I'm currently in Japan learning Japanese. When I first got here and was bored at work I'd put my head on my desk and listen to these podcasts by Alex Brooke: http://japanese.libsyn.com/index.php?post_year=2005&post_month=10 They're really good and teach you some very useful phrases. I learnt "would you like to go for a drink with me?" VERY quickly. But for learning anything from books, you're going to need yourself some Hiragana and Katakana. What I did to learn those, was just get a table, and a couple of lists of words with the characters in them, and just repeated them over and over and over again. I have a full notebook of my practicing of each of them. You can get both charts, as well as some words, at about.com:http://japanese.about.com/library/blhira.htm?terms=hiragana And once you've done that, I have a kanji book that's been amazing. I don't have it with me right now, so I can't remember the authors or anything, but it's called Write Now! and has all the kanji you need for the official Japanese Language Proficiency Test levels 4 and 3. (4 being the easiest, 1 being fluency - I'm taking 3 at the end of the year) If you need any help, just shout. If you like, I could write you emails in Japanese or something.
I haven't started with Hiragana and Katakana, wasn't even sure what they were Cheers for the about link, will be having a good look through that now when I get more skiving minutes spare. Thanks for all the pointers I've seen bits about that test...anyone can do it then? E-mails would be great too give me a chance to learn a few words though
I have a Japanese audio course, currently on loan to a student, i will see them on Monday. Your welcome to borrow it, just don't have a car crash and crack the tape casing like the last guy. I've also got 'Japanese made easy' plus an assortment of learning media. I'll look some up for you..
IIRC, flashcards are really good too. IMO, best would be to make them yourself, to get the additional experience of writing it, and it's in your handwriting. I *think* my sister was using flashcards to work on her kanji, but I don't remember. I'm sorry I don't have any Japanese-specific resources, that's a language I haven't studied. I do know that in general, the more you read / hear / speak / use it, the faster and better you'll learn it. When I was starting Spanish, I used it to talk to my pet rabbits. They didn't care what language I used, and it got me some speaking practice.
My stomach hurts now I can see my rabbit now, thinking "these human types, they don't half look like prats sometimes"
heh heh. hiragana and katakana are two of the japanese "alphabets". hiragana is used for japanese words, word endings and things. katakana is used for foreign words. yeh, there are centers throughout the world that run the japanese language proficiency tests. i only know about the ones in japan though. you may be able to find details about them elsewhere through google or something. but it's a long way off if you're only starting now.
Ah I sees. I think. So Hiragana is an alphabet I found the table, not sure how that works though. Will have a better look today. Excuse the blonde. So if Hiragana is the alphabet, what's kanji? That's why I just skipped through it Maybe I'll come to Japan and do it. I have plenty of time anyway seeing as I'm just starting out
I recomment this software for learning Japanese. Taekwonguy: They do Mandarin and Cantonese too:- Mandarin Cantonese Hope this helps. James
Japanese doesn't have an alphabet, per se...kinda sorta. I guess hiragana can be thought of as a syllabic 'alphabet'. If you are learning Japanese a good investment of time would be to learn that straight off. It's helped me quite a bit. Also, everyone I've heard of learning Japanese who uses romanji first has said that it was a bad habit that slowed them down later. Kanji are the crazy Chinese-imported characters. The Japanese Gov't thinks you need about 1800 or so to read at a basic level. The 'official' Japanese tests occur once a year in many major cities. There are four of them. From the random stuff I've read on the internet about them they recommend 150 hours of study for level 4, 300 for level 3, 600 for level 2, and 900 for level 1. Passing level 1 will supposedly prepare you for study at a Japanese university.
Cheers J, that looks quite nifty. And thanks for the info Stephenk. Now I just have to get passed the confusion that there's not a symbol for each letter A-Z Surely not all Japanese words are made up from those few (46?) symbols? [Edit: when you consider we only have 26 letters in the alphabet it's actually quite believeable ) I'll stick those tests on the back burner then Definitely worth a look in future though.
japanese doesn't work with letters, it works with syllables. so the kana (hiragana and katakana) represent each of the syllables you'll find in japanese words. kanji are actual words and ideas in symbol form. like, the word for car = "kuruma". in hiragana this is ku-ru-ma: くるま in kanji it's just one symbol: 車 hiragana is really useful to know, because once you know the pronunciation of each syllable you'll be able to figure out the pronunciation of any japanese word you come across. i do suggest you learn it right from the beginning. stephenk is right - i learnt a lot of vocab before i started learning hiragana, and it's slowed me down a hell of a lot now because i continually try to convert it back to our alphabet before reading it, instead of just reading it and interpreting straight-off. katakana is the most useful if you're going to japan and don't know the language that well, because all the foreign words are written in it, so you can work out what they are. like ｺｲnﾛｰﾝﾄﾞﾘｰ. those symbols are ko-i-n ro-o-n-do-ri-i. koin roondorii. coin laundry. here endeth today's lesson on japanese scripts. and yeh, ps - the tests aren't really useful until you've done about a year's studying. this year i'm skipping level 4 and doing level 3. you need to know 323 kanji for that one. i think it's about 150 that you need to know for level 4. actually, if you start studying really hard now you could probably do level 4 this year - they take place in december.
Makes sense now Thinking syllables rather than individual letters clears it up a lot. All the vowels though, I like the sound Can't believe I didn't decide to learn sooner. Spent yesterday making a start on the hiragana I see what you mean about the pronounciation! And I got so excited when I came across sushi and realised I'd been saying "su" wrong all this time. The "u" is an oo, and in "ku" it's still and oo but in "su" it sounds like sue. (correct me if I'm wrong ) Looking back over Japanese now I can see how it can be broken into hiragana Thanks very much for the help chick. I can actually see how it works now! Question though Would good morning be i-i-a-so; or a-so-i-i; or a different phrase? Thinking about it now it's probably something different... I need to get a language pack for explorer and firefox too :bang:
What's the gozaimasu translation then? Is that just another option or is that a version more English-lettery Thanks btw Knew it was a long shot!
Victoria, The way it was explained to me by a Japanese friend is this: In theory you can write practically everything in Hiragana, but you'd be considered a simpleton. Good use of Kanji shows that you are an educated person. Incidentally, learning Kanji will also help if you ever want to learn to speak a Chinese language!
I haven't even looked at Kanji yet Only just got me head around syllables I will move onto kanji though once I've got a basic grip. Looks like I'll need it if I sit the exams too
What I should have said is that this applies to Japanese people. I'd guess that they'd make allowances for a foreigner using a higher proportion of Hiragana.
