Japanese Word Thread

[Josiah]

((Sorry for the lack of updates. Visa stuff plus getting sick hasn't done much for my free time. Maybe I should go buy a long ethernet cord so I can plug into the internet at work... Anyway, I'll try and start this up over the weekend. For now, here's a word.))

思う omou (to think)

[Luke]

Anata no Nihongo daisuki desu ka?

[Josiah]

そうですが、かんじとけいごがとても難しい。

Quick bit of advice though, while あなた does mean you, it's rarely used in normal conversation since it implies a high degree of intimacy. In fact, it's mostly used as a term of endearment by married couples. It's usually better to use the person's name or drop the subject entirely if it's clear who you're talking to.

And, once again, I'll try and revive this soon. Even if I can't get internet at work, I should have a bit more free time starting this week...

[Luke]

XD alright, well that clears things up. I guess my Japanese teacher was mistaken. =/ that's almost disturbing that she uses that for us.

[Josiah]

Is she Japanese? If so, she might know some extra rule about it that I'm not familiar with. But I'm pretty sure that I'm right about this.

[Luke]

Nope, she only taught there for a year, so you probably have more knowledge.

[Metalheadz]

ikura: salmon roe

[Luke]

Quick change at the あなた point... I just had Japanese billets come to my school, and I asked them what あなた meant. Writing it in Hirigana that is, and they said that it just mean you, or it sometimes means "person" if you don't know their name. So I'm not sure about which is which.

[Josiah]

It does mean "you". I've always been clear on that. It's just that while in English we say "you" a lot, in Japanese you generally say the person's name or title instead. "You" can be used in Japanese like it is in English from a grammatical perspective, but culturally it's a very intimate term so it rarely is. As I said before, it's primarily used as a term of endearment between married couples. So while we might say "honey" or "darling", Japan people will say "you", which sounds rude in English but that's the way it works.

[Luke]

Yes yes, I understand that. The thing that I don't understand that is, if it means that in Japanese, why did all the Japanese students and teachers that came, used あなた?

[Josiah]

Non-native Japanese speakers tend to use anata more than they should since "you" is used so often in other languages. Also, even native speakers will use anata occasionally if they don't know the other person's name. A lot of Japanese people also tend to talk a bit differently than usual when speaking to non-Japanese either for simplicity's sake or because they know that English is structured differently.

[Silver]

Josiah Josiah I found out that if I take and pass an oral test I can get out of the language requirement at my school but if not I need to take two years of a language which I didn't know about my first semester and they only offer them in order so I couldn't take one in the spring even if I wanted to plus they don't offer Japanese anyway and I really really really hate Spanish!

Anyway anyway please help me practice and learn more words and stuff so that I can actually pass this thing and I won't have to spend an extra year in college because it would be really expensive and I wouldn't be taking any other classes besides Spanish or whatever other language I end up in and I'm sure I could pass a Japanese test if I really tried and besides I really freaking hate Spanish! Also I promise I'll get back to editing that book you sent me that I totally forgot about but recently remembered when I used it to brag to my friend who's applying for an editing job at a newspaper and told her that I've edited a published author's stuff before...

[Josiah]

An oral test... Do you have any idea what would be on it? How long do you have to prepare? I could probably teach you how to give a standard introduction and a few other things easy enough, but if you need to carry on a conversation that would be pretty iffy unless you know the topic ahead of time so you can focus on the appropriate vocabulary. Anyway, if you want tutoring for an oral test, that's probably something we'd have to do over Skype or phone so I could check your pronunciation, give you some listening practice and the like. Give me whatever details you can and we'll talk.

[Kaida]

If you want some extra help as well theres the Yookoso! Website.

Since I'm learning Japanese now (officially) at uni. Yookoso! is the Text Book we have for it (at the moment anyway) along with a workbook and the website. They seem pretty good so far.
I honestly dont know how good the website will be without the Text book, but It could help with the basics. . . maybe.

[Silver]

From what I can gather, they'll ask a few questions and I'll be expected to ramble on in response to said questions. Basic questions - asking about home life, school, work, hobbies, stuff like that. But really, it's not about what I say, it's about how I say it. I could refuse to answer a question, but as long as I can explain clearly that it's something I don't want to talk about or don't know about, that's good enough.

Vocab isn't what I'm worried about - that's something I can easily study on my own. Besides, as a Lit Major, if there's anything I'm confident about it's memorizing words. What I know I need help with is grammar. I know the basics, but I can't keep my verb tenses straight, I can never tell when I should use "ga" or "wa", word order and sentence structure still don't come naturally... Oh, and I'm sure I also need listening practice. Most of my experience with that comes from anime, so yeah...

Test is whenever I want it to be. I could take it in three weeks, I could take it next March. And until I find out if they'll accept scores from a re-take, I'm inclined to push it off for as long as possible.

And Kaida, that seems like it'll be a pretty useful site for practice. Thanks for sharing it.