nihongo wo kakitai no? (so you want to write in Japanese?)

[MistressPookyChan]

Many learners of Japanese start out by writing in romanji. While this is ok, it is not going to help your Japanese progress. Besides, kanji looks really cool! So, here are some links for helping to type in and read the Japanese characters.

If you have microsoft, get your hands on the IME. It's free and it will help you read all of the East Asian languages. I used this when I had an English OS and it worked REALLY well.

This is by far my favorite online Japanese dictionary: by Jim Breen. If you see a character on here that you don't understand, you can paste it in the dictionary and get the meaning.

As with many people, grammar is my weak point. I use JGram to study.

for a good, all-around study page, check out Meguro Learning Center's resources page. It has everything for all levels. Plus, all the material is free!!

I hope that these helped get you prepared and ready to take over the new Japanese Language forum! If you know of any other sites that will help people see, type, and understand Japanese, let us know!

[LavaBug]

and if you use the firefox browser, you can install this:
http://moji.mozdev.org/
it helps you translate kanji without having to look into your dictionary...
and it´s available in serveral languages ^^

[MistressPookyChan]

That's sweet. AND it uses Jim Breen's dictionary. Thanks for the tip. I'm downloading it now.

[wizz-o-matic]

Haha, Lava was faster ... anyway, I also use moji from time to time ... but not really for studying jap ... mostly when I'm interested in some special kanji xD
I should seriously consider and start learning jap >_>

[MistressPookyChan]

It's study materials you want? It's study materials you'll get!

http://www.mlcjapanese.co.jp/Download.htm

Meguro Language School is a Japanese language school in Tokyo (and down the street from where I work. ). This site is based off the JLPT levels, 4 being the easiest and 1 the hardest. I'm studying for the JLPT 2, my fiance is going for 1, and we use this site. The best part is is that all this material is FREEEEEEE. やった！

[Kazuma-chan]

i use a web translator for my japanese

http://www1.worldlingo.com/en/produc...ranslator.html

they also do other langages also

[Princess Minako]

Didn't anyone read the first post!! No english allowed! :P Its the Japanese language forum!

[MistressPookyChan]

わかった。でも、いろいろな人は日本語できたい。そして、このポストは便利ですよ！日本語でちょっとむずか しいと思う。

[Miss Moonlight]

I am not fluent in japanese, but I do translation work and have been studying the language on my own for about 8 years.

I started off learning how to read/write japanese with Hiragana and Katakana charts. I know all of katakana and hiragana now, but i'm still not so good with kanji. I know some, but there is still much more I need to learn.

[Ωmega]

テスト、 テスト。 この仕事は承諾するか。

[timewarp90]

I'm 16 and quite interested in learning Japanese. One of my dad's friends is a translator and I always thought that would be fun to do (and Japanese happens to be a really interesting language ^.^).

I have been doing my research and I am er...slightly overwhelmed by the amount of different dialects and systems of writing there are. I'm not having too much trouble wrapping my western mind around the idea of learning a different "alphabet" since I learned Hebrew as a child and that is quite different than English. Unfortunatley I have also realized in my research that, in being 16 already, the window of opportunity to learn a new language with ease is already closed (which angers me because I am forced to take a foreign language in High School. I decided upon spanish since they only offer either Spanish or French and I live in Florida where spanish is pretty much the main language. Its inane! In American schools they teach you only one language as a child and they force another one on you when your capacity to be an "intellectual sponge" is all full up! I'm straying off topic...I'm sure there is another board for this rant.)

In short: what should I learn first? Kana, Hiragana, or some combination of the two, or something else? And where does Kanji fit into all of this? (I sound like such a little newbie *cringe* even though I am).

I was looking up Rosetta Stone and other language learning softwares but I am skeptical and hesitant to buy one because they cost so much. I may just have to wait until college and learn from a professor (which I was planning on doing anyway since learning another language is always easier when you learn it from another human being, as opposed to a website or software, but I wanted to get a jump start now).

Er..any suggestions?

[Soichiro]

I'd say definitely learn hiragana first, then start with some of the easier kanji (JLPT 4), then work on learning the grammar and everything, then finally learn katakana (since it isn't used nearly as much; I actually haven't memorized all of them yet xD). After that, just perfect your grammar and learn as many words and kanji as you can.

And yes I know my post wasn't in Japanese, but everyone else is doing it

[MistressPookyChan]

I agree, start with hiragana. Next would be katakana. After that, work kanji in. Kanji IS hard, but if you have a good base of hiragana and katakana, it will work well. Then again, it depends on what you want to use Japanese for. If you are moving to Japan, then hiranana then katakana is best as katakana is much more widely used than some people think.

This thread is allowed to be in English because it is helping people get started. As long as your post is useful, i won't complain. Thanks!

[Tetsanosuke]

私に言うチャンスを与えなさい 私は日本語およびしかし私で絶対に熟達していないことそれを学ぶことを望む 私はどうしても時間を見つけるようであるできない。

Anyhow, does anybody have any tips that could get me started in the learnin' of the japanese language?

I think this forum is a good idea too.

[Xazy]

私に言うチャンスを与えなさい 私は日本語およびしかし私で絶対に熟達していないことそれを学ぶことを望む 私はどうしても時間を見つけるようであるできない。

Anyhow, does anybody have any tips that could get me started in the learnin' of the japanese language?

Erm... yes, a good tip to start learning Japanese is to not go around posting bizarre garbage like what you wrote there. :P Was that machine translated?

[MistressPookyChan]

Looks machine translated to me!

Anywho, check out http://www.mlcjapanese.co.jp/Download.htm It has information for everyone from beginners to advanced. You would be in level 4.

[Tetsanosuke]

Erm... yes, a good tip to start learning Japanese is to not go around posting bizarre garbage like what you wrote there. :P Was that machine translated?

Indeed... I apologise.

I haven't any idea how to use a keyboard for Kanji and what not so yeah.

And thank's Mistress, and I apologise again.

[Capernicus]

Are you sure it's "kakitai"? Wait....ooooh yeah, verb stem, kakimasu > kakitai

My bad. XD

Should the end be no? I would think it either ka or ne. >.>

edit: Whoops!

すみません。でも、わたしわあたまがよくないですよ。じゃ、どうしたんですか？

[Xazy]

Should the end be no? I would think it either ka or ne. >.>

A sentence-final "no", particularly when coupled with plain speech, usually indicates a question. See also "doushite na no?"

[MistressPookyChan]

Sorry, I was speaking in casual speak. Adding a no to the end instead of using masuka form is a casual, feminine way of speech. My Japanese may seem to be a bit sloppy, but I'm more used to speaking everyday Japanese now than I am with speaking textbook Japanese. Hopefully it is still easy to understand. Good question, though!

tet: look up info for IME if you are using a winOS. That will help you type in Japanese. Also, romanji is ok!

[Capernicus]

じゃ、ありがとうございます。

きよう私はテストがありました。とても水かしいですよ。何をしたらどうですか。

[MistressPookyChan]

Please save this thread for talking about study materials. Thanks!

[Xazy]

"とても水かしいですよ"

水（みず）かしいでしたか。難（むずか）しいでしょうか？

[MistressPookyChan]

"とても水かしいですよ"

水（みず）かしいでしたか。難（むずか）しいでしょうか？

This is why I think people shouldn't use kanji unless you know the correct kanji for the word.

Anywho, they did mean 難しい　（むずかしい）　based on context.

[Capernicus]

Oh no, I didn't mean to use the Kanji! My program for this changes it automatically to Kanji　when I use the space bar (force of habit). >< Sorry

私は一年なら日本語を勉強します。私の日本語クラスでGENKI本をつかっています。あまりゆくないね。　 じゃ、たくさん勉強しようとおもっています。　いい日本語フォルムがありますか？