Okay, why don't we do this for a review. It'll also give me an idea of where everyone who's participating is at in terms of language skill.
The self-introduction is very important in Japanese culture. And since it's also a convenient way for us all to get to know each other, why the hell not, right?
The self-introduction exists as a kind of bracket for all your personal information. You begin with はじめまして (nice to meet you) and end with どおぞよろしく (lit. please regard me favorably).
Build a simple introductory paragraph for yourself using the following vocabulary. Use X は Y です sentences. If you need any extra vocab, you can leave a message here, e-mail me, message me privately, or use
http://linear.mv.com/cgi-bin/j-e. This is honestly the best dictionary I've ever found on the web.
出身 (しゅっしん) origin/hometown
~州 (しゅう) suffix for a state (pol.)
~市 (し) suffix for a city
学生 (がくせい) student
高校生 (こうこうせい) high school student
大学 (だいがく) college
一年生 (いちねんせい) freshman
二年生 (にねんせい) sophomore
三年生 (さんねんせい) junior
四年生 (よねんせい) senior
大学院生 (だいがくいんせい) graduate student
専攻 (せんこう) major
言語学 (げんごがく) linguistics
数学 (すうがく) mathematics
歴史学 (れきしがく) history
趣味 (しゅみ) hobby
テレビ・ゲーム video games
外国語 (がいこくご) foreign languages
My Self Introduction:
はじめまして。ブシェミです。オオグスタナ大学の学生です。出身はストラルリング市です。イリノイ州からです。四年生です。専攻は英語とドイツ語です。趣味はテレビ・ゲームと外国語です。どうぞよろしく。
Pop me some questions. I'm sure there's stuff you want to say that I haven't provided words for. Maybe I used some kanji or vocab you don't understand. Maybe you need to go over hiragana and katakana. I just want to know where you're at.
Also, if you can't view the characters, let me know. You've really got to fix that, because you can't learn Japanese from romanizations.