Ask A Noob

[oonter]

I've decided to challenge myself by opening a (hopefully successful) thread called "ASK A NOOB"
Rules:
-You may ask me anything in Japanese. ANYTHING AT ALL
- Remember, I'm a noob, so keep the vocabulary simple...
- I will try my best to answer you back in Japanese
- If I answer you in English, it means I understand what you're saying. I just fail at answering back
- I will limit myself to searching no more than 3 words in the Jap/Eng dictionary if needed
- You may use hiragana....I know nothing of kanji and very little katakana (I'm a n00b, remember?)
- You may laugh at me and make fun of me as long as you correct me.

 

[misa.j]

Konbanwa oonter-san!

Nihongo wo benkyou shiyou to omowareta kikkake wa nandesuka?


(Hey oonter, I'm from New York too! Nice to see you!)

 

[yukio_michael]

オオンターさん、げんきでしたか？

the message i entered was too short so I'm padding it out here!

 

[oonter]

Konbanwa oonter-san!
Nihongo wo benkyou shiyou to omowareta kikkake wa nandesuka?
(Hey oonter, I'm from New York too! Nice to see you!)

Konbanwa Misa! Ikaga desu ka?

I had to look up the following words... There were several translations but these were my best guesses...

Shiyou- use
Omo-important
Kikkake-start

From what I know of your sentence, you are asking what made me want to start learning japanese?

Raishen watashitachi wa Nihon ga kimasu.
(Next year, we are going to Japan)

This is one of the reasons why i'm studying Japanese. My fiancee and I are going there for our honeymoon this June. I've always loved the japanese culture and language. I got to take it for the first time last summer as an elective course. So now I'm just trying to teach and re-teach myself. You can tell from my simple sentence that I'm pretty new at this. but I'm willing to try my hardest to learn as much as i can and make the trip more enjoyable

オオンターさん、げんきでしたか？

the message i entered was too short so I'm padding it out here!

Oonta-chan, Genki deshita ka?
(Oonter, how have you been?)

Genki deshita, anata wa?
(I've been fine. And yourself?)

 

[yukio_michael]

Genki deshita, anata wa?
(I've been fine. And yourself?)

じつは～ちょっと いそがしかた、でも さいきん もう 元気 の だった。ありがとう ね。

元気 = げんき

I split up the "words" because it's harder to read in hirigana w/out concepts being set apart by kanji.

 

[oonter]

じつは～ちょっと いそがしかた、でも さいきん もう 元気 の だった。ありがとう ね。

元気 = げんき

I split up the "words" because it's harder to read in hirigana w/out concepts being set apart by kanji.

Jitsuha chotto isogashikata, Demo saikin mou YOUR NAME no datta arigatou ne

I had to look up..

Jitsuha- as a matter of fact
Saikin- most recent
mou- already

To be honest, I have no idea what your sentence is trying to sa..can you break it down for me? I only knew chotto, demo, no, arigatou, and ne

 

[misa.j]

Shiyou- use
Omo-important
Kikkake-start

From what I know of your sentence, you are asking what made me want to start learning japanese?

Raishen watashitachi wa Nihon ga kimasu.
(Next year, we are going to Japan)

Good job! That's exactly what I asked you.
Sorry, it might have been easier for you to grasp the meaning of the words if I used kanji for them.

'Shiyou' in my question is progressive tense of 'suru' which means to do.
'Omo(u)' is to think.
You got 'kikkake' pretty much right on; it's something that has motivated you to do things.

 

[oonter]

Good job! That's exactly what I asked you.
Sorry, it might have been easier for you to grasp the meaning of the words if I used kanji for them.
'Shiyou' in my question is progressive tense of 'suru' which means to do.
'Omo(u)' is to think.
You got 'kikkake' pretty much right on; it's something that has motivated you to do things.

Nice!! Thank you very much!! It was difficult, but at least I got it!!

 

[yukio_michael]

Jitsuha chotto isogashikata, Demo saikin mou YOUR NAME no datta arigatou ne

I had to look up..

Jitsuha- as a matter of fact
Saikin- most recent
mou- already

To be honest, I have no idea what your sentence is trying to sa..can you break it down for me? I only knew chotto, demo, no, arigatou, and ne

It's probably a bad idea for me (a non-native speaker) who's Japanese is far from perfect to be telling anyone random sentences, but mine goes like this

じつは～ちょっと いそがしかた、でも さいきん も う 元気 の だった。ありがとう ね。

jitsuha, chotto isogashikata demo saikin mou genki no datta, arigatou ne.

actually, a little busy, but recently quite well, thanks.

"no datta" is a more literary explanation of something that has happened, like "i would like to explain that..." So it's probably not natural for me to have said it in the form of a communique... : )

It would have probably been better to have used "n datta", had you asked something that I needed to explain, but you didn't so that's a moot point too!

 

[Eddosan]

はじめまして、 エッド です ようろしく。

アイポド お ありますか。

Something off the top o' my head. I would write some more, but my Japanese dictionary doesn't look very interesting at 2:45 AM... I need some shut-eye. ^^; おやすみなさい！

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

こんにちは！

「Oonter」の発音（はつおん）は何（なん）という？

「おおんたー」？「うんたー」？それとも「おおんた」か「うんた」？

おしえてください！

 

[Cue]

こんにちは、Oonterさん！
kanji: 何色が好きですか？
Hiragana: なに いろ が すき ですか？

 

[doinkies]

はじめまして、 エッド です ようろしく。
アイポド お ありますか。
Something off the top o' my head. I would write some more, but my Japanese dictionary doesn't look very interesting at 2:45 AM... I need some shut-eye. ^^; おやすみなさい！

はじめまして、エッドさん。ドインキーズです。

Your Japanese is OK but I noticed a couple mistakes.
ようろしく should be よろしく
アイポド should be アイポッド (most people just write it as "iPod" in Japan anyway)
and "Do you have an iPod?" should be 「iPod（アイポッド）がありますか？」, not 「iPodをありますか？」 (the particle 'o' is written as を, BTW. Since it's in the わ line on kana charts there are also many people who romanize it as 'wo'.).

がんばって！よろしくお願い（おねがい）します！

 

[Eddosan]

はじめまして、エッドさん。ドインキーズです。
Your Japanese is OK but I noticed a couple mistakes.
ようろしく should be よろしく
アイポド should be アイポッド (most people just write it as "iPod" in Japan anyway)
and "Do you have an iPod?" should be 「iPod（アイポッド）がありますか？」, not 「iPodをありますか？」 (the particle 'o' is written as を, BTW. Since it's in the わ line on kana charts there are also many people who romanize it as 'wo'.).
がんばって！よろしくお願い（おねがい）します！

どうも ありがとう ございました！
Wow, this really shows how long it's been since I've practiced my Japanese. I think I may have to review my grammar book all over again. Heh, if it wasn't for 大学...