Japanese Help me(a poor defenseless beginner) out.

ok...for those of you who are good at speaking Japanese....
1. how do you say "best friend"
2. Is this propor grammer or just really ....beginneresque: Tomodachi to shite, Shimai to shite.

*sigh* It's hard teaching yourself Japanese. I'm not very good to begin with...I could use all the help i can get. *mumbles to self* stupid high school with no japanese...stupid college whose only japanese is overseas....stupid lack of patience..........

~Chi

 

correct on the "friend" part!

friend is "tomodachi" (or o-tomodachi, depending on formality)... and because im on a japanese keyboard, ill even show you it in kanji "ƒI[—F’B"
the word for best is the prefix "dai-", but im not sure that is applicable to a person or not.

Another word for close friend is "shin`yuu" (Ve—Lj, but im not sure if that is what you were aiming for or not :shy3:

good luck with your studies! i was in your situation not long ago and now im sitting in tokyo on a volunteer placement! You can do it!

 

to shite is a particle used regarding a position,qualification or role i believe? thats the meaning i learned for it
heres an example
Kare wa taishi to shite chuugoku ni shuppan shita.
He departed to China as an ambassador.

 

Im a beginner too but i seem to be getting this stuff rapidly..
So how many mexicans in the world know japanese.

 

I don't know about speaking good Japanese but I do know there's a Mexican family owned Japanese resturant near by my work and it's pretty damn good.

 

LOL Thats cool....but bizzare. I can barely imagine this. I would like to say that my japanese is getting better. I now know half of the hiragana alphabet. or so my teacher says.

 

I trying to learn japaness to I know like 5 words can some one tell me a good place and/or book to help me.

And don't say Shogun my mom alreddy seggested that book.

 

Well, I don't know too much Japanese either, but Shōgun by James Clavell is a very good book, and you should read it (even if every single true historical character has had his/her name changed, and the Japanese that is in it is usually the lesser-used words...).

 

I practice by myself and during school which serves a convenient place to practice this language, of course when I say during school I mean during my free time in class because there is no Japanese courses in my school which is really sad.

 

I do a lot of self-study myself.. but if I had to suggest some sites offhand for someone to start up on? Kanji Step is a good site I tripped on a long time ago. Jim Breen's online dictionary is a very good online dictionary for hard to find kanji and words.
For books, Kodansha has a good line of dictionaries for learners, like The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary [ISBN #4-7700-2855-5]. Kodansha also makes a learner's guide to grammar patterns which is quite useful.

But then again... I translate manga for a job... These are work tools for me. They might not be as useful if you're just barely starting out.

-UK

 

Yeah I picked up the dvd set and it's really cool. Although since it was a television series the violence was toned down but still it was very authentic.

 

I think it's called "Shin-yu" (best friend). Although I could be wrong.

 

^_^

I can't find any books at all (okay I know i havent looked hard enough before you say hehe) but i have some sites i find quite useful
http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/japanese/index.html
http://japanese-online.com/
http://www.thejapanesepage.com/

and this one is good find how to write your name ^_^
http://www.takase.com/Names/NameInJapaneseT.htm

 

OHOH! My college isn't stupid NEmore! They opened a Japanese class that starts winter semester! WOOT WOOT! *jumping up and down in excitement*

~Chi

 

If anyone ever runs into trouble- just PM me.

I'll help you out as best I can. In the meantime, have fun, study hard and eat some ramen noodles.

HAH.

 

im a hopless beginner also.... your looking at the person who only knows one sentence.... and it actually descibes me pretty well... watashi wa no baka.....which i think is 'im an idiot'... but i think im just proving how much of an idiot i realy am...

 

Don't worry about not knowing much to start out, everyone starts somewhere, yes?

-UK

 

I think it might help to get a English to Japanese Dictionary, I got one the other day and kind of helping me out.

 

Actually, that's (watashi wa) baka desu/da desu is formal; da isn't. Watashi wa can also be omitted and probably is by most japanese...but it's more common to omit it when insulting other people. And in that case, you don't use "desu" since you usually aren't formal when insulting others...but again, baka can mean anything from "idiot" to "silly" depending on how you speak it...so, if you just want to say something to someone like "silly," you can just say "baka desu." But I don't think any japanese would say this to anyone whom they don't know...and in that case, they'd use the informal version by omitting desu. Da can also be omitted in informal speech ^_^

 

well don't know much. i took eight lesson in 6 hours( it hurts trying to keep it in ).so let me attemp on sayin something( i hope it dosen't sound stupid )
ummmmmmmmmmm........jaa. hajimemashite minnasan :sweat:

I AT LEAST TRIED!!!!!!