Hello everyone, If you can't tell, I'm learning how to speak Japanese. However, if you know what baka means, you know I'll probably never surpass a very remedial understanding of the language. I can't help how impossibly confusing kanji is. Anyways, like most of us, I am an aspiring author. I waver between determination to do it and a complete lack of faith in my writing abilities (I have violent mood swings and have always been and will remain hypercritical of myself). I have been writing novels since I was 10 and have written 13 novels so far. Most of them are horrible, but what else can you expect from a ten-year-old novelist? I read what I write (shocker), which is mainly Fantasy. I enjoy adult and young adult Historical Fiction, some Magical Realism, and most things Speculative Fiction. Obviously, I also read Manga. As I said, I usually hate what I produce so feel free to rip apart anything I post on here. Whatever you say won't be worse than what I think. I'm here for advice, not coddling. I'm also happy to give advice, but, be warned, I might sound super critical/harsh.
Hi, @Baka_Alchemist, and welcome to the forum! Please check out our New Member Quick Start Guide - it'll get you going around here. You'll find many of our members write fantasy, too, so you'll fit right in! Participate and enjoy!
始めまして。I'm excited to see another Japan fan here! Have you incorporated any of the Japanese culture or language into your books?
こんばんは。 私は日本語が鳥渡わかります! Actually, I know about as much japanese as a toddler and about 100 kanji Anyways, はじめまして!
I'm new here, too, and took about four years of Japanese in high school (even passed three years worth!) and two in college, and then promptly forgot how to speak any more than surface-level conversations in the good ol' Nihongo. Doozo yoroshiku! Ogenki desu ka. (I don't have fancy Japanese characters)
I haven't been learning the language for too long (kanji will be the death of me. Honestly). But, now that I'm turning something I like (anime/manga) into honest research, I do plan on incorporating lots of Japanese culture and language into two different series I'm planning.
Haha. When it comes to Japanese, I know less than toddler (like 3 kanji (( I only started learning about two months ago, and I'm teaching myself). But ありがとう!
That's okay. I'm teaching myself and its a slow go. They didn't offer Japanese in my high school (not in any of the three I attended!) so I just took Spanish and some French, then Spanish in college. Now, I'm trying to learn Japanese. It isn't too bad, except for Kanji . . . . Anyways, Genki desu!
I signed up for Latin only to show up on the first day to find the course cancelled and myself enrolled in Japanese. Nice crash course in Eastern culture, though! The fact that their entire sentence structure was developed differently than most Western languages really got me engaged in the idea that we're ultimately the same but profoundly different in the nuanced sections of the mind. And kanji is killer. =P
They didn't offer Japanese in my High School, so I took Spanish and Latin, but I learned Japanese on my own. I now speak Japanese and a drop of Latin, but no Spanish. I love the culture so much that I went to Japan twice in college. I did an exchange program at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, then I went back the next summer to travel. If you need help with anything pertaining to Japan or Japanese, let me know.
Hi, welcome to the forum. I went to Japan with my son a decade or so ago. We went with his middle school Japanese class. It was great and he was able to read some important things like 'vacancy' on the hotel signs and 'acetaminophen' on the drug bottle.
Yeah. Kanji will kill me too. And yes, learning Japanese and about Eastern culture as a whole really opens your eyes.
I'd love to go to Japan! And to study there? What an opportunity. I'm also teaching myself (I speak a little Spanish too). And any recommendations on how to learn Kanji (or good books to buy on it) would be amazing. I'm trying to start with the radicals, but even that is hard. >.>
I'm glad he could read those. It's better than what I could do at the moment. And thanks. I'm glad to be here.
The idea of kanji is kind of mind-blowing to a Westerner. The idea that a few scratched-out lines can mean almost an entire sentence whereas the same amount of scrawled-out lines can only provide meaning for perhaps a word only tells us about the distinct differences between cultures.
