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I have to admit I’m not clear on how kids learning hiragana first reflects on the use of kanji – kids learn hiragana first because without it, there’s no context for the kanji. Basically, hiragana have inherent sounds, but no inherent meaning. Kanji have inherent meaning, but (for the most part) have multiple readings.
The English equivalent is that hiragana are like letters and kanji are like words – you teach the letters before you teach the words, because otherwise there’s no way to explain how words work. Trying to write Japanese without using kanji is like trying to write English without using words – just handfuls of letters that happen to make the same sounds. To someone listening to them spoken, it’ll probably make sense, but someone reading it would struggle to make heads or tails of it.
And as analogies go, that one’s fairly terrible, but it’ll do…
If you typically do everything at a shout, maybe the volume on your computer just isn’t high enough for you to hear? =P
The いる literally is a verb in its own right – it’s the いる meaning “to exist” for animate objects. 私はここにいる. So 働いている basically means “exist in a state of working”. I might be getting a little too linguistic now, though. =P
Either dictionary form or ます form can come before から. It’s gotta be dictionary form before ので, though.
Aye – don’t forget, the いる in ～ている is a verb in its own right, and conjugates just like everything else.
“I’m -ing and” = ～ていて
“Because I’m -ing” = ～ていますから
Not sure if the ～たり～たり form is what’s needed here, because the meaning of that is more like “doing assorted things including X and Y”.
Welcome! Good luck with your studies.
Fairly sure you’re not the oldest, but I don’t think it’d be tactful to name names. If I could remember them. =P
Feel free to burst in anyway. Don’t let me ruin your fun. =P
Looking up the spelling of famous people honestly never occurred to me, though.
Show photos? =D
I kept a blog and took lots of photos when I was there, but didn’t really put many of the photos on the blog (though my friend did). I did make a digital scrapbook, though, the pages of which I’ve uploaded to Facebook…
Like I did above, it’s common to mark spaces in katakana phrases with bullet points, though I expect they’re not called “bullet points” when they’re used for this function. アリ・ウィリアムズ
They’re also used in place of commas sometimes to separate items in lists of kanji nouns.
Edit: Bah, ninja-posted. I did find out what it’s called, though, which I should have remembered: an interpunct.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_punctuation#Interpunct
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This reply was modified 12 years, 4 months ago by
Joel.
Welcome! Good luck with your studies. I went to Japan almost three years ago with nothing more than a phrasebook, some half-remembered kana and kanji, and a few words I’d picked up from anime, but yeah, it’s tricky being almost illiterate. Why are you moving to Japan? Someone’s getting a job transfer?
Did you take photos on your trip? Keep a blog? =D
Welcome! Good luck with your further studies. Not too sure hoe much benefit you’d draw from TextFugu after already doing a year and a half of study already, though. Just idly, why is the JET Program no longer an option?
While we’re at it, I’m probably going to sound cruel and cynical, but welcome to the Real World. Sorry, but I kinda think “They turned me down? How dare they!” is completely the wrong attitude to have. As is the “well, my application was awesome – it must have been a technical glitch” attitude. Sometimes they just plain have more applicants than they need. You’re probably better off shaking the “Japan is a magical candy land” idea as well.
I’d probably say ウィリアムズ, but I’m not sure the difference is too vital.
You would, incidentally, still use the regular first name surname order – so, アリ・ウィリアムズ. Or ス, whatever. I’m not entirely clear on why being an American would mean that you wouldn’t use your surname. Unless you’re a famous musician, or something? =P
Well, it’s more than just “far more important” – particles only affect the word they follow. The verb has an effect on the specific meaning of the particles, but the particles themselves don’t alter anything that comes after. It’s not ボビーさん + が来たら but ボビーさんが + 来たら.
Also, don’t get stuck on the idea that を or に have to come before a verb – the object for potential verbs, for example, tend to use が.
We stayed in hotels with internet basically every night (and the one night we didn’t – halfway up Mount Fuji – I used my Kindle, which was still getting mobile reception).
Probably stick a この on the front – what is THIS drink? Otherwise people might think you’re being a bit more philosophical than you’d intended, especially if you’ve already had a few. =P
I went late August to early September in 2010. We spent the whole time melting in the heat, only to discover when we got home that it was actually one of the worst heat waves in recorded history for Japan…
We kept a blog. http://japan.jrudd.org/ – it’s a little lacking in pictures, though, because I hadn’t figured out the non-tedious way or adding them to posts at the time. I’ve since made them into a digital scrapbook, the pages of which I’ve also uploaded to Facebook.
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This reply was modified 12 years, 4 months ago by
