[putasmileon]

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/

[allyy]

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

[K-PopChink]

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

[putasmileon]

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。

[Mugen]

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

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

[fifth_avenue]

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

LOL! XD

[K-PopChink]

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

It wasn't there before.

[putasmileon]

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!

[fifth_avenue]

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

[huangiee]

... T_____T I wanna learn japaneseee.

[Chuu]

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

[Alice]

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

[Mugen]

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!

lol no duh, soompi isnt 2ch

sry ally, 私は知らない

[Godotology]

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

[`Nivek]

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.

[MUSTARD*]

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)

[Lelaye]

＾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.

[Tamago86]

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

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

[Lelaye]

^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.

[XhoXho]

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?