ah capital

i remember that

If only I could remember.
But I'm more interested in learning the Yaku and scoring of mahjong.

>>52962764
At least you know the kanji for 1-9.

What's the logic behind kanji? Wouldn't it be better to just use hiragana?

>>52962853
Homophobes everywhere. Also, just using hiragana makes sentences look like jumbled messes.

>>52962853
There is a shitton of homophones

hey OP, what is the kanji on this tombstone

>>52962811
And for North, South, East and West.

>>52962853
kanji have a set meaning, but the pronunciation may mean several different things depending on the context

>learning one of the worst written languages ever used.

Even ancient cuneiform languages were better than this faggotry.

>>52962895
WHAT?

>>52962853

Things would become too ambiguous if you were to use strictly hiragana for day to day conversation. It would be like trying to discern between Fencing (the act of putting up a fence) and Fencing (the sport of swordsmanship in France). Multiple that ambiguity by 5 or more, and you have the reason why Kanji are necessary to tell one apart from another.

>>52962895
The pleasure of being cummed inside

>>52962853

Surprising while watching ancient aliens last night they said that kanji and or Chinese was literally came from outer space

>Eikyou
>London
Holy shit, does anyone actually say this anymore? I thought it was just RONDON.

>>52962919
Also explains the PUNS FUCKING EVERYWHERE

>>52962973
Ah, Ancient Aliens.

> was literally came

>>52962919
This is implying that the spoken language, with the homophobes, would be more difficult than reading the language. Yet this is sadly not true. The use of kanji from a linguistic point of view is almost useless.

>>52962879
>Also, just using hiragana makes sentences look like jumbled messes.
Are you implying that is any different than English? French? Russian? Those cultures introduced the "space" between words to help simplify the written language. Japanese can, and does, do the same thing in current times.

>>52962913
No, no they weren't.

>>52963090

Nobody said Japanese made sense, just that Kanji was necessary to allow optimal communication.

>>52963090

>with the homophobes
>homophobes

>>52962989
WWII Era Japan used nothing but Kanji as a protest against the rampant spread of Western culture. They would not use loaned words and had to resort in making up their own words using Kanji. A lot of them became anachronisms after the war became over.

So yes, Eikyou is correct, but it is rarely, if not at all, used.

>>52963051
Someone's been watching the History Channel.

>>52963108

Yes they were. Simply because they didn't stack so many meanings to every symbol or group as kanji does.

And you could write them with a nail.

>>52962973
>>52963051
I love how the alien guy's hair gets crazier and skin gets more orange every episode

>>52963166
He's obviously an alien

>>52963123
>just that Kanji was necessary to allow optimal communication
No. No it isnt.

>>52963141
That crap shouldn't be taught to foreign Japanese-learning beginners, then. There are already enough definitions to memorize.

>>52963166

Proof of ancient aliens?

I'm slowpoking hard here, but I've only just begun to learn Japanese. I got the hiragana and katakana in over the course of a few days (slow and steady, etc), and am ready to move on to kanji. What would anyone recommend for learning them?

I'm starting off with this site - http://www.manythings.org/japanese/jlpt/edict-jlpt4.htm

With the kana I wrote them out several times then used flashcards, would you guys recommend the same for kanji?

What does miyako actually mean, though?

No point knowing the hiragana/kanji if we dont know what the translation is.

>>52963141
that's really funny because kanji is straight up just chinese writing, chinese coming from the folks they slaughtered like pigs

>>52963156
You can write them with a nail, and a board of clay, which then you'd need to burn.
you can also write kanji with a nail, derp.

And each formation had it's own reading, worse than kanji.
further more, while Japanese can use these little signs for like ひ　び　ぴ, ancient cuneiform don't have that. Obviously ancient people knew the difference from intuition , but trying to study that is awful.

>>52963269
Flash cards, and also learn the symbols that make up kanji.

For example, hanasu and nihongo. One is Japanese language (4chan iPod app hates Japanese characters, just translate both of them), one is speak. Now you know that things that looks like them have to do with speech.

>>52963269

Kanji damage for Kanji
Taekim's grammar guide for Grammar

Repeat your Kana at least once a day while memorizing your Kanji until you start using it fluently to read. 3-5 Kanji a day, quiz yourself at the end of the week. Repeat process for a few years and then congratulate yourself, because you know Japanese. Go take the JLPT and see your hard work put onto paper.

>>52963269
Been learning Japanese under formal instruction for two years... and I'd say the best way to learn Kanji is to keep writing them. But make sure to find ways to keep it entertaining. Like categorizing them helps with remember. Body nouns, eating verbs, etc.

>mfw I will play Tales of Xillia so hard next month

>>52963269
Lurk 2chan?

What program/website is that OP? I really like how it has compound words. Right now I'm doing a combination of Remembering the Kanji in Anki, while looking up their pronunciations and putting that under the kanji, and playing Breath of Fire II in moon.

So yeah, program?

>>52962895
Nani, or WHAT. Literally, "what".

Also, use this guide.

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar

Very thorough and introduces kanji in small batches

Trying to learn kanji? Figure out the compounds and what make up each character. It seriously helps. Plus, you can guess when you see new ones, for example seeing something with the "water" in it means it pertains to water.

>>52963427

http://www.kanji-a-day.com/

>>52963506
Sweet, thanks.

漢字スレ？漢字スレ。

Download "mainichi" (literally meaning today in Japanese) for the iPod, that's a daily kanji app.

>>52963419
>A lot of kanji textbooks teach kanji grouped according to subject. For example, the book they made us use in school put 寒い (samui =cold) ,　暖かい (atatakai `= warm) ,　涼しい (suzushii = cool) ,　and 熱い (atsui = hot) together, because they all have to do with temperature. That approach makes sense if you're teaching German or Swahili or Thai, but for kanji? HELLS NAW!

>Here's the problem: even though their meaning is very basic, those five kanji are all really complex to read or write, and they have almost no radicals (component parts) in common – which means that if you learn the first kanji ( 寒い ) you have exactly zero information about how to draw the next one (暖かい　). Retarded! To make matters even worse, if you're a drunk like me, you'll forget the radicals of 寒 and 暖 before you ever encounter another kanji which uses those radicals! So then you have to painstakingly re-learn the same radical, time and again.

>>52963618

>スレ

and not

>スレウウウウウウウウウウウウウウウウウウウウ

and you call yourself a Korean..

>>52963618
Blah blah su-re?

Fuck I don't know my kanji, second one looks like child or learning.

>>52963634
You need to study that mainichi, because it literally means "everyday" in Japanese.

>>52963676

Translates to "Kanji Thread? Kanji Thread.

>>52963645
You can basically fuck radicals if you are Chinese.

>>52963672
>阿呆。

>>52963634
>毎日
>today

>>52963716
Haha I'm such an idiot.

Not even remembering kanji for kanji

>>52963756
You could jsut do what everyone else does and use rikaichan.

>>52963645
Meh, different approaches for different people. I do admit that there are problems especially with how unrelated some of the kanjis can be in a specific category.

Learning radicals help eases the problem for me while categorizing them.

Well, it's still pretty rough for me. I'd probably know at least 300-400 kanji but being able to write them all? Nope.

>>52963732
You could also say Mothers' day or Sea's day.

>>52963756
also, the kanji for learning is　学

>>52963618
>mfw i just learnt the kanji for chinese last night
now thats going to reinforce it in my memory, cheers bro

>>52963820
Well at least I got everything but those damn radicals right. At least for tha character.

>>52963790
That's a good point, Rikaichan is a really excellent tool. It's a Firefox addon that gives a window with the pronunciation and definition whenever you hover the cursor over a Japanese word.

I've found that once you get up to a certain level of skill, it really helps to know the general English meaning(s) of the kanji, because it helps you piece together what an unfamiliar word means.

My resource for learning Kanji

1/2

2/2

>>52963956
Ugh, I seriously wish they would abandon the Romaji concept all together. It's just bad. Maybe for the first chapter but the rest should be supplemented with furigana.

>>52963956
I used a book which I can't remember the name of that taught kanji by radical. It was paperback, blue on both sides.

>>52963801
True, true. I personally really like kanjidamage's method because you go through kanji by radicals. like you're shown 十, and then 古, 叶 and 計 which are all made up of a new radical and some kanji you've already learned.

>>52964023
Agreed the romanji always feels weird to me

>>52964023

I've been looking around for a book like that but haven't found one locally. I'm practicing out of this and Genki right now, both heavy in Romanji.

If kanji are so necessary to disambiguate homophones, then why don't nips have serious trouble talking to each other?

>>52964036
Also, it had really useful tricks to remembering kanji.

>mfw people still get confused with differentiating 水, 氷, and 永

>>52964088
>mfw speech and written text is completely different altogether

Otherwise, context.

日本語出来る奴らどこ？

>>52964088
Inflections and high context culture.

>>52964088
It's almost a shortcut they made for their text. It's annoying even for them, they don't even know them all.

>>52964115
I remember the first and second bevuase the second is ice because it has an icicle on the top.

>>52964069
Genki drops romanji in the 4th chapter, thankfully. Whenever it's there, my eyes naturally gravitate towards it, so I try to squint before I read it and then cover it up or something like that.

>>52964115
I just learned those kanji today. dot = slowflake = ice.

>>52964088
uh...what about context

>>52964123
どこにも友人さん。

>>52964161
>>52964069
Have you guys looked at Tuttle's Elementary Japanese? They completely dropped Romaji after the first two chapters.

>>52964088
Have you ever noticed how often humour in anime is based around people misunderstanding words for other words?

>>52964212
Thank god, Romanji is too easy, I always try to read the kana version whenever possible.

>>52964121
>>52964130
>>52964172
>implying written language doesnt have context
>implying kanji is necessary
>that feel when you will never have a "kanji revolution" for English because it is worthless linguistically

feels bad man

>>52964284

>Linguistics major detected
>Waste thousands for a, "your language is shit because-" degree

ISHYGDDT

>>52964284
Well, the point of kanji is to make it easier to read in written contexts.

I don't think there was any point in trying to relate Kanji, a written ideography, versus speaking in general. But hey, that's just me

>>52964284
Japanese words are already shorter than English words with kana, but it's so ingrained in their culture it's never leaving, like the imperial royal measurement clusterfuck we have in the US.

>>52964349
It's a good thing there exists a Linguistics and Computer Science major too!

調 　ちょう meaning Tone, or to investigate, in which case it's しゃ

彫　ちょう To engrave　ほり if it's a verb

週　　しゅう Meaning week if you didn't know this kill yourself

周　　しゅう This means circuit or lap, it has two pronunciation, one being　まわ。る　(think that damn penguin show)

I don't know how /a/ remembers their kanjis but I did it like this. Found every kanji with the same main radical, as they are pronounced the same/similarly, wrote them down on my wrist, looked at them all day saying them back to myself and moved on to the next group the next day. Doesn't hurt to write a few sentences with them either.

Anyway, that's my advice on learning kanji.

such a funny examples of compond for me as jamanese.
only 2nd and 4th one are common and useful componds, i think.

>>52964284
Have you tried reading large text in all kana? Even just one sentence is a jumble of shit. There are no spaces in Japanese, soit'dbelikereadingthisforpagesuponpagesuponpages. Seriously, don't complain and just learn the kanji. Reading becomes exponentially faster.

>>52964475
Kanji with the same radical almost always have the same onyomi (chinese reading).

Congrats on rediscovering the wheel.

>>52964475

Best way to remember Kanji like that is to only learn the one you come across, and learn the other meanings later on. If you can't associate with the ones you don't use, you'll never remember them. One you come across something that requires you know know that meaning specifically, you'll be able to remember the new meaning.

>>52964626
This also comes to the fact that if you are extremely serious about learning Japanese, you should spend 1-2 weeks in japan. Immerse yourself in the culture and language and youll be forced to use it and know it.

>>52964626

That's why you use it in a sentence, maybe tell a little story with it.

>>52964475
but do you learn in linear time? because that's gonna take me 20 minutes to forever master. with 2000 basic kanji to learn the odds don't look good

>>52964626
I can attest to this. Remembering the Kanji has some stupid stuff in there, like the kanji for nitrate, or at least, that was the definition it gave. And some of those definitions are fucking weird too, like 旦 was "nightbreak" instead of dawn or daybreak, and other such shit.

>2011
>not SRSing the kanji

>>52964707
Lifetime commitment friend. Study like 5-10 each a day, use it in sentences, think of it while walking around your house (outside if you do go outside, considering this is /a/...).

But finding a person to talk to would be pretty good too.

>>52962853
止める is とめる
停める is とめる
泊める is とめる

They mean different things.

>>52964475
In fact the only way kanji makes any sense, Radical + Phonetic part.

竜篭滝龍籠襲朧寵壟聾
寿鋳祷濤躊疇
居据　踞鋸
触独燭濁
補捕鋪傅敷博搏縛薄
直値置植置殖
監藍籃濫覧
暴爆　瀑
橋嬌驕
為偽
磁慈
危脆跪詭
夭笑妖
壮状装荘

>>52964761
Yeh, I love that book and learned a ton from that one.

>>52964839

Pretty much this.

I learned the last one watching yuru yuri, I was like what? Is that how they phrase sleepover? Stopping?

So I looked it up. It pretty much makes kanji a lifesaver in situations where the context is not clear.

This is the one that comes to my mind when I think of homonyms.

優しい
易しい

>learning moonrunes
Why in the name of the holy weaboo batman would you do this?? It's the most irrelevant language in the word, spoken only by one tiny island nation.

>>52964959
Reading superior untranslated shit.

>>52964959
Moonrunes are spoken in China/Taiwan too.

I started learning moonrunes.

Gave up after 3 days. It went sorta like:

>ah, finally done learning hiragana!
>wait, you want me to learn 50-odd more fucking characters that do the same shit? (Katakana)
>fuck this

>>52964959

Japan only one of the nations leading current technological advances, that's all. Not to mention they're a business nation. Japan basically shits gold if you get into the right profession.

>>52964959
Japan is pretty big in the business scene.

Also, animu

>>52965037

>whhhhhhaaaaaaaaaa
>learning takes effort and time
>its a new concept to me so I instantly hate it

Nice 5-year-old mentality, bro-san.

>>52964959
Because a hobbies I enjoy are related to it.

>>52964986
Chinks speak only in chinese, you baka.

>>52965079

Whatever bro-kun.

I don't have a year to learn this shit.

>>52964959
>tiny island nation
100,000,000+ people
twice the size of California.

Does /a/ have any opinions on reading manga/light novels for learning grammar and kanji? I've been reading some easy stuff with furigana, and I can understand what's going on most of the time.

Also,
>mfw when I can read TWGOK untranslated

>>52964986
but that's wrong dude

Does anyone else use Heisig for kanji?
You learn the kanji, a keyword and the stroke order. No time spent grinding the nuances or the readings, but as soon as you start doing vocab and sentences from other sources, that stuff falls into place by itself because you recognize all the characters and just want to know what they mean and how to read them.
Feels good, man.

>>52965105
Took me a couple weeks. Not rocket science.

Words that use 京

始めましょう！

東京
京都　（きょうと）
京成　（けいせい）　this is a tough one.

Sentences using 京

まず京都にいく。　First we'll hit Kyoto
京都の出身です。　Are you from Kyoto?
東京に住んでいます。　I live in Tokyo.

>>52965141
Grab a Japanese childrens book/manga. they usually have those fuguwhatver above the kanji, and are really simple "X wa Y" stuff.

>>52965141
I'd say light novels would be better academically since it should feature a variety of grammar structures other than just casual speech in manga bubbles.

Play games too while you're at it. Or even watch animus without the subs.

>>52965037
It's good that you quit early. If you don't even have the willpower do learn katakana I don't know know how you'd get through what this entire thread is about.

>>52965166

To become fluent? Or derp your way through manga?

>>52965155

If you use Heisig, then you'll be highly amused to learn that 膣 is the kanji for vagina.

>>52965207

I'm more suprised he got to the end of the thread in the first place.

>>52965191
>京都 (Kyouto)
Both kanji mean capitan and both kanjis are read as みやこ. lol Japanese.

>>52965204
Anime uses a lot of slang and generally bad learning examples. You can spot a "watashi wa nihonjin because I miru anime desu" people that speak horribly.

>>52965277
Shit, I meant capital.

>>52965222
Learn kana.

>>52965282
Yeah, I get what you mean. I wouldn't use them as primary learning sources but it gives you an idea on what some structures might exist in Japanese.

That being said, reading regular novels are good too but that can be insanely hard.

>>52965255
Why's that?

Does anyone have suggestions for some more mainstream or normal (ie non-otaku) stuff that's still entertaining and available through anime distribution channels?
I want to hear some normal people speaking, or at least actors portraying normal people speaking. Not moeblob schoolgirls in animu or people going crazy in a game show, but regular people in common situations.

obligatory mention of
女 = woman
姦 = rape

>>52965282
Every foreigner speaking japanese sounds ridiculous to them. You could learn this shit for the next 50 years and it'd still sound worse to them than their worst english sounds to us.

Look up documentaries on specific parts of Japan perhaps?

>>52965313
Of couse. I'm a huge believer in "every single pixel of knowledge about a subject helps out, even just slightly"

So I just translate any hiragana I see, attempt to translate any kanji I see, and think of how to say things in Japanese in my spare time, and of course use subbed anime and occasionally close my eyes.

>>52965325
With Heisig, you use the radicals to create an imaginative mnemonic. The radicals are: 月 = body-part/flesh/meat, 穴 = hole, 至 = climax. Sometimes the radicals aren't all related and you have to be creative, but with the kanji for vagina, 膣, its all pretty much laid out for you nice and logical. Good old Chinese monks.

>>52965310

Yeah, see, there's still Kanji, grammar, and vocab.

>>52965371
Just google Japanese talk shows or something, maybe surf the iTunes podcast library for anything Japanese.

Why do these threads always turn into WAAAHH STOP LEARNING THINGS thread? Are you people really that childish?

>>52965503
Uh, we moved past that a while ago. there was one blip but that's over too.

>>52965458
>he doesn't know that Japanese is just English with a stilted accent and a strange alphabet

>>52965412
Why's that? Foreigners fail hard with polite expressions, and never use properly the accents in a sentence, but otherwise, nihongo is pretty easy to learn.

>>52965535
>and never use properly the accents

Let me guess, you're some kinda foreigner or such?

>>52965255

>>52965535
I'm glad I don't sound like I have that terrible foreigner accent. Maybe a little. According to what I have been told by some Japanese people.

Feels okay I suppose.

I might learn Japanese one day, but anyway, I heard that Kanji were old Chinese loanwords, kinda like English with French.

Is it true?

>>52965622
Yeah. Not all Kanji line up perfectly with their Chinese counterparts though.

>>52965622

Japan took everything from China and Korea. The more you know.

I would highly suggest going to the public library and asking for their language learning software/tools.

also 1/2

why would I waste my time learning bastardized korean written in bastardized chinese?

>>52965611
While it is true that some speakers have better Japanese accent (like Spanish or Italian speakers), we have to accept that we do and will sound like shit to them. But still, I don't think I'll be using my Japanese for more than reading VNs and talking by twitter so I don't care.

2/2

>>52965412
You're a fool. My Japanese has improved to the point where I pass as a native half the time and people are surprised when I tell them that I'm an American.

namaesensei is fucking awesome. If I were gay I would suck his dick.

>>52965726

I tried watching his shit once. I was disgusted by his appearance and mannerisms. Didn't get past the second episode without bile filling in my mouth.

>>52965807
To each his own, sir.
Thanks for sharing. We'll be sure to keep your opinion in mind.

Posting in a 宮子 thread.

>>52965700
Any idea why it's easier for Italian and Spanish?

>>52965702
That Anki program sounds like it might be useful.

Also, surprised this thread didn't get shit'ed on by summerfags.

>>52965898

Anki kicks ass.

>>52965883
>Not trying to trick people into using a false trip

Ah, you're no fun.

>>52965807

I watched his videos for kicks, he's a genuinely engaging guy, unfortunately his grammar lessons lack explanation and the like.

I'd recommend him for Hiragana and Katakana, but for the most part he's pretty lackluster.

some girl name also use this word too.
like 京子

>>52965700
Spics have fucking terrible Japanese accents. You're just not listening closely.

Just don't get bored when you're learning Japanese. Helps to have fun when you're learning, absorption will happen naturally.

>>52965893
Frenchfag here, I've been told I had a pretty good accent in Japanese.

Maybe it's because English native speakers have huge accents in every languages?

>>52965622
That's a partial explanation.
Japanese never had a native writing system, so they created one based on Chinese characters they encountered in texts brought over from the mainland. When you look at a character today, you can be sure that the character itself was borrowed, and so were some of the ways to pronounce it, but calling it a loanword would be a little off, because there usually is a pronunciation descended from ancient Japanese.

This gets a little weird, because what we call words doesn't really exist in Japanese, at least not in the way we're used to in the West.

>>52965893
It's not. I watched a Mexican girl argue one time with a couple Japanese that her name was actually Ma-REEEEEEE-uh, not MAH-ree-ah. This was at least a 10 minute ordeal and afterwards she still couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that just because Japanese and Spanish have five vowels doesn't mean they're pronounced the same.

>>52965920
I'm not that smart, I only realised when I was just about to post the image that I should erase the tripcode.

>>52965898
I use Anki too, using it at the moment to cover more vocab, It a really good tool for making lists of vocab you've picked up as well as having some really good shared decks

>>52966044
I was under the impression that Japanese was a very easy language to eliminate an accent in, thanks to the fact that it's so sound poor.

>>52966044

Accent a direct result of both exposure to native speakers and quality of language education. There is such a thing as some languages being easier to pronounce for some people, but Japanese isn't like that because it has very few sounds and almost all are common to the majority of the world's languages.

>>52966044
I've never recognized the American accent, as I've lived there my entire life.

How would you discribe it? For example, Brits sound like they speak with the tip of their tongue, almost fancy.

>>52966192
He said "English" accent when English-speakers are speaking foreign (to them) languages.

>>52966192

Extremely hard and drawn out vowels, particularly 'a'

>MFW I haven't studied Japanese in nearly a year and my skills are extremely rusty

Shit sucks. I had a year of college intro Japanese under my belt and was doing pretty good at self-studying afterward (was blowing through material about 4x as fast as my classes did). Then the next year of school came and I got absolutely swamped with work that year (thesis and grad classes will do that to you). I had intended to resume studying once things calmed down, but then I got rejected from JET. Since going to Japan was my main motivation for learning the language in the first place I haven't really bothered with it since.

How does /a/ learn their kanji anyway? If you look at OP's example there are like four different readings for just that one fucking character, and that's actually pretty damn easy compared to most of them.

>>52966348

For the most part, one reading dominates the other.

Just read a few sample words with the character in it and it'll make itself clear.

>>52966192

Americans speak relatively monotonously and have many long syllables, so their speech sounds slow, although I'm not so sure if it's just that Americans just speak slowly and it's not because of their accent. This is the dialect that gave birth to the Southern Drawl, after all. To foreigners, American English is relatively easy to understand because it is slower and more even-keeled than, for instance, British English in its many variations. It's also more uniform. There's really only a few American accents you'll hear with any frequency, and you only need to get used to one; whereas there are dozens of common accents in the UK and several more in other Commonwealth countries.

>>52966348

I study by reading the kanji I see around me every day, as I was accepted to JET and am currently living here in Japan.

For those picking up the language, here's a few tips that make things a lot less confusing for you (and yet for some reason no one ever thinks to mention to newcomers):

>"Shi" is actually pronounced as "Sh" in most cases
>You almost never pronounce the "u"s in this language. Books will only mention that you're supposed to leave off the "u" in "-masu" but in reality you leave it off fucking everything
>Did you ever have a speech impediment as a kid where you were mixing up your "R" and "L" sounds? If so, congratulations! All you need to do to pronounce "R" sounds like a native Japanese speaker is to re-learn your speech impediment (and rest assured, this WILL come back to you pretty damn quickly if you make an effort).

>>52966499
Wow. That really helped. I'm now 104% fluent. Thanks, sensei!!

>word of the day
>remember seeing this fucking word in chinese
>remembering that the learning strategy for these words was pages of hand copying these words
>this fucking thread and people using all sorts of books, programs and tapes.

>>52966459
>American English more easily understood than British English

Yeah, I think I can see how American English would be more readily understood than this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjC6-L6pJTI&feature=player_detailpage#t=114s

>>52966560
Shut up sarcatisc whore.

>>52966627

the fuck

>>52966471
How long will you teach english? You're living is some kind of small village? Must be nice.

Finished Hiragana recently, about almost done with Katakana. Haven't really started on grammar/vocabulary yet. Should I do that while doing a few Kanji at a time?

>>52966499
>R and L
Oh, man. Sometimes I listen for that, and it leaves me scratching my head. Sometimes it's at the back of the throat, sometimes it's a sweep of the tongue, sometimes it whips around and sometimes it just rolls. And people don't even seem to be consistent with it.
Is it just japs being deaf to the differences, or is there some logic beind that?

>>52966707
I don't know how long I'll do it, but thank god it's not a village, but a pretty well accommodated small city of ~100,000.

>>52966719
Better to learn some basic grammar before Kanji.

>>52966719
Finish the kana, then learn a good sized vocabulary. Then start learning kanji. It makes learning the readings easier when you can tell when most of the readings are just variations on each other due to the way the kanji's meaning's word changes in context.

>>52964023
Seriously, this. When I made a half assed attempt at learning a few years back (when I was a weeb), I wrote everything in romaji. Worst decision ever. Now I'm older and wiser and I don't know how I ever stuck with it.

>>52966627
>what language is this? gaelic? celtic? didn't know it was still spoken
Haha, oh wow.

>>52966789
>>52966793
Alright gotcha, thanks.

>>52966766
In which region/department are you situated?

>>52966753

There are tendencies, like pronouncing it almost like a [d] preceding /i/ and [l] before [o], but most of the time, it's pretty random because Japanese /r/ is a place-less consonant. As long as they make a sort of liquid sound, it's a good Japanese /r/.

>>52965893
The sounds in Spanish, Portuguese or Italian are a lot closer to Japanese's than, say, English or German or Arabic.

"Monogatari" in Spanish sounds the same as in Japanese (except for the stress), but for an English speaker you have to explain how to say each syllable.

It also works both ways: a Japanese saying Alberto (Spanish for "Albert", アルベルト) sounds pretty much like Spanish, but a Japanese saying Albert (アルバート) sounds nothing like English.

>>52966940
Ha! I love Roman langages!

So is there a logical reason why　着る and 着く use the same kanji?

>>52967164
So is there a logical reason why lead and lead use the same word?

japs are retarded?

>>52966940

What the fuck are you on about now?
>sounds the same as in Japanese (except for the stress)
Unfortunately, improperly stressing words in Japanese renders your speech extremely hard to understand. It's like listening to someone with a Chinese accent butcher your native language because they are applying tonality to individual vowels instead of just at the ends of sentences.

>for an English speaker you have to explain each syllable
Just because English orthography has more than one pronunciation pattern, whereas Spanish orthography only has one, doesn't mean an English speaker can't grasp the concept of an orthography in which every letter is pronounced one way. It doesn't take us long to figure out that all o's are pronounced like "oh" in Japanese.

>a Japanese saying Alberto (Spanish for "Albert", アルベルト) sounds pretty much like in Spanish
No.... no it doesn't. The Spanish version, phonetically, would be: [alberto], and the Japanese would be [aruberuto].
>[alberto]
>[aruberuto]
>same
No.

>>52966471
>>52966471
>>52966471

Hey bro, I'm applying to JET after college. How did your application process go? What type of questions? Any tips? I hear having some cultural extracurricular acitivies under your belt helps a lot; also not mentioning anime in any way, shape or form.

>>52967345
What are your qualifications? I was almost over qualified and they liked me in the interview, so I can't really give general advice.

大学でニ学期取っていて、難しくないと思った。でも毎週漢字を一字ぐらい
忘れている。何をした方がいい？

>>52967399

About 400 Kanji under my belt, can converse on an alright level. I know they prefer people with -no- experience, but I can lie straight up if that's a problem.

>>52967164
Chinese.

>>52967399
Do you need to possess some social superpowers?

>>52967443
Try writing the lyrics of a Japanese song you like in Nihongo using kanji and shit

>>No.52967443
ここの代わりに2chを見るっていうのはどうかな？

>>52967443
You should work on your tenses. There's a pretty nasty internal conflict going on there.
Also, a structure with どう would suit your last sentence better than one with 何, if you ask me.

>>52967443
毎日欠かず書き取り練習しろ。

>>52967443
毎日、漢字の復習をすれば？それから、その後、新しい漢字を十字ぐらいが
いいと思うけど。。。

>>52967443
yukkuri.nandemonaiii.

>>52967443
2chのブログを読むのがまぁまぁ楽しいよ。

>>52967522
２ｃｈはちょっと難しいかも。

>>52967210
That's not the same thing. Two phrases that use the same kana is comparable to English homophones, but there are thousands of individually created kanji that mean different things. And these kanji and strung together in combinations to create even more phrases. What makes no sense is one kanji meaning both "to wear" and "to arrive."

>>52967472
>>52967497


I met several people at the Tokyo Orientation who spoke no Japanese and had never been to Japan before, but I wouldn't say they "prefer" people with no experience. You're coming here to be a professional teacher, after all, and they really like to see both some sort of teaching credentials, even if it's not professional, and language ability, beyond just having "finished" Genki I, which is when most people say that they've "got a solid command of basic Japanese." It's more a matter of when they see someone who has other redeeming qualities, like they have a really interesting personality or are extremely out-going, that they will take people with no qualifications. And yes, if you don't have the credentials to get you in, social superpowers will get you in as well.

>>52967522
2ch以外に、ゲームブログやアニメブログなどもいいかも。

>>52967575

But given proper context, you're never going to confuse the two. The Japanese didn't invent kanji. Give em a break.

>>52967507 here
This >>52967522 [spoiler[/spoiler]can help I think

Also read a ton of manga with furigana/okurigana (whatever it is called) or kanji that's accompanied by hiragana. That's how I became familiar with kanji enough for me to read VNs

>>52967575
着 zhe a.p. (indicating continuing progress/state
着 zháo v. ①touch; come in contact with ②feel; be affected by (cold/etc.) ③catch fire
着 ¹zhuó v. ①put on (clothes) ②send
(chinese)

>>52967575
I didn't mean to suggest that they were analogous in such a specific sense, I meant that both situations are the result of etymological hijinks over extended periods of time.
One kanji meaning both "to wear" and "to arrive" makes just as much sense as one word meaning both "to show the way" and "to treat with a heavy, malleable metal."
Neither really makes sense if you think about them in such strict terms, like there's going to be some sort of obvious, direct logical connection.

What is the anime board on futaba?
One of these?

二次元
二次元裏
二次元裏
二次元裏

>>52967637
>>52967664
Meh, I suppose. At least that's one less kanji to memorize.

>>52967620
And besides teaching english, what kind of jobs can you do in Japan as a foreigner with a normal schooling degree?

>>52967533

Oh goddamn it. It shows how much I'm forgetting. ありがとう、先輩。

>>52967717
All of them

>>52967717
Hahaha, oh you.

>>52965147
>>52965081
Where do you think Japan got all that kanji from? That's right, China.

>>52967749
>with a normal schooling degree

Well, I've seen a few white people working various odd-jobs in Tokyo, but if you want to work a non English-teacher job in Japan, just get a related degree and bring your Japanese language up to par. But really, I don't know anyone would ever want to work in a Japanese office. My God, the paperwork and formalities. You will never see an end to it.

>>52967620
I remember merely mentioning that I was a fan of Dazai's literature and that I'd gone so far as to read some of his untranslated work, and suddenly I was the most amazing candidate ever.
It's the little things that count.

>>52967749
Depends. Do you know Japanese?

If so, just about anything as long as you have the right credentials.

If not, there's English teaching aaaaand...yeah, no, just English teaching.

>>52965445
lol, the Chinese slang word for vagina (well, more like "cunt", its really rude and informal) is 屄 "bi" - a hole 穴 underneath the body 尸. similarly, "dick" is 屌 (diao) - something that hangs 吊 from the body 尸. "fuck" (i.e. sexual intercourse (slang)) is 肏 (cao) - 入 means "to enter", 肉 means "meat".

>>52967836
Thanks for the tip.
>Japanese office
Yeah, sounds like hell...

>>52967917
I never understood how 姦 kan (i.e. in 強姦 goukan) means rape. I mean, three 女 women = rape? what?

also, what does these mean: 嬲, 嫐. to me it looks like a gangbang between 男 men and 女 women...

>>52967836
From what I've heard of Japanese and American offices, there's really not much difference. Both make you do stupid shit to "improve the workplace culture/environment", both want you to work insane hours, both are filled with depressed, soulless alcoholics who only see their families maybe an hour before they go to sleep, etc.

Back when I was in college I had a roommate from Pakistan/Australia/Vietnam/Britain (he got around) who stated many times that he would never work for an American company because of the insane work ethic demanded by the American corporate culture. Apparently Japan and America are on the same level as far as shitty office jobs go.

my favourite kanji is 卐 (pronounced "manji"). apparently its used in old Chinese buddhist texts. it has a variant that looks like 卍 was well.

>>52967917
Funny you should mention that because they have 嵌める as slang for "to fuck" and one of its definitions is "to place a ring-shaped object around something".

>>52968040
The first one isn't kanji.
The second one is.

>>52968040
Well 卍 is an old Buddhist symbol meaning peace (or something to that effect) that was corrupted into the swastika.

>>52968013
In Japanese offices, you have to be way more polite, dress more formally, be more punctual, and do more paperwork (because in this country that produces the leading electronics, they still use carbon copying and stamp paperwork in triplicate instead of just using a fucking computer).

>>52968141
the symbol was always called the swastika, Hitler just got his nasty paws on it and instant negative connotation

>>52968073
>unihan database lookup http://unicode.org/charts/unihan.html
>卐 = CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH #E58D90

hurr durr

>>52968000

嬲 can mean to tease/make fun of OR punish/persecute. It can also mean torture, especially to death. I love looking at the characters and seeing how the meanings correlate to the radicals. What does 始, start, have to do with a woman-private-mouth?

>>52968141
Everyone says this, but isn't it really just a stylization of the cross pattée?

>>52968073
>en.wiktionary.org/wiki/卐
>en.wiktionary.org/wiki/卍
>Chinese: wan; Japanese: manji

nope.

>>52968165
>You have to be way more polite
You'll still find yourself kissing lots of ass in American companies as well.
>dress more formally
What's more formal than a suit and tie? My dad works pretty high up at a large company and his idea of "casual Friday" is "I get to wear a suit that ISN'T black!"
>be more punctual
American companies (really any employer) will outright fire you after a you come in late a few too many times. Hell, I worked in a lab where if you missed work once, you got a warning. If you ever missed it a second time you were fired. It's also worth noting that at a lot of places you're expected to put in overtime, although no one will tell you so. If you don't you won't get fired, but you aren't going to be getting good reviews or any promotions either.

Like I said, the differences aren't that big.

>>52968141

it's an old Slavic symbol which was supposed to bring good luck.

Why didn't those Japs just use kanji for everything? Why bother with ひらがな　and　カタカナ？

>>52968040
>>52968209 's database says:
>"swastika, one of the auspicious signs recognized (e.g. in Chinese Tathagata Buddhism) as being on the chest of Buddha (and variously seen in statuary on the chest, soles of the feet, or palms of the hands)

>>52968356

In America, you get a range of workplace environments. Your examples don't match up to my experience, for example, or many of my friends, but those kinds of offices certainly do exist. I've worked in several offices where it was fine to wear just a polo shirt and slacks. A lot of people came in late and just left later, or came in early and left early. In Japan, it's just the highly formal kind of office that you get. Even if it's just some shitty office job, you're still held to the same standard as high-paid executives in America..

>>52968436
Since their grammar structure is different from Chinese, I don't think it would've translated 100%.

>>52968553
Yes. In fact, old Japanese was written in just kanji, but it wasn't really sufficient since Japanese is an inflected language (meaning that it has non lexical word-endings, like English's past tense -ed doesn't convey lexical meaning, but rather grammatical function). Chinese is not inflected, so it works for them.

>>52967313
I never said they sounded exactly the same; I'm saying they're much more similar to the point of having very little differences. What the fuck are you on about now?

>Just because English orthography has more than one pronunciation pattern, whereas Spanish orthography only has one, doesn't mean an English speaker can't grasp the concept of an orthography in which every letter is pronounced one way
That's pretty obvious. I never said otherwise. But BECAUSE English has different and complex pronounciation patterns you have to reteach English speakers how to pronounce words. Japanese and Spanish patterns are much more simple and similar. That's what I said.

>[aruberuto]
The Japanese don't pronounce the "u" there, therefore the only difference would be the first "r"; and still remember that the Japanese R is a mix between R and L.

I never implied otherwise in my post about anything you said . You just seem upset because spics have an easier time learning how to pronounce Japanese.

>>52968620
>I'm saying they're much more similar to the point of having very little differences.
Yes, and I proved you wrong.

>But BECAUSE English has different and complex pronounciation patterns you have to reteach English speakers how to pronounce words.
This takes like 1 hour max for even the stupidest people. It shouldn't be mentioned in a conversation about accent.

>>[aruberuto]
>The Japanese don't pronounce the "u" there,
Uh, yeah they do. u's are fully pronounced unless they are between voiceless consonants (note: r and b are voiced consonants), in which case they are pronounced voiceless.
Educate yourself:
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_(phonetics)
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology#Devoicing

>>52967575
There is a semantic connection, though it's not apparent in the English language, at least not today.
An arrival and the act of wearing an item of clothing have quite a bit in common. They both constitute a spatial relationship where an object is brought to a destination and is now considered connected with it in some way.
Wearing is, in fact, reduced to the transposition of an item of clothing so that it reaches its desired location and configuration, which in this case is securely mounted on your person.
I think the difficulty here is the fact that the english word for wearing goes way back, and has a distinct root all the way back to Indo-European. Perhaps they considered clothing to be something so basic and distinct that it deserved an entire root to itself, while the Chinese were more comfortable with considering wearing to be the bringing of clothing onto one's person.

I'll teach you Japanese if you teach me English.

>>52968620
Like I said earlier in the thread, Spanish speakers think that just because Japanese and Spanish both have five vowels, you can just speak Japanese with a Spanish mouth, but the reality is that you have a thick accent and you're not even aware of it.

>>52968793
>Yes, and I proved you wrong.
So, are you seriously saying English pronounciation is closer to Japanese than Spanish?

>>52968620
>>52968793
can you faggots please stop being autistic

>>52967639
糞，ニガー何を？

>>52969054
Isn't this /a/?

>>52968974

If anything, I would say that the inventory of sounds in your native language isn't very relevant to pronouncing a foreign language. Disregarding the fact that neither English or Spanish has an unrounded u, and both are stress-timed, all but two of Japanese's vowels and consonants are present in the English sound inventory: ɸ like in ふ and x like in ひ. For Spanish speakers, there's actually three new sounds (ʃ like in し, ɸ like in ふ, and dʒ like in じ) that they have to learn, but Japanese pronunciation is extremely easy. It's just a matter of whether you listen to native speakers and try to imitate, or whether you believe you're already perfect and don't pay attention to how you're pronouncing words differently from native speakers.

>>52968793
Not the guy you're replying to, but I appreciate the links.

京Ani!

>>52969060
誰がニガーかよ？

>>52967917
Could you explain what sb means? Also, more offensive slang please, I... er have some purposes for them.

>>52969459
What is sb?

>>52969521
Are you the person I was replying to? sb as in cao ni ma sb. I can infer what cao meant, but sb?

No thanks, I'd rather learn a language that's actually useful and isn't used by barbaric monkeys

>>52969728
Name a single language fitting your description.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cofriffomwu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BypyalhetUv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baurl!gras7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frajyucOtOb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eevtathaum0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BegItGeghej
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShecCyWylph
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cawotThirEy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhygokJiawf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToygNachmym
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AncuKnumGoj
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceObitmuRib
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biweanBigDa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VisejoivPid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OthGougcok<
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epAichVesIt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reeheetpaj8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kexMeyRinba
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jicnicemnen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nukUckCoiWu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiWaidInOj5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osjerodyod3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NanowlyukOn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgmiAndUrn4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GooryoxWoaj
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Feevbytoawp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jakyocAwmio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dejLyrelgOk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fotnokyuks3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frulnibBydd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Muogninvej8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yotGeanlest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vavoyroygco
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RucyeefPoft
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SocIdfiecwi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jelv8GraHun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fanRygByFri
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuadvaynWon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TutDeloidHy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyxonvocpix

Kanji?

I like it better when it was called Chinese

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FujPybFodta
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Preepyoj3oj
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kalOpvifsIj
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imAwbyudyeb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mak4wratdoz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlaHactyuk;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rahopOjBeph
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CisafVeech0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BatwinCoap|
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rizcemikHar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uggilbovcan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GelpAfjogda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inlammOysk(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=locwogailm4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noyllostoal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfbeksetsOy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juesheshDat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyThejHojyi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LelAyHoncag
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gienkashegs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiabsifAvJo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Megtitatnug
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=preshOyKnec
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enMiacvook@
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fadnojhorc?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deshugCowyi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hejkamRajby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rajofyoatoj
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeyHyWycsOl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiesbeltat\
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kirnyanakow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nebWidJind?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owagsopton7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keizNemyik8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tit'okPilf&
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyCheejyigh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HylvolAbtac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyattyatyin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RovofThotor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chikChadak5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prerzeppIc7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hinthetdyct
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eandevReeft
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItyosIcgik;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dafyichCic6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkydUconaid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tydsAkEabLo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuejbeOndav
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocoibVinuss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CisDerbEid5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RakUrecHecs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WytvoomEgiv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shnafWilpya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CicVeomRyra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MipwewrefDa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vishjugNibs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtAcHenVaij
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tanch`oddIt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mebwuHobNef
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuOlvyakchi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijriradyim^
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quoibOohak7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyft;WralEw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApsodIpyot'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quep3frocHo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JarutBolfIr
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GirhidthEip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yehimmOrcag
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuckjarrEj`
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KecMoukyecs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irOnJungont
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsDoyrogded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaKokTatAl1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quayGhaheyt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bilhyodyak6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DripNivUkDa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nuckennobmu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tibjieljed4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=debipbygtoa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojyedCilbid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myhykIarvek
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=devrobmecWo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RopIgBuVod8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbomLivPooc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JebEnijDug4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agFodyoateu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hafNokIcPio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enAdirdyoms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijandeceuj*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=femCajDedbu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KogIbnojnob
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TopHeedyudd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ProfOpsyeor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laishnetCuo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Varjyoloop#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RebAsowEnOi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DadEefpedPy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stevagsers$
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KebyemBesya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EywomWyRin0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NooshfobKog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SceokapBuek
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeegEfFict[
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shyestItsId
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeOtnibwor#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rabJobMecRy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvjemtAvJeb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gagJurnakFa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goks4friwef
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShikugOngaw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DircyeyssOv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huwrarrubSa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeopIsAvat3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kruwodotyum