Language Course 1

[Rounin]

It might be "Remembering the Kanji", which seems to be quite well-known.

[Kubi]

I checked it: it's called "A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters". Author is Kenneth Henshall.

[浦飯経妄荷]

It might be "Remembering the Kanji", which seems to be quite well-known.

I have the first book of that. It really works.

Why does everyone always insist on teaching in roumaji?

[Nero]

It might be "Remembering the Kanji", which seems to be quite well-known.

I have the first book of that. It really works.

Why does everyone always insist on teaching in roumaji?

それらはひらがなと漢字を憎む。。。
（私はひらがながすきです、そして、ローマ字を憎む）

[浦飯経妄荷]

It might be "Remembering the Kanji", which seems to be quite well-known.

I have the first book of that. It really works.

Why does everyone always insist on teaching in roumaji?

それらはひらがなと漢字を憎む。。。
（私はひらがながすきです、そして、ローマ字を憎む）

何？I don't understand much grammar yet.

[Nero]

It might be "Remembering the Kanji", which seems to be quite well-known.

I have the first book of that. It really works.

Why does everyone always insist on teaching in roumaji?

それらはひらがなと漢字を憎む。。。
（私はひらがながすきです、そして、ローマ字を憎む）

何？I don't understand much grammar yet.

I just said they don't like hiragana and Kanji, but I love them and hate Roumaji

[浦飯経妄荷]

It might be "Remembering the Kanji", which seems to be quite well-known.

I have the first book of that. It really works.

Why does everyone always insist on teaching in roumaji?

それらはひらがなと漢字を憎む。。。
（私はひらがながすきです、そして、ローマ字を憎む）

何？I don't understand much grammar yet.

I just said they don't like hiragana and Kanji, but I love them and hate Roumaji

僕も。

[Kubi]

It might be "Remembering the Kanji", which seems to be quite well-known.

I have the first book of that. It really works.

Why does everyone always insist on teaching in roumaji?

それらはひらがなと漢字を憎む。。。
（私はひらがながすきです、そして、ローマ字を憎む）

何？I don't understand much grammar yet.

Translation: "Those people don't like hiragana and kanji. (I like hiragana, and hate rōmaji)

[pilipala]

Hi, I'm from Japan living in the US. I'm learning Welsh. I've just jumped in so I haven't read the entire posts here. I can at least say that the above Japanese sounds like a product of an automatic translator.

I don't know how to go about the first sentense. The second one could be:

私はひらがなは好きですが、ローマ字はきらいです。

[Kokoro]

Why does everyone always insist on teaching in roumaji?

I don't know, maybe they think it's easier, but I personally find it more difficult to learn Japanese through romaji. I find it helps with pronunciation more when one learns it through hiragana, but at the same time it also helps you to learn and remember the kanas.

[Aequus]

I can at least say that the above Japanese sounds like a product of an automatic translator.

はい、ここは日本語も外人語もあります。 その方は「(あの)人々は平仮名と漢字が好きじゃない」と言いたかったかもしれません。

But as far as romaji system is concerned, I would like to say that not "everyone" insists on teaching in romaji. Particularly it refers to Russian students/teachers, though romaji is becoming rather popular in our country, for some reason. Actually, as to transcription, our kiriji suites much better than romaji for Russians. Hapbern standard romaji awfully damages the pronunciation of students: they read Hapbern "sh" as "ш" though this Russian sound is nothing in common with either Japanese し and English "sh", "z" as "з" while actually it is affricated ("dz") et cetera. That's why most of the teachers of Japanese in Russia are maliciously against romaji.
But while learning kana at the preliminary course, however, it's better to use transcription in order not to create additional difficulties. When kana has been learnt, of course, it's time to leave all the romaji and kiriji forever. Our students' books were made according to this plan. 「今日は、日本語」, preliminary, was all done in kiriji, and the next one, 「みんなの日本語、初級一」 has only furigana as transcription. I think, it's quite wise and effective.

[Maikeru]

*yawn* I just wanted to put in my opinion since I'm not going to actually use this forum to learn Japanese. I have my independent studies to do that.

Romaji = the Devil. It only takes 3 days to learn hiragana and katakana. Learning Japanese in romaji is just ruining one's ability to read ACTUAL Japanese. Do you know how much romaji I saw in Japan? I saw a message on a bus. /shrug

If someone can't yet read hiragana and katakana... then they shouldn't be learning about Japanese grammar. You learn the alphabet before you learn a language, no matter what the language. Japanese is no different.

[Śrāmaṇera]

Very true.

At least the hiragana and katakana should be mastered before you start studying Japanese.

And having a list of all the kanji you meet on your way through books and websites is an interesting way to start remembering them (image, pronounciations and meanings)

[polishboy]

Hello! After having asked a few people here whether they are interested in learning or just having a bite of the Japanese language, I've decided to start my lessons here.

---------------

JAPANESE LESSON ONE

Word order

The basic Japanese word order differs from that of English in which case it is SOV (Subject-Object-Verb).

Watashi wa cha o nomimasu.
私は茶を飲みます。
I drink tea.

In Japanese, wa は and o を are what linguists call particles. Particles are little words that tell you the role of the preceding word. Here wa は comes after the word watashi 私 and o を after cha 茶 . Wa は tells you that watashi 私 is the subject while o を lets you know that cha 茶 is the object. The subject does something to the object. Conversely, the object is the recipient of an action (usually a verb). Look at the English sentence below:

Example 1a:
I drink tea.

The bold, italicised word in 1a is the subject.

Example 1b:
I drink tea.

The bold, italicised word in 1b is the object.

Nomimasu 飲みます is a verb so it comes last.

Vocabulary:

anata あなた - you
kōhī コーヒー - coffee
neko 猫 - cat
mimasu 見ます - see, look, watch
inu 犬 - dog
kare 彼 - he
kēki ケーキ - cake
tabemasu 食べます - eat
hon 本 - book
kaimasu 買います - buy
otoko no hito 男の人 - man
onna no hito 女の人 - woman
gakusei 学生 - student
yomimasu 読みます - read
konpyūta コンピュータ - computer

EXERCISE 1: Translate these sentences below into Japanese:

1. You drink coffee.
2. The dog sees the cat.
3. The woman eats the cake.
4. He buys the computer.
5. The student reads the book.

Unlike many European languages, the Japanese verb does not tell you who is doing the action by its ending so the subject is needed. Frequently, however, the subject can be dropped when understood what or who is being talked about.

Hon o yomimasu. 本を読みます。
Neko o kaimasu. 猫を買います。
Nihongo o hanashimasu. 日本語を話します。[Japanese o speak]

---

Daniel

Should be コンピューター!
hehe
This is one of the mistakes even Japanese make, but I read on wikipedia, that this is incorrect.

[ILuvEire]

Really?? I've been saying it and writing it wrong all this time!

[Smitty]

Mmm, my Japanese dictionary lists the word as "コンピュータ"

Japanese Wikipedia lists as "コンピュータ" too.
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B3%E3%83%B3%E3%83%94%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BF

When in doubt, ILE, you can always use "パソコン" instead.

[ILuvEire]

When in doubt, ILE, you can always use "パソコン" instead.

"Pasokon"? Is that short for "personal computer"?

Japanese and their cute little words.

[Ayiaearel]

When in doubt, ILE, you can always use "パソコン" instead.

"Pasokon"? Is that short for "personal computer"?

Japanese and their cute little words.

そうですよ。「パーソナルコンピューター」の略称です。

[Śrāmaṇera]

But the roumaji word I hate the most must be : ラップ・トップ.

I'd rather say 携帯パソコン　

[Kasuya]

But the roumaji word I hate the most must be : ラップ・トップ.

romaji ≠ katakana