Quote:
Originally Posted by bzc136
And also, it can be wa or ga, ga makes it stand out more sort of thing, but thanks anyway!
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It's not about standing out more; it's about subordinate clauses. Your quoted clause (an embedded quote using "to") is, literally translated, "that I have died." This subordinate clause has a subject and a verb; it is very simple. If it was an independent clause, you could choose to use either wa and ga freely, and though they would cast different shades of meaning on your sentence, "watashi wa shinda" and "watashi ga shinda" are both perfectly valid sentences in Japanese.
However, this is a subordinate clause, and subjects in subordinate clauses take "ga" if the subject in the other half of the sentence is different. Like so:
I thought that I was dead.
Watashi wa (jibun ga) shinda to omotte imashita.
They thought that I was dead.
Karera wa watashi ga shinda to omotte imashita.
These are of course only general guidelines, and because no one writes in "perfect" grammar (nor is there linguistically any such thing) you may find cases of your sentence being used. However, "ga" is the better choice from a perspective of wanting to form the most "correct" Japanese, and it is not simply a question of what you'd like to emphasize more.
Short version: wa versus ga is complicated.
Edit: I went on a foreign exchange program with a lot of people trying to learn Japanese, including some people from England (whose accents were at least more similar to yours than American accents), and their accents were mostly worse than yours. So you're doing well for a beginner, definitely. Your vowels (or maybe it's your overall sentence intonation?) still have an Australian twang to them, however; you should open up your mouth more and listen to recordings of yourself speaking to get rid of any traces of twangy dipthongs.
And the opinions of Japanese people about your Japanese ability can never be trusted, unfortunately. I'm not saying your accent is bad, mind you; just that Japanese people will tell you it is very good regardless. This is a sad fact that you will learn as you learn more about the language.
