[BetaWar]

As the title probably lets on, I am in the process of trying to learn Japanese.

I am using Rosetta Stone, a text book (Genki second edition) and will be taking a class at Uni this semester.

In the mean time I have been using the little I have learned so far about sentence structure, and the google translate application, to attempt to come up with things that I believe should make sense as sentences (to help learn the hiragana and the iPhone hiragana keyboard layout).

NOTE - I haven't memorized the hiragana characters yet, but I am also working on that. At the moment I know where the sounds are on the phone keyboard and am going by that as to what I type.

However, I did have a question as well. In typing the following into the translation app (in romaji, because this computer doesn't have hiragana on it):

pan no tabe te imasu
It says:
I'm eating the bread

So, what I am trying to figure out is how to say "Do you eat bread", I believe that the sentence will be something like pan no tabe ____ desuka?, but I am unsure, in fact it may not use desu at all.

I know what there are quite a few people on these forums that speak at least some Japanese, so I was wondering if they had any pointers in learning and on the sentence above.

[WolfCoder]

Quote

and the google translate application

..has an accuracy of about 5% for Japanese, you're better off asking a partially inebriated hyena for a translation.

[no2pencil]

漢字-カタカナ

[Dormilich]

BetaWar, on 23 August 2012 - 07:18 PM, said:

So, what I am trying to figure out is how to say "Do you eat bread", I believe that the sentence will be something like pan no tabe ____ desuka?, but I am unsure, in fact it may not use desu at all.

A question is simply a sentence with the question particle (か) at the end.

パンを食べますか。[pan wo tabe-masu ka.] (using simple present here)

A useful translation helper is Jim Breen’s Dictionary

PS. no is an attributive particle. e.g. ベタバーの物 (betabaa no mono / BetaWar’s stuff)

This post has been edited by Dormilich: 23 August 2012 - 11:07 AM

[lordofduct]

I think I'm learning Japanese, I think I'm learning Japanese, I really think so...

[Celerian]

lordofduct, on 23 August 2012 - 12:58 PM, said:

I think I'm learning Japanese, I think I'm learning Japanese, I really think so...

Is your parody about mastication?

[NeoTifa]

desudesudesudesudesudesudesudesudesudesudesudesudesudesudesudesu!!~~~

I tried learning a little Japanese. I picked up some stuff from watching so much Sailor Moon. >_>

[calvinthedestroyer]

I like these videos, for obvious reasons.
http://youtu.be/qmbOtalEJls

[fromTheSprawl]

You watch anime and you'll pick up Japanese words here and there. I think Japanese is easy to learn, I got a class of that from college. I forgot everything that was taught to me, but I remember some stuff...

Ohayo - Good morning.
Oyasumi - Good night.
O genki desu ka? - How are you?
Namae wa? - Your name is?
Watashi wa Shady - My name is Shady.

I also remember partial counting from one to ten...
Ichi
Ni
San
?
Go
?
Nana
Hachi
?
?

That's one to ten. I think.

Also, you can directly translate English words to Japanese words by changing the letter "l" to "r" and making every consonant which doesn't have a vowel next to it have "o" or "u" in it or spelling out the sound:

Examples(from the ever dependable Wikipedia!):
Battle Royale - Batoru Rowaiaru
Fairy Tail - Feari Teiru
Monster - Monsuta

Don't ask me why it's that way, I'm not from Japan.

[NeoTifa]

I think I remember from karate it was ichi ni san shi go roko shichi hachi ku ju or something like that. Also, watashi wa kawaii desu ^__^ I used to be able to say the whole Sailor Moon fight intro speech in Japanese at one point. All 200 episodes later, you know exactly every word. Sadly, it's been a while and I have forgotten.

[Mina-no-Hime]

BetaWar, on 23 August 2012 - 10:18 AM, said:

pan no tabe te imasu
It says:
I'm eating the bread

"I am eating the bread" would be more accurate as "パンを食べます" (pan o tabemasu). To ask if somebody is eating, you'd essentially (as has already been said) just add 'か' (ka) to the end of the sentence - パンを食べますか (pan o tabemasu ka?), which would be "are you eating the bread?" "will you eat the bread?" or "do you eat bread?"

One book I strongly suggest looking into is Japanese Kanji and Kana: A Complete Guide to the Japanese Writing System - it's a brilliant resource for learning the official Jouyou kanji (characters authorized for use in official documents).

I also suggest using the Denshi Jisho website, as it will allow you to search for kanji by radicals, and is a great resource for searching for specific words.

じゃあ、ベタワーさん、がんばって！ (Jaa, betawaa san, ganbatte! - Well then, BetaWar, good luck!)

If you have any more questions, feel free to send me a message. I'm still fairly early on in my learning as well, but I'd be happy to help you practice and learn.

Oh, and the best suggestion I can give for learning the kana (Hiragana and Katakana - ひらがな & カタカナ) is to just start writing them. Study them, write as many as you can (learning the proper stroke orders helps as well) from memory, and the ones you miss you can go back and learn. It helps to learn Hiragana first, because katakana will be that much simpler.

[fromTheSprawl]

I want to learn how to write those kanji stuff since it is interesting how one thing written can mean lots of things.

[Mina-no-Hime]

fromTheSprawl, on 23 August 2012 - 05:54 PM, said:

I also remember partial counting from one to ten...
Ichi
Ni
San
?
Go
?
Nana
Hachi
?
?

That's one to ten. I think.

一　（いち） Ichi
二 （に） Ni
三　（さん） San
四　（よん/し) Yon/Shi
五　（ご） Go
六　（ろく） Roku
七　（なな/しち） Nana/Shichi
八　（はち） Hachi
九　（きゅう） Kyuu
十　（じゅう） Juu

So the ones you had were correct.

[fromTheSprawl]

I particularly remember Ichi and Go because that's where you get Ichigo's(Bleach) name and Hachi from the song Hachi-gatsu Serenade which translates to August Serenade and August is the eighth month.

By the way, I envy the Japanese with their long holidays. Golden week!

[LetMeFinclOut]

As someone who's also learning Japanese, those links sure are going to keep me busy. But I'll add to the pile as well.

For an excellent (and affordable) introduction to both the Japanese language and Japan itself, check out Human Japanese

calvinthedestroyer, on 23 August 2012 - 06:12 PM, said:

I like these videos, for obvious reasons.
http://youtu.be/qmbOtalEJls

I'll see your instructional video, and raise you a JWOW.