Nihongo Everyday

[PaulTB]

We have re-uploaded Miyuki's website.

Nihongo Everyday is now available here.

Well WOOT!

I hope the link in the very first post in this thread works as well - or you'll keep getting people posting that they couldn't open it.

 

[magwagwag]

Wow!!!!!!great....

 

[miyuki]

Hellooooooooo!!!

I'm really sorry I haven't been here and I haven't updated Nihongo Everyday for a long long time.
I felt sick.It was not serious,but to come my work first,I had to save others.
Sorry...
I am very well now.

I will update 'Nihongo Everyday' next year.
Please wait for a minutes.
I really appreciate all of you here.
Thanks!!!!!

 

[Rgchrono]

wow, thank you. This is very very usefull information. Thanks for taking your time to do it fo us learners. ^_^

 

[slider]

MIYUKI! I was on your page no more than 5 sec. when I quickly added it to my favorites. I think it is perfect, and please keep up the good work! Thank you!

ジェフ

I have to agree this is truly excellent...

Doumo

 

[Ziggy]

Coolio!! I've just had a look on your website...very nice!!! I wish i could understand it! haha.. ..

I have a rather dumb question : Is Romaji the name for how Japanese is spelt out frenetically (<--i cant spell ..doh) ...so you can read it out loud from english?

Im a super noobie at japanese....

Porl''

Ro-man ji
Roman Character.
Roman Characters if you want to put it that way.
What it means is using the Roman vowels (a, i, u, e, o) as flat vowels, and the conosants as .. conosants.

If you not a native English speaker you will have no problem understanding this concept, whereas you may find it more problematic to get used to it as an English speaker.. specifically as an american!..

English, unlike Japanese has really mushed up vowels. I actually found it a problem when I had to find out the difference between words like '****' and 'sheet', and also understand that 'our' sounds a lot a lot a lot like 'are' (which until then I pronounced them as 'awer' and 'ar'). So just read them flat and you'll be fine.

By the way, some books about the Japanese language are often written in something that's not really Romanji. Like the Lonely Planet Japanese Phrasebook. They wrote things like "air-kon" instead of "ea-kon" to make it easier for you. Nevertheless, it's a good book that I would recommend just for those small "how do you say ... in Japanese?" kinds of questions.

Learning Kanna is a piece of cake. Try kanacards.com if it works for you, and there might be some palm software for you to also try and practice writing Kanna.

So I hope that answers your question.

 

[Kaminari]

English alphabet is derived from the Roman alphabet. Japanese name for Rome is (as in Italian) Roma the "ji" in "Romaji" means written or printed character. Some Romaji is now pseudo Kanji - H (etchi/sex) and A (anime/animated cartoon). I don't know if there are others.

 

[J C]

Romaji is creeping in quite a lot. "J" is used a bit (J-リーグ, J-ポップ, JR) - but it's all 新語.

 

[koko]

What are the words 'cheapskate' or 'stingy' in Japanese? couldnt find one in my pocket dictionary. Is there any other slang for that words?

Thanks

 

[Luthien Rogue]

Miyukiさん

I've been going to your page for a while now; it's very useful.

Thank you for all your efforts. :sorry:

 

[Ebu Huzeyfe]

Arigatoo gozaimasu!

 

[pointlessneedles]

Nihongo o Narau - Lesson 1

Here's a great site for learning nihongo

 

[nice gaijin]

what is "nahongo"?

 

[pointlessneedles]

sorry misspelled nihongo lol

 

[toritaiyo]

Everyday Japanese on the Nipponster Toolbar

Hi Miyuki!
Love your website. It is really useful (especially for more advanced speakers -it's hard for us to find something challenging usually).
Would you mind if I added it to the browser toolbar that we offer at nipponster.com?
-Tori

 

[yukio_michael]

What are the words 'cheapskate' or 'stingy' in Japanese? couldnt find one in my pocket dictionary. Is there any other slang for that words?

You can't translate an idiomatic expression.

 

[toritaiyo]

You can't translate an idiomatic expression.

there is a word for that actually. It is けち (kechi)

or according to jim breen, 吝嗇吝嗇 【けちけち】 (adv,vs) (uk) stingy; tightfisted

 

[yukio_michael]

There is a word for that actually. It is けち (kechi)
or according to jim breen, 吝嗇吝嗇 【けちけち】 (adv,vs) (uk) stingy; tightfisted

I still stand by what I said. It may be that someone has chosen the English word stingy to represent kechikechi, Nifty translates it to parsimonious, whereas Excite also translates it to stingy, or stingieness...

My point wasn't that you couldn't come up with a word that you could use in a similar way, but that it's not a good idea to start with an English idiom and then try to find a Japanese translation for that. The relationship between the Japanese phrase and the English one is fortuitous at best.

The translation also doesn't give you any idea about the politeness of that particular word, for which you would have to ask a native speaker--- It's similar to when English subtitles use English profanity to indicate Japanese politeness levels--- You're stripping away the culture of one language, and replacing it with another and losing some or all of the initial meaning.

Another good example is the translation of difficult to define words like omae, which may have a very specific tone in Japanese, but do not translate well to English.

 

[toritaiyo]

I still stand by what I said. It may be that someone has chosen the English word stingy to represent kechikechi, Nifty translates it to parsimonious, whereas Excite also translates it to stingy, or stingieness...
My point wasn't that you couldn't come up with a word that you could use in a similar way, but that it's not a good idea to start with an English idiom and then try to find a Japanese translation for that. The relationship between the Japanese phrase and the English one is fortuitous at best.
The translation also doesn't give you any idea about the politeness of that particular word, for which you would have to ask a native speaker--- It's similar to when English subtitles use English profanity to indicate Japanese politeness levels--- You're stripping away the culture of one language, and replacing it with another and losing some or all of the initial meaning.
Another good example is the translation of difficult to define words like omae, which may have a very specific tone in Japanese, but do not translate well to English.

Good point. And I totally agree with you that there are many words and phrases that do not translate well. And translation more often than not is inaccurate because the contexts of the two languages are different (ex: politeness levels). There are some Japanese phrases that are impossible to grasp in an English context. Many of the things I can think or say freely in Japanese I would struggle to translate into English.
So it is probably best to "pick up" the language (by immersing yourself in it) than to look things up in a dictionary, right?

-----------------------------
Nipponster.com
: Japanese language toolbar and the Japan search engine

 

[yukio_michael]

So it is probably best to "pick up" the language (by immersing yourself in it) than to look things up in a dictionary, right?

My strategy, one I've run by native speakers familiar with teaching the language who seem to think it's a good idea is to only think in Japanese; so instead of asking myself how do "some English phrase" in Japanese, I strictly think of the appropriate way in Japanese to communicate whatever I'm trying to ask or convey.

Immersion is good too. If I'm watching a movie whos plot I am familiar enough to understand what the characters are talking about, I'll turn off the subtitles so that I only concentrate on the spoken language.

Also, you know you can create a signature in settings? You seem to be doing it by hand. My Settings -> Signature...

 

[Elizabeth]

What are the words 'cheapskate' or 'stingy' in Japanese? couldn't find one in my pocket dictionary. Is there any other slang for that words?
Thanks

「けち」「みみっちい」are the normal, negative expressions for tightwad or tightfisted. しみったれる is also possible but I think it refers to a person's character or lifestyle more than just economic situation....:?

You'll need to call in the real experts for a slang or colloquial term. :sorry:

 

[umbaba]

If you are talking about personality けち is perfectly fine. Then again I am not sure if they work like cheapskate and stingy. One thing I am concerned is けち does not tell his/her economical circumstances, it just refers the person's character as it is widely believed some people became rich BECAUSE they were けち and still they are. So you can call a rich 「けち」 depends on how he/she came to be rich.

Off topic but as Elizabeth said it is very negative, might as well say 節約上手(adj) or 節約家(noun) 倹約家(noun) if you want to be neutral/positive and polite.
In my understanding, けち(noun/adj/+るverb) is for someone who does not want to pay even for what he/she needs to live whereas 節約上手、節約家、倹約家 are for someone who knows how to cut down the cost for living well. They are slightly different but that stems from our attitude that leads tone of the speach.

Anyways at least to me both cheapskate and stingy are negative too, so you do not need to be sweet using 節約上手 there....

 

[Elizabeth]

If you are talking about personality けち is perfectly fine. Then again I am not sure if they work like cheapskate and stingy. One thing I am concerned is けち does not tell his/her economical circumstances, it just refers the person's character as it is widely believed some people became rich BECAUSE they were けち and still they are. So you can call a rich 「けち」 depends on how he/she came to be rich.
Off topic but as Elizabeth said it is very negative, might as well say 節約上手(adj) or 節約家(noun) 倹約家(noun) if you want to be neutral/positive and polite.
In my understanding, けち(noun/adj/+るverb) is for someone who does not want to pay even for what he/she needs to live whereas 節約上手、節約家、倹約家 are for someone who knows how to cut down the cost for living well. They are slightly different but that stems from our attitude that leads tone of the speech.
Anyways at least to me both cheapskate and stingy are negative too, so you do not need to be sweet using 節約上手 there....

Thanks umbaba for elaborating on my very general understanding ! I haven't seen けち used except in economic situations. Cheapskate and stingy are very negative and both are useful for someone who is able to live normally but is annoyingly slow (prudent) about parting with even pocket change. Stingy expands to non-economical situations to describe a mindset of pettiness and small minded meanness. けち may be closest to miser in a technical sense but in English that usually refers to someone who is already rich and perhaps even positive if they are hoarding what they've earned to put to a good purpose.

I asked a friend as well and here is her feeling of the differences.

ただ「しみったれる」は自分の意思と反して、貧乏なためにお金が使えずみずぼらしい生活や格好をしているときに、良く使う気がします。「みみっちい」「けち」は経済的な状況と関係なく良く使います。

 

[Ebu Huzeyfe]

heres a great site for learning nahongo

Thanks for the website.

 

[Nagato]

Reading the above posts about けち, I remembered this word: どけち.
Is there any kanji for that ど ?
IIRC, It's also used in ドアホウ, ドスケベ , etc.
and that, it's meaning is very, super, ultra, or something like that.