Japanese Discussion 日本語の討論会

[Guest aymei]

That's a loaded question, and wa/ga are probably the hardest concept for people to grasp (unless they speak korean). Basically like mixedgirl said you learn by observing and experience, haha.

"o" is easy, it is the object marker, if you say keeki o tabemasu "I eat cake" the "o" is marking what you eat, because it marks the object of the verb (tabemasu).

One of the uses of ga is to introduce things, while wa talks about things already introduced. An important thing to know about 'wa' is that it's also contrastive. "kasa ga arimasu ka?" and "kasa wa arimasu ka?" have two very different meanings. "Kasa ga arimasu ka?" is just a standard way of asking "Do you have an umbrella?". Asking "kasa wa arimasu ka?" is like asking do you have an umbrella? we show this by intonation of voice in english so it's harder to explain when typing. For example if you were getting ready to go out, and you had a hat and a raincoat, your friend might ask "kasa wa arimasu ka?" or just "kasa wa?" Do you have an umbrella? / What about an umbrella?

Also notice that "wa" can replace "o" when contrasting like this. "keeki o tabemasu ka?" means just "Do you eat cake?" but if your friend knew you eat a lot of things he might ask "keeki wa tabemasu ka?" Do you eat cake? (can also just say keeki mo tabemasu ka?)

In some situations you almost always use "ga", like in questions. dare ga tabemas!ta ka? "who ate it?" is good, you can't say dare wa. So those are things you'll just have to learn as you go along.

You can't say kono/sono/ano/dono o or konna/sonna/anna/donna o, but you can say kore/sore/are/dore o. kono/sono/ano/dono and konna/sonna/anna/donna need to connect with something, kore/sore/are/dore don't. So you could say "kono pen o" or "konna pen o", but not "kore pen o" (you'd just say kore o)

With all the k/s/a/d things it means this/that (near you)/that (near neither of us)/which

For example kono/sono/ano/dono pen means This pen/that pen (near you)/that pen (near neither of us)/which pen?

whereas konna/sonna/anna/donna means This kind of pen/that kind of pen(near you)/that kind of pen (near neither of us)/what kind of pen?

The distinction between s/a are really important, sono/sonna is something that is closer to the speaker than it is to you, whereas ano/anna is something far away from both of you. sono/sore can also be used neutrally to mean something like "the" or "that" like in English but you don't need to worry about that right now.

Hope that helps somewhat

Woot. Haha thank you sooo much!

I'm off to my japanese recitation class but yes, you totally helped a lot especially with my confusion when using or not using o for kore/konna/kono

Hopefully as time passes by in class I'll eventually grasp the idea of ga/o/wa. You'll probably see me a lot in this thread asking questions Thanks again (:

[RaIn33]

Could someone please do some translating for me? I know they're all generally saying the same thing, but what I want to know is. Do I have to purchase from Bigeast(the fanclub) directly to get the special stuff? Or will I get everything that's mentioned there if I purchase it from another Japanese website. Please PM me!

I really want to know exactly what they're saying before I go and buy it. Thanks a lot!

[Guest VesperJunkie]

i went to japan for a year for a study abroad. just remember: KANJI KANJI KANJI

hahaha.

anyway if you're korean, you probably realize alot of our words are compounds of chinese characters - same in japan. so learning kanji actually is very helpful and applicable.

[Guest curiouscao]

ohh, i don't have firefox, but rikai does have a website. i knew of rikai, but didn't know it had that kinda function 'cause i never visit it, haha. thanks. now i can kinda decipher the paragraphs.

dmph - erm, i don't mean to nitpick, but those characters are actually called hiragana and katakana. as for memorizing katakana, you'll probably be able to find something to help you memorize them if you just type "katakana memorization" or something to that effect into a search engine. i got this site doing just that: http://memorizable.com/Japanese_Katakana

Nitpicker!!!

Does this addon work with Opera ? because i like it better then firefox

[Guest 2MY]

Could someone please translate this! Thank you SO MUCH in advance!!

[RaIn33]

Could someone please translate this! Thank you SO MUCH in advance!!

Ohh! You're trying to send a message to Bigeastation right? ^^

Here's what I remember

Name:

Radio Name: (You know how they say "rajio namu...XXX-san"

Gender/Age: The character on the picture means male.

Location:

Telephone number:

Occupation:

Toho corner: Sightseeing/Hearings, How do you say this in Korean, U no?, toho-psychology, Answer this! We want to know. ????, toho message??

[Guest wolfberry]

Just wondering....quick question.

Has anyone on this thread taken the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (日本語能力試験), and if so, how hard was it, and just in general....what was it like?

I'm most worried about writing, because I can speak/listen and comprehend with no problems, I can read alright.....but I always forget how to write kanji. Somehow, it always turns out really....dyslexic.

That aside, I only know like....125 or so, and that's probably not enough for a national exam. Any pointers?

Maybe I should hold off on taking this test for a few years....

I've taken 3kyu a few years ago; it's not all that hard but they do try to confuse you with stuff like made up kanji ^^; If you can speak/listen/comprehend good, then keep concentrating on your kanji! 3kyu was really easy, and kanji is not so bad either..maybe study 1 a day or something? Keep reading manga, haha!

If you go here: www.mlcjapanese.co.jp/ there are a lot of resources (for free!!!) that can help you study ^^ I used it for the kanji in particular...it has downloads of past kanji lists and stuff, very good (^^)b

EDIT: about waiting longer -- there are some people who say it's more worth it, money-wise too, to just study hard until you get good enough for the higher levels, and just take that....but I remember something like, there's a huge gap between 2nd and 3rd levels! Since the gap between 4th and 3rd is small, I personally would say to take 3rd level..

[Guest 2MY]

Ohh! You're trying to send a message to Bigeastation right? ^^

Here's what I remember

Name:

Radio Name: (You know how they say "rajio namu...XXX-san"

Gender/Age: The character on the picture means male.

Location:

Telephone number:

Occupation:

Toho corner: Sightseeing/Hearings, How do you say this in Korean, U no?, toho-psychology, Answer this! We want to know. ????, toho message??

Thank You so much for the translation! Now I can send them mail, and hopefully they'll read it during the radio ^^

^ lmao I sent a message to themXD

Hope they receive it but how would you know if they read your message if you can't listen to them?

I think the fourth option is love situation (lol prob. when they act like girls with Jun Ko and such).

Thank you for the translation too!

You CAN listen to their radio. It's on their radio site. I think you have to click "web radio"

[Guest YamaSushi7]

Hey guys, I need some help translating this into English please!

-森と森の間に川があります。

-明るい森の中で休みました。

-あの小さい山まで1時間ぐらいです。

Thanks in advanced!

[Ayame]

Hey guys, I need some help translating this into English please!

-森と森の間に川があります。

-明るい森の中で休みました。

-あの小さい山まで1時間ぐらいです。

Thanks in advanced!

I think the last one says, "It takes one hour until you get to that small mountain."

Lol, my translations lame. (And probably wrong in a certain way?) The other two I can't read because of kanji I didn't learn yet. xD

[Guest xradiostatic]

i'm having a lot of trouble with voiced hiragana. i can't figure out like....what each one is. for instance, if the teacher tells us to write ji for a quiz, i wouldn't know what hiragana to write. i would have to go through all the hiragana i know and try to figure out which one has the possibility to sound like ji, and yeah. that wouldn't work out too well. LOL.

is it just a matter of memorization?

[little mixed girl]

i made up little songs to go through the a-i-u-e-o etc.

i also wrote them over and over on lined paper.

i studied 5yrs in university and i've been in japan for almost 3 yrs and i still mess up sometimes, so don't feel too bad, just keep at it!

[sweetsmile]

Can someone translate this for me??

名曲CHAMP！超貴重映像大放出!!スタジオで名曲が蘇る!!

誰もが口ずさめる名曲 ご本人熱唱!!お楽しみに！

Yeah, it's the HEY!x3 Music champ show and I was totally expecting one of my favorite artists to come out, except they decide to have another break and do some... weird special? idk, someone, just please translate this for me.

Thanks in advance!

[Guest Vivi88]

could someone translate me this into Japanese?

it can be informal

" i am thinking of you "

" i miss you "

" dont miss me too much "

thanks in advance!!!

[Guest destinedisaster00]

hey guys, i stated a while ago that I would be hosting a Japanese homestay for two weeks.

Now that the time is drawing near, I'm freaking out. ><

can you guys give me some useful sentence patterns that would be helpful in everyday life?

or just used to ask general questions about a persons background?

(something a little more advanced than "what is your name" "how old are you" "what do you like to do/eat")

thanks!

[Guest akira53]

hey guys, i stated a while ago that I would be hosting a Japanese homestay for two weeks.

Now that the time is drawing near, I'm freaking out. ><

can you guys give me some useful sentence patterns that would be helpful in everyday life?

or just used to ask general questions about a persons background?

(something a little more advanced than "what is your name" "how old are you" "what do you like to do/eat")

thanks!

アルバイトをしていますか。

出身はどこですか。

何か質問があったら聞いてください。 (plmk if you have any ?s)

xx　はどう思いますか。 (What do you think of...)

I'm not sure what exactly you're looking for, maybe you could give examples of questions you'd like to ask.

[_daaisy]

hey guys i need some help with my listening homework.

listening homework

i know the 1st and 4th one is japan and australia.

but as for the 2nd and 3rd one i'm not too sure.

i think it's italy for the second one; and korea for the third?

listening homework

what i can understand is that they:

decorate the tree together

christmas eve they go to church for a candle service

sing christmas songs

christmas morning, everyone open presents under the christmas tree then after they eat breakfast

- i know i'm missing a few more, but some verbs i couldn't understand, it was too fast for me.

if anyone can help me out that would be great!

THANKS ^__^

[Guest akira53]

hey guys i need some help with my listening homework.

listening homework

i know the 1st and 4th one is japan and australia.

but as for the 2nd and 3rd one i'm not too sure.

i think it's italy for the second one; and korea for the third?

listening homework

what i can understand is that they:

decorate the tree together

christmas eve they go to church for a candle service

sing christmas songs

christmas morning, everyone open presents under the christmas tree then after they eat breakfast

- i know i'm missing a few more, but some verbs i couldn't understand, it was too fast for me.

if anyone can help me out that would be great!

THANKS ^__^

For the first exercise I believe the 2nd one if France (Louvre?) and yeah the 3rd one is Korea.

go to buy xmas tree 2wks before xmas.

decorate tree w/ornaments and decorate house w/lights

Christmas afternoon=relaxing in house, playing games and talking w/fam

[sweetsmile]

Someone please?

名曲CHAMP！超貴重映像大放出!!スタジオで名曲が蘇る!!

誰もが口ずさめる名曲 ご本人熱唱!!お楽しみに！

I know the first part says: "Famous music CHAMP!"

But that's all I know T^T

[_daaisy]

does this sentence make sense:

両親は、いつも寝る早いと言いました。

I'm trying to say "My parents would tell me to go to sleep early."