People learning/learnt remote languages...why?

[Attalus]

How about dead languages? I study Latin and ancient Greek, to read ancient texts in their original tongues. (Not very far along on the Greek, though)

[Bahamut]

It is because I am very interested in the Japanese Culture, so I want to learn Japanese.

I had it in my Foreign Language subject. Now I have intentions of going to Japan to learn more with hands-on experience also. [img]smile.gif[/img] Hey, my ex wants to learn French, but I am just not interested.

Yes it's not a necessity but it is just like why are you posting in IW, you don't have to.

And I watch anime too... it'll help a lot.

[Megabot]

Originally posted by johnny: I kinda like it to communicate with other people in their language, or at least make an attempt to do so. Speaking several languages isn't really that important to me, but it's fun if you can.

Why dont you not speak to me in Norwegian then Johnny? you should could speak that language by now LOL

[Gabrielles blades]

Hrm, duno what kuso is
but heres what i do know (and theyre all probably horribly mis spelt since i only know them verbally not written)

1 Baka (idiot)
2 arigatou (thanks)
3 sumimasen (excuse me)
4 comenasai (im sorry)
5 hentai (pervert)
6 ecci (pervert)
7 juzo jarimasen (being humble)
8 wakarimas (understand)
9 eggo (english)
10 nihongo (japanese)
11 watashi (I)
12 sen (added at ends to make opposites)
13 mo (also)
14 to (with)
15 ne (agreement)
16 wa (indicates focus)
17 ka (makes sentence a question)
18 ohayo (early)
19 sayonarra (goodbye)
20 gozai mas (more polite)
21 conekneecheewa (good afternoon)
22 conebonwa (good evening)
23 doki (heartbeat)
24 yosh (great)
25 sugoi (amazing)
26 daijobou (alright)
27 mate (wait)
28 ja (later)
29 sensei (teacher)
30 nanpa (player)

Hrm so i knew a bit more than i thought i did when i sat down and thought about all of the words i could remember. Still isnt nearly enough words to be able to communicate effectively though.

how far are you in your studies of japanese?

[Vaskez]

Gabrielle what about numbers?
ichi, nie, san, shi, go roku, sichi, hachi, ku, yu
that's 1-10
then karitza = stand up
hidari = left
achi = leg
zuki = punch
geri = kick
kenshi = student
oragai shimasu = please teach me
hai = yes
daisharin = cartwheel

that's off the top of my head

[uss]

Heh, Gabrielle, it's funny that you know so many of the very basic words that I know also. In fact, from that list, juzo jamimasen and nanpa were the only ones I didn't know. Hey, assuming you have seen Neon Genesis Evangelion, don't you also know daskite(help me)? Shinji uses that phrase a lot. Or maybe Yamero/Yamete(stop!) from Trigun

Vask, have to admit that most of your vocabulary is unfamiliar to me.

About numbers.. Continuing what you said, Vask: Ju-ichi, ju-ni, ju-san, ju-shi(yon, yo), ju-go, ju-roku, ju-shichi(nana), ju-ku(kyu), ni-ju, and so on up to ichi-hyaku!

I wont try to strech my head and say everything I know, but being a nitpicky bastard, ja is used also as 'well, in that case; so then' and onegai shimasu is used when asking a favour of any sort, not only teaching.

I love the Japanese prepositions and such. I mean all those words consisting of one syllable. For example, if you want to emphasize a sentence, just say Yo after it.

[ 07-14-2004, 05:08 AM: Message edited by: uss ]

[Gabrielles blades]

no i dont know those!

whats the difference between yamate and mate? and what was kuso before?
is one more extreme than the other? or is it ia social context issue?

I saw neon genesis evangelion well before i started trying to learn japanese so i dont know that word.

what book or audio files are you studying from? ive been thinking of buying some to study before i enroll for the classes but duno which ones to get.

as for juzo ja arimasen i think juzo means skilled or good, while ja and arimasen make it opposite and humble. so as a whole it means something like no im not that good or oh anyone can do that.

i have great difficulty sorting out what they are saying most of the time in anime because they speak so incredably fast! ah well, i wonder how in the world they manage to do that, it seems to me when im trying to speak english even that i pause a lot more often to catch breath than they do.

[uss]

Don't worry about how fast they speak - Fact is that you can speak really fast and carelessly in almost every language, definitely including English.

Yamate/yamero is used when you instantly want somebody to stop doing some act. It is used very rarely, since the Japanese usually don't speak their mind. Mate is definitely less extreme. I'd translate mate as 'wait a sec' rather than 'stop.'

My father bought me a Teach Yourself Japanese Language, Life and Culture book, an English-Japanese dictionary and a Take off in Japanese Oxford studybook + 4 audio tapes for my birthday. They're all great. [img]smile.gif[/img]

About kuso, I'll quote my Life & Culture book:"Words such as baka and bakayaro translate as idiot or fool. Even the word kuso does not have the same impact as the English shit."


A tip on basic words: Cat is neko and dog is inu. Cats seem to be the favourite pet in most Anime, so I bet you'll be hearing the word neko some more.

[Vaskez]

Aah that explains something! Anyone remember the game called Secret of Mana on the SNES? Well the cat character was called Neko. Not very original then! Haha!