Japanese study group

[五十嵐 美幸]

3 hours ago, katonice said:

Oh wait, so you don't normally say , こんにちは？And here I use it all the time lol!

 

You don't.

 

With friends or colleagues you'd use おはようございます - or just おはよう - the first time you see them that day.

 

With other people, if it's conversational, most common are "seasonal statement" statements, like

 

梅雨は、本当に開けましたね。

 

この暑さで、大変ですね。

 

If you'd want to attract attention in a store or so, it'd be the good old すみません or 

すみませんが

 

and so on.

 

Why have only one way when you can have three or four? 😛

 

3 hours ago, Hydroblade said:

Soon you'll be able to write like me, going down the stairs while typing and checking the kanji only when i finish the whole sentence haha

 

階段、お気をつけて。お見舞いに中々行けられませんので。😅

[surimi]

44 minutes ago, katonice said:

I find lately that Google Translate is helpful in this, since they give you the romaji (English letters) readings of the kanji. Or jisho.org is good too if you want more of a practice on reading kana, since having the translation given to you in romaji might not be that helpful with your Japanese in the long run. Just copy and paste the kanji text to either of these and they will give you romaji/kana readings.

 

I'll try both then. ^ ^ For us who still work on their fluency in reading the kana and learning the last katakana symbols (if there are any here like that, except for me? ) , the romaji can be a life saver when translating certain fast-moving threads.

 

14 minutes ago, 五十嵐 美幸 said:

 

You don't.

 

With friends or colleagues you'd use おはようございます - or just おはよう - the first time you see them that day.

 

With other people, if it's conversational, most common are "seasonal statement" statements, like

 

梅雨は、本当に開けましたね。

 

この暑さで、大変ですね。

 

If you'd want to attract attention in a store or so, it'd be the good old すみません or 

すみませんが

 

and so on.

 

Why have only one way when you can have three or four? 😛

 

Who says konnichiwa, then? Does using it as the first word automatically label you as a foreigner, before you even say anything else? And uh-oh, I've learned 'ohayoo gozaimasu' is used for 'good morning', does it mean one uses it at whatever time of day one sees their colleagues/friends first?

[katonice]

20 minutes ago, 五十嵐 美幸 said:

 

You don't.

 

With friends or colleagues you'd use おはようございます - or just おはよう - the first time you see them that day.

 

With other people, if it's conversational, most common are "seasonal statement" statements, like

 

梅雨は、本当に開けましたね。

 

この暑さで、大変ですね。

 

If you'd want to attract attention in a store or so, it'd be the good old すみません or 

すみませんが

 

and so on.

 

Why have only one way when you can have three or four? 😛

 

 

階段、お気をつけて。お見舞いに中々行けられませんので。😅

Haha, well I do feel like a bit of a fool now, since I use konnichiwa almost as a default greeting. N00b! Lol!

 

[五十嵐 美幸]

16 minutes ago, surimi said:

...

 

Who says konnichiwa, then? Does using it as the first word automatically label you as a foreigner, before you even say anything else? And uh-oh, I've learned 'ohayoo gozaimasu' is used for 'good morning', does it mean one uses it at whatever time of day one sees their colleagues/friends first?

 

Not Japanese normally, I'm trying to remember when I last heard it used and I really can't recall. 😅

 

こんにちは is like はい. It's in the dictionary, but it doesn't correlate really to the term it's translated as. こんばんは isn't used much more either. 

 

Since おはよう literally just means "it's early" = "it's the first time I'm seeing you today," yes, it's used regardless of actual time of day. People working for TV for example still say おはようございますwhen they come to work at noon or 3pm or 6pm.

 

And since I'm at greetings, お休みなさい also isn't used in western sense of good night, as is taking your leave from someone later in the evening, it's rather close to its literal meaning of rest well, a "sleep well" said before you actually go to bed or at least your room at home, or a hotel when traveling.

 

(Using お休みにゃさい should be avoided unless talking to other 羽生結弦選手 fans! )

 

7 minutes ago, katonice said:

Haha, well I do feel like a bit of a fool now, since I use konnichiwa almost as a default greeting. N00b! Lol!

 

 

Don't feel bad, it's a common mistake. 😀

 

Oh and as I mentioned はい above, はい does NOT mean yes as in "yes, I agree." It only means something like, "I've been listening (and understand what you said)."

[sweetwater]

I use こんにちは and こんばんは quite often to greet my neighbors. My landlady’s cat always comes close to me and turns his back to me when I say こんばんは to him, to let me stroke his back in return. I think it’s his way of saying Hi to friendly human, haha.

Delivery person and sales would also say こんにちは at my door.

However, if you are an office worker who spend your day mainly in your office, you might not have many chance to say or hear こんにちは.

 

ETA: Usage of こんにちは or こんばんは may vary with region too. In my hometown older people tend to use どうも and おばんです instead of こんにちは and こんばんは.

[五十嵐 美幸]

7 hours ago, sweetwater said:

I use こんにちは and こんばんは quite often to greet my neighbors. My landlady’s cat always comes close to me and turns his back to me when I say こんばんは to him, to let me stroke his back in return. I think it’s his way of saying Hi to friendly human, haha.

Delivery person and sales would also say こんにちは at my door.

However, if you are an office worker who spend your day mainly in your office, you might not have many chance to say or hear こんにちは.

 

ETA: Usage of こんにちは or こんばんは may vary with region too. In my hometown older people tend to use どうも and おばんです instead of こんにちは and こんばんは.

 

I agree there are a great deal local variances.

 

I haven't lived anywhere but Tokyo for any length of time - in Japan, that is; I've lived several places overseas - and I have to admit in Tokyo one tends to forget there is more of the country outside it. ^^;

[Danibellerika]

So I opted to take the 202 class. I will studying the 201 content on my own because the class doesn't start for another 3 weeks and it currently conflicts with the last couple grad school sessions for the semester.  I can get through 3 chapters in that time I think. But it's funny because I'm thumbing through the Genki I book for the 100 levels and I'm looking at this dialogue:

 

This is actually harder to read now. It was just a crazy moment because I remember there was a time I preferred this  . But now, I'd rather see 会話, 高い, 時計, 店員, and for goodness sakes 3500円 is so much easier than this way. 

[Murieleirum]

21 minutes ago, Danibellerika said:

But now, I'd rather see 会話, 高い, 時計, 店員, and for goodness sakes 3500円 is so much easier than this way. 

 

Aaaah! My book! My companion... my partner 

I wish I could read kanji's as good as you! I'm still stuck on the first 100 

[Hydroblade]

31 minutes ago, Danibellerika said:

So I opted to take the 202 class. I will studying the 201 content on my own because the class doesn't start for another 3 weeks and it currently conflicts with the last couple grad school sessions for the semester.  I can get through 3 chapters in that time I think. But it's funny because I'm thumbing through the Genki I book for the 100 levels and I'm looking at this dialogue:

 

This is actually harder to read now. It was just a crazy moment because I remember there was a time I preferred this  . But now, I'd rather see 会話, 高い, 時計, 店員, and for goodness sakes 3500円 is so much easier than this way. 

Hahaha i know, reading only hiragana is like  it's pretty hard for me too. And it feels wrong to type japanese in romaji. That's one of the reasons why i don't complain about learning kanji, it's so useful and simplifies your life a lot haha.

[surimi]

So that's what the beginner Genki book looks like? I like it, and I like that I got the gist of that dialogue. I just hope it's not lesson 1 , that could spoil my joy. I could get easily attached to a book that uses the kana for a good few lessons. Mine (well, the only real textbook among my stuff on Japanese) starts adding the kanji from lesson 2, and I find I need a slower pace. And to start from the simplest shapes, like the one for rice field or book and such. sakana is an exception, it was probbaly the first kanji I learned, and am in love with it for some reason (I guess it's the tiny 'legs' I find cute ^ ^ ) And the romaji are very useful, I like seeing the texts side by side in the first couple of lessons. When does Genki start adding the kanji, out of curiosity?

 

At this point I prefer the kanas and the romaji. Not ashamed. In a year or two, though, who knows.

[Murieleirum]

1 hour ago, surimi said:

So that's what the beginner Genki book looks like? I like it, and I like that I got the gist of that dialogue. I just hope it's not lesson 1 , that could spoil my joy. I could get easily attached to a book that uses the kana for a good few lessons. Mine (well, the only real textbook among my stuff on Japanese) starts adding the kanji from lesson 2, and I find I need a slower pace. And to start from the simplest shapes, like the one for rice field or book and such. sakana is an exception, it was probbaly the first kanji I learned, and am in love with it for some reason (I guess it's the tiny 'legs' I find cute ^ ^ ) And the romaji are very useful, I like seeing the texts side by side in the first couple of lessons. When does Genki start adding the kanji, out of curiosity?

 

At this point I prefer the kanas and the romaji. Not ashamed. In a year or two, though, who knows.

 

That one you saw is lesson 2!

Genki I uses kanji from the first chapters, but always puts furigana on top. This is something that is good for beginners, but kind of bad for people like me who need to be 'forced' a little to learn kanji  and for me it would be better NOT to have the furigana always on top of it. If there is something that Genki doesn't push a lot, it's Kanji, now that I think about it. This is why I've tried using WaniKani as a parallel study of writing Japanese. I mean, it was going well, but I'm still waiting for my mom to allow me to get that damn subscription heh.

[Danibellerika]

16 hours ago, surimi said:

So that's what the beginner Genki book looks like? I like it, and I like that I got the gist of that dialogue. I just hope it's not lesson 1 , that could spoil my joy. I could get easily attached to a book that uses the kana for a good few lessons. Mine (well, the only real textbook among my stuff on Japanese) starts adding the kanji from lesson 2, and I find I need a slower pace. And to start from the simplest shapes, like the one for rice field or book and such. sakana is an exception, it was probbaly the first kanji I learned, and am in love with it for some reason (I guess it's the tiny 'legs' I find cute ^ ^ ) And the romaji are very useful, I like seeing the texts side by side in the first couple of lessons. When does Genki start adding the kanji, out of curiosity?

 

At this point I prefer the kanas and the romaji. Not ashamed. In a year or two, though, who knows.

No shame at all. You have to start somewhere.  

 

 

15 hours ago, Murieleirum said:

 

That one you saw is lesson 2!

Genki I uses kanji from the first chapters, but always puts furigana on top. This is something that is good for beginners, but kind of bad for people like me who need to be 'forced' a little to learn kanji  and for me it would be better NOT to have the furigana always on top of it. If there is something that Genki doesn't push a lot, it's Kanji, now that I think about it. This is why I've tried using WaniKani as a parallel study of writing Japanese. I mean, it was going well, but I'm still waiting for my mom to allow me to get that damn subscription heh.

Good eye lol! Genki II has furigana below it but by the end of the book you get this, and this is pretty easy for me now (easier to read than I):

 

16 hours ago, Hydroblade said:

Hahaha i know, reading only hiragana is like  it's pretty hard for me too. And it feels wrong to type japanese in romaji. That's one of the reasons why i don't complain about learning kanji, it's so useful and simplifies your life a lot haha.

I also don't like how romaji isn't consistent.  This book says "tokee", but another will say "tokei". This book probably says "soo desu" (haven't seen it yet), but another will say "sou desu". 

[Murieleirum]

3 minutes ago, Danibellerika said:

 

Who thinks Americans are scary?? Why?? 

[Murieleirum]

btw: I was shocked while studying through Genki I because among the characters of the various lessons, there is a Mary-san... who looks like she's 12 but she is actually a college student... and in a random excercise, there was a drawing of Mary-san smoking cigarettes. It broke my heart since I saw her as a prepubescent healthy little girl and my childhood finished right then and there. 

[Danibellerika]

22 minutes ago, Murieleirum said:

 

Who thinks Americans are scary?? Why?? 

It carried over from the prior page, but it looks like they were surveying people from different countries about how looking at certain types of pictures of facial expressions and they say how they would describe the face.