AstroBoy Online Forums

"astarisborn94" wrote:Thanks. That really does help. Its hard to believe how fast the 日本語 talk, but then again, that can be said for any language I'm unfamiliar with. I also like to listen to j-pop (though mainly from animes), but I'm not sure if that's any good.

I think in the context you were trying to use "Japanese" that you meant to say the person, right? In that case, Japanese person is 日本人. 日本語 is just the language.

As for music, I personally like using music as a practice tool. Singing is especially fun. Although music isn't my main tool. I am not sure whether it's good or bad either, I guess a neutral kind of benefit?

"Satus" wrote:I think in the context you were trying to use "Japanese" that you meant to say the person, right? In that case, Japanese person is 日本人. 日本語 is just the language.

Yes I was referring to 日本人.

"Satus" wrote:As for music, I personally like using music as a practice tool. Singing is especially fun. Although music isn't my main tool. I am not sure whether it's good or bad either, I guess a neutral kind of benefit?

I don't think listening to 日本語 music would be an issue, especially if you're paying attention to the lyrics.

Tofugu's Creating Japanese Oportunities In A Non-Japanese Speaking World
I read this and thought it would be interesting for other learners to read as well.

"Satus" wrote:Tofugu's Creating Japanese Oportunities In A Non-Japanese Speaking World
I read this and thought it would be interesting for other learners to read as well.

Great article there. Currently, I'm trying to figure out what I need to know about a Kanji word. I know I'll need the English and 日本語 meanings, letters that make up the kanji, radicals if a kanji has more than one and example sentences.

がぎぐげござじずぜぞだぢづでど

I don't understand why dzu doesn't end up to be づ when typing up the letter.

"astarisborn94" wrote:I don't think listening to 日本語 music would be an issue, especially if you're paying attention to the lyrics.

Agreed. I like to listen to various music in Japanese, recently I really like Superfly's songs.

I also decided to learn more about the deities I didn't know about that Uran mentioned in her song from 1980s episode Uran's Quest. Which was interesting.

"astarisborn94" wrote:Currently, I'm trying to figure out what I need to know about a Kanji word. I know I'll need the English and 日本語 meanings, letters that make up the kanji, radicals if a kanji has more than one and example sentences.

Learning the difference between on'yomi and kun'yomi and how to tell which one to use may come in handy too. Tangorin might be able to help you out with that in their kanji section. Here is their list for JLPT5 kanji.

"astarisborn94" wrote:I don't understand why dzu doesn't end up to be づ when typing up the letter.

I am not sure of the reason why, but it seems typing du instead of dzu is how づ is typed. Sometimes I forget that's how it works and get confused.

Just finished the voiced ひらがな. After I test myself with basic and voice ひらがな, I'll be moving on to the y-vowels. Slacked off for a week or so due to college, but things are getting organized again.

Satus wrote:I also decided to learn more about the deities I didn't know about that Uran mentioned in her song from 1980s episode Uran's Quest. Which was interesting.

I've been researching some Asian religions for awhile and they do pique my interest, although I'm trying to avoid ones that require you to believe in a god.

Satus wrote:Learning the difference between on'yomi and kun'yomi and how to tell which one to use may come in handy too. Tangorin might be able to help you out with that in their kanji section. Here is their list for JLPT5 kanji.

I'll be keeping that in mind as one of the sources. I'll try to ask around for what else I should learn just to make sure I know efficient knowledge about 日本語.

I can say one full sentence but it's an insult. Because it has idiot/fool. Can I get a translation?
"Nani a tenda baka."

"spartanx01" wrote:I can say one full sentence but it's an insult. Because it has idiot/fool. Can I get a translation?
"Nani a tenda baka."

Wish I could help, but I'm still trying to finish up ひらがな (hiragana). It will take me awhile before I can help with translation.

Only advice I can give is to to drop ローマ字 (romaji) and try to learn 日本語 (Japanese) correctly. Or maybe we'll get lucky and Satus or Strange Wings will translate it, but the ローマ字 needs to go regardless.

It may be a case of mishearing, but I am unsure since I don't know the origin of the phrase. I can't find all the pieces of that vocabulary in my dictionary, but "nani" means what and "baka" can mean things like foolish, absurd, silly, dull, etc. In any case, I don't think it's wise to learn insults before useful Japanese.

Speaking of dictionaries, I recommend getting a physical one. I use Oxford Japanese Mini Dictionary, which you can buy on Amazon. It has no romaji, so you'll need to know hiragana and katakana before it will be of any use. But it's double sided, the front has Japanese words with meanings described in English and the back has English words with the Japanese equivalents for them. Additionally the back half also has example sentences on how to use those Japanese equivalents.

More useful sites to learn Japanese:
Holy Crap Japanese
Nihongo Ichiban - No idea about this one, I don't use it.
Kanji Damage - Haven't used this either.
JLPT Kanji Project
Tim Sensei's Corner

"spartanx01" wrote:I can say one full sentence but it's an insult. Because it has idiot/fool. Can I get a translation?
"Nani a tenda baka."

I believe it's something among the lines of "何やってんだ。馬鹿。" ("What are you doing, you fool!"); or "何があってんだ。馬鹿。"　("What's going on, you fool!"), although the latter example doesn't make much of a sense.

"a" as a separate particle doesn't exist, so I assume you meant to write either "nani yattenda" or perhaps "nani ga attenda".
Hope it helped.