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Though they’re much rarer in English, they do still exist – for example, “head” in “ten head of cattle” is a counter. Same as “pairs” in “ten pairs of pants”. They work the same way in Japanese. 京都市には147万人ぐらいの人が住んでいます – the first 人 is にん, the counter for people, while the second is ひと, the word “people”. Or これを十冊下さい – ten of these (books) please.
勉強 is done by students. 研究 is done by researchers. (Often in fancy white labcoats, because everything on TV is true. =P)
日本語を勉強する is learning the language. 日本語を研究する would be a study of the language itself, like linguistics or something.
一人 = ひとり
二人 = ふたりThese are the only exceptions for readings, so far as counting people goes – the rest follow the standard readings. The weirder exceptions are not really something you can just infer. As Tsetycoon was saying (but didn’t really state explicitly), the only way to remember is to just learn the exceptions one by one.
(When it comes to the other counters, there’s a few more exceptions. Counting days especially.)
Currently being reminded of that scene in Azumanga Daioh when Kagura was struggling to work out how to ask a foreigner if he needed help in English, and wound up just screaming “HELP ME!” at him. =P
Anyway, I can’t see anything fundamentally wrong with what you said, but like you, I’m getting a bit of a feeling. Part of it might be that I’m not sure it doesn’t say “can you help me” and part of is I’m not sure if there’s some other way it’s usually said in Japan. My phrasebook isn’t any help here. Maybe I should dig out my copy of Azumanga Daioh and see if I can hear what Kagura said in Japanese. =)
Concur with “in a broader sense”. Kind of a “more wide meaning (than what came before)”.
Also, missingno? Ask a question? Noo. =P
タイタニックのきっぷをお願いします would be more explicit, but I couldn’t say whether such specificity is necessary. Also, if you want to say “the six-thirty Titanic” (for example), just stick 六時半の on the front.
I’m always interested in etymology (though I’m not sure the word “etymology” applies to pictographs =P). Why, for example, is 虹, rainbow, comprised of a bug (虫) and engineering (工)?
I had a bit of a look at this. What, exactly, is a kanji map, though?
何事 also means “everything”. In everything, he is a three-day monk.
Also, feel free to keep abusing. =)
I’ve been using Nakama in my classes, and Japanese for Busy People for private study, and they’ve both been pretty good (though I’ve been somewhat slack on private study of late). Another idea is Maisho – the version of Mainichi Shimbun for elementary schoolers: http://mainichi.jp/feature/maisho/ (I’m still finding that humblingly difficult to read. To be fair, though, the expected audience has spent every waking hour of the last six years learning Japanese, whereas I’ve only spent about ten to twelve hours a week for the last fourteen months. =P)
I bought myself a bunch of manga in Japanese from Kinokuniya. Dunno how good they are so far as learning. Having pictures to look at helps. =)
Well, I thought there was one, but poking through the table of contents now, I can’t see it – maybe I was just imagining it. I can explain the usage in more detail, if need be.
Yeah, I think it’s about time we abolished abbreviations. Too confusing. Everyone’s gotta talk like a dictionary from now on. =P
ので works. から does too. -たら and ため also mean “because” in certain situations, but から and ので are the ones to stick with for now. The usage is “Sentence 1 から/ので、 sentence 2″ – which means “because of sentence 1, sentence 2.” They both work basically the same way, but there are some situations where you have to use から rather than ので, because ので is used when the speaker believes that the reason he’s giving is also evident and acceptable to the hearer.
This one?
http://www.textfugu.com/bb/topic/how-do-i-say-thread/page/8/#post-24912
That could possibly be down to asking my dictionary the wrong question. That said, Kotoba’s example sentences are occasionally a bit off.
