Hiragana, kanji, and many more.

[FeminineMarshmallow]

So after spending roughly 2 months of rigourous study, i now know all of the hiragana.:relief:
So this is me :p all excited and whatnot because of my new found knowledge. I try to read a sentence in Japanese, and it all looks like blibber blabber....:okashii: Used google and apparently i need to learn Kanji, and...something else.

So exactly how many "languages" do i have to learn before i can read japanese??? Are they as difficult as hiragana was?

[K_von]

k well theres hiragana, which u say u know then horay!:cool: but theres katagaana and kanji, and i think theres one more romanji? someone correct me if im wrong, well i on the other hand am still trying to study hiragana >_< and yea they are kinda as hard as hiragana =(

[orochi]

Have you considered buying a textbook?

[hideway]

There is only one language, Japanese. :p

Mainly, for starters, you need hiragana and katakana. This will allow you to write anything you want in japanese. Notice that lots of different japanese words have exactly the same sound. Kanji allows you to identify which word you actually have.

For example:
to cut -> きる (kiru) -> 切る
to wear/put on -> きる (kiru) -> 着る

I actually have lots of fun learning new kanjis, and it gradually becomes natural to differentiate between them. At first they all looked the same and composed by random strokes. :-)

[FeminineMarshmallow]

i have considered buying a textbook, but i cant find one good enough.
they all seem to pretain the same information that the internet has.
and the internet shows me stroke orders and such ^-^


Ahh i guess i will start on Kanji then.
thank you


~Ahem~ i mean
Arigatou.
life sucks when you dont have a japanesekeyboard....

[hideway]

You do not need a japanese keyboard.

Use windows IME.

[FeminineMarshmallow]

Whats that???

i will use forum search im sure something will show up

[kameron]

Whats that???
i will use forum search im sure something will show up

Here you are:
http://www.jref.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27100

You can also install other groovy language IME's and I use the key combination Alt+Shift to switch between them.

[FeminineMarshmallow]

Ahh thank you ^-^


:O you know korean too? 사랑해!

[Tomii515]

Ok. There's one language, Japanese! haha
In Japanese, there's three writing systems: hiragana, katakana, and kanji.

ex: テレビを見ます。 (terebi o mimasu)

hiragana
katakana
kanji

1. hiragana: I'm glad you learned this one first! This is probably the most important. You can basically write everything in Hiragana, but although you can do that, you have to learn the other two. But, once you know the other two, hiragana is basically only used for verb and adjective endings and particles and such. Grammer things. And also for words that don't have a kanji :'D

ex: わたし -> watashi

2. katakana: This si the second one you should learn~ This si used for writing foreign words.

ex: アメリカ -> amerika

3. kanji: This is the 3rd one you should learn, and the most difficult. In the everyday use thingy for the japanese language [and chinese, btw] (I don't remember the actual name... o_o), it's said there to be 1,945 (i think) kanji that are for everyday use. If that made sence... Basically, kanji means "chinese character" and they are used to write nouns, adjectives, verbs, dadada.

日本 -> nihon

---

hope this helps :s

[kameron]

Ahh thank you ^-^
:O you know korean too? 사랑해!
한극어를 조금 압니다. [hangugorul chogum amnida]
I understand Korean a little.

How about you? I noticed you wrote "사랑해!", same as in my sig, which means "I love [you]".

I don't get much time to study these days though, and my spoken korean is a lot better than my written. But I have to admit I'm a lot better at Japanese, my Korean isn't anywhere near a conversation level yet.:relief:

Please note that if you type "hangugorul chogum amnida" into the Korean IME, it will just come out as gibberish nonsense.
The way you would type it on an english keyboard would be:
gksrmrdjfmf whrma dkqslek

[hideway]

(...) And also for words that don't have a kanji :'D

ex: わたし -> watashi
Actually there is a kanji for わたし, it's 私.

Sorry if I misunderstood! :-)

[Tomii515]

Actually there is a kanji for わたし, it's 私.

Sorry if I misunderstood! :-)

....I know.
I was just using that as an example.
why would I type the kanji if I was giving an example for hiragana?

[FeminineMarshmallow]

hehe im pretty much the opposite of you.
My korean is good whereas, my japanese is bad.
I wish my parents taught me these languages when i was younger so i would be much better at it by now, but thats what you get for being born into a southern white family...


Mk i shall start on my katakana right away!

So kanji is basically chinese?

EDIT:Oh yeah i forgot something, You dont have to add 니다 at the end of your sentences because im younger then you.

[Tomii515]

hehe im pretty much the opposite of you.
My korean is good whereas, my japanese is bad.
I wish my parents taught me these languages when i was younger so i would be much better at it by now, but thats what you get for being born into a southern white family...
Mk i shall start on my katakana right away!
So kanji is basically chinese?
EDIT:Oh yeah i forgot something, You dont have to add 니다 at the end of your sentences because im younger then you.

Hahaha I speaka bit of Korean myself, this is fun. i forget a lot of it though.

안녕하세요. 토미입니다! 반갑습니다~~

haha im an idiot. omg forgot a lot of my korean T__T lol

[kameron]

EDIT:Oh yeah i forgot something, You dont have to add 니다 at the end of your sentences because im younger then you.

Didn't even notice your age ^^ I must say I have the same problem with Japanese, I'm always mixing up my politeness levels which is pretty noticible to a native speaker, I guess it's one of my weaker points when it comes to Asian languages.

[FeminineMarshmallow]

:O nice Tomii

Ahh i do the same thing in japanese.
expect desu at the end of all my sentences when i configure japanese onto my computer keys.

[Tomii515]

I'm the youngest here lol D:

&& btw: Kameron. I was looking at your avatar, ansd i notice it said ur name in japanese and korean, then on the side it says 恋している . If you're trying to say "i love you" it should be 愛してる

[kameron]

I'm the youngest here lol D:
&& btw: Kameron. I was looking at your avatar, ansd i notice it said ur name in japanese and korean, then on the side it says 恋している . If you're trying to say "i love you" it should be 愛してる

恋する【こいする】 Fall in love

Na, it took me a while to figure out the difference between 愛する and 恋する but yeah, there's no mistake there. It says "falling in love"; falling in love with who? Check my sig.

[ハダカ]

1) How EXACTLY I must start kanji after learning kana (what I've already did... can even write on physic keyboard! :) )?
2) Do you guys really know Hangeul?
3) If it's harder then kana? :p

[kameron]

1) How EXACTLY I must start kanji after learning kana (what I've already did... can even write on physic keyboard! :) )?
2) Do you guys really know Hangeul?
3) If it's harder then kana? :p

Hangul is easier than kana in my opinion :cool:

[ハダカ]

Hangul is easier? It is so dificult - to remember the rules of combinins consonants and vowels with each other! But it's not boring ^^

[Tomii515]

1. Ohh, wow. Kameron, I learned something new :D
2. Hangeul and kana are both easy. Kana is easier to read because no matter what, each symbol is gunna be pronounced the same way. Hangeul, since the ltters are put together, and with the 5 million exceptions when reading, it makes it a bit harder. I think they'r eboht easy, though. Kana is easier to read, hangeul is easier to write, and they are both fun to read!
yayyy! lolol

[FeminineMarshmallow]

Personally i think Hangeul is much easier. the rules for putting the letters together are very simple and easy to understand. it took me about a month to be able to read perfect hangeul[i studied non-stop ^-^]

[hideway]

1) How EXACTLY I must start kanji after learning kana?

That is like asking how to start learning to write English words. I think you should focus on vocabulary and sentence construction. Kanjis just replace vocabulary that you should already know. If you each time you learn a new word you complement that learning with studying its associated kanji you'll learn them gradually at your own pace.

Just remember not to push too further.

[FeminineMarshmallow]

Yessir.

:Bow:

^-^