Thanks masaegu.

Konnichiwa!

I don't know much Japanese. Last year I took classes, but I couldn't this year and I've forgotten most of what I learned.

At my church, I started the idea of a fundraiser for Japan and we're thinking about having our own Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival to raise money. We're going to have many different stations with various things and such, but I was thinking about having a letter or card writing station to send to the people in Japan. However, I don't know very many phrases that I could write. What would be some good phrases to send to a Japanese person that has been affected by the earthquake/tsunami? And how would you write that in Japanese?

Arigatou gozaimasu!

I am sooo looooooost.

I am useing rosetta stone right now.

Here is the sentence I am stuck on

緑のくつより青いくつの方が好きです。
And it shows a picture of a girl holding a blue shoe.

I am confused. Does she like the green shoe more?, or the blue shoe? The sentence order is confusing me.

And also I am still a little stuck on what の方 means.

Thanks in advance.

Blue shoe.

The 〜より structure indicates that the thing before it is the one the thing applies less to. So in 緑のくつより〜が好きです the より structure indicates that the "liking" applies less to the green shoe than what is in 〜 (here, the blue shoe).

It's hard to explain の方 for me. It just makes sense, but I can't explain why. Hopefully a native can do a better job. I think of it here as just indicating an option/choice/side.

Yo, friends.
Could you help me with one sentence?
当時かなりのハイベースで音楽集等が発売されていましたね。北斗の拳だけでも
相当に御多忙だったと思うのですが。
I'm not sure that's "very busy with". Summarizing: "OST discs were sold on large scale. Although I think you were very busy just with Hokuto."
I don't understand ハイベース and 相当に御多忙 here. Is my shot close to correct?

This may actually confuse one more than it helps but 「～～の方」 originally means "toward ~~", "in the direction of ~~", etc.

When you have a sentence like 「AよりBの方が好きです。」, try looking at it this way.

If you like B better than A, you are leaning "toward B" rather than A. Your preference is finding itself in the direction of B. B is what your hand will be reaching and grabbing in the end.

ハイペース in that context, means "rapidly one after another", "incessantly", etc.

And you undertood the 相当に御多忙 correctly.

Howdy! I know it's been a while and I didn't want to ask for help because of the tsunami. It seems so uncool to ask "I know your country was recently hit by a major natural disaster but can you help me read this comic? *nerd wheeze*" :( But it looks like a lot of JF members from Japan are alright :D Glad to see that.

Those girls (the Chiba University students I met about a month ago) didn't respond to the two emails I sent. Which is fine, (though it was their idea to exchange emails and they asked me a bunch to contact them :mtongue: ) because I only knew 'em for a day. Do you think I should send a courtesy email about how they're doing, ask if their families are alright, see if they haven't gone back to Japan yet due to the events in Japan, etc. or does that seem lame and bothersome? And if I was to send them a message like that, would it be best to use polite speech?

Sorry to bug ya. BTW Masaegu, Combien de langues parlez-vous? I saw you post in Chinese too, that's so cool! :eek:

ありがとうございました、Masaegu先生。

I wouldn't mind responding to manga-related questions again. As a matter of fact, I already have been.

It sucks those girls didn't reply. I wouldn't bother messaging them again but you are too nice not to. This time, you would need to somewhat raise the politeness level of your speech but not by much.