Job Discussion Forums

[kovac]

Kovac holds his handbag WAY past chest height and goes OHHHHH at PaulH for mistaking KO for KU...

Christ bad enough I get picked on by Japanese for mis pronounciation or mis spelling (BTW as I covered b 4 this forum DOESNT SUPPORT HIRAGANA OR KANJI, JIS encoding et al)

And the phrase "piss on your wedding"....can I piss on you just for being so pendantic ???? Or your mothers morning toast ?

OHH ACERBIC ! (well you started it MR nit picky....post in Kanji if your such a smart erse....cant hear those GUFFAW GUFFAWS now at your menial corrections can we ?)

[kovac]

Sorry (well not really) but only reason for being so acerbic is after offering some perfectly good advice to Rugged toast to be nit picked at by some unctious self rightous <add expletive>

ANYWAY RuggedToast..another good thing to look into is

http://members.aol.com/JapAlpha/

its shareware and good for hiragana, katakana, basic word recognistion and Elementary to mid intermediate kanjii

arra best

[easyasabc]

Hmmmm - I read that thing about how to say "airmail" beore and I was kind of interested but now that it just got even more interesting I'll add something.

1. I just checked three dictionaries and they all romanised it as "kookuubin".

2. I have always said the above Japanese word, not the katakana one, and the people at my P.O. understand that fine.

3. Kovac - Tell your co-worker that if she can't offer useful help without "scolding" you then you don't want her help at all.



Re: the original issue of why Japanese people can't understand

[Mr. Ishihara]

Getting started in Japanese language.. that's a toughie.
The textbook Japanese most people get in school I found
to be useful. It is polite form, which is basically mostly safe.

I recommend getting help from a friendly source, either
a Japanese friend or Japanese girlfriend. Caution: Don't
imitate whatever a girlfriend might say, there are
male and female forms of the language. The classic
embarrassment is the male gaijin who uses femine Japanese
language.

Another great opportunity if in Japan is to get help from
students (if you are as most likely an English teacher),
or the people who will stop you in public to practice
English. I was always relentlessly polite to such people.
As my Japanese language skills increased, I was able
to get more and more out of the exchange.

Another note of caution: always make sure you know
exactly what something means before going out and
using it yourself.

[Lynn]

If a non-Japanese guy picks up Japanese from his girlfriend, his language will likely sound polite, if not charming.

If an NJ female speaks like a Japanese man it sounds "rambo".

Anyhow, I spent 2 years hanging out with my Japanese boyfriend and his roomate before actually setting foot in Japan. I think I learned Japanese very quickly because of this. Even though I didn't fully understand my boyfriend and his roommate, by the time I got to Japan it didn't sound so "foreign" to my ears.

I just knew not to call myself,"ore", and I was safe.

[guest of Japan]