DeathNote Reading Buddy

[Befron]

So I have a thread going in the language help section where I am asking all kinds of questions that I encounter while reading DeathNote in Japanese, but it's getting ridiculous with the amount of questions I've been asking. So, I was just wondering if someone, whether they be a beginner at Japanese like me or someone fluent, would be willing to go through the Japanese version of the Manga DeathNote with me, and help me to understand some things, or in the case of another newcomer, mutually exchange ideas of translations. It would be great if we could meet on AIM or another IM cliet for a couple minutes a day to discuss translations. I am on about 2-3 hours a day and then also late night, past 11PM, EST my AIM sn is listed in my sig, thanks.

BTW, I have never read this series before.

[SSJup81]

That sounds like fun, actually, but I haven't originals. I'm a beginner as well with Japanese. The only problem I could see me facing though, aside from any trouble a beginner would have in general, is that I've read all of the volumes put out here in the states. I own all of them, so I already know what happens and all that.

[IonFortuna]

I haven't read any of the Death Note manga, only the anime. I am a begginer at Japanese also.

[Befron]

well both of you then, if you can grab an edition of the Japanese one, do so, and trust me the Japanese version is rather different from the english. Some of the lingual nuances aren't the same. I am sure you will be able to find a Japanese copy, either at an Asian Market near you or Google. Also, post your AIM, or other IMing client screen name. I think this will only work if we have fast communication.

Still looking for more people if anyone else wants to help

[SSJup81]

I know of an Asian Mart that I frequent, but they don't sell manga there. I guess I'd have to Google it, although, for something like that, I'd rather just have a physical copy of it.

[MMM]

If you have not read Death Note in English, and don't know what happens, I am not sure that it is the best title to use to supplement your studies only because there are so many twists and turns.

[Befron]

True, but you mean in plot right? As in it's hard to follow. I wanted to read it though to get an idea of how people actually write. And since Manga are so informal you almost get an idea of how the Japanese actually speak. When learning the language through books, you learn many lingual nuances and handy things, but there are many words and grammatical endings that I am sure nobody actually uses that would make you sound foreign if one were to actually use them. But very true, nevertheless, thanks for your input.

By the way, where can you get an unabridged Japanese->English/English->Japanese dictionary. My dictionaries don't have a lot of slang and less commonly used words in these books.

[SSJup81]

I think I'm going to have trouble, since I'm still bad at Kanji. For instance, let's say I might recognize a Kanji character when by itself, but not when it's with something else.

For example, let's use this example...though a bad one since I know this one...

今週 = Konshuu which means "this week". Let's say I didn't know that kanji for 週 which means "shuu", but I knew the first Kanji (今) there, which says "Ima" which stands for "now". How can I figure out the word if I don't know the Kanji? How do you look up Kanji characters that you can't just copy and paste into a processor? Then again, I do have a big Kanji chart...I guess I could just use that if I run into that problem.

That aside, I'm still having trouble finding raws of Volume I.

[MMM]

You can look up kanji by number of strokes or by certain radicals.

For example 週 has several radicals, so you can plug them in here:

WWWJDIC: Multirad Kanji

and find your kanji.

[SSJup81]

Whoa! Thanks a lot! I can't wait to try it out.

Oh, and I finally found a raw of Deathnote's manga. Should be fun trying to actually do some translating. I've only romanized stuff from Japanese text. ^^;