Japanese Learners Thread!

G1ng3rGar1

Inkling Fleet Admiral
Joined
Sep 25, 2015
Messages
875
Location
Inkopolis, born and raised!
Switch Friend Code
SW-7732-8500-1233
こんにちは。私の名前はザピです。私は日本語がわかりません。XD I hope that's correct.
Looks fine to me! Although, maybe は should be used with the わかりません. Dunno

But guess what?

As a late Christmas present I got Splatoon playing cards!

The names of the weapons are on the card! In Japanese!
 

Tsuchinoko

Inkster Jr.
Joined
Jan 10, 2017
Messages
25
Location
Indiana
NNID
Tsuchinoko
Cool topic been wanting to talk about this. I have been actively studying for about three months. I can make basic sentences and recognize some kanji too. My goal is to be able to take JLPT 5 and 4 by next year.
 

ヒーロー

Inkling
Joined
Nov 27, 2016
Messages
12
NNID
Goonday1624
こんばんは! あなたはスプラトン2のために予期されていますか?

That's actual proper Japanese. I use google translate to help, but sometimes it's inaccurate.
 

Tsuchinoko

Inkster Jr.
Joined
Jan 10, 2017
Messages
25
Location
Indiana
NNID
Tsuchinoko
こんばんは! あなたはスプラトン2のために予期されていますか?

That's actual proper Japanese. I use google translate to help, but sometimes it's inaccurate.
Okay so I am not super experienced yet but I think I just read "Good Evening, I hope for your sake you have 2 tons of fun" I am probably totally wrong. We should get together and talk more about it through PM or something. I need more people to interact and talk about learning with. I study the Genki 1 book right now. What do you use to learn?
 

Maave

Inkling Commander
Joined
Jun 7, 2016
Messages
351
I finally got off my butt and started learning. I've started using Memrise right now. I plan on doing some audio/speaking-focused stuff later. Any opinions on the Pimsleur method courses? I got an older version of the audio CDs for free some time ago but haven't started
 

marienx

Inkling
Joined
Mar 16, 2017
Messages
3
Ahh I've been lazy studying Japanese recently besides doing my Anki D: I also used to use WaniKani, need to get back on that. Studying Japanese is so much fun.
 

Tsuchinoko

Inkster Jr.
Joined
Jan 10, 2017
Messages
25
Location
Indiana
NNID
Tsuchinoko
Ahh I've been lazy studying Japanese recently besides doing my Anki D: I also used to use WaniKani, need to get back on that. Studying Japanese is so much fun.
It really is fun when you just take it easy and practice regularly.
 

ForteReborn

Inkling Commander
Joined
May 4, 2017
Messages
394
Location
Florida
NNID
ForteReborn
Switch Friend Code
SW-5389-7346-0792
Little late coming to this thread, or maybe not. I am currently studying Japanese, and up towards somewhat intermediate. I am slowly, yet gradually taking my time as I am not specifically in range of having someone else to practice with, unless it is with my Japanese friend. Once in a while I see him occasionally.

I use Human Japanese, and Learn Japanese From Zero. Since I am heavily on art sites that use tons of kanji, and the fact I have to search through tags in Japanese. I do pick up quite a bit of vocabulary. On the downside, I am a little slow on translating some things, but I am pretty accurate when it comes down to it.

So what I am saying is; I am self taught mostly. It is a hobby, as I would expect, but I do love embellishing into it from time to time. Especially getting back into it, I love translating.

あなたをありがとう読書 です!

(Hope that isn't too bad.)

PS: Forgot to add that I regularly speak Japanese on twitter. I have Japanese followers who don't understand English. RIP me.
 

Slurmp

Pro Squid
Joined
Jun 22, 2016
Messages
109
NNID
HedgehogOverlord
こんにちは。私はシェーマスです。私は十六さいです。私は二年に木曰語の学んでいます。
So in English, Hello! My name is Seamus, and I've been learning Japanese for two years. I want to continue learning it but have too many class options with too few class slots, so I've decided to continue learning it individually. Does anyone know of some good websites to go to for basic practice aside from this thread? I also hope to continue learning new vocabulary and sentence structures at a regular rate. I look forward to further learning. Again, Hello!
 

ForteReborn

Inkling Commander
Joined
May 4, 2017
Messages
394
Location
Florida
NNID
ForteReborn
Switch Friend Code
SW-5389-7346-0792
こんにちは。私はシェーマスです。私は十六さいです。私は二年に木曰語の学んでいます。
So in English, Hello! My name is Seamus, and I've been learning Japanese for two years. I want to continue learning it but have too many class options with too few class slots, so I've decided to continue learning it individually. Does anyone know of some good websites to go to for basic practice aside from this thread? I also hope to continue learning new vocabulary and sentence structures at a regular rate. I look forward to further learning. Again, Hello!
If you want a correction, don't spam 'watashi wa' as a sentence structure so much in a paragraph. The listener has otherwise already been established on one topic. If you want a better statement:

こんにちは、シェーマスともします. (This is a more polite way, also sounds more Japanese. Especially when introducing yourself. This is also nice to use it to someone higher than you. Don't use it for causal speech, however. Makes you sound weird. You can still state yourself with desu, just again, more polite.)

Now let's fix up that sentence and connect them together!

こんにちは、シェーマスともします. 私は十六さいで、二年に木曰語を学んでいます.

There, that is a bit better. What I did was tie in the both ending paragraphs with a で since it is a formation of a Te-form. It becomes a 'and' structure, basic A and B pattern. Hope that helps! (And you used の, instead of を since the Japanese is an object.)

I will recommend Human Japanese, Learn Japanese from Zero, and Jisho.org. There is also a reddit that also recommend also various sources: https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/

Other things I use is pixiv, and twitter. It may be a bit difficult since Japanese tend to be catering to themselves. So don't expect a conversation to converse drastically. But I hope these sources help.

PS: A year ago there was a quiz site geared on Japanese vocab, kanji, and more. Sadly the site is now gone, and we have to look elsewhere.
 
Last edited:

SuperLuigi231

Senior Squid
Joined
Jun 6, 2016
Messages
63
NNID
Angry_Bird_231
Hello!
I cannot introduce myself in Japanese yet, so I'm not going to try. I've been studying Japanese for about 3 weeks on various (free) resources. Right now my favorite resource is https://www.tofugu.com/learn-japanese/. I've learned Hiragana, and am starting Katakana now. But I feel reassured that I can now ask someone about how to break down sentences and stuff (the grammar and syntax look really complicated).
 

ForteReborn

Inkling Commander
Joined
May 4, 2017
Messages
394
Location
Florida
NNID
ForteReborn
Switch Friend Code
SW-5389-7346-0792
Hello!
I cannot introduce myself in Japanese yet, so I'm not going to try. I've been studying Japanese for about 3 weeks on various (free) resources. Right now my favorite resource is https://www.tofugu.com/learn-japanese/. I've learned Hiragana, and am starting Katakana now. But I feel reassured that I can now ask someone about how to break down sentences and stuff (the grammar and syntax look really complicated).
Ah, tofugu. I personally don't use it but I would recommend not to use it as the only source of learning Japanese. (Of course I already given you stuff so yeah, don't need to branch into that right now.)

So you want to start learning how to form sentences? For now, you are going to learn some from me that would make you already miles ahead, but at the same time being able to understand how Japanese syntax works. Keep in mind, do not believe what sites tell you that Japanese is SUBJECT, OBJECT, VERB. This will come as a shock later when you see Japanese using verbs at the beginning, and objects at the end of things. But lets not go INTO that yet, it's ways too advance and you must have a understanding of verb usage before diving into this.

Right now, let's just focus on the baby steps, and get on with it. Romaji will be excluded because it is a bad habit to be reading it instead of actual Japanese characters.

These words will be important right now: わたし, こんにちは, and です.

In Japan, pronouns are stated in levels of kindness and gender you are. And with our hellos and welcomes, they work similar and politeness should be taken granted on what part of the day, and first meeting. For こんにちは should be used in the morning, or greeting if you aren't sure what time of day it is. Japanese often will welcome it either way, and it is the safest bet.

First, the most easiest thing to know as a sentence is: わたしはフォルテです.

"I am Forte", and it is subject, object (me), and です tossed at the end as a ending marker to the sentence. Desu, and yeah, using romaji here, kill me. Take desu as a cherry on top to make a sentence very polite, and later you will end up learning the ones that are NOT polite. If you ever watch Dragon Ball Z in Japanese, Goku will say a very common word: "そうだ!”

That is "That's right!" in informal, causal Japanese. Do not use that in first time conversations, it comes off as rude. As you advance more, you can take off the ending to such and just have a sentence without, but come off as blunt.

Earlier in one of my post, I put this as an example for greetings. Textbooks do avoid this stupidly and it is very important to learn early on, " ともします".

Add that after your name when you greet yourself for the first time. It's very, very formal and makes you sound very Japanese, and polite.

Let me run down on two particles to get into creating your first sentence structures so you will memorize them while learning both hiragana, and katakana. は, が, and の.

は is instead the 'ha' hiragana when being used. It comes after konnichiwa, which you spot the wa here. It's just already attached and ready to use. It is a topic starter, it indicates there is a new topic, something not aware to the user. Then comes it's controversial cousin!

が is a active topic, the user is aware of this subject and ga is used to indicate that. This one will be a problem for beginners since it can change roles accordingly and act like a annoying itch where you can't scratch. They do however come after the wa particle, and after pointing directions or actions.

の is my most favorite particle, and the easiest to get the hang of. It is a plural, and his, mine, and theres, whatever. It is a very big topic marker and will present you a open world once it is learned.

わたしのいぬ、わたしのねこ、わたしのくるま

And for the ga particle...

これが私の車で、私はこれを運転します.

Pay attention to the context of the ga being used, it's used for action and for the topic already being known. The listener knows that most everyone uses a car, and the topic becomes wa to know that I am telling the listener something new, I drove it.

So that is all I am going to teach for now, it is a lot. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask me.
 
Last edited:

G1ng3rGar1

Inkling Fleet Admiral
Joined
Sep 25, 2015
Messages
875
Location
Inkopolis, born and raised!
Switch Friend Code
SW-7732-8500-1233
For こんにちは should be used in the morning, or greeting if you aren't sure what time of day it is. Japanese often will welcome it either way, and it is the safest bet.
I thought おはよう/おはようございますwas for good morning (though I read it should be used for the earlier parts of the mornings)

But yeah otherwise I think it's fine
 

ForteReborn

Inkling Commander
Joined
May 4, 2017
Messages
394
Location
Florida
NNID
ForteReborn
Switch Friend Code
SW-5389-7346-0792
I thought おはよう/おはようございますwas for good morning (though I read it should be used for the earlier parts of the mornings)

But yeah otherwise I think it's fine
You are correct, but you can use konnichiwa as a safe alternative. And when you are a beginner, it is good to learn that first hand. Later on you learn words like konbanwa, ohio, oyasumi, and so forth. But right now if you are starting, konnichiwa will teach you already a greeting that can be used any parts of the day, or if you aren't sure. It is also another 'greeting' that gets used frequently at noon time.

Ohio I will get into later, I just didn't want to advance into that because that is a lot to learn for someone who is a beginner. Best to start with how sentences form first, then learn greetings later and how they come into play.

(Edit: Also masu was not brought up yet, so I avoided it till I put down the polite endings to verbs, and greetings. Doing things way too fast is going to complicate things.)

(Another edit: Textbooks are boring, make you grind pointlessly without learning the foundation of syntax first. This is why I like showing how sentences are formed first before going into the generic greetings. It's backwards for some, but this is how I did it when I was learning.)
 
Last edited:

SuperLuigi231

Senior Squid
Joined
Jun 6, 2016
Messages
63
NNID
Angry_Bird_231
Ah, tofugu. I personally don't use it but I would recommend not to use it as the only source of learning Japanese. (Of course I already given you stuff so yeah, don't need to branch into that right now.)

So you want to start learning how to form sentences? For now, you are going to learn some from me that would make you already miles ahead, but at the same time being able to understand how Japanese syntax works. Keep in mind, do not believe what sites tell you that Japanese is SUBJECT, OBJECT, VERB. This will come as a shock later when you see Japanese using verbs at the beginning, and objects at the end of things. But lets not go INTO that yet, it's ways too advance and you must have a understanding of verb usage before diving into this.

Right now, let's just focus on the baby steps, and get on with it. Romaji will be excluded because it is a bad habit to be reading it instead of actual Japanese characters.

These words will be important right now: わたし, こんにちは, and です.

In Japan, pronouns are stated in levels of kindness and gender you are. And with our hellos and welcomes, they work similar and politeness should be taken granted on what part of the day, and first meeting. For こんにちは should be used in the morning, or greeting if you aren't sure what time of day it is. Japanese often will welcome it either way, and it is the safest bet.

First, the most easiest thing to know as a sentence is: わたしはフォルテです.

"I am Forte", and it is subject, object (me), and です tossed at the end as a ending marker to the sentence. Desu, and yeah, using romaji here, kill me. Take desu as a cherry on top to make a sentence very polite, and later you will end up learning the ones that are NOT polite. If you ever watch Dragon Ball Z in Japanese, Goku will say a very common word: "そうだ!”

That is "That's right!" in informal, causal Japanese. Do not use that in first time conversations, it comes off as rude. As you advance more, you can take off the ending to such and just have a sentence without, but come off as blunt.

Earlier in one of my post, I put this as an example for greetings. Textbooks do avoid this stupidly and it is very important to learn early on, " ともします".

Add that after your name when you greet yourself for the first time. It's very, very formal and makes you sound very Japanese, and polite.

Let me run down on two particles to get into creating your first sentence structures so you will memorize them while learning both hiragana, and katakana. は, が, and の.

は is instead the 'ha' hiragana when being used. It comes after konnichiwa, which you spot the wa here. It's just already attached and ready to use. It is a topic starter, it indicates there is a new topic, something not aware to the user. Then comes it's controversial cousin!

が is a active topic, the user is aware of this subject and ga is used to indicate that. This one will be a problem for beginners since it can change roles accordingly and act like a annoying itch where you can't scratch. They do however come after the wa particle, and after pointing directions or actions.

の is my most favorite particle, and the easiest to get the hang of. It is a plural, and his, mine, and theres, whatever. It is a very big topic marker and will present you a open world once it is learned.

わたしのいぬ、わたしのねこ、わたしのくるま

And for the ga particle...

これが私の車て、私はこれを運転します.

Pay attention to the context of the ga being used, it's used for action and for the topic already being known. The listener knows that most everyone uses a car, and the topic becomes wa to know that I am telling the listener something new, I drove it.

So that is all I am going to teach for now, it is a lot. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask me.
I think I more or less get everything you said. Just some questions and clarification:
Why is こんにちは pronounced konnichiwa instead of konnichiha?
わたしのいぬ means "my dog", right?
Could you break this phrase down for me?
これが私の車て
EDIT: Also, using です is the formal way to end sentences?
 

G1ng3rGar1

Inkling Fleet Admiral
Joined
Sep 25, 2015
Messages
875
Location
Inkopolis, born and raised!
Switch Friend Code
SW-7732-8500-1233
I think I more or less get everything you said. Just some questions and clarification:
Why is こんにちは pronounced konnichiwa instead of konnichiha?
わたしのいぬ means "my dog", right?
Could you break this phrase down for me?
これが私の車て
EDIT: Also, using です is the formal way to end sentences?
Hi
It's me instead
So it's pronounced 'konnichiwa' because it used to be part of something way longer, with は being the particle (and thus pronounced wa).

Yes
EDIT: I completely forgot the first word. Sorry :P
これ means this. And が is a nasty particle that is similar to は but isn't exactly the same thing. You can find many articles to clear this up.
So わたし (私) means I. Coupled with the particle の it means my. The second word is くるま (車) or car. So my car.
Okay so I had to look up how to use the particle て but from what I've seen it's used in an alternate form of words for commands or requests. (No verbs here!) (anyone else can help correct me here) This sentence looks like a segment.


Yes. In casual situations you can use other endings. Males use だ far as I'm aware. I actually don't remember female endings and that's a problem since I'm a girl XD
 

ForteReborn

Inkling Commander
Joined
May 4, 2017
Messages
394
Location
Florida
NNID
ForteReborn
Switch Friend Code
SW-5389-7346-0792
I think I more or less get everything you said. Just some questions and clarification:
Why is こんにちは pronounced konnichiwa instead of konnichiha?
わたしのいぬ means "my dog", right?
Could you break this phrase down for me?
これが私の車て
EDIT: Also, using です is the formal way to end sentences?
1. They just do, and you are going to see that more. Especially with counting. It has to do with the way it sounds on the ears, and Japanese rely on sounds more than pronunciation. So it is going to have the hiragana ha, but ending with wa sound instead.

2. Yes, it means 'my dog'. With that knowledge, you will be able to bring up subjects of what you own. There is a bit more of a complex form of it where you declare you 'own' something more than regarding it as 'mine'.

3. "This is my car, and..." This is pretty advanced. Why you ask? It has the て/で form. This will be a very complex sentence structure later that will elongate your sentences. This also act as attachments to verbs within the sentence structure. これ belongs to a list of object pointers near the listener, and can be pretty much controversial how they are used. There are also the version to point out something more than one object, and last but not least...When I mentioned about the SOV (Subject Object Verb), this sorta demonstrates how the て/で forms come into play. As you might as guess: です is going to do that later, it will become 'and' to some things.

4. Yes, it is. You will have ます, ました, ません, ませんでした. Those are polite ending actions to verbs that do current and past tense. But です alone is just a cherry on top, as I said. And it must come ONLY after the whole sentence is completed, not during it. Otherwise it comes off as funny.

Okay, since I explained that, greetings since I did not cover this.

The most common greeting in Japanese is こんにちは is the most standard usage, and can be used at any time. Though it is also known as a 'noon' greeting. It does not need 'desu' at the end, and is easy to catch on. Another one is もしもし which gets used on the phone, or to get someone's attention. It is not impolite.

Now we get into early morning, you want to greet someone for the very first time. You say: おひようございます. The more causal is just おひよう.

Evening is こんばんは.

Good night is おやすみなさい.

Now for good bye can be very odd since people think さよなら means just good bye, no. It means good bye forever till we meet again, or some months after. It really literally means that.

http://blogs.transparent.com/japanese/how-to-say-goodbye-in-japanese/

Here is a link explaining about the context of saying good bye since there is a LOT for me to usher here.

To top it off, here is a site explaining how your first meeting with someone goes. It kinda saves me the time to explain it out because off, lengthy...

http://www.freejapaneselessons.com/lesson10.cfm

I think I covered most what you will be learning for now. It is a lot, but it will help in a long run.

(Edit: The が particle is used when the listener is aware of something, and is used with things such as これ. They are never, ever paired up with the particle は, and are also paired with actions and directions. Keep in mind of that when using it.)

(Edit: だ is not just a male term. However there IS terms for both male and female, but it is just a 'tact' on thing. It is just to sound super masculine, or super girly, otherwise not all Japanese use it. Same goes with the pronouns.)
 
Last edited:

SuperLuigi231

Senior Squid
Joined
Jun 6, 2016
Messages
63
NNID
Angry_Bird_231
Hi
It's me instead
So it's pronounced 'konnichiwa' because it used to be part of something way longer, with は being the particle (and thus pronounced wa).

Yes
EDIT: I completely forgot the first word. Sorry :p
これ means this. And が is a nasty particle that is similar to は but isn't exactly the same thing. You can find many articles to clear this up.
So わたし (私) means I. Coupled with the particle の it means my. The second word is くるま (車) or car. So my car.
Okay so I had to look up how to use the particle て but from what I've seen it's used in an alternate form of words for commands or requests. (No verbs here!) (anyone else can help correct me here) This sentence looks like a segment.


Yes. In casual situations you can use other endings. Males use だ far as I'm aware. I actually don't remember female endings and that's a problem since I'm a girl XD
Thanks!
So when は is used as an particle, it is pronounced "wa"?
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom