Japanese study group

[Murieleirum]

3 minutes ago, surimi said:

 

Yes, there's something heartwarming about the 'wants to learn Japanese and watches FS -> must be a fan of YH' deduction.

 

I swear, if I had to think of one italian with his same popularity in the whole country, I'd think of Vasco Rossi, a singer/writer who just had a concert with over 150.000 people attending. There are sportsmen and women who are known, but they don't have many passionate fans, really. The level of passion that Yuzuru elicits can only be compared to musical idols, or actors. 

[Danibellerika]

My classes start next Thursday, haha. I'm not sure how they'll handle the icebreakers for level 200s because I guess they assume we've been around but I'm looking forward to reporting. Just reviewing everything and then it's time!  

[surimi]

Can anyone help me out with this one? What is the difference between the use of は in definitions, and of とは? I come across both in the Japanese Wiki entry openings, but don't understand what exactly the latter is for.

[Murieleirum]

Hello guys!

I just wanted to up this thread a bit by sharing some new tv series I watched these past months that I really liked. Since I am watching these series to train my listening, I think this post belongs here more than elsewhere.

(All of these series happen to have Issei Takahashi 高橋一生 as a main character. This is absolutely far from a coincidence. I am in love with this man)

 

1) おんな城主 直虎 (Onna Joushu Naotora). This is a historical taiga drama that tells the story of the Ii clan, lead for many years by a female priestess with a progressive view on the world. This show is still running, there are subs up to episode 23, they aired up to episode 30 and it will have around 50 episodes, as I understood. The Japanese here is different from modern Japanese, but I find it very interesting whenever I can understand grammatical differences and such. Plus, it makes you understand Japanese History during the Internal wars period. 

2) Another taiga drama is Nobunaga Concerto, which tells the story of the Oda clan... with a little twist, lol. But this way you will know everything about Oda history! Or almost everything. The lead actor is pretty cool as well. The acting is pleasing to me, but I am somewhat used to Japanese style acting by now. 

3) だから荒野 (Dakara Kouya) is a series that tells the story of a housewife leaving her family and her husband behind to try to search for a different life. This one also revolves around the story of the Nagasaki bombing. It's introspective and a little slow maybe, but I liked it very much. 

4) 民王 (Tamiou) is an idiotic series based on the story of a prime minister being body-swapped with his teenager son. There are a lot of kanji-reading related jokes in this one. It's pretty fun and entertaining. I loved it. 

 

Let me know if you're watching anything worth sharing! I'm always searching for... "study material". 

[Danibellerika]

I actually have class 3 tonight of my Japanese lessons. So far it's okay but the pace is a bit too slow for me (I mean there are 4 classes alone on chapter 16). And when we do pair work, I have no idea what the person I'm paired with is saying and I usually end up helping her to figure out how to say something. I wish I was paired with the instructor personally, but what can you do. I'm debating studying chapters for 203 along with the 202 class (where I'm in now) so that when this 10 week session is over I can do the 204 class next. That will put me on a good pace to start the 300 classes in the beginning of the year. Of course a lot will depend on my grad school classes (there could be overlap in the schedule) as well as PyeongChang since I'll be gone for a couple of weeks for that. 

 

Murieleirum, thanks for sharing the series. I am planning to watch Tokyo Vampire Hotel (I've been so busy), and I am trying to wrap up watching the anime Kamisama Hajimemashita. It's so cute.  It's like Inuyasha lite, lol. 

[Altie]

Hi everyone

I'm not sure this is the right place for this post, but who knows ?

 

I've been studying japanese by myself since I was 13 (not intensively) but the thing I've always missed is someone to talk or to write to - it still is the best way to learn a language, and I think I've been stagnating for this reason.

so I was wondering if by any chance you would know a way to find a japanese penfriend, who would be interested in exchanging some mail with a friendly 40 yo french woman, in order to practice language and exchange about our cultures (or anything really ?) ?

Are there websites for internatinal friends for instance, or Idk ?

 

[Murieleirum]

1 hour ago, Altie said:

Hi everyone

I'm not sure this is the right place for this post, but who knows ?

 

I've been studying japanese by myself since I was 13 (not intensively) but the thing I've always missed is someone to talk or to write to - it still is the best way to learn a language, and I think I've been stagnating for this reason.

so I was wondering if by any chance you would know a way to find a japanese penfriend, who would be interested in exchanging some mail with a friendly 40 yo french woman, in order to practice language and exchange about our cultures (or anything really ?) ?

Are there websites for internatinal friends for instance, or Idk ?

 

 

I've tried Conversationexchange dot com (reliable and you find lots of Japanese people. I even met one who visited my city and we spent a day talking), mylanguageexchange (reliable, asks for money to go premium but I haven't and I've left my contact into for whoever wanted to talk to me), SharedLingo (I prefer those other two). There are tons of sites really. The truth is, it's kinda better if you can actually meet with some Japanese people in real life, because on the internet one can always ignore the messages and forget about the person. But I've talked with so many interesting people in the last 2 months. I'd say on average, I was messaged by 50 people, I engaged conversation with half, and created a penpal relationship with half of the half. Then, it's up to you to find interesting arguments to talk about. 

 

I have to say though, my Japanese is still pretty basic, so if you can understand and write more than basic, I think it will be easier to keep up with conversations! Good luck! 

[Altie]

Thanks a lot for your answer

I'll check those websites and perhaps I'll find myself a japanese friend ?

[Murieleirum]

1 hour ago, Altie said:

Thanks a lot for your answer

I'll check those websites and perhaps I'll find myself a japanese friend ?

 

I wish you the best! Japanese people are so friendly and funny. 

Also, you said you are French so it came to mind that I went to Paris twice this year and there are so many Asians there! Not only Chinese but also Japanese and Koreans. Definitely more Asians than in Rome, which is my city (not counting the tourists). You may get lucky and find on internet some Japanese people who live in France. That is, if you live there too 

[Altie]

 

Yeah I live in paris neighborhood.

There are several chinese areas in paris, and a japanese one where we can eat tasteful Ramens and buy japanese books in japanese bookshops

However the asian I've spent time with when I was studying where generally from vietnam and cambodia (probably because they were former french colonies).

And I had two french/japanese friends at one point but the problem was, they spoke french better than myself so we never used japanese to discuss

 

Once I helped a japanese family lost in paris subway though, speaking to them in japanese... god, never again have any people bowed that much at me

They were lovely.

 

Sorry for telling my life XD

 

[surimi]

Good luck with the websites, Altie! If you're sociable, they look like a great place to practice language, and who knows, if you live in a city as large as Paris, you could even make a real-life friend who lives or is staying in Paris? Good luck, and let us know how you fared!

Myself, I checked out a conversation website or two, but didn't join - I'm extremely introverted and immensely unimaginative/boring when it comes to talking to strangers. So I went ahead and despite my low level, signed up for 'official' individual classes with a native speaker, because I really really need someone to check and correct my pronunciation. Turns out I got lucky - this guy knows not only of Hanyu, but of Kihira as well, yay! 

[Danibellerika]

To speak with other people online, I also saw an ad for this site called "lingbe". Not sure of reviews or anything but they say you get points for speaking with others and you can do it as much as you want. 

 

In class last night I spoke with my Japanese teacher because we were going over kanji and I was able to use that to segue into convo about Yuzu.  Basically we were learning kanji and ended up going over what was part of his name because alone 羽 means Hane but 羽生 makes is Hanyu so I was asking her to explain the transformation to me. Often you just combine the pronunciation of both without altering (though I know there are some instances like nihyaku vs. sanbyaku for instance, nihon vs. sanbon vs. juppon, etc).  I just wanted to know if there is a rule of thumb to it.  I've concluded that Japanese just remains impossible and hopeless .  But she definitely knows who Yuzu is and she definitely keeps tabs on him despite living here in the US. She got excited when I told her I went to worlds and that I am going to the Olys. 

 

 

 

[Hydroblade]

Just now, Danibellerika said:

To speak with other people online, I also saw an ad for this site called "lingbe". Not sure of reviews or anything but they say you get points for speaking with others and you can do it as much as you want. 

 

In class last night I spoke with my Japanese teacher because we were going over kanji and I was able to use that to segue into convo about Yuzu.  Basically we were learning kanji that was part of his name because alone 羽 means Hane but 羽生 makes is Hanyu so I was asking her to explain the transformation to me. Often you just combine the pronunciation of both without altering pronunciation (though I know there are some instances like nihyaku vs. sanbyaku for instance, nihon vs. sanbon vs. juppon, etc).  I just wanted to know if there is a rule of thumb to it.  I've concluded that Japanese just remains impossible and hopeless .  But she definitely knows who Yuzu is and she definitely keeps tabs on him despite living here in the US. She got excited when I told her I went to worlds and that I am going to the Olys. 

 

 

 

Lol well i think he said once that when he was little he was called "Habu-kun" because they didn't know his name was pronounced "Hanyu"  

[Murieleirum]

5 hours ago, Danibellerika said:

 I just wanted to know if there is a rule of thumb to it.  I've concluded that Japanese just remains impossible and hopeless .

 

Funny, I got to the same conclusion as well  That damn rendaku, popping up randomly for no reason at all but to confuse and anger you. 

 

[Hydroblade]

5 hours ago, Danibellerika said:

To speak with other people online, I also saw an ad for this site called "lingbe". Not sure of reviews or anything but they say you get points for speaking with others and you can do it as much as you want. 

 

In class last night I spoke with my Japanese teacher because we were going over kanji and I was able to use that to segue into convo about Yuzu.  Basically we were learning kanji and ended up going over what was part of his name because alone 羽 means Hane but 羽生 makes is Hanyu so I was asking her to explain the transformation to me. Often you just combine the pronunciation of both without altering (though I know there are some instances like nihyaku vs. sanbyaku for instance, nihon vs. sanbon vs. juppon, etc).  I just wanted to know if there is a rule of thumb to it.  I've concluded that Japanese just remains impossible and hopeless .  But she definitely knows who Yuzu is and she definitely keeps tabs on him despite living here in the US. She got excited when I told her I went to worlds and that I am going to the Olys. 

 

 

 

Maybe this will help:

羽 is indeed read "hane" iirc, but it can also be read as just "ha"(like the bird counter (?) 千羽鶴⇒せんばずる). The 生 character has the "nyuu" reading. So you are just combining the "ha" and "nyuu" reading of those kanji  the reason of the confusion when he was in school is that, if i'm not mistaken, "Habu" is much more common than "Hanyu"