんごたべました。) = The cat (over there) ate an apple (her meaning: That cat just ate an apple.). Ano = "that" when used directly with a noun (otherwise it's are wa). I would have used "ga" instead of "wa" because the cat is doing something.
Sometimes, while I walk around Georgia Tech's campus, I think about Japanese sentences. I want to know if I can remember how to construct sentences since I took the class in winter 2008. I'm eager to take the next but I can't until winter 2010, unfortunately. I'm going to buy the Rosetta Stone software for the rest (I think just level 3) because the second level courses (intermediate) are hardly ever offered due to lack of interest.
Neko ga toshokan de mimasu. (けこがとしよかんでみます。) = (I) saw a cat at the library. Particle de indicates an action taking place, mimashita is the past-tense affirmative of miru (to see). The "I" is in parenthesis because you can leave it out if talking about yourself. Otherwise it would be Watashi wa neko ga toshokan de mimasu (わたしはけこがとしよかんでみます。).
The grammar is more straightforward than English, which is a plus, and there are usually standardized pronunciations (regional dialect alters things a little). Yes, the writing can be intimidating. Hiragana and Katakana aren't that bad but kanji gets complicated quickly. You don't need to know kanji to communicate in writing, but to read magazines, newspapers, etc. you should know the roughly 2,000 kanji in daily use. I wonder if the Japanese writing would be more simple if China hadn't influenced them with their written characters.
Author's Note: I don't know many kanji. I can recognize a lot more than I can write from memory. I know I (watashi) 私, Japan (Nihon) 日本, Japanese people (Nihon-jin) 日本人, Japanese language (Nihon-go) 日本語 (the language part is excessively complicated), book (hon) 本, tree (ki) 木, forest (hayashi) 林, fire (ka or hi) 火, water (mizu) 水, and person (hito) 人. Book, tree, and forest are remarkably similar to each other as are person and fire. The kanji for "Japan" includes "book" as one of its kanji but I can't remember why.
Something only semi-relevant to the above: Tuesday means "Fire Day" in the Japanese language (Mars is also associated with the day). Tuesday = Kayoubi (火曜日) in Japanese. Wednesday is "Water Day" (also associated with Mercury) but Wednesday in Japanese is Suiyoubi (水曜日) not Mizuyoubi.
And that concludes today's lesson. I may do one about anime names/words and what they mean. This can already be found in multiple places on the Internet, though. Maybe I'll just do the more interesting ones (like Tsukino Usagi). To look at kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana on your own, I recommend a very good (though complex) online dictionary called Jeffrey's Dictionary Server. There's an option to automatically load the kanji and kana (so the terms aren't written in Roman characters at all). I think it's great because it forces you to remember things. The definitions are always written in English. To enable it, click the link in the sentence "If your Netscape does have Japanese support, check here." Then click the first link in the table labeled "try this link." This works for Firefox, Opera, IE 7 (not sure about earlier versions), and probably Safari automatically.
Oh, Wikipedia & Wiktionary have neat Japanese language guides (grammar, particles, and basic words). Kanji and kana are included.
