[QUOTE=Swebonny;38864197]I'm thinking about travelling to Japan in a year or two. But I hear horror stories about how "racist" the country is.
Bullshit right?[/QUOTE]
yea man I went there for an exchange and at the school I went to kids would come up to me and ask for my autograph cause I was white and randoms at lots of places would take photos with me
[editline]17th December 2012[/editline]
oh yea and I found that bluffing that you knew what people were saying by smiling and nodding/shaking your head made people think you understood them somewhat and they always acted happy that I seemed to understand what they said :v:
[QUOTE=Stormcharger;38864511]yea man I went there for an exchange and at the school I went to kids would come up to me and ask for my autograph cause I was white and randoms at lots of places would take photos with me[/QUOTE]
in terms of overall "xenophobia" the japanese seem to hold a latent grunge toward chinese immigrants and a morbid curiousity toward foreigners to the point of being a fascination
leading a group of americans around japan who did not understand the concept of not holding conversations with random people everywhere exemplified the problem for me
I want to learn this weird language, but everytime I look around... I just go wat.
I have no idea what to start with or how..
My fiancé said that Japanese people aren't typically racist, and it's looked down upon in their culture (although she did say she doesn't like mainlanders). So there, hah. Honestly I've never felt discriminated against for not being Japanese, I go to the festivals and cultural events around here and most people seem genuinely happy you're sharing in their culture.
[QUOTE=Psygo;38866835]I want to learn this weird language, but everytime I look around... I just go wat.
I have no idea what to start with or how..[/QUOTE]
Should be easy enough if your mother tongue is eastern or not a romance language.
Probably really difficult if its English, then you have no base whatsoever of familiarity, so everything is new. This is the same for other people learning English.
Let's try and keep this topic about language study and potential trips/emigration, rather than whether or not the Japanese are racist, alright?
I studied abroad in Japan during my 2nd year in college, best year of my life. One thing I really want to point out...
If you're interested in Japan because you like anime, that is fine. A lot of interest is built in Japan from that, because it's the most accessible medium for youth. But, make sure that you like the other 99% of Japan too, because the truth is that the majority of people college age and above are not really into it.
I've always been a geeky kid but I was able to find a group of friends pretty quickly, mix of other foreigners and local Japanese people. We had a lot of fun. However, there were plenty of kids who didn't adjust. Those kids that spent their entire time abroad in their room, watching anime on their laptops or collecting manga from Book Off. Japanese people may be eager to meet foreigners, but they can tell when someone is socially awkward, and will generally avoid those people, just like back home.
So if you think Japan is some magical fairytale land of moe and high school slice of life, then get over yourself because you're going to be miserable, unless you like in Akihabara or something. If you want to go to a country with amazing food, really nice people, an awesome history (minus that whole WW2 thing), vibrant city life, and a ridiculous amount of booze, get over to Japan.
[QUOTE=Nyaos;38873396]I studied abroad in Japan during my 2nd year in college, best year of my life. One thing I really want to point out...
If you're interested in Japan because you like anime, that is fine. A lot of interest is built in Japan from that, because it's the most accessible medium for youth. But, make sure that you like the other 99% of Japan too, because the truth is that the majority of people college age and above are not really into it.
I've always been a geeky kid but I was able to find a group of friends pretty quickly, mix of other foreigners and local Japanese people. We had a lot of fun. However, there were plenty of kids who didn't adjust. Those kids that spent their entire time abroad in their room, watching anime on their laptops or collecting manga from Book Off. Japanese people may be eager to meet foreigners, but they can tell when someone is socially awkward, and will generally avoid those people, just like back home.
So if you think Japan is some magical fairytale land of moe and high school slice of life, then get over yourself because you're going to be miserable, unless you like in Akihabara or something. If you want to go to a country with amazing food, really nice people, an awesome history (minus that whole WW2 thing), vibrant city life, and a ridiculous amount of booze, get over to Japan.[/QUOTE]
I agree but it's important to make the distinction that Tokyo isn't representative of all of Japan(just as NYC does not represent the whole of America). most of what you described seems like Tokyo and other big city areas.
wow... this whole page no japanese..
Interesting language though.
[QUOTE=thelurker1234;38873874]wow... this whole page no japanese..
Interesting language though.[/QUOTE]
どうぞ。
[QUOTE=Aircraft;38853806]As a general rule, they (and most other countries) would rather you speak their language rather than your own.[/QUOTE]
My friends who went did speak Japanese to them.
[QUOTE=thelurker1234;38873874]wow... this whole page no japanese..
Interesting language though.[/QUOTE]
期待した事は何ですか？
こんにちにゃみんにゃさん
Oh jesus what am i doing.
[QUOTE=Sithramir;38875309]こんにちにゃみんにゃさん
Oh jesus what am i doing.[/QUOTE]
Not taking this very seriously by the looks of it.
[QUOTE=Megafan;38875332]Not taking this very seriously by the looks of it.[/QUOTE]
That post was not serious indeed it's not like it was obvious or anything.
I am however seriously learning Japanese.
Been going through the grammar past couple of days while learning vocab.
[QUOTE=Sparkwire;38864167]あれわむずかしい
am i doing it right
[editline]17th December 2012[/editline]
i fixed it i think
あれはむずかしい
"that is hard"[/QUOTE]
A fun little nuance in japanese is the word "that". There are three different words used to describe objects in this fashion.
それ, これ, あれ. Sore, Kore and Are.
The nuance is distance. In english, you'll find if something is close by you'll use "this" rather than "that". "that" being used for far away object.
In japanese, instead of having two words, they have three. これ is used when you want to indicate at something nearby. An example is something you're holding or something you are pointing at on a shelf in a supermarket isle, that kind of proximity. It's basically the japanese version of "this".
それ is close to the meaning of "that" in english, but generally describes objects you can still see or are nearby, but too far away that using "this" would sound awkward. あれ is kind of like "that over there" and describes things very far away and often out of sight.
In this scenario, あれ is a bit awkward as you're describing something in "this" thread, you'd probably use それ. Overall, the sentence is a bit awkward due to the ambiguity of what you're talking about. I'm assuming you're saying "that (thing of learning japanese) is hard" but you could easily be referring to Megafan eating his hat. In that case you'd use those three This and Thats more specifically.
If you want to say "That X" like "That language is hard" you'd use それ as your form of that, but to use "that" along with an object, you'd change the word from それ to その and then follow it up with your noun, in this case you'd end up saying その外国語は難しい (Sono Gaikokugo wa Muzukashii. That foreign language is hard.) But considering you're talking about the language topic of this thread, you'd say "This foreign language is hard" and use この instead of その.
I probably didn't need to overcomplicate things, but I thought someone might find the info handy.
[QUOTE=Nitrosol;38875467]A fun little nuance in japanese is the word "that". There are three different words used to describe objects in this fashion.
それ, これ, あれ. Sore, Kore and Are.
The nuance is distance. In english, you'll find if something is close by you'll use "this" rather than "that". "that" being used for far away object.
In japanese, instead of having two words, they have three. これ is used when you want to indicate at something nearby. An example is something you're holding or something you are pointing at on a shelf in a supermarket isle, that kind of proximity. It's basically the japanese version of "this".
それ is close to the meaning of "that" in english, but generally describes objects you can still see or are nearby, but too far away that using "this" would sound awkward. あれ is kind of like "that over there" and describes things very far away and often out of sight.
In this scenario, あれ is a bit awkward as you're describing something in "this" thread, you'd probably use それ. Overall, the sentence is a bit awkward due to the ambiguity of what you're talking about. I'm assuming you're saying "that (thing of learning japanese) is hard" but you could easily be referring to Megafan eating his hat. In that case you'd use those three This and Thats more specifically.
If you want to say "That X" like "That language is hard" you'd use それ as your form of that, but to use "that" along with an object, you'd change the word from それ to その and then follow it up with your noun, in this case you'd end up saying その外国語は難しい (Sono Gaikokugo wa Muzukashii. That foreign language is hard.) But considering you're talking about the language topic of this thread, you'd say "This foreign language is hard" and use この instead of その.
I probably didn't need to overcomplicate things, but I thought someone might find the info handy.[/QUOTE]
これ and この are actually better translated as 'this' in most contexts. If you have, say, an apple in your hand and are saying something about it, you might refer to it as このりんご or "this apple". A common expression some of you may have heard in anime is "このやろ” or "that bastard", but of course the person being referred to has either been in close proximity recently or is at that moment, so in such a case これ and この would be translated as "that".
Fundamentally, and I think you said the same thing here, これ・それ・あれ and この・その・あの are used based on the speaker's proximity to the thing being talked about. However, if you're referring to a concept, of which there is no 'location', then you would consider これ・この to be 'this', それ・その to be 'that', and あれ・あの to be 'that which is intellectually/mentally/etc. distant from me'.
I may have only complicated it further but hopefully it's clear what these mean.
Im going japan for 2 weeks in march. All i know at the moment is hiragana and a handful of words.
Should be interesting
日本！
僕はすしを食べてなければなりません！
[editline]18th December 2012[/editline]
そして、日本語がとてもすごいですね。。。
[editline]18th December 2012[/editline]
かいて日本語がたのしいです。
[editline]18th December 2012[/editline]
I cannot relative clauses.
Help.
[editline]18th December 2012[/editline]
Is it:
かいて日本語がたのしいです。
or
日本語をかいてことがたのしいです。
I'm going to Japan in Early 2014/late 2013. Should be fun, i have a Japanese speaking friend so hopefully we won't be completely fucked.
[QUOTE=The Aussie;38885330]I'm going to Japan in Early 2014/late 2013. Should be fun, i have a Japanese speaking friend so hopefully we won't be completely fucked.[/QUOTE]
You should make sure to read up on the customs so you don't make an ass of yourself.
[QUOTE=Skellyhell;38880950]Im going japan for 2 weeks in march. All i know at the moment is hiragana and a handful of words.
Should be interesting[/QUOTE]
Learning Katakana will help a lot for your travels.
Since you know Hiragana then Katakana should significantly be much easier and less time consuming to learn since you already have familiarized yourself with the structured system it uses.
Here's something that can help you:
[url]http://www.realkana.com/[/url]
[QUOTE=The Aussie;38885330]I'm going to Japan in Early 2014/late 2013. Should be fun, i have a Japanese speaking friend so hopefully we won't be completely fucked.[/QUOTE]
It's easy, take your footwear off if you're going to be sitting on tatami mats, don't pass food hashi to hashi (chopsticks), dont be loud, smile alot, say thank you alot (arigato/arigato gozaimasu/arigozaimaaasu) the latter being the phonetic way that most people say it. You'll be fine.
[QUOTE=InvaderNouga;38873708]I agree but it's important to make the distinction that Tokyo isn't representative of all of Japan(just as NYC does not represent the whole of America). most of what you described seems like Tokyo and other big city areas.[/QUOTE]
You're totally right, although I lived in Fukuoka, which was the best city I had visited in Japan, which included Tokyo. Rural Japan is a different story all together... a very boring story, just like rural America hahaha. That's just my opinion though.
With me and my brother being the most loud Northern Englishmen, I didn't think we would have survived, but we did; you'll be fine. We ended up in some bar watching gaki no tsukai until we were well and truly hammered, then my my dearest brother thought he'd try to learn how to pronounce 'excuse me' over and over and the staff kept thinking he was talking to them. In the end we befriended a barman called Yuki and came back the day after to talk about glorious England.
[QUOTE=GreenDolphin;38892044]Learning Katakana will help a lot for your travels.
Since you know Hiragana then Katakana should significantly be much easier and less time consuming to learn since you already have familiarized yourself with the structured system it uses.
Here's something that can help you:
[URL]http://www.realkana.com/[/URL][/QUOTE]
that thing is awesome, I've been going at it for like an hour now while watching some anime, and I already remember a few rows of the hiragana, hopefully it'll stick after a while too.
ありがと
Bought my plane tickets to Osaka (only 10,000 yen for roundtrip)for Jan 25-29, who here has been to Osaka and can recommend things to do/see? Definitely planning on hitting up Universal and Osaka castle.
[QUOTE=InvaderNouga;38916375]Bought my plane tickets to Osaka (only 10,000 yen for roundtrip)for Jan 25-29, who here has been to Osaka and can recommend things to do/see? Definitely planning on hitting up Universal and Osaka castle.[/QUOTE]
Head down to Dōtonbori and look for the giant crab:
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Osaka_Dotonbori.jpg[/img]
It's a pretty cool place, although when I was there a group of people were being questioned by the police and so it was sort of hectic.
[QUOTE=Megafan;38917525]Head down to Dōtonbori and look for the giant crab:
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Osaka_Dotonbori.jpg[/img]
It's a pretty cool place, although when I was there a group of people were being questioned by the police and so it was sort of hectic.[/QUOTE]
My coworker told me the food in Osaka is outstanding and there's quite a bit of night life. Ill definitely check out the giant crab, is dotonbori a big food area? Also I was planning on stopping in Kyoto if you have any recommendations for there.
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