Hello.
Let's study Japanese. Feel free to ask and answer about the Japanese language here.

 

-Good Japanese online dictionary-

http://tangorin.com/

Subject created by Ashra on Apr 08, 2007 @ 09:00

I came along the book 'Remembering the kanji' some days ago and wanted to buy it. I found out that is has even been translated to German (maybe to your language, too :-) ).
The author starts with easy kanji (numbers from one to ten and some others like 日 or 月 ). He uses 'primitive meanings' for all kanji that will be in future kanji and writes stories with them. For example there is the kanji for 'nine' and the primitive meaning 'a drop of'.
To explain the kanji for 'round', he writes the following text:

'We speak of “round numbers,” or “rounding a number off,”
meaning to add an insignificant amount to bring it to the nearest
10. For instance, if you add just a wee bit, the tiniest drop, to
nine, you end up with a round number.'

It's really well done that he always uses italic style for kanji (which the new kanji consists of) / primitive meanings and bold for the meaning of the new kanji.

I enjoy learning the kanji with that book because it's nice to read the stories and to see that you can learn some difficult kanji that fast.
E.g. I can remember the kanji for Dr. (hardest kanji of the book I know yet) it consists of the primitve meaning 'needle' and the kanji for 'speciality'. So a Dr. is someone who knows a lot about needles. And speciality consists of the kanji for 'ten' + 'field' + primitive meaning 'glued'. So when you know about ten fields of something together (glued together), it is your speciality. Of course I can't write as good as the author, he really does a good job!

If you want to learn the kanji, I can really recommend that book.

Again the title: Remembering the Kanji (by Heisig)
For all the German users: Die Kanji lernen und behalten

If you watch the ratings at amazon, you will see that it is definitely good!

Comment written by Brati on May 05, 2008 @ 18:23

Well, I'm not sure for an example..is it for emphasis?

Em, like if you say　 ” あ た し は 忍 び で す よ ！ ” versus saying ”あ た し は 忍 び だ も ん ！ ” It's a really lousy example, right? -_- sorry, I can think of another if you would like, but please, I'll try to understand.

-デ ヤ ニ ラ 　

Comment written by Deyanira on Apr 16, 2008 @ 05:28

Hello again, and thank you for answering my other questions!

Ashraさ ん 、 I was wondering, I have heard the ending "だ も ん " used at certain times, usually by kids, but I was wondering, this seems to be another form of  "で す ", but what is the difference in meaning?

Thanks again for answering our questions I will finally be getting to go to Japan this summer (to Nagoya) , so I want to make sure I am prepared for when I go!

-デ ヤ ニ ラ

Comment written by Deyanira on Apr 15, 2008 @ 06:33

雨 が 降 っ て 人 は 南 口 に 出 た り 入 っ た り し ま し た 。 Does this mean: it was raining and people were coming out of and entering the southern exit by turns? I'm very thankful for your help! Ida

Comment written by idahime on Apr 14, 2008 @ 00:59

は じ め ま し て 、 イ ダ で す 。 ど ぞ よ ろ し く お ね が い し ま す 。 国 訳 を た す け っ て く だ さ い 。 I have a phrase that says: The man was 40 years old, and was standing to the right of the exit. I know how to use past tense, and how to bind clauses together with the -te form、 in this sentence the first clause gets it tense from the final verb in the second clause, right? That gives me: 男 の 人 が 四 十 歳 で 口 の 右 に 立 ち ま し た 。 But then in this one, where the first clause is in the past tense and the second one in the present tense, how will I bind the sentence together and give the information of the first part occurring in the past but not the second? Yamamoto drank a lot of alcohol and now he has a headache. 山 本 さ ん は お 酒 が た く さ ん 読 み ま し た 、 今 頭 が 痛 い で す 。 ? Could I say 読 ん で い ま し た Instead? No I don't think so.. あ り が と ご ざ い ま す 。 Ida

Comment written by idahime on Apr 07, 2008 @ 20:30

Ashra-san,

First of all, thank you for putting up this post and answering all these questions for all of us! It's really helpful this way, and even if we can't think of questions, we can all learn from questions asked by the other people here.

On to the main questions: in my Japanese class we learned the 'ka' ending as a question a while back, but as I have been watching a lot of Japanese TV I have noticed that often times people use "na no?" and "na no ka?" instead of "ka" or "desu ka?" for questions and I was wondering what the difference between using na no and ka is? Is it just about how formal or informal the person is being or is there some change?

thanks again,

-デ ヤ ニ ラ

Comment written by Deyanira on Mar 31, 2008 @ 20:08

 

 

hello!! :0

Comment written by grace_louiss on Feb 20, 2008 @ 11:52

Can I just type in Japanese for practice? は じ め ま し て 、 私 の 名 前 ム カ ム カ で す 。 ど じ ょ う ぞ よ ろ し く お ん あ が い し ま す 。 だ れ は ア イ ス ク リ ム が 好 き で す か 。 ア イ ス ク リ ム が 大 す き で す 。 チ ョ コ レ ト が お い い し で す よ 。

Comment written by mukamuka on Feb 14, 2008 @ 21:07

wow thanks you guys XD this is very useful oh and hi im new here and learning japanese :D

Comment written by ghettogkiva on Feb 12, 2008 @ 23:54

What is your hobby?=Anata no shumi wa nandesu ka?

あ な た の 趣 味 は 何 で す か ？

 

What is your favuorite ... ?=Anata no suki na ... wa nandesu ka?

あ な た の 好 き な ・ ・ ・ は 何 で す か ？

 

I come to the chat room often if you need help with Japanese.

Nice meeting you, by the way.

Comment written by Ashra on Jan 31, 2008 @ 21:02

Omoshiroi desu! There's really at least 1 Japanese person on this site. Oh, you're working here... I just want to say that it's very hard to find one, who's really willing to exchange languges or just to talk.

he-he X) If so, I've got questions: How it's on Japanese "What is your hobby?" and "What is your favuorite ... ?" ?

Arigatou gozaimasu!

Comment written by Atmos88 on Jan 31, 2008 @ 16:10

I'm Japanese.

Are you learning Japanese?

Comment written by Ashra on Jan 31, 2008 @ 00:11

Hi! It's awfully interesting page, but I know there's lots of people keen on Japanese, so I think it'd be useful (somehow) to make such kind of pages into the forum's branches (with Grammar, Basics, Alphabet, Type-on-Japanese or something like that pages).

Is anyone here from Russia? Or, the most interesting question - Is here anyone from actually JAPAN???

I know one good RU-JP dictionary: http://www.susi.ru/yarxi/ It'll be very interesting thing also for those japanese people, who studies Russian.

Comment written by Atmos88 on Jan 28, 2008 @ 17:29

Correction.

 

Shimmata -> oops

Five -> Go

Six -> Roku

Eight -> Hachi

13 (age) -> Juusan sai

Watashi -> me

Watashi-jishin ->     Myself

Anata-jishin -> Yourself

Comment written by Ashra on Jan 27, 2008 @ 01:38

doushiyou -> what should i do

konnichiwa -> good midday ? XD

ohayou -> good morning

Kon ban wa -> good evening

Shimmata -> idiot

Baka -> stupid

O-genki desu ka -> How you're doing

Genki desu -> Fine ,thanks

Arigatou -> thanx

Doumo arigatou -> thanx you very much

Dou itashimemashite -> you are welcome

Hajimemashite -> Nice to meet you

 

One -> ichi

Two -> Ni

Three -> San

Four -> shi

Five -> Roku

Six -> Go

Seven -> Shichi

Eigt -> sa

Nine -> kyuu

Ten ->   juu

 

13 (age) -> Desu Juusansai

 

Watashi -> me

Watashi ga watashi ->   Myself

Anata -> you

Anata  ga anata -> Yourself

Soka -> i understand

Saah -> I don't know

*** More will come later ****

 

Comment written by Lorenaah on Jan 25, 2008 @ 21:51

can someone please help me i want to learn japanse like : konnichiwa , doushiyou

and not like the scripts.. you now

PLSSS HELP ME

Comment written by Lorenaah on Jan 25, 2008 @ 21:44