Thought this is useful.

Besides practicing to write, any other possible ways in memorizing kanji characters?

simple answer ...use flashcards

Hi everyone. I'm new here.

Since the JLPT registration period for July 2013 exam has already ended, I'm just wondering who's taking the exam here.

I'm taking N3 this year. I've already passed N4 exam last year (first time taking JLPT). I jumped straight to N4 because I felt like N5 was quite easy for me at that time.

Dafuq I missed it, was still unsure whether to take N5 or N4, I guess I'll have to take it this December lol. Maybe I'll take N3 if I can make it.

After learned all the kanas, I stopped quite a while. Still looking for a good class...

Registration period for July exam was from 25 March to 7 April.

Pretty much the same last year too, I think. But it's easy to lose track of time when you're busy with RL

anyone can recommend me a book for novice?

Could recommend u this book <<shin nihongo no kiso I>>

my gf will recommend me to learn from this book n she will be sitting for her N3 paper this june or july

if you are a self-learner, the Genki series is fine as it has explanations integrated into the main text. Else get Minna no Nihongo, which is what my school currently uses. Shin Nihongo no Kiso is a bit old, but still useful - I used that when I took basic Japanese in university. I find the difference in perspectives offered in the books quite interesting. Each is a product of the time it was originally published: Minna no Nihongo appears to be aimed at foreign students studying in Japan. Shin Nihongo no Kiso (IIRC) comes from a time when there were lot of "kenshuusei" going Japan for technical training.

Less than two weeks until the next JLPT exam on July 7th, folks!

Hi everyone. I am new to the forum and I learnt Japanese for 4 years before due to interest for anime. Lately, I haven't been speaking Japanese much and would like to meet some Japanese people to practice my Japanese.

Does anyone know if there is a place (like language center) that organises multicultural chat session where you can mix around with people from other cultures and have intercultural language communication (esp. japanese)?

Any help would be appreciated

Can anyone explain this to me?

Literally, the sentence "明日は友達と買い物に行く約束があります" means "As for tomorrow, I have a date with my friends to go shopping". However, the Japanese words for I or "私" isn't mentioned in the sentence. I know it's okay, I remember reading something about it being "hidden", but if I were to slot the words in, can I write it as "明日は私が友達と買い物に行く約束があります"? Or should I just write it as "明日は私,友達と買い物に行く約束があります"?

Feel free to correct me. If you can, link me to a page which explains this in detail. I do get a bit confused with the sentences like above. A few more examples:

今年は日本へ行くことができる。
本は日曜日までに返さなければなりません。

Hope you get what I'm trying to say. The sentences leave out words such as I, You, He, She, and I'm asking how to slot them in. Thanks.

^ I would put the pronoun at the beginning of the sentence. So it will be:

私は明日友達と買い物に行く約束があります (i dropped the は particle after ashita)


Similarly, 私は今年日本へ行くことができる。

Unfortunately, I suck at explaining stuff. And my grammar knowledge is not that good, so in case anyone else can either confirm, or correct my take on this, it will be much appreciated


Your third sentence example... if I were to insert a pronoun into this sentence, I would write it as:

私はこの本を日曜日までに返さなければなりません。



Also, just wondering, I always get confused, should the second sentence be 日本へ行く or 日本に行く?　I am always unsure which to use in a sentence like this.

EDIT: I put この in the third sentence because the way you wrote it felt a bit off.

This post has been edited by astraeus: Jun 28 2013, 11:38 AM

difference between へand に is quite subtle
a simple explanation is that へemphasizes the direction while にemphasizes the destination, e.g. you go to America for a business trip (i.e. for a reason) vs you go to America (period)
In the first example アメリカへ出張に行きますwhile in the secondアメリカに行きます。Do note that you can conjugate へwith のto form への but not にの
e.g. 札幌へのバスは何時に到着しますか。

I know we can write it as what you have stated. But there's a slight difference in "私は明日友達と買い物に行く約束があります" and "明日は友達と買い物に行く約束があります". The most obvious difference is in the first example, "I" is the topic while in the second example, "Tomorrow" is the topic. And then there's a not so noticable difference in tone and nuance.

I'll try to give another example and maybe you'll see the difference.

"私は食堂で昼ごはんを食べる" means "I eat lunch at the canteen"

"昼ごはんは食堂で食べる" means "As for lunch, I eat it in the canteen.

There's a slight difference in tone, deshou?

What I'm trying to ask is, for the sentence "明日は友達と買い物に行く約束があります", if I want to keep "tomorrow" as the topic, how am I going to slot "I" into the sentence. Can I do it so by writing it as ""明日は私が友達と買い物に行く約束があります"? I know it's not necessary, but I just want to know lol.

And yeah, "この" is fine, makes the sentence more smooth.

This post has been edited by Flame Haze: Jun 28 2013, 04:05 PM

No.

明日、[私は]友達と買い物に行く約束があります。
明日、[私は]友達と買い物に行く予定です。
both work better IMHO.
My basic principle is that if it sounds contrived, you are wasting your time. Avoid the mistake of translating your "English" thoughts into "Japanese".
It's better to listen to how Japanese use their language, and reverse engineer that to your normal thought process. Eventually, you have to learn how to think "in Japanese" in order to express yourself in their language effectively

I was about to suggest the same as oe_kintaro as well. I don't know what better way to express what you were looking for.

明日、私は友達と買い物に行く約束があります。

The sentence you proposed sounds... a bit unnatural(?), in my opinion.

This post has been edited by astraeus: Jun 28 2013, 04:37 PM

Alright, I get it. I wasn't trying to translate from English to Japanese, just wondering how to mention the pronouns in that form of sentences.

Pronouns are overrated in the Japanese language