Please help!

GoldCoinLover · 24 May 2004

I'm trying to learn japanese, desperately. I already have a japanese program. And am saving up to travel to tokyo. I am an american, and it is very difficult. I love the japanese snack pocky, and there is a site where you can join a pocky club. But it's all in japanese! I emailed the guy and this is what I said, I don't know if it's correct or not, as I am very new to japanese:

かいものにいきます。わたしはアメリカじんです。

ワタしワ POCKY だいすきです

ドホアリガト

~Kevin

Please help , I don't know if I said this right, and I just sent the email

Mandylion · 24 May 2004

First, what were you trying to say?

PS: Welcome to JREF

GoldCoinLover · 24 May 2004

Is it really that bad

I tried to say I was shopping and I really liked pocky. and I didnt know japanese well

PaulTB · 24 May 2004

GoldCoinLover said:
Please help , I don't know if I said this right, and I just sent the email

E-heh. Just _before_ sending the email might have been better.

GoldCoinLover said:
かいものにいきます。わたしはアメリカじんです。

I'm going shopping. I'm American.

GoldCoinLover said:
ワタしワ POCKY だいすきです

I lurve pocky.

GoldCoinLover said:
ドホアリガト

FRANK YOU VERY MUCH.

.
.
.

Well, "I went shopping." should be "かいものにいきました"
"I love pocky" should be "Pockyがだいすきです。"
"Thank you very much." should be "どうもありがとう"

fixelbrumpf · 24 May 2004

GoldCoinLover said:
I'm trying to learn japanese, desperately. I already have a japanese program. And am saving up to travel to tokyo. I am an american, and it is very difficult. I love the japanese snack pocky, and there is a site where you can join a pocky club. But it's all in japanese! I emailed the guy and this is what I said, I don't know if it's correct or not, as I am very new to japanese:

かいものにいきます。わたしはアメリカじんです。

ワタしワ POCKY だいすきです

ドホアリガト

~Kevin

Please help , I don't know if I said this right, and I just sent the email

Did you half of it in katakana for a reason? :?
Anyway, here's how I would write it:

かいものにいっていました。
買い物に行っていました。

(The way you wrote it, it said "I'm going to go shopping." I'd use the past te-iru form to indicate that your going shopping was an ongoing process in the past, similarly to "I was going shopping.")

アメリカじんです。

わたしはPOCKY(ポッキー)がだいすきです。
私はPOCKY(ポッキー)が大好きです。

(The "wa" after "watashi" is written "ha" when it is used as a postposition to indicate the topic. Moreover, the adjective "suki" requires the postposition "ga" [usually used to indicate the subject of a sentence] that is placed after the thing you like.)

Oh, yeah, and thank you very much is written どうもありがとうございました。

Welcome to JREF!

Elizabeth · 24 May 2004

fixelbrumpf said:
Did you half of it in katakana for a reason? :?
Anyway, here's how I would write it:

かいものにいっていました。
買い物に行っていました。

(The way you wrote it, it said "I'm going to go shopping." I'd use the past te-iru form to indicate that your going shopping was an ongoing process in the past, similarly to "I was going shopping.")

Given that 'Kaimono ni ikimasu' is either I will go or I'm going (to go) shopping,' 'Kaimono ni ikimashita' somehow looks better as the past tense, 'I went shopping.' Wouldn't 'Kaimono ni itte imashita' be more like 'I was out shopping,' or 'I went out shopping.' The past progressive in Japanese gives me fits sometimes so I'm not absolutely sure it's even grammatical in all cases....

PaulTB · 24 May 2004

Elizabeth said:
'Kaimono ni ikimashita' somehow looks better as the past tense, 'I went shopping.' Wouldn't 'Kaimono ni itte imashita' be more like 'I was out shopping,' or 'I went out shopping.'

I think it depends on context. 行っていました is probably better where there is a distinct emphasis on the
period of time you were there for. I suspect 行きました is more common in general when there is no such emphasis).

Elizabeth · 24 May 2004

Thanks for the link paultbsan. And another explanation received a while back I managed to dig up which confirms this nuanced difference in the time element.....As a standalone sentence, 'Kaimono ni itte imashita' feels incomplete in much the the same way 'I was shopping' or 'I was studying Japanese' might be as dependent clauses (?) in English.

勉強していました。」と「勉強しました。」は、ほぼ同じ意味ですがニュアンスが少し違います。それは前後の文にもよるので一言ではなかなか説明できません。たとえば「昨日の晩勉強していました。」と言うと、昨夜はずっと勉強に時間を費やしていたような印象を受けます。「昨日の晩勉強しました。」だと、ただ「勉強していた。」という事実だけしかわからないので、ほんの３０分位でもいえるしもしかしたらずっと長い時間勉強していたのかもしれません。日本語は英語に比べて全体的にあいまいな表現が多いので前後の文で判断する場合が多いです。もし「前は日本語を勉強していたけど今はもうしていず、忘れてしまってる場合」は「前は、日本語を勉強していましたが、もう今はしていません。」、または「前に、日本語を勉強しましたが、今はもうしていません。」という風にいろんな言い方があります。だからなかなか間単に違いを説明できないです。そのときの状況や前後の文によって変わってくるからです.

GoldCoinLover said:
I'm trying to learn japanese, desperately. I already have a japanese program. And am saving up to travel to tokyo. I am an american, and it is very difficult. I love the japanese snack pocky, and there is a site where you can join a pocky club. But it's all in japanese! I emailed the guy and this is what I said, I don't know if it's correct or not, as I am very new to japanese:

Please feel free to post the site if you need specific instructions on joining. I'm sure somone here will be more than happy to help.

GoldCoinLover · 25 May 2004

Thanks everyone. I love japanese and can't wait to go to tokyo. I'm struggling to learn all the kanji it's VERY hard. Also how can I write kanji and katanka and heirgana?
Any programs that will let me? The only way I know is to copy and paste the kanji/kana from this forum to where I need it. What's does this mean anyway: (ﾂ」)

Is it like the (,) in english?

This forum is awesome, Thank you guys soo much! Friendly too!! I heard "anata" was not polite so I'm a bit worried 'bout that. Yeah, sorry about the un-properly mixed kana, it's a big new to me. Haven't even memorized them yet. I just thought the katanka was ment for forign things, names, etc, and heigana for more japanese-style things. You folks are so helpful I really appreciate it. Learning all the kanji is so difficult. My main problem is I need a program that can write it!

And my ultimate goal is to go to japan and buy a video game in japanese and know what it says!

fixelbrumpf · 25 May 2004

GoldCoinLover said:
Any programs that will let me? The only way I know is to copy and paste the kanji/kana from this forum to where I need it.

GASP! That must have been an ungodly amount of work, I thought you said you already had a Japanese program... anyway, what's your operating system? For Windows, I recommend JWPce, but the inbuilt Windows IME (it's a separate download if you're not using Windows 2000 and up), is good, too.

What's does this mean anyway:

It's a Japanese quotation mark, they look like this: 「」
By the way, whoever told you "anata" isn't polite was probably talking out of his hat. Anata is actually pretty polite and should be okay for most situations. By the way, it's spelled "hiragana", and yep, katakana is usually used for foreign words and names.

GoldCoinLover · 25 May 2004

fixelbrumpf said:
GASP! That must have been an ungodly amount of work, I thought you said you already had a Japanese program... anyway, what's your operating system? For Windows, I recommend JWPce, but the inbuilt Windows IME (it's a seperate download if you're not using Windows 2000 and up), is good, too.

[/b]
It's a Japanese quotation mark, they look like this: ﾂ「ﾂ」
By the way, whoever told you "anata" isn't polite was probably talking out of his hat. Anata is actually pretty polite and should be okay for most situations. By the way, it's spelled "hiragana", and yep, katakana is usuallyl used for foreign words and names.

Yeah, it's a ton of work. On my other computer I went to www.japanese-online.com and copy and pasted all of the kana, one by one, onto wordpad (since notepad didn't support japanese). From there, I copy and paste the kana onto this forum. I cannot copy and paste the kanji without doing a heck of alot of work because I cannot found a website with all the kanji that you can copy and paste from.

By the way, I'm horrible at using computers. I don't understand the instructions on how to download the program. Does it have something I can click on that can start the download?

Thank you.

Elizabeth · 25 May 2004

It's a Japanese quotation mark, they look like this: ﾂ「ﾂ」
By the way, whoever told you "anata" isn't polite was probably talking out of his hat. Anata is actually pretty polite and should be okay for most situations.

You may be thinking of anta as a rude 'you' instead :?

GoldCoinLover · 25 May 2004

yes, Elizabeth, that is what I was thinking

Elizabeth · 25 May 2004

「あんた」という言い方はやめた方が無難でしょうね。 Probably it will be safer to stop using anta.

GoldCoinLover · 25 May 2004

So it really is rude? I should stop using anata?

Elizabeth · 25 May 2004

No, you shouldn't use anta. あんた not あなた

GoldCoinLover · 25 May 2004

Ah, I see, thank you

Do any of you know a program I can download that I can use to write japanese kana/kanji? I could do the other one a member generously mentioned but I don't understand the instructions

Mandylion · 25 May 2004

Huh? Anata is okay? Don't mean to hijack (I'll split the threat later if this is a problem), but unless I am on very personal terms, or in a high position relative to the listener (ie a student), I never use anata. Perhaps we just learned from different people.

GoldCoinLover · 25 May 2004

fixelbrumpf said:
Did you half of it in katakana for a reason? :?
Anyway, here's how I would write it:

かいものにいっていました。
買い物に行っていました。

(The way you wrote it, it said "I'm going to go shopping." I'd use the past te-iru form to indicate that your going shopping was an ongoing process in the past, similarly to "I was going shopping.")

アメリカじんです。

わたしはPOCKY(ポッキー)がだいすきです。
私はPOCKY(ポッキー)が大好きです。

(The "wa" after "watashi" is written "ha" when it is used as a postposition to indicate the topic. Moreover, the adjective "suki" requires the postposition "ga" [usually used to indicate the subject of a sentence] that is placed after the thing you like.)

Oh, yeah, and thank you very much is written どうもありがとうございました。

Welcome to JREF!

Thanks! You are very good at japanese! It took me 5 minutes + to decode what you said!

Here's what I got:

watashike POCKY (potukii)gadaisukidesu.
(私は = ?? [Not too sure what this means])POCKY(potukii)ga(大=??)(好=??)kidesu

doumo(I thought it was domo) arigato ugozaimasita

PaulTB · 25 May 2004

Mandylion said:
Huh? Anata is okay? Don't mean to hijack (I'll split the threat later if this is a problem), but unless I am on very personal terms, or in a high position relative to the listener (ie a student), I never use anata.

anata is ok, given the right circumstances.

This generally includes, for instance, when you don't know the other person's name and you don't have a work related title to call him by.

Mandylion · 25 May 2004

Yep, that is how I was using it, but people were giving the impression anata is fine almost anytime you want to refer to someone else - yet I would still try and avoid using anata by just taking a second to ask the persons name/title. Anata is still cold sounding to me.

PM me if others are still interested in this, or lets start a new thread. Sorry for the detour.

Elizabeth · 25 May 2004

I didn't mean to give the impression it was OK any time you want to use it. It is also of course often used by wives/girlfriends towards their husbands/boyfriends and as a 'collective' you in formal writing. Perhaps overly polite would be a better chacterization than 'rude.' Just as referring to someone as sono hito isn't really all that kosher unless you're in an argument, or at least joking around

fixelbrumpf · 26 May 2004

GoldCoinLover, to download and install JWPce, go here, download all the files (jwpcemin.exe and the other three.) Put them into the same directory, click on each file and you should be set.
It's a great program. By the way, to type in katakana in JWPce, type capital letters.
By the way, the "extra" sentences in my post were intended to teach you some simple kanji.

私=わたし
行く=いく
大好き=だいすき

ポッキー is how you write "Pocky" in katakana, or in romaji: "Pokkii". The small "tsu" (I recommend you to romanize it as "tsu", not "tu", this will make things easier for you as "tsu" is the most commonly used romanization nowadays) indicates a double consonant (the "kk" in "Pokkii".)

Glenn · 26 May 2004

fixelbrumpf said:
The small "tsu" (I recommend you to romanize it as "tsu", not "tu", this will make things easier for you as "tsu" is the most commonly used romanization nowadays)...

Maybe it is outside of Japan, but I believe that the Japanese use Kunrei romanization more frequently. However, there are some advantages to learning the phonemes (or even just Kunrei romanization). For example, you may learn that matsu is the verb "to wait," and that it is inflected as machimasu in the polite form and matanai in the negative. Here, you may be wondering just how it went from tsu to chi to ta. If you use phonemes (or Kunrei) it becomes clearer that they are related. For example, in Kunrei, you would see that matu is the dictionary form, matimasu is the polite form, and matanai is the negative form. It becomes easier to make sense of the grammar in this case. I think that each has its advantages over the other, but I still don't like ローマ字!

Please help!

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