Cant find this symbols translation
 

I have searched, 'everywhere' for this symbol @_@ and I still cant find it I dont know if its Higarana, Kanji or Katakana although I suspect its either Katakana or Kanji, its very similar to ma but its not here is a basic picture I drew of that symbol Please help Im trying to translate a Novel I bought and I cant translate that sentence without that symbol! T_T Its driving me insane not knowing @_@ :confused:

Excuse me but you're trying to translate a novel when you aren't sure if a ceratin character is a kana or kanji? :confused:

That is called "踊り字=おどりじ" and it's considered a kind of an "honorary" kanji.
It is used in a kanji word to show that the immediately precedng kanji is repeated.

国々（くにぐに）= (many) countries
山々（やまやま）= the mountains
数々（かずかず）= many
色々（いろいろ）= varied, many kinds of

Thank you sooosososososososo much! lol

Yeah Im kinda desperate to read this novel which Ive been trying to get ahold of for a 'very' long time.

I also have a program that helps me write kanji, katakana, and hiragana and have been a bit desperate to actually use it instead of letting it sit there, I got it a few months ago from a friend who is also learning japanese.

To use it all I have to do is type in the exact text into it then I can find the translations for it in another dictionary, though kanji takes longer because its search is different, you can find the kanji your looking for stroke by stroke, which makes finding the kanji I need hard. just looking at it makes me dizzy sometimes @_@.

The program is very useful though, especially sence translating novels/games/manga is helping me learn japanese alot faster then all the other ways I've tried ^_^* as my Special Education teacher once told me, if you find a way to make you learn faster use it and stick with it no matter how hard it may seem to others lol

anyways thank you sooooooooo much though Ive been looking for months before I ran into this site *makes me wonder why I didnt find this site sooner @_@*

Also if you'd like a link to the program message me Ill send it to ya its freeware and a good one to boot, has a dictionary in it for the kanji and everything.

Just some more information. That Kanji never comes alone. It always comes after another Kanji. The way to type it is like Nagoyankee said. :) Btw, Nagoyankee is a native Japanese. I think he doesn't need that software. :)

I renew Nagoyankeeさん disbielief. You are learning Japanese faster, yet you can't recognize the writing system???
It is like giving birth without ever being pregnant LOL.

踊り字 is an easy character to not be familiar with, and it is difficult to look up.

I am shocked that people would be discouraging someone learning Japanese from trying to translate anything.

I got my start translating Ranma 1/2 years before I'd even had a formal class. I learned a lot that way.

Also, what MMM said.

Nagoyankee, out of curiosity, what do you think of ゝ and ヽ? Are they "wrong" to use in modern times, or are they just not popular? I think I may have used one once a few years ago and my professor told me not to use it. She didn't clarify if it was wrong or just poor style, though.

The youngest person that I've ever seen use ゝ and ヽin real life has been my own grandma, who would be around 110 if she were living. My parents don't use them at all. They aren't used in anything I read from this era, newspapers, magazines, novels, etc. I'm inclined to say that it is "wrong" to use ゝ and ヽeven though I couldn't remove those parentheses. If one uses them for aesthetic reasons, not many will appreciate it.

The rare exceptions that I've personally witnessed have been in proper nouns such as izakaya names, shop names, etc.

EDIT: I said "parentheses" but it should have read "quotation marks".

I agree with you that it is hard to find it in a dictionary. But you don't ask is it kana or kanji.
I started studying Japanese when I was 14 years old, 23 years ago even tho I gave it up as soon as I was able to translate simple phrases of my computer's games.
However, even tho I had no help in studying, no internet or native speakers to ask to, first thing I did was studying kana. I might have not being able to know what a kanji was, but I would have recognized a kana from a kanji.

Sorry, but this way of studying Japanese without a method, just grab a manga/book and translate with a dictionary or computer program is not really what I call "studying". Not to mention that in my opinion creates only damages to the student...

But this is just my opinion, I might be completely wrong and he will be the best Japanese student in the end.

Chryuop, if it works for him, then let him be. People who post legitimate questions here should be encouraged, not criticized.