Watashi wa nihongo ga scoshti wakatimasu, demo...

[Monica]

(Translastion: I understand a little Japanese, but...)

I was wondering how you read Japanese? Up-Down or Left-Right? or Right-Left? And I heard that they write their books backward from us, is that true? As you can tell I'm trying to learn the language. :)

[Saffith]

Heh, I've just started trying to learn Japanese, too... Not as far as that, though. Don't know many actual words yet. Certainly not enough to be of any use.
It is indeed true that Japanese books are written from right to left. Sort of a problem with manga sometimes; they're often flipped to read from left to write, which requires flipping all the pictures, which sometimes causes problems.
And occasionally in anime, I've seen people reading books that were written that way when they shouldn't have been. That's mildly amusing sometimes, if you're really bored.

[Monica]

Oh vool, I'm using Pimsleur audio tapes and can say a bunch of basic stuff but nothing really advanced.

[Gerudo]

inori (wherever he went) is our resident japanese-culture guy... at least im lead to beleive so...:shrug:

[Ich]

Inori is into Japan and its culture; I believe he teaches it at some college where he was able to pass off for responsible at their job interview. Drunken Tiger is very interested in Japanese girls; that's culture too.

[mikeron]

Traditionally, things are written top-to-bottom, right-to-left, in columns. So you start at the top of the rightmost column and read downwards.

Nowadays many things are written horizontally, in which case, you read left to right. However, the pages still go right-to-left. In studying Japanese, you will read both schemes.

[Monica]

Ahh, Domo arigatou gozaimasu. (Thank you very much) :)

I'm kinda curious so I'll ask:

Anata wa Nihongo ga wakatimasu ka? (Do you understand Japanese?)

Hai, Watashi wa Nihingo ga hanasaimasu, demo mada jozu jotimasu sen (Yes, I can speak Japanese, but I'm not very skilled yet.) Yes, I know there are some spelling errors, sorry. ^_^

[inori]

Originally posted by Monica
(Translastion: I understand a little Japanese, but...)

I was wondering how you read Japanese? Up-Down or Left-Right? or Right-Left? And I heard that they write their books backward from us, is that true? As you can tell I'm trying to learn the language. :)

When Japanese is written horizontally, it usually goes from left to right (like English). However, newspapers and books are often written with the text running vertically, top-to-bottom; when that's the case, the first line is generally on the right, and you work your way to the left.


Originally posted by ICHBINDASWALROSS
Inori is into Japan and its culture; I believe he teaches it at some college where he was able to pass off for responsible at their job interview. Drunken Tiger is very interested in Japanese girls; that's culture too.

Pass off for responsible? LMAO. Actually, I teach computer science at Berkeley; I'm a grad student, and work as a TA to pay my way. (There was no job interview involved.) I'm working on going back to Japan to teach (either English or computer science), but that's not going so well at the moment.

[Kirby of Doom]

Hai, Watashi wa Nihingo ga hanasaimasu, demo mada jozu jotimasu sen (Yes, I can speak Japanese, but I'm not very skilled yet.) Yes, I know there are some spelling errors, sorry. ^_^

Don't worry about spelling errors. :D
It's Japanese, so there's no right spelling in English.

[KINGOFALLME2]

I've read some jap books be4 and it's whack! I kept going through it backwards!

[TheGeepster]

I've studied only a little Japanese. As for the kanji, all I can say is "wakarimasen". I do know that it's tradionally top-to-bottom, left-to-right, with Japanese books starting from what we usually think of as the end of the book.

Some of the manga being released in English today starts from the opposite end than we are used to. And what we would think was the first page usually has the message informed us ignorant of the fact that we're trying to start from the wrong end.

I understand, too, that there are two main styles of "romanizing" Japanese, both largely the same. But one makes the rules of grammar easier, and the other, more common one better represents the sound of the syllable.

[Gerudo]

watching subtitled anime has its advantages... :D

about the only works i know are

Gomen & Gomenosai(sp?) both of which mean 'sorry'...

sempai = what lower classppl call uperclassppl

Love Hina taught meh well0rz...

[inori]

Aye, subbed anime has many advantages over dubbed (not the least of which is that you can pick up a little Japanese from it ^_^).

/me fully endorses watching anime in the original Japanese with subtitles (or without subtitles if you're really daring)

[Ich]

Computer Science, eh? Well, you probably can get a better job knowing that. I'm a German student myself, and I want to go to collegge (the extra g in honor of my step-brother) and major in German and IT.

[TheGeepster]

Gomen Nasai, if I recall right.

I'm just curious if badly subbed anime helps or hinders learning spoken Japanese. I know now the following words from it. "inu", "youki", "youkai", "miko", "hanyou", "shippo", "shikon no", "tama", "Nani?!!" (picked that one up from Ranma), "onii-sama", "baka", "houshi"...

[stormwatcheagle]

You forgot manga, hentai, shojo, shoren, yaoi, yuri, and ara