Practice Your Japanese Through Conversation

[sutekikanojyo]

Hajime mashite. Watashi wa Marta desu. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!

Hi! I've been taking JP101 podcasts for a little while now, but I lack someone to practice with! So, if anyone feels the same way, feel free to post here, IM me on AIM, or PM me here, and we'll practice! ^.^ I just got through Beginner Lesson #21, so I've taken in a lot with limited practice. (You know how difficult it can be to find a fellow Japanese student in South Florida!) I'm best at Romaji, and I think it would be easiest to use over AIM or e-mail or however we arrange to chat. Thanks so much!

Mata ne!

[JockZon]

Feel free to talk to me!

Joakim desu

yoroshiku onegaishimasu

[sutekikanojyo]

sugoi! doumo arigatou gozaimasu

ogenki desu ka? watashi wa zekkouchou desu ne!

anata no onamae wa suki desu. ^.^ watashi wa amerika-jin desu. anata no goshusshin wa doko desu ka? ((i hope i said that right? ^.~' lol))

mata ne!

[JockZon]

Hai! Genki desu. Watashi wa Suweiden-jin desu. Anata wa nansai desu ka?

[sutekikanojyo]

Hai! Genki desu. Watashi wa Suweiden-jin desu. Anata wa nansai desu ka?

1.) what does nansai mean?
2.) how do you ask what something means in japanese? lol! haven't gotten there yet ^.~'

[JockZon]

Nansai means how many years, basicly how old are you. How you ask how to say something in japanese you say "kore wa nihongo de nan to iimasu ka/これは日本語で何と言いますか" and that is brought up in survival phrases 7-8

[sutekikanojyo]

ooo that would be why idunno how to say it yet lol my last survival phrases episode was 5... but i'm workin my way up ^.~'

anata wa omoshiroi desu! ^.^ watashi wa 18sai ((kore wa nihongo de nan to iimasu ka?)) desu. anata wa nansai desu ka? nani ga suki desu ka?

i can count to 10 in japanese, but up to where i am, they haven't taught us past that. i'm gonna load up on some more lessons tonight! lol

[Jason]

Youkoso irasshaimashita, sutekikanojyo!

A much more polite (and safer) way to ask someone's age is, "Oikutsu desu ka?" It litterally means "how many (years) are you?" I strongly recommend this for most people you don't know very well. If they're very obviously younger than you, "nan-sai desu ka?" is fine, though.

"18-sai" wa, "juuhassai" to iimasu. Natsukashii na~, 18-sai. Doko e nigete shimaimashita ka, watashi no seishun. -_-

While I realize you're new at this, I strongly recommend you not get too dependent on rouma-ji. You should try to learn hiragana and katakana (collectively known just as "kana") pretty soon and start using it instead.

[sutekikanojyo]

;_; i suddenly feel like such a n00b lol!

i just got thru survival lesson 6, so i still don't understand a lot... so much of your message was lost

Youkoso irasshaimashita

"18-sai" wa, "juuhassai" to iimasu. Natsukashii na~, 18-sai. Doko e nigete shimaimashita ka, watashi no seishun. -_-

i know irasshaimase is welcome, in a business sense, almost like the manekineko. and ashita is tomorrow...

i'll check out those threads you mentioned to me, and start working on all that kana stuff... one of them is chinese i think, right? i'm not totally sure. it's gonna take a lotta work though... but hey! no use falling too far behind, right? ^.~"

thanks so much for all your patience with me! i know you're really busy working on other things for the site, so i really appreciate it anata wa yasashikute saikou... arigatou gozaimasu!

[edit, 5 mins later] i just tried it, and idunno how to do it... the drive my computer's telling me to use is dead because it won't read ANY cds anymore (it's REALLY old), and it won't let me change it to the new cd drive. i'm getting a new computer in august for college, so i'll do all that then (even though it'll take some time because of all my other priorities ). meanwhile, i'll mess around with this and try to figure out why it won't let me. thanks so much anyway! much obliged ^.^[/edit]

[Jason]

;_; i suddenly feel like such a n00b lol!

Don't feel bad. Everybody was a n00b at one time.

Youkoso irasshaimashita

"18-sai" wa, "juuhassai" to iimasu. Natsukashii na~, 18-sai. Doko e nigete shimaimashita ka, watashi no seishun. -_-

i know irasshaimase is welcome, in a business sense, almost like the manekineko. and ashita is tomorrow...

"Youkoso irasshaimasita" is a very polite (and long) way of saying "Welcome!" As for the rest of that:

"You pronounce '18-sai' as 'juuhassai.' That brings back memories, 18. Where'd my youth run off to? -_-"

[JockZon]

Hehe Thanks for helping me out Jason.

Kana is not chinese, it's just syllables. The chinese writing system is called kanji and you should wait with that until you learn hiragan and katakana. Then you learn the kanji you uses the most and so on. That is how I learn now.

[Cruxay]

watashi no seishun. -_-

issho seishun, wasnt it? podcast #81? lol

[sutekikanojyo]

Hehe Thanks for helping me out Jason.

Kana is not chinese, it's just syllables. The chinese writing system is called kanji and you should wait with that until you learn hiragan and katakana. Then you learn the kanji you uses the most and so on. That is how I learn now.

in the beginner's lessons there's kanji and kana... is kana the hiragana? since my computer's not working with the whole japanese language thing, i started hand-copying the kana in a notebook to get a head start until i get my new computer.

[Jason]

hiragana = the generally more curvy characters
katakana = the characters typically with more sharp angles
kana = hiragana + katakana

[edit] BTW, there are wonderful kana charts in the Learning Center.

[doriangrey64]

Hajime mashite watashi wa Dorian desu. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu. Watashi wa igirisu no london desu. Nihongo ga daisuki desu, watashi mo Anime daisuki desu.

Hehe im really bad at my Japanese now, i cant remember as much these days. I have gotten so lazy with the lessons, i havent done a lesson in about 4 months. Ireally need to get back to doing them. I think this is a great topic for all of us to help one another in nihongo. ^_^