No EZ way out. Gotta copy copy copy memorize. Just watch any Chinese school pupil, ouch! I sometimes do better remembering a whole phrase with hiragana, because the same kanji can be read differently in the next sentence. Sorry, shoganai, it's Nihongo.

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err... is there no differences between chinese and kanji... i mean like the character and the meaning... like the word student, izzit the chinese character also similar with the kanji for the word student... just wondering

There are some differences between Kanji meanings in Japanese. However, it is likely bears the same meaning in Chinese/Japanese/Korean.

There are some kokuji that have no equivalent in Chinese, and even Chinese people have to re-adopt Japanese Kokuji.

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Added on June 12, 2007, 10:21 amsocchi no thread ga shinda?

This post has been edited by dopodplaya: Jun 12 2007, 10:21 AM

i hv two questions, if you guys don't mind..

1- what does it mean to have the -dono honorific attached to a name?
2- japanese names, which is the surname, which is the given name? does the surname go first or second?

thanks in advance..

-dono is like -sama or -shi or -san, it's rarely used in modern Japanese and especially among youngsters during casual talk.
Family name first just like all Asian (CJK) names are formed.

This post has been edited by dopodplaya: Jun 25 2007, 01:06 PM

I think usage of -dono is still fairly common in certain corporate environments or in formal or official settings, especially in written form. In my workplace, I occasionally receive emails where the Japanese address each other with "ｘｘ殿"
However, usually this tends to be used by the older Japanese

hey, thx guys..
i overheard -dono being used in bleach actually..
been meaning to ask abt it for ages, but procastinated..
so i guess it fits, since part of bleach is set in some edo-era setting..

need help here.

私は父の誕生日地下鉄で田舎へ帰ります。
私は父の誕生日に地下鉄で田舎へ帰ります。

which one is correct?

2nd. the 1st one incomplete.

Help me out fast to say this in romaji japanese:

Had you eaten your breakfast?


By the way, any recommendation for any website link chat room that have instant or fast translation from english sentence to romaji?

朝ごはんを　食べましたか。
asa gohan wo tabemashitaka.

translation website know 1, but very teruk...
dunno wat is it translating...

http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/

you can translate the other way around - Japanese-English.

My favorite site is Jim Breen's WWWJDIC - http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/wwwjdic.html

Any better ones with translation to romaji??

most of them translate english to Hiragana+Kanji+Katakana. I hardly see any online translation translate Enlish -> Romaji.

Need some help here...

ちち の たんじょび に、nekutai を _________

the ans is: あげます
why is it I cannot use もらいます
as it means: my father receive necktie on his birthday

Can someone help to explain

^ you are giving the necktie. He didn't actually "getting" it. The sentence is from first person view, which is from your view.

So the verb is "ageru" not "morau".

holy cow. this is really nice. ts, u sure have a lot of time to do all of this. good job !

dopodplaya, thanks for the explaination

is it a must to learn kanji to learn japanese? i read from a website there's like 80000 kanji characters...can't every single thing be represented with kana alone?

hehe anyone know of any mobile flashcard application? so that can install in handphone...preferably with pronounciation thks