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Nice to meet you too, Mr. Slaughter. Hope you enjoy your stay here at Textfugu! Cool name, btw. =)
Welcome aboard to Textfugu, Chiyo!
That’s an ambitious dream you got there, you’ll definitely need Japanese for it. My dream is almost parallel to yours too, except that I want to stick with Japanese as a translator/interpreter. I’m also keeping an eye out for a chance to work in the animanga and games industry as well.
Well, I wish you the best of luck in your Japanese and in achieving your dreams! =)
@Yggbert: I think I can relate to that…But still, some people aren’t as forgiving of mistakes, like Grammar Nazis for example. I really dislike people who nitpick over the smallest thing.
I think if you’re sincere and not intentionally messing things up, people won’t really mind if you get a word or two wrong. Depends on the situation though.
Interesting points you have there, I agree that proper use of grammar goes a long way in proving your fluency. When I read some English posts by Japanese users on Lang-8, the thing that usually confuses me most is not the wrong spelling, but the errors in grammar. It takes a while if they’ve spelling errors to figure it out, but if the grammar’s correct, I can get the point easily.
On another point, I think fluency depends on your aspirations or the situations you’ll most likely find yourself in. If you’re a high-level diplomat, you’re going to have to brush up on stuff way more than the average businessman. But for now, I think I’ll just settle with day-to-day conversations like you said, and learn what I need to learn when the time comes.
Seeing as 天使 already means angel in Japanese and I can’t find 琪 anywhere in a Japanese dictionary, I think it’s safe to say it’s Chinese.
Anyway, it does mean angel in Chinese, they’re just missing a 儿, making it sound like ‘ang-’.
安琪儿=(an-chi-er)
Give it a spin in Google Translate (press the speaker button after you paste it in).
I think there will be, because it’s more widespread than Cantonese. Granted, you may get a few looks and get pushed around a bit in Cantonese-speaking areas (I heard), but at least you can get your point across.
It sure is, but I personally don’t think one can be completely fluent (as in native-level speaking) in a second language. It’s a bit hypocritical, considering what I told you four posts back, but that’s what I think.
@Kanjiman8: No problem, ask all you want, I’d be glad to answer them!
Anyway, I’m from Malaysia, there’s a sizable Chinese community here. I’d consider myself a native speaker, but only because I’ve been learning it since a very young age. In reality, my actual skills are below par for most Chinese speakers around here. I can get by in daily conversations with what little I have though.
Agreed, being fluent in Chinese only wins you about 20% of the battle in Japanese. The grammar part is hard, but once you practice more, you’ll start to notice patterns.
Here in Malaysia, it’s rare to find a Chinese-speaker who doesn’t speak Mandarin, but there are the occasional old-timers who did not get a chance to learn it in school.
I can’t speak for the communities in the US and Australia, but I can say that we here are quite vocal and passionate about Chinese language education. I assumed that overseas Chinese communities would have had a strong interest already, given their background and culture… Was I wrong?
Yup, China’s a huge market just waiting to be tapped into.
@kanjiman8:
Chinese speaker here! I can tell you from experience that Chinese definitely helps with Japanese, especially with kanji. Not sure if it’s true with the other way round though, but at least you won’t have to work as much with the meanings of the Chinese characters. No experience here with Hangul or Korean.
And one more thing, I would advise you to learn Mandarin first since it’s the one dialect that most Chinese-speakers would understand. As for the other dialects, it’s going to be a pain since most of them don’t have a widespread or well-developed writing system (I think) and thus lack references and materials as compared to Mandarin.
Best way to learn them, I think, is through osmosis (living with people who speak them daily) or immersion (plenty of TV dramas, I heard). And yup, tone is definitely a hard thing to master in Chinese.
And don’t limit yourself so fast, you’ll never know till you try learning Chinese, right? Anyway, if there’s anything else you need answering, give a shout! I’ll try my best to answer. =)
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This reply was modified 12 years, 1 month ago by
Yippy.
@カイル: There’s a guide in the second last link I gave you.
@カイル:Like thisiskyle said, there’s nothing wrong with your name. But if my name was Kyle though, I’d try Kaiyaru or カイヤル. It just sounds better in my opinion. Any problems with the Japanese IME input btw?
P.S. Flower Power! XD
Konnichiwa to you too Kyle, welcome aboard to Textfugu! No resources? Isn’t that what the Internet is for? XD
Anyway, you did use correct grammar in your greeting, or at least, that’s what Denshi Jisho says so: http://jisho.org/words?jap=%E3%81%93%E3%82%93%E3%81%AB%E3%81%A1ha&eng=&dict=edict
Your translated name is a bit off though, but that’s just my opinion. Denshi Jisho doesn’t seem to have any problem with your name anyway.As for the ha/wa dilemma, you’ll bump into it soon in one of the early chapters of Textfugu. Long story short, the written grammar particle ‘ha’s pronunciation has a loooooong history of being meddled with.
http://www.speekit.com/a/japanese/why-is-the-particle-wa-written-with-the-character-ha-in-Japanese-1265241451L6ExqBut, if you’re feeling a little adventurous, here’s the link for the lesson on Textfugu:
http://www.textfugu.com/season-2/particle-ha/6-2/#topThere’s an inbuilt Japanese IME (input) for Microsoft PCs, I think. You just have to tweak the language settings a little. Or, you could just switch to Google’s Japanese IME. Koichi has some simple guides for this:
http://www.textfugu.com/season-4/social-learning/9-2/
http://www.tofugu.com/2011/02/16/google-japanese-ime-for-better-typing-in-japanese/
If there’s anything else, don’t hesitate to ask. We’ll try our best to help. Well, hope you enjoy your time at Textfugu! (^_^)
Malaysia-the huge landmass above Singapore where everybody seems to ignore. XD
@Gigatron: I was referring to Japanese sites, but English ones are ok as well. Thanks for the links!
@missingno15: Thanks for sharing those sites! =)
Hello there Jakisa, and welcome to Textfugu! What sort of obstacles were you referring to?
Anyway, I hope you’ll be able to learn more using Textfugu. =)
Hi there Dave, and welcome to Textfugu!
Can’t say I’ve much experience with Japanese textbooks, I only got a mini handbook before joining Textfugu. It was ok, but a bit sparse on the basics.
Anyway, I hope you’ll be fluent enough to talk with your partner’s family and understand any Japanese film that comes your way! Good luck. =)
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This reply was modified 12 years, 1 month ago by
