Thread: kon-nichiwa

Will be there ever a separate Chinese forum? We could shuo zhong wen and xie han zi with Pravit then...

Yeah! Glorious Chinese language is certainly in need of its own forum. This language is much more glorious than Japanese, in my opinion. At any rate, we have 4 people asking for Chinese, and only 1-2 people asking for Japanese.

With such we can give each other motivation to learn, and so on, if there is some sort of competition. Competition is the way I learn best. There were 2 other people in my German class who spoke German almost as well as I did. So I got mad and resolved to learn to speak German really well, and now I'm way better than them. In comparison, there is noone that comes close to me in French class. And I speak French very badly, and don't have much drive to learn it any more.

Yeah, come on, create a Chinese forum already! I'm now going to the library to pick up a fully fledged course on Chinese, so you'd better watch out, Thailander... You've already beaten me with German, Arabic (on the other hand, maybe you haven't...) and Russian, but you won't take away my Zhong Wen!

Originally Posted by Jasper May

Yeah, come on, create a Chinese forum already! I'm now going to the library to pick up a fully fledged course on Chinese, so you'd better watch out, Thailander... You've already beaten me with German, Arabic (on the other hand, maybe you haven't...) and Russian, but you won't take away my Zhong Wen!

Hehehehehhh...I wouldn't be too sure about that, Dutchman. I have a very, very, very secret weapon. As I said before, my family is from Thailand, but we are Chinese

Yah, sewer... And you know neither language.

That might sound weird but I think Japanese is so cute when they pronounce English words and put it in their vocabulary collection - Esekeretu, erebetu, (escalator, elevator)

Recommended book: Japanese for busy people

You mean like "wapuro" and "burausu" and such? Personally I find it kind of annoying, but that's just me. What's more annoying is being expected to pronounce English words incorrectly to be understood.

Hi. I'm new here, and I'm learning Japanese. Once upon a time, I used to speak quite a bit of Japanese (just couldn't read kanji or kana) but I never used it, so I forgot it. Now I have to start from scratch mostly, but the problem is I don't seem to be advancing that well. So I thought I'd come here to say kon'nichi wa and I hope to be posting in here from time to time.

Oh, and one last thing... Anyone got any cool Japanese bands I should check out? I love Japanese music, my favorite band is Pizzicato Five (unfortunately, they broke up). Thanks!!

What about "The Pillows"? Heh...and don't forget Kosaka Riyu's "Candy(Heart)".....<3 <3 <3

If you liked p5, check out Fantastic Plastic Machine and Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra. I have a friend who loves p5 and she likes those two too.
I'm not really a fan of them though, so I'll mention some of the stuff that I like.
I came to like Japanese music through anime, so most of my favorite singers/composers are from anime. First and foremost it's the Yoko Kanno/Maaya Sakamoto combo. Yoko Kanno is probably the best anime composer around. She did soundracks for Cowboy Bebop, Escaflowne, Earth Girl Arjuna, Macross Plus, Turn-A-Gundam, and recently Wolf's Rain and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, other anime, many games, a few movies, and several JPop artists. Her music is very diverse: she can write almost in any genre, be it a classical orchestral piece, catchy pop, heavy metal, jazz or techno, and always does it amazingly good. Though many singers worked with her, Maaya Sakamoto is her longest partner, and probably the best ^_^. She has a beautiful voice which works very good with Kanno's music and quite deep lyrics. I like her albums "Lucy" and "Shounen Alice" the best, though the rest is also good ^_^.
Anyway, enough on Kanno. Other composers that write good soundracks are Yuki Kajiura (Noir, .hack//sign, she's also a member of See-Saw duo), Ichiko Hashimoto (RahXephon), Joe Hisaishi (all of Hayao Miyazaki movies, most of Takeshi Kitano ones), Hajime Mizoguchi (Escaflowne, Jin-Roh), Susumu Hirasawa (Berserk, Millenium Actress).
I also like some of more "mainstream" JPop: Nanase Aikawa, Utada Hikaru, Ayumi Hamasaki, Kokia.
Well, I hope my rant wasn't too long. Here's a link with a site that has the newest stuff from Japan (doesn't mean it's the best though ^^): http://www.jpmp3.com/

Thank you, roxfan!

Konnichiwa!

Nihongo wa totemo omoshiroi to omoimasu kara, sannen mae kara benkyou wo shimasu. Dareka ga watashi to nihongo de hanashi-takereba denshi-meeru ni kaite kudasai.

Now that they have a seperate Chinese forum they need a seperate forum for Mandarin and contonese. hehehe. Actually, now there's no one on the Japanese forum.

I wish I could speak Japanese...
What is more useful, Japanese or Chinese?

well, if "which is more useful" was your question, then Chinese definately. I'm not saying this because I myself am Chinese.

Reason one - Since China's economy are so heating up, Chinese language is an open door to a huge job market in those places where Mandarin is the language of commerce like Mainland China, HongKong, Taiwan and Singapore. now there're thousands, no perhapes millions foreign business men are learning the language for their own sakes.

Resason two - chinese culture. if you want go deep into one's culture, then learn it's language is the first step. China have 5000 years existence, and as one of world's most advananced civilization. contributed numberous significant achievements to the human social. to explore what's in it, you need understand the language first.

Reason three - The second most widly spoken lanuage in the world. well, without saying, English so far is the international spoken lanuage, and most popular one. and mandarin chinese just right after it, then spainish. mandarin chinese is quickly becoming the second language in many Countries like Japan, korea, Cananda and U.S. according to the reserch, there're over 3000 more universities from 85 countires of the world already offered Chinese language course.

however, if you are a hardcore fan of japanese anime, video game, etc. and if your perform japanese culture over Chinese. then go for japanese.

Well, Jasper May, it matters if you like technology, then Japanese is for you. If not, then choose Chinese. You must pick a dialect of Chinese. I reccomend Mandarin because it is the main language of China, Singapore and Taiwan. Yet the Chinese language is extremely difficult. If you say a word in the wrong tone, no one will understand the true meaning of your sentence. But as everybody else pointed out, Japanese grammar is much harder. Hope it helps.

As for which language is more useful, I'd say Chinese (especially if you work in healthcare). China seems to be coming up, while Japan seems to be receding. Furthermore, learning Japanese is a nightmare compared to learning Chinese.

Japanese is easily the hardest language in existence if you are distance learning (i.e you have to read to learn). For one, Japanese kanji, though limited, aren't as easy as people make them to be. Japanese kanji can have upwards of 10 different readings based on position and other factors, which means that you will likely never know how something is actually read. Hanzi on the other hand are usually read with one reading only no matter where they are in a sentence, making chinese infinitely more forgiving in this respect.

Chinese has its downside as well. Apparently Chinese people refuse to speak to foreigners in Chinese, so if you are planning to travel there and speak with them, you're likely sol. I've never heard of the Japanese doing such a thing, though it's probably true for them as well.

I've personally studied Japanese for several years, and I would say that kanji are the main stumbling block in learning the language. For learning kanji, I highly recommend "Kanji Can", which is an flashcard program based on James Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji" series. This will teach the meaning of all 1945 Jouyou kanji, with a mnemonic story for each character. Personally, I learned all 1945 characters in a weekend using this program (granted like 4 6+ hour study sessions and I already knew about 500+).

Also I'd recommend StacksJ, another program. This one is great for general flashcarding... basically you can highlight any japanese text anywhere and have the program generate flaschards based on the dictionary file you get with it. It's insane, and if you're just starting the language, it would be an incredible boon.

Originally Posted by scotcher

amari benkyou shinai hito wa jouzu ni naranai yo.

unn.... boku wa heta desu kara ne

I think your Japanese is very good

Originally Posted by N

- How would you say российские дороги in Japanese?
- Toyama tokanava

The Russian roads ??

In Japanese Russian roads = roshia no michi

Originally Posted by Mina

In Japanese Russian roads = roshia no michi

but it does not sound funny.

It's an old Russian joke and it is more like about quality of Russian roads than Japanese language. This phrase just sounds "Japanese" (at least to Russians). No offensive meaning there.

То яма, то канава - holes and ditches every here and there.

Oh it was just a Russian joke ? But I didn't know that, and I just translated it.