Konnichiwa!
I know a lot of people learn Japanese (or at least.. before Soompi crashed) and I think this might be a good way to practice or strengthen your Japanese skills.

Personally, my Japanese isn't perfect, but I have been studying Japanese since 6th grade to 12th grade and I have lived and attended attended college in Japan for a year now. I think this is a chance for everybody to help each other, including any native speakers who can perfect my Japanese grammar and such.

Well, I hope this is a constructive post where people can help each other with Japanese and get to know other people that speak Japanese (and perhaps at the same level)..

In order to allow all members on Soompi to participate, I recommened using Romaji also in addition to Hiragana/Kanji/Katakana.

But in order to reduce spamming on this post, I think it's better to have conversations with individual members via PM. :-D However, feel free to put Japanese news, ask questions about Japanese, etc.
Feel free to PM me and start a conversation in Japanese, I'm here to help :-D

皆さん今日は！香港に住んでいます．この先に、日本の名古屋市に住んでいました．よろしくお願いします！
Hello everyone! I live in Hong Kong. Before, I lived in Nagoya. Nice to meet you!

Please don't have conversations in this thread. Because you don't want to create spam, please use the PM service. Thanks a lot!
-------------------------------------------
If you are learning Japanese or want to begin learning Japanese, I have posted up some links (adding more as I find them): for reference, Hiragana and Katakana are the traditional Japanese writing script. please learn those first before you learn vocabulary or even attempting Kanji :-D
Learn Hiragana!
Learn Katakana!
Basic Vocabulary w/ Audio Files

Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese: A systematic and comprehensive guide to Japanese grammar, from very basic to highly advanced. I really recommend this site to anyone who wants a deeper understanding of Japanese grammar or needs to review their stuff.
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/

The WWWJDIC online Japanese database, which provides a huge online electronic dictionary that has example sentences and stroke order, as well as the ability to search for kanji characters by their radicals, and much much more!
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/wwwjdic.html

A very excellent grammar database, more thorough than anything else you'll find on the web (except for maybe Tae Kim's guide). Also very useful for studying for the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test)
http://www.jgram.org/

A translator that does English <-> Japanese as well as Korean <-> Japanese (both ways). Online translations really aren't that great, this should only be used for reference and not taken as an accurate method of translation.
http://alice-group.amikai.com/amitext/indexUTF8.jsp

A reading tutor website that has different articles, stories, and essays in Japanese catergorized by difficulty. Each article etc. comes with a word bank on the right that lists all the words used in the article.
http://contest.thinkquest.gr.jp/tqj1999/20190/index.html

A good website for studying everyday vocabulary
http://www.languageguide.org/nihongo/

i would be so happy if i understood what that means >_<

I'm taking Japanese right now in high school. It's my 2nd year of learning it. Thanks a lot for making this thread. When I need lelp I'm gonna come to this thread

日本語を練習したいだったら、http://news.kids.yahoo.co.jp/で易しく新聞を読めます。子供達の読むためだので、ふりがながあります。面白い新聞は沢山あるので、日本語の練習は面白くて良いです。

にほんごをれんしゅうしたいだったら、http://news.kids.yahoo.co.jp/でやさしくしんぶんをよめます。こどもたちのよむためだので、ふりがながあります。おもしろいしんぶんはたくさんあるので、にほんごのれんしゅうはおもしろくていいです。

if you even pay an inch of attention, he did translate it into english at the bottom.

LOL! XD

It wasn't there before.

ごめんなさい!　＞＿＜
Gomen-nasai!
Sorry!

(Wow, that was tedious)

Yeah, it wasn't there before. I translated after allyy posted and then I realized that some people don't know Japanese.. and therefore.. I should translate!

I'm only half Japanese (my Mum is Japanese) but I can only understand it when it's spoken to me, I can't read or write, pathetic I know, but hey, I was raised in Australia my whole life and there's no extra schooling here to learn so I grew up speaking English as my first language, but thankyou for the links! Hope I can learn something. lol XD

... T_____T I wanna learn japaneseee.

Ah~! I'm so proud of myself. I actually understand what you wrote, putasmileon.
And I only took 3 quarters of Japanese 2 years ago at Soko Gakuen (@ Japan Town, SF).
Maybe I know the kanji. lol

こんにちは～

私の名前はアリスです。

さようなら！


I'm too lazy to remember or type anything else.. =p

lol no duh, soompi isnt 2ch

sry ally, 私は知らない

anyone know both Korean and Japanese?

I'm trying to learn Japanese through Korean instead of English.

what's the dictionary form for verbs/adjectives in Japanese? Like in Korea "to do" is "Ha-da"

how do you conjugate past and future tense?

thanks

Korean and Japanese is similar. It's the only reason why I chose to take it as a language for school . And it's pretty easy stuff. I don't have japanese font O_o so guess I can't participate in the " lets all write in japanese " thing going on.

i learnt japanese in junior highschool.. let's see what i still remember xD

um.. watashi no namae wa nathan desu. douzo yoroshiku ichi ni san yon go rocku nana hatchi kyuu jyuu ?

now is ii jyu go something something blAHH too hard to remember ( it is now 1:56)

＾いまは一時五十六分間 i don't know if i wrote it right, correct me if i'm wrong.
こにちわ。
私の名前はリリーです。どうぞとろしく。日本語の二年生を勉強しました。しゅみはズンピをする。　じゃ、おねがい。
sorry my brain is dead fried right now it's nice, hopefully you guys can help me with my failure of japanese.
i'm still stuck in formal form so partly formal and normal speech. right now i'm learning how to combine adjectives
and putting them in past tense along with some kanji recognition skills.

Looks like putasmileon set us up the new Japanese help thread! Admins bring back our Homework Help section!!!

Anyways my Korean sucks but I know Japanese so maybe I can help.

First off, the dictionary forms of Japanese

Verbs
する (suru) To do
来る (kuru) To come
買う (kau) To buy
飲む (nomu) To drink
食べる (taberu) To eat

Adjectives
楽しい (tanoshii) Fun
面白い (omoshiroi) Interesting
ひどい (hidoi) Horrible
珍しい (mezurashii) Rare
明るい (akarui) Bright

Now this is important, there is no future tense in Japanese like there is in Korean. For future tense you just use present tense, and the person can usually tell by context.
So する can mean "to do", but it can also mean "I will do it"
Likewise 来る can mean "to come" but it can also mean "I will come"
明日学校に行く (asita gakkou ni iku) I will go to school tomorrow
面白いと思います (omoshiroi to omoimasu) I think it will be interesting / I think it's interesting
So future tense is pretty easy in Japanese

Past tense is alittle harder, as conjugations in Japanese take some getting used to, but once you get used to them you'll do them without thinking. There are a few types of different verbs in Japanese.

If it ends in す it becomes した
話す(hanasu)　＝　話した(hanasita) To talk

If it ends in く it becomes いた
If it ends in ぐ it becomes いだ
焼く(yaku)　＝　焼いた (yaita) To bake
泳ぐ(oyogu)　＝　泳いだ (oyoida) To swim

If it ends in む、ぶ、or ぬ it becomes んだ
噛む(kamu)　＝　噛んだ (kanda) To bite / chew
遊ぶ(asobu)　＝　遊んだ (asonda) To play
死ぬ(shinu)　＝　死んだ (shinda) To die

If it ends in る、う、つ it becomes った
切る(kiru) ＝　切った(kitta) To cut
拾う(hirou)　＝　拾った(hirotta) To pick up　
待つ(matsu)　＝　待った(matta) To wait

Exceptions! Irregular verbs:
する　＝　した
来る　＝　来た
行く　＝　行った
The most used verbs are the only irregular ones in Japanese so you'll memorize them easily anyways.

So just try practicing conjugating things to past tense, I'll even give you some verbs:
走る (hashiru) To run
調べる (shaberu) To check/investigate
信じる (shinjiru) To believe
着る (kiru) To wear
起きる (okiru) To wake up
聞く (kiku) To ask / listen
直る (naoru) To get well / To be fixed
出る (deru) To appear / To attend / To leave

Adjectives are easy to conjugate in past tense, just take off the last -i and add katta
面白い(omoshiroi)　＝　面白かった (omoshirokatta)
ひどい(hidoi)　＝　ひどかった (hidokatta)
珍しい(mezurashii)　＝　珍しかった (mezurashikatta)
明るい(akarui)　＝　明るかった (akarukatta)
嬉しい(ureshii)　＝　嬉しかった (ureshikatta)
(Beginners often mess up on adjectives that end in しい like 嬉しい so be careful)

Anyways just tell me if you need any help

がんばれ～　

Putasmileon,　なんて呼べばいい？　ずっと前からSoompiでプストしてたのにまだ名前も分からない　
名古屋はどんな所？　俺は初めに日本に来たら成田空港に着いてそれから品川プリンスホテルに泊まってたけど、学校はもうすぐ始まったから秋葉原や銀座とかしか観光しに見れなかった 　東京はすっごく蒸し暑かったりしたから全然好きじゃなかった＞＜　ボストンの郊外で育ったから暑さより寒さに慣れてるし。。　今札幌に住んでて天候とかは最高だよ！　すぐ雪が降りそうだけど明日修学旅行のためにハワイに行くから帰ってくるまでに雪だらけになるだろうｗ
じゃあ、これからもよろしくｍ（＿）ｍ　暇な時に北海道に遊びに来てね、案内してあげられるさ
てか、日本の大学に通ってるの？！ 　　どうだい？　そこで何を専攻してるんですか？

This is conversation, but I post it anyways because I think it's good for learners to be able to read it and pick it apart, so if anyone has any questions at all about things in my post, vocab, grammar, etc. ask and I'll be more than happy to give you a long-winded explanation Without reading you don't learn. If there are any Kanji or words you don't know copy and paste them into this
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1C
Possibly one of the best online Japanese dictionaries on the net

^oh my fricking god that was exactly what im learning or learned last week. i was wondering about that "katta" thing, guess i don't have to ask the teacher. thanks that helped clarrify things.

今日は皆さん！
私は杞紗(きさ)です。
専門は言語学(げんごがく)です。わかってるか？あのね、かんたんのことばをえ
らびましたですけど。。。 :/
Bay Areaにすんでいます。じゃにほんごをききなれます。
かんじでかきましょうか？ 漢字とひらがなとどちらがすき？


Oh! I want to explain Ni, to people.

Ni means "to" or a location. The difference is in the subject.

Where did you go? LA Ni ikimai can't reada
Who went? Watashi Wa ikimai can't reada
what did you do? Watashi wa LA wo ikimai can't reada (though quite honestly, you can use Ni here too.)
Where did you get on? Bus Ni norimai can't reada

Ni is used to describe location, wakari ma shi ta ka?

WHOA! Soko Gakuen? I was about to apply to that school for Japanese school, but the commute was too hefty for me. :-D Keep up the good work!!!

I want to learn more Japanese too~! I took only 1 semester in college and now I'm too busy to take anymore Japanese courses. I learned hiragana and katakana but forgot many of them already. *_* I would like to learn some kanji some time. Arigato gozaimasu putasmileon for creating this thread~! Nihongo wa suki desu~! <-- correct me if that's wrong..LOL..I had a lot of trouble with "wa" and "ga" in my kurasu.

Hrm, well if my memory serves me right..
It's ga instead of wa.

Wa is the subject particle and ga is the object particle.
Sorekara, you're point is: I like Japanese, or As for Japanese, I like. If you use wa, the point is:
As for Japanese, it likes. I, by the way, is implied. So therefore, you use ga. :-D

Sorry, I'm bad at explaining suff..

日本語の練習か。。。最近、あたしの日本語はどんどん下手になってるって思うけど。。あんまりちゃんと練習しなかった（≧д≦）学校で日本語④をとってるのに、もっと早く習いたかった（笑；　だから自分でちょっと勉強してます。いろいろアニメや番組を見てるし、歌の歌詞を分かってみるし。。。

Arigato gozaimasu~! Ok, I'll give it one more try.

Nihongo ga suki desu~!
Ramen wa oishi desu~! <-- is this right?

i'm learning japanese at the moment but i suck at it T_T

おっす！ すごく真面目そうだな！ 　日本語はどんどん下手になってるなんてきっとうそだろう？　どのバンドとかを聴いてる？　俺はずっと前にGlayやDragon Aｓｈとか聴いてたけど歌詞あんまり分からなかったからあきらめたんだｗ
よろしくｍ（＿）ｍ



oishii has two i's. Other than that yes

^はは～よろしく＾＾　

全然うそじゃないよ！もっと上手くなりたい～特に日本語の話をもっと流暢したい＞＜

バンドといえば、いろんな歌手を聴いてるよｗｗ宇多田光と中島美嘉の曲が大好き（≧▽≦）いろんなアニメの歌もよく聴いてる。好きな曲のローマ字の歌詞を見つけることが出来なかったら、自分で漢字からローマ字に書いて、時々英語にも訳して、それで日本語の練習になる☆

「あいのり」って言う番組が大好きだよ（≧▽≦）ｖ

Ｌｙｎｎさんの日本語がすーごく上手いって感じがあるよ↑いつから日本語の勉強を始まったの？写真が可愛いなぁ～（笑）

Really? lol. I stop going there after I moved to San Jose. Too far. T___T

Since someone PMed me earlier about the Japanese school [Soko Gakuen] that I attended, here's the link for all you Bay Area people who wants to learn Japanese.
http://members.aol.com/sokogakuen/
Hope it may help some people.

Cool, you're from SF like me! Anyway, some of the Japanese words look similar to Chinese words so I can read some sometimes.

lol....Japanese learning thread......
Learnt Japanese for six years!!
I can only consider myself fluent in basic Japanese convo!!

wow cool

ohohoho. Too bad I can't join the conversations.. TT_TT I don't understand. But I wanna learn.

わたしわ　亀　です。　えとー　。。　わかりません　＠＠”

i dont know any japanese really so whatever ! =D さよおなら　みな！

;_;
it's so hard.....
only started for a few months

え。。
私は　クリス　です。

日本語がまだ上手じゃありません。

The japanese courses at my university are always full before I can ever get to them lolz

But you know what's really weird? I actually understand some of what's written because they're so similar to chinese characters, and watching too much tv where they have both chinese and japanese subtitles.

わたしは　亀　です。
It uses the charcter は pronounced as wa.

By the way, do you want to say Kame? Like turtle?



がんばって！日本語が上手になれる！

^haha~
thanks

あ～！　よっかた！Thanks for making this thread　：）　Now I have someone to bug besides Tamago どうもありがとう！

はじめまして！私の名前はダシアです。英語で、Daciaです！オ－ストラリアから来ました！
ごめん、私の日本語はとてもわるいです！どうぞよろしく～

Haha, this is my second year studying.　：D

オッス、ミシガン大学で日本語を勉強しているんだ。

今、どんな　ことを　言うのか　分かんない～

だから。。。
この頃流行な女の子
おしりと小さな女の子
こっちを見えてよ　ハーニ～

i'm studying jpn @ umich.
i dunno what to say so...
kono goro hayari-na onna no ko
oshiri to chiisana onna no ko
kocchi o miete yo honey!

アタシ、ほとんど1年間日本語を勉強してた。　でも、まだ上手になってないそう。ここで練習するの方が楽しい！　
みんなはぺらぺら話さないから、習い合える..

はじめまして～
明倫　です。
どうぞ　よろしく。

o.o;;.........i'm in japanese 2 H in my school~
i've never taken a japanese class before though :x
and it's easy in class >.>;;

X]

but yay! i like this thread X333

占めた..大丈夫です -.-

can someone please help me? i'm in beginning japanese, so gahh...my japanese sucks...basically, i need help writing sentences (and please keep in mind that i'm a beginner, so i only know hiragana and a very few kanji)


okay...here we go



1. Did she eat lunch at 11:30 in the coffeeshop?


2. What did he buy?


3. Next year, I will go to Japan again.


4. The Japanese car is to the right of the American car.


5. He watched TV from seven to nine Friday night.


6. She will study Japanese in the library of the university.


7. He worked from 9 to 5. Then, he saw a movie with his friend.


and can someone translate this for me?

Koubanwa kusuriyano migini arimasu.


I know that 'migi' means to the right, and 'arimasu' means there is or there are...but i have no idea what 'koubanwa kusuriyano' means



thanks to anyone who can help me out...i know it's a lot ><

i only noe how to say the most important thing you need to noe..."WHere is the washroom??"

sumthing like... " aw dei aa la ee docor des ka?! " muahah

Japanese Composition is not my strongest subject, so if I make any mistakes, please let me know. But I am pretty sure it's all right. Erm, if you were learning plain form, please let me know and I can redo this whole thing. This is in polite form.

1. Did she eat lunch at 11:30 in the coffeeshop?
彼女は喫茶店で十一時半に昼ごはんを食べましたか。
かのじょはきっさてんでじゅういちじはんにひるごはんをたべましたか。
2. What did he buy?
彼は何を買いましたか。
かれはなにをかいましたか。
3. Next year, I will go to Japan again.
来年、私は日本にもう一度行きます。
らいねん、わたしはにほんにもういちどいきます。
4. The Japanese car is to the right of the American car.
日本の車はアメリカの車の右にあります。
にほんのくるまはあめりかのくるまのみぎにあります。
5. He watched TV from seven to nine Friday night.
彼は金曜日の午後七時から九時までテレビを見ました。
かれはきにょうびのごごしちじからじゅうじまでてれびをみました。
6. She will study Japanese in the library of the university.
彼女は大学の図書館に日本語を勉強します。
かのじょはだいがくのとしょかんににほんごをべんきょうします。
7. He worked from 9 to 5. Then, he saw a movie with his friend.
彼は九時から五時まで仕事をしました。そして、友達と映画を見ました。
かれはきゅうじからごじまでしごとをしました。　そして、ともだちとえいがをみました。




Koubanwa kusuriyano migini arimasu.
交番は薬局の右にあります。
こうばんはやっきょくのみぎにあります。

Do you mean Yakkyoku, meaning pharmacy? Kusuri ya is the Kun reading. Yakkyoku, which is the one normally used, is the On reading. Anyway, kouban is police box. Therefore..

The police box is to the right of the pharmacy.




Hehe, close!
Otearai wa doko desu ka?
お手洗いは何所ですか。

You can also say "Otearai wa doko ni arimasuka"
お手洗いは何所にありますか。



ええ？上手な日本語だよ！日本語を勉強した一年間だけですか？がんばって！べらべらに話しになれます！

^is it her hw? oh yeah does anyone live in KANSAI prefecture? i have to do a report on it, just basic stuff like name four cities in it and the foods and activites you can do there?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansai is very useful.

In the Kansai area, it's not a prefecture, there are 7 prefectures: Nara, Wakayama, Mie, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, and Shiga. Four cities (the prefecture is the same as the name of the city, otherwise noted) include Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe (Hyogo Prefecture), and Nara. They speak Kansai-ben, a dialect of standard Japanese. Foods from the area include takoyaki, gyoza, kaiseki-ryori, chagayu, and kakinohazushi. The 1970 World Exposition was held in Osaka. Thus, there is an EXPO Kinenkoen (Remembrance Park). Shopping in the Namba district of Osaka is also famous. Going to Kyoto is probably the most well known. Kyoto is full of many cultural temples, shrines, etc. as it used to be the capital. However, now, it is the cultural city of Japan. It was spared from the bombing during WWII due to its cultural significance.

^thanks! that helped a lot

ありがとうございました。