Hajimemashite.

[taimatsu]

I thought I would mention that I've already finished all my Japanese homework from Monday's class. Hajimemashite. Rushi desu. Douzo yoroshiku. And lots of hiragana practice, though I have no idea how I am going to learn to recognise all the symbols. I am really chuffed to finally be learning this :)

Comments

[j4.livejournal.com]

I have no idea how I am going to learn to recognise all the symbols.

Eh, same way as you learned to recognise the symbols of the English alphabet -- time and practice. :-)

("But the kana all look the same!!" -- yes, but think how similar d, b, p, q, and g would look to somebody who had never seen them before...)

Ganbatte!

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

You could practise by going to see Spirited Away, highly recommended.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

Modulo the traipse to somewhere running the sub - I suppose Oxfrod isn't so bad from Reading.

[Lucy; we're certainly going to run it at anime night, though, so if you're strapped for cash...]

We saw it at the Barbican - to our intense relief the couple with the noisy children buggered off upon discovering it was a sub, which was quite the win.

[taimatsu]

I own it on DVD and finally got Robert to watch it on Thursday last week. I'm not making *huge* efforts to see it on a big screen, though if a sub turns up at Reading I'd go.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

You have Spirited Away on DVD? Pirate copy?

The one I saw was subtitled.

[taimatsu]

No, legit DVD bought in Japan. Has English subs. I haven't watched it dubbed.

[wyrdness.livejournal.com]

I tried to finda japanese class around my area, but there's none to find. It's really annoying.

[taimatsu]

Chuh. They aren;t always easy to find - it's a language in less demand than French, German, etc.

[wyrdness.livejournal.com]

This is true. I'll find somewhere/ somehow one day though :)

[sanjibabes.livejournal.com]

Watashi wa Sandura des.
Kore wa nan deska?

All I remember from Japanese lessons!

[catsluvdmb.livejournal.com]

don't worry, your excitement will fade. Eventually you'll find yourself saying kamawanai to everything. I've been studying for several years, and when I once eagerly bounded to class, I now debate whether or not to show up. Probably more the professor than the language.

[taimatsu]

Well, this is a year-long course, so if I'm fed up with it at the end I can just stop. :)

[stronae.livejournal.com]

Hiragana, Katakana... well, of course, it helps if you know how you learn best, but absent that, the usual thing to try is to imagine the symbol looking like something that has the syllable it depicts. "Shi" is easy because it looks like the hair off the back of a woman, for example.

[tithonus.livejournal.com]

two things..
1. even though everyone teaches you to say "dozo yoroshiku", nobody uses it! everybody but everybody seems to say "yoroshiku onegai shimasu", which is a more polite version.. they also use that phrase for a million other things, so it is a very useful one to know. :-)
2. learning kana is just a matter of practice. on the course in fukuoka, they give people a week to learn it, and everyone does.. basically just write them out over and over and over again. boring, but effective. unlike with the kanji, there's no intrinsic interestingness to use to memorise them, although some people seem to make up strange shape memomonics for them.

anyway, hope the course goes well, and good luck with all the interviews. :-)