learning japanese

[ShougunX]

ender>> haha i can fully understand ur feelings..haha but dun blame pingjun la, afterall also beginner mah. And ya i'm applying for jlpt 1 this yr.

pingjun>> numbers are rather complicated. no formulas. onli way is to memorise. wahaha.i'll list some common ones:

4 person -- yo nin (no such as thing as yon nin or shi nin--which is btw 死人 )
7 person -- nana or shichi nin also can
4 o'clock -- yo ji (no such thing as yon ji or shi ji)
7 o'clock -- shichi ji (no such thing as nana ji)
9 o'clock -- ku ji (no such thing as kyuu ji)
april -- shi gatsu (no such thing as yon gatsu)
july -- shichi gatsu (no such thing as nana gatsu)
sep -- ku gatsu (no such thing as kyuu gatsu)
4 mths -- yon kagetsu (no such thing as shi kagetsu)
7 mths -- nana kagetsu (no such thing as shichi kagetsu)
9 mths -- kyuu kagetsu (no such thing as ku kagetsu)
4 min -- yon bun (no such thing as shi fun/bun/pun)
7 min -- nana fun (no such thing as shichi fun/bun/pun)
9 min -- kyuu fun (no such thing as ku fun)
in counting the rest with ko/dai/hon/mai etc, yon n nana n kyuu are more commonly used.

If u look carefully, shi tends to go with shichi n ku, while yon tends to go with nana n kyuu.

hope it's useful

 

[Nanashiro]

I'm pretty sure there's Yon Ji. Yo Ji sounds pretty wierd.
Or maybe I was wrong all the while haha.
Oh man the months are hard, I never got to memorise them hehe.

And adding to the list above also got:
1 person - hitori
2 people - futari

And also counting things, i forgot what thing but i think its yi ge, liang ge, san ge in chinese
1 - hitotsu
2 - futatsu
3 - mitsu

 

[PingJun]

Thanks for your help, everybody

I am pretty sure that this info, or rather, this thread will be very useful for learning Japanese language

 

[PingJun]

erm....it's up to preference by if i interprete ur question correctly, it shud be contained within the 3rd stroke sumthin like a 'no'

I see.

Because my sensei wrote the "a" with the 3rd stroke coming a little out.

But when I learnt in Poly, I tend to write without the stroke coming out & my poly sensei also didn't point out to me (whether I was right or wrong).

I have asked sensei during class but cannot understand due to his (Japanese) accent. Thus, having no choice, I ask this question here.

Thanks

 

[PingJun]

Oh, btw, does anyone here does the recording in class?

 

[ender51244]

I'm pretty sure there's Yon Ji. Yo Ji sounds pretty wierd.
Or maybe I was wrong all the while haha.
Oh man the months are hard, I never got to memorise them hehe.

And adding to the list above also got:
1 person - hitori
2 people - futari

And also counting things, i forgot what thing but i think its yi ge, liang ge, san ge in chinese
1 - hitotsu
2 - futatsu
3 - mitsu

NOPE. its "YO JI" instead of "YON JI" check with your sensei or dig for any online resources such as this. "Yon" is only used in counting minutes, not "hours" even for "4 hours" its "yo ji kan". It is understandably one of the most common mistakes non-japanese make so its a good time to learn.

General X (shougun san), i'm not angry with anyone in particular. just upset only. anyways, i'm not that petty. what people think or what bad habits or character they cultivate, its theirs to keep. i know what's right and its good enough already. if i were to be that calculative, i tell you, i will be upset almost every minute of the day.

Pingjun, (now people is saying that i'm being angry with you. to show that I AM NOT, i will be EXTRA NICE to you.) there are tons of people recording lessons in class. nothing new. from advanced recording tools used by reportors to old fashioned cassette recorders, people used them in my class. my friends did that to review what they have learnt and to learn the lesson properly (because my class is conducted in 80% Japanee 20% english, if you can't listen, you ARE GONE. no surprises here, i can see regular students getting as low as 27 marks for their term test. that is the result of not being able to understand in class). if you need pronounciation help, you can refer here.

on general basis, if anyone needs help on counting suffixes and so on, please refer here. and the "-tsu" is a very useful counting suffix. if you are not very sure of which category it belongs to, you can use "-tsu" as mentioned by Nanashiro san.

01. Hito-tsu
02. Futa-tsu
03. Mit-tsu
04. Yot-tsu
05. Itsu-tsu
06. Mut-tsu
07. Nana-tsu
08. Ya-tsu
09. KoKono-tsu
10. too (exception)

other types of counting suffixes such as money, calendar dates and so on have exceptions, so please proceed with caution when learning.

 

[PingJun]

Pls don't sound it as if it is a serious matter.

BTW, I like this thread. Can discuss on Japanese language......

 

[ShougunX]

ya yon-ji is...not correct....haha yo ji is more used. one more thing to share. 30 min is san juppun or san jippin. either (juppun or jippun) is correct. I know most textbooks teach juppun and when they hear native japanese say jippun they wud go ????.

ender>> haha u are the first to call me General X....just dun associate me to the evil warlords during japans' shogunate era....haha

pingjun>> according to the computer A is あ...so ya, it's contained. but in written form, u can write anythin. I've seen native japanese write wo　を　as a 十　on top of a と.....no strict rules on writting. as long as it looks nice n ppl understand, u dun have to worry too much.

 

[PingJun]

So des ne...... I thought I have wrongly written the "a" for 10 years.

Thanks for your help. BTW, have learnt time reading (hrs & mins) as well in poly. Very difficult for me at that time. How do you all learn / memorise for that?

 

[ShougunX]

crude raw memorising. hahaha no other ways. n use it daily, read more, u'll remember as time passes.

 

[ender51244]

yeah yeah... to the extend to using my japanese when i speak.

for example when people normally say "OH SH*T ! "　for me...i will use "あああ～！！！やばい！まじやられた！＞_＜"

or cursing rude commuters of the train "このくそ馬鹿煩い女！" 　(grammatically wrong, i know... this is just one of the "wrong" japanese used in conversational japanese.)

or apologising to friends "ああ～ごめんなさい！" and so on... most of my friends who knows japanese ... will understand the kind of junk language i use "the bowl is really でかい！". *opps*

 

[ShougunX]

tat's rather normal. i remembered when i was schooling, i was so 'jappy' i could spurt out japanese words/actions unknowningly. one of the incidents i always remember: i was late for tutorial. upon entering the class, i actually bow down to the tutor in an attempt to show apology. apparently, the tutor was a bit stunned n ask me, 'Are you japanese?' Guess wat i answered? i answered 'Ie, sou ja arimasen.'. The whole class was thrown into laughter after wat i said. n i onli realise a few secs later that i had spoken in japanese. So no, it is not uncommon but rather encouraging. i find only those truely interested in the language behaves this way.

 

[PingJun]

Those Japanese words you all said sound unfamiliar to me, but I hope I can learn & know them after learning Japanese lang.

For me, I still remember 1 incident.

Some yrs back, I introduce myself in Japanese language. I actually told her "wa ta shi wa chu go ku jin des" instead of "wa ta shi wa shin ga po ru jin des".

 

[ShougunX]

hahha 中国人...u should say 華人 (ka jin) next time.

 

[PingJun]

hahha 中国人...u should say 華人 (ka jin) next time.

Because during my Poly times, I did not learn that much.

I know how to say 中国人 & Singaporean but not 華人 in Japanese.

And this incident happened a few yrs after I have gratuated from Poly. Plus 1st time talking to a Japanese other than my Poly senseis, so a bit nervous......

 

[PingJun]

Hello, everybody.

Check with you. How do you communicate with your teacher when you learn Japanese in the beginning, with you, very limited of speaking Japanese & they, very limited of speaking English?

And how do you all start to learn / speak / memorise the words?

 

[PingJun]

The word Sensei means "Teacher".

Can this word be used on other occupation as well?

E.G. Call a doctor "Sensei"???

 

[surfuz]

Hi

I am so glad this thread is still alive. I need to seek some help again regarding learning of Nihongo.

I want to get a Jap-English dictionary. A hardcopy will do because an electronic one is so expensive. Can anyone recommend me a good Eng-Jap hardcopy dict? I have been to all the major bookstores and I am not sure which one is good for me a beginner. There are not many choices either. The Oxford one seems good and the price is good too. Any suggestions? Thanks.

By the way, is JLPT4 easy to pass? Exam is 3 Dec this year and I only started learning Nihongo for about a week and Ikoma has asked us to make a decision by 3 Sep (closing date). I don't know if I can make it for 4 this year as I am still struggling with the lessons and the long tone pronouncations and such are still very confusing for me. I don't want to take any preparation lessons for 4 either. Too expensive. Or should I just study hard for one year and go for 3 next year? Any advice? I know some of you advised that one should take it after 6 months of study but I want to hear more.

Finally, thanks for all the Jap phases and words in this thread. I am going to copy them and memorise the useful ones. By the way, the "fun" and "pun" for the minutes are so tough. I keep having problems.

 

[surfuz]

The word Sensei means "Teacher".

Can this word be used on other occupation as well?

E.G. Call a doctor "Sensei"???

A doctor can be called Sensei as well and also if you want to be really specific, it can be "medical doctor" (i Sha).

 

[PingJun]

Hi

I am so glad this thread is still alive. I need to seek some help again regarding learning of Nihongo.

I want to get a Jap-English dictionary. A hardcopy will do because an electronic one is so expensive. Can anyone recommend me a good Eng-Jap hardcopy dict? I have been to all the major bookstores and I am not sure which one is good for me a beginner. There are not many choices either. The Oxford one seems good and the price is good too. Any suggestions? Thanks.

By the way, is JLPT4 easy to pass? Exam is 3 Dec this year and I only started learning Nihongo for about a week and Ikoma has asked us to make a decision by 3 Sep (closing date). I don't know if I can make it for 4 this year as I am still struggling with the lessons and the long tone pronouncations and such are still very confusing for me. I don't want to take any preparation lessons for 4 either. Too expensive. Or should I just study hard for one year and go for 3 next year? Any advice? I know some of you advised that one should take it after 6 months of study but I want to hear more.

Finally, thanks for all the Jap phases and words in this thread. I am going to copy them and memorise the useful ones. By the way, the "fun" and "pun" for the minutes are so tough. I keep having problems.

Hello. I suggest you take your JLPT next yea. This is what I plan to do: taking 3 next year.

I have bought 2 dictionaries Jap - Eng & Eng - Jap. That time (Yr 1997), I bought these 2 with a textbook for $80. I will let you know my dictionary name tonight.

Yes, when I learn the time, I also find very confusing as well.