Learn Japanese Together: Super Challenge 2013

[Mephisto]

The reason the katakana you found said キー is because this is the katakana reading for key, aka the foreign reading.

Key in english sounds like "Kii" in japanese.

There is also a japanese word for key, which is 鍵(kagi) as you pointed out.

ー is something you learn in grammar, as it essentially repeats the ending sound of the last vowel.

キ = ki

キー = kii

[Okami]

Mephisto thanks that helped alot.

[Yeah Way]

Interesting for sure, but I'll be sticking with what Steve described on the first page. Will still try to take an active roll here, answering/asking questions and such.

[zoom909]

Just FYI on http://zoom909.blogspot.com I did a post on my Japanese learning experiences. I tried to keep it brief...

Ki ga muitara, zehi mi ni itte kudasai :-)

[Yukata Lover]

This could be Useful for my research (After all, right now I am currently learning japanese) (Just saw this post a second ago)

[Tief Blau]

There are also more useful unused symbols including but not limited to;

ゞ、ゝ、〲、and 〱 - kana sound repeaters

々 - kanji sound repeater (common)

There was another weird squiggly mark that looked like a deformed mouse. Not too sure what it does though.

Then for obsolete kana:

ゑ, ヱ

On a random side note I'm going to try to learn all the kanji from N4 to N2 in 30 days.

じゃ皆、がんばれ

[CaptainBigButt]

I think I have Hiragana down now along with some basic Japanese words, but I haven't learned Kanji yet. I hope I wasn't learning backward. It does kind of bring me to one question though.

Why is it the kana for wa is わ, but it's written as は in words such as anatawa (あなたは） and konnichiwa (こんにちは）？

Lastly, is there any way to practice the pronunciations for Japanese vowels and such? I have no idea if I'll need to speak Japanese any time soon, but I'd still feel terrible having some thick foreigner accent nobody can understand.

[Yeah Way]

I think I have Hiragana down now along with some basic Japanese words, but I haven't learned Kanji yet. I hope I wasn't learning backward. It does kind of bring me to one question though.

Why is it the kana for wa is わ, but it's written as は in words such as anatawa (あなたは） and konnichiwa (こんにちは）？

Lastly, is there any way to practice the pronunciations for Japanese vowels and such? I have no idea if I'll need to speak Japanese any time soon, but I'd still feel terrible having some thick foreigner accent nobody can understand.

”は” is a "Particle", a grammatical tool similar to a preposition. Particles are pretty much the only irregularly pronounced kana.

So, ”は” is the character for the sound "Ha"; but, when used as a Particle, it's pronounced "Wa".

Other such exceptions are ”へ”, which is pronounced "E" when used as a Particle and ”を”, which switches between "Wo" and "O" depending on accent and personal preference.

Look up basic particles if you want to learn more: they're quite easy to grasp with proper teaching.

[Sparkker]

”は” is a "Particle", a grammatical tool similar to a preposition. Particles are pretty much the only irregularly pronounced kana.

So, ”は” is the character for the sound "Ha"; but, when used as a Particle, it's pronounced "Wa".

Other such exceptions are ”へ”, which is pronounced "E" when used as a Particle and ”を”, which switches between "Wo" and "O" depending on accent and personal preference.

Look up basic particles if you want to learn more: they're quite easy to grasp with proper teaching.

I think there are only 5 of them..

は、に、を、で、へ. Can you tell me if I'm missing any..

[Tief Blau]

I think there are only 5 of them..

は、に、を、で、へ. Can you tell me if I'm missing any..

Depending on what you define as a particle.

は、に、を、で、へ are particles, but there are also;

も、や、と this is a generalization, but they are used in the sense of "and" or "also". とhas other uses ex. 皆と一緒

ぜ、ぞ、な masculine particles, usually at the end of sentences.

わ、よ、ね feminine particles usually at the end of sentences.

Then by definition には、へと、にも and other doubled particles are also particles used to emphasize things (this also being a generalization)

Off the top of my head those are all I can think of at the moment, I'll post again when I remember more.

-Edit-

You forgot の

also ので

-Edit2-

haha I forgot to add が

[Down]

I think there are only 5 of them..

は、に、を、で、へ. Can you tell me if I'm missing any..

が、と、も and の are important ones too. The rest is less basic or sentence-ending incomprehensible stuff.

[Yeah Way]

There are plenty more: から、まで、ついて。。。

Like I said, they're pretty much the same as European prepositions; and we've plenty of those.

[Sparkker]

There are plenty more: から、まで、ついて。。。

Like I said, they're pretty much the same as European prepositions; and we've plenty of those.

Hmm, I forgot those were particles.....

[Yeah Way]

Hmm, I forgot those were particles.....

I know, one does get used to the idea that particles are one character each.

[CaptainBigButt]

I'm a little lost on that, but I'll probably save that link and come back to it when I move on to grammar. I'm starting on Kanji now before I fall behind, so this'll be fun. When it comes to Hiragana, are there any good exercises to speed up processing them? I have all of the symbols down, but I read them at the pace of a baby when they're spelling a word.

[shcboomer]

I'm a little lost on that, but I'll probably save that link and come back to it when I move on to grammar. I'm starting on Kanji now before I fall behind, so this'll be fun. When it comes to Hiragana, are there any good exercises to speed up processing them? I have all of the symbols down, but I read them at the pace of a baby when they're spelling a word. :P/>

I think the easiest way is just to familiarize yourself with more words in Japanese. Reading basic sentences out loud will probably help as well.

[Yeah Way]

I'm a little lost on that, but I'll probably save that link and come back to it when I move on to grammar. I'm starting on Kanji now before I fall behind, so this'll be fun. When it comes to Hiragana, are there any good exercises to speed up processing them? I have all of the symbols down, but I read them at the pace of a baby when they're spelling a word. :P/>/>/>/>

Idolly write short sentences or words whilst bored, eg. in class.

Pick a nice J-song, try to sing along by reading the kana. When you know the lyrics, write them in kana.

Anything like those.

I got them learnt off by writing the alphabets in their grid arrangement repeatedly.

[zoom909]

I'm a little lost on that, but I'll probably save that link and come back to it when I move on to grammar. I'm starting on Kanji now before I fall behind, so this'll be fun. When it comes to Hiragana, are there any good exercises to speed up processing them? I have all of the symbols down, but I read them at the pace of a baby when they're spelling a word. :P/>/>

How about taking hiragana lessons from Mai.

[jaxter0987]

How about taking hiragana lessons from Mai.

Ta tsu ya ko i chi n ?

I vaguely remember them from my half hearted attempt at learning kana a couple months back.

[shcboomer]

Ta tsu ya ko i chi n ?

I vaguely remember them from my half hearted attempt at learning kana a couple months back.

Might be a good plan to practice the hiragana table a few times. Then when you memorize it in that order, start reading things and confirm with the chart.

Looks like it is

ta tsu ya ni i san.

or

tatsuya nii san.

[Mephisto]

The answer to everything is to read read read.

I've gotten a lot better at everything after I tried translating stuff on my own with something that helped with Kanji-lookup.

Just learn the grammar and the alphabets and the kanji will come along eventually/slowly. There's really no point in grinding out kanji since it won't really help you understand Japanese. [unless you want to write japanese eventually, but that's when you're already good]

[Yeah Way]

The answer to everything is to read read read.

I've gotten a lot better at everything after I tried translating stuff on my own with something that helped with Kanji-lookup.

Just learn the grammar and the alphabets and the kanji will come along eventually/slowly. There's really no point in grinding out kanji since it won't really help you understand Japanese. [unless you want to write japanese eventually, but that's when you're already good]

I think write write write is the way to go, actually.

[Down]

Watch watch watch does a part of the job too. Watching anime while paying attention to what is said - if you have the basic grammar done - will let you grab tons of vocabulary and expressions and understand in context the uses of the 123954 verb forms that are the only real grammar point of japanese. I found that learning the kanjis for adjectives or nouns you already know is quite easier.

[Sparkker]

Ta tsu ya ko i chi n ?

I vaguely remember them from my half hearted attempt at learning kana a couple months back.

Hmm, You missed the straight line< Which made you read it as こ rather than に.

Might be a good plan to practice the hiragana table a few times. Then when you memorize it in that order, start reading things and confirm with the chart.

Looks like it is

ta tsu ya ni i san.

or

tatsuya nii san.

It's tatsuya-niisan

Though I still get confused with Katakana>> XD (Still slow on reading kana, took me about a minute or so to get that one right...)

[jaxter0987]

Might be a good plan to practice the hiragana table a few times. Then when you memorize it in that order, start reading things and confirm with the chart.

Looks like it is

ta tsu ya ni i san.

or

tatsuya nii san.

Welp completely confused sa with chi. I can accept my mistake with ko and ni though, as I often made that mistake back when I was trying to learn them.

I eagerly await the day I'm confident enough with my Japanese to attempt translation.