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# Just wondering here, but...
have you ever tried working backwards from a Japanese cookbook?
(, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 23:48, archived)
# You wind up with lots of raw stuff.
Much the same as going forwards, really.
(, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 23:49, archived)
# Hahahahahaha
xD
(, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 23:51, archived)
# Hai...
sou desu.

Sore wa 'ramen' desu ne?

(yes, I'm learning Japanese. Officially, and on purpose. Try not to faint.)
(, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 23:54, archived)
# Du--wha--what does that mean?
Japanese is a pretty cool-sounding language. Is it hard?
I'm learning French (we have to take a language at school, and it's that or Latin or Spanish) as well as Dutch, though I need to practice more. And I wanna learn something Norse. :]
(, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 23:57, archived)
# It's not actually that hard
but it is very different to all western languages, you have to think in a different order. Oh, and there are three new alphabets to master:

for example:

watashi wa kirakite desu.

regarding me, killerkitti it is.

they're called particles... 'wa' indicates that it's the topic.

Anata wa kirakite o-namae desu.

Regarding you, your name is killerkitti.

Kanji is characters from Chinese, where one symbol (or 'glyph') represents a concept or a word.

Hiragana is a syllabary, where each glyph represents a sound. it's used for particles, where there's no kanji, and sometimes you see hiragana as well as the kanji, if it's considered obscure.

Then there's Katakana, which is like hiragana but with simpler glyphs, the same sounds as in hiragana but it's only used for words that aren't japanese in origin.

I can see why you learn Spanish and French, with Mexico and Canada and that.

I was fluent in German at one point, and Dutch and Norwegian were quite straightfoward in comparison. I learnt Norwegian (boksmal) to ask a girl out once. long story, that didn't end well.
(, Tue 9 Dec 2008, 0:27, archived)