Speaking Japanese?

[zibo]

Does anyone here actualy can speak or understand japanese ? If so are you a native speaker or did you learn it ? Just wondering if there are people here who can.

[Zinobi]

I can speak some not a whole lot but simple phrases. Akashiya Moka is better but i have no idea if he is active on the forums. If you want to try to find him he is on IRC.
There are probably some others too.

Why might you be wondering anyway?

[zibo]

Just wondering if anyone learned so they can understand unsubbed anime and/or games. I have heard that a lot of people who watch anime try to learn it. I was just curious if anyone here actually did it.

[Assassin]

I actually wanted to learn it (still do) when i was starting university. I was going to enroll in a beginners japanese class but unfortunately the class was full. Since then i've been too busy to take another full year course for fun, and too lazy to try learning on my own.

As for the forums, i know Winged Dancer can read and probably speak it, but shes mexican. And also i think Psyke can speak/read it as well. Theres probably others too.

[Psyke]

I'm still learning it, and was supposed to go for my JLPT 3 exam this year till work commitments came in the way. I learn from a Japanese language school and my sensei's a native Japanese from Tokyo. She's really funny and makes learning fun, but most importantly you need determination and motivation to learn japanese. I have an advantage because of Kanji's similarities with chinese though. :p

[Honoko]

And if you watch anime long enough, you'll start recognizing certain phrases or words on your own... especially if you're watching the school life types =P I was amazed at how much of the Cyril Takayama clips I was able to understand ;)

[KitKat]

I can speak some not a whole lot but simple phrases. Akashiya Moka is better but i have no idea if she is active on the forums. If you want to try to find her she is on IRC.
There are probably some others too.

Why might you be wondering anyway?

Akashiya Moka is a guy, just to clarify. And he isn't active on the forums, but he is very good at Japanese. He's been learning it for a while.

This topic reminds me of a funny paper my friend linked me to when I started watching anime. It's entitled "So you want to learn Japanese (http://www.theforeigner-japan.com/archives/200404/sojapanese.htm)" and it's hilarious.

[Genma]

Yeah, I would never bother trying to learn Japanese. It's a very difficult language for born English speakers.

Kanji scares the living crap out of me. Symbols for like... every word? Yikes. *shudders*

[nests]

Honoko is totally right I have been watchin sub anime for a very long time now so I can understand some of the stuff they are sayin with out having to read the subtitles in fact I have gotten to the point where I went to San Francisco to the japanese part of town and it amazed me that I could understand a lot of what the people were saying. now the writing I cant understand any of it. It just doesnt stick in my head

[Honoko]

Honoko is totally right I have been watchin sub anime for a very long time now so I can understand some of the stuff they are sayin with out having to read the subtitles in fact I have gotten to the point where I went to San Francisco to the japanese part of town and it amazed me that I could understand a lot of what the people were saying. now the writing I cant understand any of it. It just doesnt stick in my head
Maybe it's just me but I gotta ask, when you hear Japanese people speaking on the street, is your first instinct to look towards the bottom for subtitles? :p

[bagandscalpel]

Kanji scares the living crap out of me. Symbols for like... every word? Yikes. *shudders*

It's really not that bad.

I spent roughly 13 years of my life learning Chinese here in the states to attain what is equivalent to the amount found in a full elementary school's curriculum abroad.

So, seriously, it isn't that bad~

[Zati]

I wanted to take a Japanese class before but never had the chance and was lazy but I been watching anime for so long now that I can understand some things and I can speak a little of it. As long as you keep watching anime I think you will at least know some words and phrases.

[Degozaru Yo]

Yeah, first post here ever I think. ;d

Atleast on this nick. (yeah, I couldn't come up with anything different from the IRC-nick for now atleast...) >.>

I've been trying to learn Japanese from Anime and a little from games but I in no way can say I can speak Jap when I only know some of the most basic stuff.

In the very beginning, it really made no sence at all ofcourse, just like everyone propably feel with a new language. But for me, I guess it might be a tad easier in the end than for example, English speakers because in my language also you usualyl pronounce the words like they would be written, (in Romaji).


This topic reminds me of a funny paper my friend linked me to when I started watching anime. It's entitled "So you want to learn Japanese (http://www.theforeigner-japan.com/archives/200404/sojapanese.htm)" and it's hilarious.

That essay indeed is quite hilarious and I even found my own thoughts from it hehe.

For example the writing system is just amazing. Maybe the people who came up with it decided to create their own code language that was supposed to stay as secret but some eful spies made it public. :F

It's just so non-practical.


Yoroshiku onegaishimaas ! !! !

[Kraco]

This topic reminds me of a funny paper my friend linked me to when I started watching anime. It's entitled "So you want to learn Japanese (http://www.theforeigner-japan.com/archives/200404/sojapanese.htm)" and it's hilarious.

Damn, that was certainly a bloody hilarious read.

I never had any illusions of the difficulty level, but I thought I would spend some evenings gazing at a Japanese text book to get a better general idea of what the language is like. But the first pages of the book were filled by the myriad hiragana and katakana letters, and I'm still gathering courage to read past those. I got the book monts and months ago.

[Winged Dancer]

I've been studying Japanese for four years (on and off...) and lived at Japan for three or fourth months, so I can safely say I speak it pretty well....

...which is not to say I understand everything. I can watch anime and,.depending on the series, understand most of it or just about half. For instance, Basilisk is way easier to understand that Naruto because Naruto "creates" all sort of... terms and words that don't appear in every day vocabulary, while Basilisk or, for instance, MONSTER, have a lot of common, normal words.

Manga is different. Naruto manga is way easier to read than Basilisk or MONSTER, simply because it uses furigana, which helps a lot with the Kanji or ideograms.


BTW, LOL @ that essay on Japanese. It's so, so true. So many words sound exactly the same I don't doubt they really used sushi to create the language.