The Japanese Language Study Thread

Bantam19 wrote: Apsalar wrote: ＾＾＾＾　オーストラリア。仕事を訪問中国です。　 not sure about the sentence structure of the second part, so hopefully it makes sense. still need to do a lot of reading/practice on the grammar side of the equation. Umm, I gather that your job is in China, dunno about the other kanji.  And ya, proper grammar is definitely the hard part.  If I had to guess I'd say, 中国で仕事をしています。Which would work out to "I'm working in China" roughly. Literally it would break down like "China de" (de particle denotes where an action is taking place), and then "sh*teimasu" is like the act of currently doing. Hope that makes sense, you had part of it right grammatically.

mmm, makes sense. when 'something (e.g. work) is taking place somewhere (e.g. China)' does place always head the sentence?

"I'm working in China" works better, I think I was trying for something a little complicated at this stage. the other kanji, useless I'm mistaken, is houmon 訪問 'visit'? to suggest it is only temporary; i go home soon. Word choice appears important too.

Ya, that's a prim and proper sentence bro.  Dunno if you can just slam those two nouns together (unless you've actually heard that somewhere) but ya, that's the gist of the sentence structure.  Google Translate is all over the place in whether it gets grammar right so, doing stuff on your own is the best even if its really kantan.

Apsalar wrote: ＾＾＾＾　オーストラリア。仕事を訪問中国です。　 not sure about the sentence structure of the second part, so hopefully it makes sense. still need to do a lot of reading/practice on the grammar side of the equation.

アプサラーさん、お国はどちらですか。

colorofmoney91 wrote: アパサラルさん､わたしわだいがくせいです。 What kind of athlete? I'll check out that Rikaichan add-on.

Thanks :D

Okay, so hiragana chart doesn't show ゑ and ゐ but they are included on the handwriting practice sheet from another source. What's up with that? Are they not used anymore or something?

りくじようきようぎ　or　陸上競技  (in kanji)

あなたの学位の何ですか。

for any of  the Japanese reading this thread would you more commonly say 選手 or アスリート for a sports person? When I've been in Asian (not only Japan) when trying to explain what I do/am here for, they usually look blankly when I say 'athlete' but understand 'player', which in my home country has other meanings, so I always feel a odd broadcasting my promiscuity in describing what I do :P 

will start out small and simple (it's like going back to early school languages). struggled with some of the tutors on the first sight after the video's ran out; my style of learning is hands on, so I've been scouring through the 'nihongo' site for interactive learning methods 「cute videos are always a winner」

anyway, here we go:
アランさん、職業は　なんですか。私は　アスリートです。

bit at a loss where spaces are supposed to go (not go) or superfluous endings etc., so corrections will be very helpful. 

fwiw, i d/l that suggested Rikaichan add-on, which I've been finding useful for learning kanji. you just run the cursor over the kanji and it will come-up with a caption detailing Hiragana and various definitions.

For kanji you should start with the days of the week Alan, and then numbers. They are all pretty easy, except maybe 曜.