Practice Your Japanese Through Conversation

[sheiko]

Shei desu. Daigaku de Nihon bunka ga watashi no minor deshita. Sono toki kara, amari Nihongo wo hanashitenai de, oboemasen. Yonnenkan gurai renshuu shinakattakara, heta ni nate shimatta. (I hope this made sense).

Hello, everyone. I've stumbled upon this site from the iTunes podcast, and I'm very pleased to have done so. It's like finding the Holy Grail! I am considering the Premium membership but I just want to test this out first. I do hope this is as cool as I'm hoping it'd be.

I've studied Japanese for about 3-4 years in college, one time even persuading our sensei to open up another Topics class just to keep up with the conversation. This was around 2002 -- unfortunately most of us have moved on, others have gone to Japan, but alot have let it atrophy like I have. I do want to someday get back to learning again, and perhaps this is my chance?!

Excuse my romaji, I haven't figured out how to use the encoding thing yet. Maybe someone could direct me to a Japanese-app that will translate romaji to kanji / hiragana / katakana? Mac toiu kompyuuta wo tsukatte imasu.

Thanks for reading -- I do hope to be a regular in here. Excuse the noobness, btw. Benkyou mou suru tsumori desu!

[firstnamelastnamefirst101]

Hai. Hajimemashite. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.

Watashi wa Amerikajin. Ima, watashi wa amerika desu. (or should i word it as " Ima, Watashi wa amerika ga doko desu"?) Saikin, watashi wa monosugoi genki ippai desu ne!
Watashi wa amerika ryori to nihon ryori to itaria ryori ga suki desu. Jpod101 wa daisuki desu. Aa, watashi wa omoidasen (did i use this verb right?), watashi wa "firstnamelastnamefirst" desu. Watashi wa oni ga kerai desu kedo inu-yasha ga daisuki desu. lol

Hi. I was just wondering if anyone could give me some detials on ne and yo... i know they both are use to spice up sentences, but what are the diffrences between them and when is it apropriate to use them?

Arigatou... Jaa ne.
- Firstnamelastnamefirst

[sheiko]

Hi. I was just wondering if anyone could give me some detials on ne and yo... i know they both are use to spice up sentences, but what are the diffrences between them and when is it apropriate to use them?

Arigatou... Jaa ne.
- Firstnamelastnamefirst

ne = "is that right?" / agreeing / isn't it? / alright?

'Asobi Seksu' no ongaku ga ii desune. (AS's music is good, isn't it?)
Kondo hanasu ne. (We will speak next time, ok?)

yo = (informing something the other person doesn't know)

Atashi mo 'Asobi Seksu' ga suki desuyo. Nido mita toki, tanoshimashita.

[Jason]

Excuse my romaji, I haven't figured out how to use the encoding thing yet. Maybe someone could direct me to a Japanese-app that will translate romaji to kanji / hiragana / katakana? Mac toiu kompyuuta wo tsukatte imasu.

There are HOWTOs for both XP and Mac OS X in the resources forum.

よ doesn't always carry the implication that you're telling the person something they don't already know. Somestimes it's simply adds emphasis.

[Bueller_007]

よ doesn't always carry the implication that you're telling the person something they don't already know. Somestimes it's simply adds emphasis.

And sometimes it subtracts emphasis.

急げ！ is pretty damn straight-forward. 急げよ！ sounds somewhat softer.

よ is best thought of as an "emphasis moderating particle".

[firstnamelastnamefirst101]

ne = "is that right?" / agreeing / isn't it? / alright?

'Asobi Seksu' no ongaku ga ii desune. (AS's music is good, isn't it?)
Kondo hanasu ne. (We will speak next time, ok?)

yo = (informing something the other person doesn't know)

Atashi mo 'Asobi Seksu' ga suki desuyo. Nido mita toki, tanoshimashita.

Thanks for the answer

[Ruki]

Hajimemashite. Watashi wa Ruki desu. Watashi wa Amerikajin.

Konnichi wa everyone. I am almost completely new to the language. I know some romaji but I still am working on my kana.

[JonnyB]

おはよう　みなさん。

はじめまして。　私は　ジョン　ビードル　です。　よろしくおねがいします

しゅっしんは　イギリスのロンドンです。

にほんごは　さんがつに　ぐらい　べんきょうを　しました。それから日本語は　だいすきです。

私は　日本語が　ちょっと　わるい　です。

日本語のブログは　初めて　です。<---

よろしくお願いします。

ジョン


(please feel free to correct and make suggestions )

[penguinguin]

皆さん、こんにちは
私は擇明（タクメイ）と申します。香港人です。
よろしくお願いします。

日本語はもう三年ぐらい勉強しました
でも、使う機会がないし、勤勉ではないし
私の日本語はまだ下手です。
間違いがあったら、直してもらいませんか。

[tiroth2]

JohnnyB-さん、

にほんごは　さんがつに　ぐらい　べんきょうを　しました。

なに　いってるん　です　か？　Marchに　べんきょう　してはじめました　って？　さん　かげつ　ぐらい　べんきょう　してました　って？

日本語のブログは　初めて　です。

さあ、いみ　ちょっと　わかりません　ねえ。

擇明さん、
下手じゃなくて上手ですよ。僕だって同じことですよー使いたいんだけど機会がないんです。もしここで話せば僕たちがもっと上手になるでしょう。

香港人ですね。中国料理が大好きです。「ぺいめい」の本してます？たくさん美味いものが入っています。中国語も面白いと思うけどこの頃日本語だけで二十分です。

じゃ、また。

[JonnyB]

tiroth2さん。ありがとうございます

なに　いってるん　です　か？　Marchに　べんきょう　してはじめました　って？　さん　かげつ　ぐらい　べんきょう　してました　って？

はい。あなたは　せいかい　いました。

i was trying to say "i have been studying japanese since march".

How do i construct the "- ing" form of a verb?　so when i want to express an ongoing action

writing
studying
reading

etc...

日本語のブログは　初めて　です。

さあ、いみ　ちょっと　わかりません　ねえ。

(this was meant to say "This is my first blog/message in Japanese" - i guess it didnt make much sense but hey, i tried )

どもありがとうございます。

[penguinguin]

擇明さん、
下手じゃなくて上手ですよ。僕だって同じことですよー使いたいんだけど機会がないんです。もしここで話せば僕たちがもっと上手になるでしょう。

一緒にがんばりましょう！～～～

香港人ですね。中国料理が大好きです。「ぺいめい」の本してます？たくさん美味いものが入っています。

私は特にどこかの料理が好きだということはありません。
ここにはどこの料理も食べられるからです。
（べいめいはなんですか。　？＿？）

中国語も面白いと思うけどこの頃日本語だけで二十分です。

中国語（北京語）は難しいですね、発音も文法も漢字も。
私の母語は広東語だから、北京語はわかりますけど、よく話せません。

[aoidaisuki]

初めまして。　私　は　レナード　です。　どうぞ　よろしく
お願いします。　私　は　アメリカ　の　カリフォニア　しゅっしん　です。　
１８才　です。　日本語　を　ちょっと　わかります。　　

I would gladly appreciate any corrections that are necessary.

[Bueller_007]

初めまして。　私　は　レナード　です。　どうぞ　よろしく
お願いします。　私　は　アメリカ　の　カリフォニア　しゅっしん　です。　
１８才　です。　日本語　を　ちょっと　わかります。　　

I would gladly appreciate any corrections that are necessary.

It's pretty good. A few things though:

You don't need spaces between your words.

You should use the particle "ga" (not "wo") for "wakarimasu", and, IMO, "chotto" doesn't work well with "wakarimasu" because the former is informal and the latter is formal. So you might consider using "sukoshi" instead:

日本語が少しわかります。

Also, I'm not sure about this, but although it's common to say "Cariforunia shusshin", it may not be natural to say "Amerika no Caruforunia shusshin", which may mean that you are "a Californian of America" rather than your intended meaning of "a native of America's California". It might be better to pop an extra "no" in there:

アメリカのカリフォルニアの出身です。

Or you could just drop the "America" part. Few people don't know where California is.

[ehuntley83]

Like many in this thread, I'm just beginning to learn Japanese and only know basic introductions, etc. but here we go anyway!

はじめまして　みなさん！

私は　ハーンタリー　です。　よろしく　おねがいします。
アメリカ人　です。　日本語　が　すこし　わかります。
私は　日本語の　がくせい　です。
JPod　が　だいすき　です！

That's about it so far. Please correct anything I did wrong, especially when it comes to typing up in Japanese since I only just began using it!

ありがとう　ございます！