Japanese Help Questions/Translations

[heden]

hi, i'm new here
nice to hear that all the people in JF are always ready to help me
i'm first interested in japanese bout a year a go, but as the time goes by, i have my own 'ups and downs' in learning japanese.
at the first time, i was so sure that SOMEDAY i will be fluent in japanese
i'll do everything to it
i'll try to do my best on it
but,, you know, sometimes i feel bored. then i stop learning. and i'm interested in it again, then i stop it.
it happens all the time
i don't find a way to learn japanese effectively.
one thing that i try is i'm doing translating japanese songs into english or into my own language. it helps me a lot to understand words in japanese
though, i have some difficulties in arranging some words in japanese into a sentence.
it's very very difficult!! really!
so, does anyone have some tips for me?
to keeps me learning japanese?
to help to out my problems?

[MMM]

It's great that you are trying! Keep up with it!

Learning Japanese is really really hard. It's great that you have found something like translating songs to keep you inspired.

I really think that learning a language on your own is nearly impossible, especially at the beginning, if you don't have some super-motivator (like you live in the country where the language is the main communication).

I would recommend taking a class, or arranging some regularly scheduled lesson...that way you are motivated to study and do homework.

Translating songs is great, but it 1) is really hard, even for bi-lingual translators and 2) isn't really going to get you fluent.

Instead of a song, try a manga. Especially one that has hiragana written above the kanji. That way you can learn some kanji and also see Japanese conversations taking place.

Songs are great, but aren't natural conversation. (By pop music, you would think it's OK to call everyone "OMAE" all the time....totally not the case)

[mamok]

Hey. I also decided to learn japanese about 9 months ago, from that time I am learning it without any teacher. I have some thoughts about it:
On internet you can find a lot of necessary stuff to help you learn it.I started with kanadian tv program called "Let's learn japanese"(I think it's really good for start, they teach you basics and also a pronounciation because it was made by japanese natives) and also I learned from different sources. To learn it efficialy I need a book so I bought Japanese grammar of Maho Ikushima and guys from university in my country, it is really hard to read and what is there written about pronounciation I would say it's almost imposible to learn from book but for this I used anime and movies (I know that in anime they don't speak like in usual life but I hope it doesn't differ either).Also these books are really good if it is about grammar. So for learning grammar I am using mainly these books and at beginning Lets learn japanese. If it is about writing I started with hiragana and katagana afcourse then I stopped for some time (I intended to learn japanese on the communitive level in one year because I found really interesting job offer, I thought I can manage it but not with learning kanji, there is too much of them), ...after some time I was learning only grammar and vocabulary that job offer vanished and I decided to start with kanji. I started with programm "yokozuna" and new kanji I searched in programm "JWPCE" and I writed down in my notebook words which consisted of this kanji(not every afcourse but those I thought will be useful in future) yokozuna had 3 levels only so I am now using Kanji Land Lesson archives Grade 4 . I am not trying to memorize kanji at once, I am trying to get familiar with it, then while reading grammar book there are sentences in kanji also every day I read some of my kanji notebooks. Learning kanji is really fun, you starting to realize what is the orign of words you knew and learn a lot more interesting(my favourite is hadakamairi - going to the shrine naked in the witer) So after 9 month this is where I got...I think I have vast vocabulary, I understend most of grammar, I am familiar with about 700 kanji I can watch some anime or movies without subtitles. Although I am not really good with using grammar yet, it will take some time and teacher or living in japan would be very helpful. Oh yeah, I am spending at least 2 hours daily on japanese, sometimes it is much more. For these 9 month I didn;t have a break. I am sure you can learn it by your own but it will be dificult and can take more time than with teacher, also with teacher and curses you can't do it on very high pace. So if you won't spend on it a lot of time I suggest finding tutor or going for lectures. Good luck!
Damn, I wrote so much and now Iam late for tenis match

[kurishi]

Originally Posted by MMM

In general high school seniors are called 三年生 (san-nen-sei) which means "Third year student" (Japanese high schools are three years), but I think the word you are looking for is 先輩　(sempai) which means "senior" "the top" "the oldest" "the highest rank" in this situation. They could "Americanize" it and be "The Sempais" or "The Sempai Class". It is the word that younger students use to call older students.

Thank you so much!! ^^

[manfan]

Hello...

I was wondering whether there are people who could help me to translate the paragraph below. It's part of a song....

闘志の火揚げて
走り往く肩に一片
溶ける雪

The fiery flame of willingness to fight rises
First season passes, petals on shoulders
Thawing snow.

Is it correct translation?

[82riceballs]

Originally Posted by manfan

The fiery flame of willingness to fight rises
First season passes, petals on shoulders
Thawing snow.

funny, i always thought that "ageku" meant to fry in oil.

anyways, ur translation seems good. instead of saying "willingness to fight" you could use "fighting spirit" cuz it sounds cooler. that's all i have to say.

i've got some questions myself:
1. is 往く some older way to write 行く？ it wasn't in the dictionary when i looked.
2. how would one say "i almost got an email". i'm pretty sure it has the words "メルアド" and "持つ".
3. sometimes i notice how words have "っす" behiind them. what does that mean?

[manfan]

I don't know....I'm not sure whether I hit the spot, it seems a little bit confusing to me, even if it was suppose to be poetic.

My main problem is I don't know which is subject, and object. It's a big difference between the two. Like for instance....

溶ける雪
Snow is thawing?
Thawing snow?
Snow can/is able to thaw??

and
踊る雪
Dancing snow?
Snow is dancing?
Dancing on Snow??

[kIyo]

Originally Posted by 82riceballs

funny, i always thought that "ageku" meant to fry in oil.

anyways, ur translation seems good. instead of saying "willingness to fight" you could use "fighting spirit" cuz it sounds cooler. that's all i have to say.

i've got some questions myself:
1. is 往く some older way to write 行く？ it wasn't in the dictionary when i looked.
2. how would one say "i almost got an email". i'm pretty sure it has the words "メルアド" and "持つ".
3. sometimes i notice how words have "っす" behiind them. what does that mean?

Hi, are you a Taiwanese? I like Taiwanese. They are independent and smart.
The best friend in Asia for Japan.

The answer is
1.Both are OK. But 往く is used for writing.
2.Sorry, I don't understand this. Maybe, "Eメイルが届きました" is suitable.
"I've already got an email" is "私はもうEメイルをもらっています”
"メルアド" is mail adrress.
3."っす" is short for "です" mostly used by young guys.

[82riceballs]

yep, i'm taiwanese! よろしくね。

Thanks for answering my question (<-日本語で何と言いますか。）

[manfan]

What about me??

I am not from Taiwan, but I do too make a good friend to talk to!!

Can anybody help answer my question?

Originally Posted by manfan

My main problem is I don't know which is subject, and object. It's a big difference between the two. Like for instance....

溶ける雪
Snow is thawing?
Thawing snow?
Snow can/is able to thaw??

and
踊る雪
Dancing snow?
Snow is dancing?
Dancing on Snow??