Welcome to Gaia! ::

Just so you know, this is David, A.K.A. Wonder Bread. o.O If you post anything here say who you are, because I have no idea unless I go check your profile, and I'm too lazy for that. And read all of this, most of it will help you understand the info from the links more.

Here's a big list of links to learn Japanese with. <.< Do not use any of this to contradict any senior members or the club references unless you have cross-referenced. Not everything from these links is right, but most of it is. If you see two ways to see the same word, use the version we use in Japanese Club or the one that you see most. If you want any of this sent to you in Word format just post, PM, or e-mail your e-mail address to me(piu.addict@yahoo.com). You spam me, you die. stare

Japanese Basics(REALLY GOOD LINK) - http://japanese.about.com/blphrase.htm

Colors - http://japanese.about.com/library/bl_colors.htm
http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/ts/japanese/color.html
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/colors/japanese/

Japanese Grammar - http://japanese.about.com/library/blgrammar.htm

Pronouns - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pronouns
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pronouns

Adjectives - http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa040101a.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_adjectives

Verbs - http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa031101a.htm
http://japanese.about.com/bl_verbs.htm

Hiragana Lessons - http://japanese.about.com/blhira.htm

Kanji Lessons - http://japanese.about.com/blhira.htm

Katakana Lessons - http://japanese.about.com/blkatakana.htm


Alot of these links have more than one page or more links once you go to the page, so...click the other links when you get there. <.< Hiragana is pretty easy to learn if you want to learn some Japanese writing. There's only like 107 symbols, one for every syllable(a, i, u, e, o; ka ke ku ke ko, etc.). So to say "Konichiwa" in Hiragana, you would have a symbol for "Ko", "ni", "chi", and "wa". It's alot simpler than attempting the 2000 symbols you need to know to have to have a good understanding of Kanji. When you're writing in any Japanese writing style, make sure you use the correct oder for your strokes, and directions. The lessons show step-by-step how to write each symbol. Writing a symbol twenty or thirty times is a good way to memorize it. Also printing the pages and tracing the symbols a few times can help your writing look better.(My Hiragana looks like crap). If you want me to find anything in particular, or have any questions, just post them here. I'm probably going to look for some info on sentence structure and Katakana today, then take a break to actually learn all of this(I don't really know all of this stuff, I just found if in the past week. <.<).

P.S. If you have any Japanese books, look up the translations for "who", "what, "when", etc. Only have one reference for those. Also, Patrick or Kylie, tell me if we should start telling people that "dewaarimasen" is separated into "de wa arimasen". Not sure if you guys want me to cross-reference some more or not. And make this a sticky or something, don't want it to die. o.o

Edit: I got Katakana added. ^_^ Katakana is used for names of other countries and foreign words (coffee, sweater, shower, etc. [first non-country names I saw in the lessons, must be foreign to the Japanese or something. <.<]) It's also separated into syllables like Hiragana. So here's a review/summary of all of the Japanese writing styles.

Hiragana - First writing style the Japanese learn. Consists of around 107 symbols. During the early grades in school, Japanese students write in only Hiragana. Hiragana is separated into syllables (a, i, u, e, o; ka, ki, ku, ke, ko; etc. [I'll post a pronunciation chart soon]). Each symbol represents a syllable, so to write "Konichiwa" in Hiragana, you would write one symbol for "Ko", "ni", "chi", and "wa".

Kanji - Most difficult writing style to learn. Each symbol represents an entire word. There's a ton of symbols to learn, around 2,000 to have a good understanding. Takes years to learn.

Katakana - Katakana is used for names of other countries and foreign words (coffee, sweater, shower, etc. [first non-country names I saw in the lessons, must be foreign to the Japanese or something. <.<]) It's also separated into syllables like Hiragana. So here's a review/summary of all of the Japanese writing styles.

Just copy pasted the Katakana thing again. o.o Not actually going to rewrite that differently.

And I'm going to copy/paste another thing about Katakana off some website I use alot.

"Katakana is used when writing down foreign names, places, and words of foreign origin (If you are not from Japan, your name can be written in katakana). Without knowing katakana, one might find it almost impossible to order fast food in Japan, or read billboards on the street. This is because Japan uses so many words borrowed from other languages (click here for more on borrowed words).

The structure of katakana is similar to hiragana (if you know one the other is easy to learn). The main difference between the two is katakana is composed of straight lines, where hiragana uses curved lines."

Think that explains the foreign stuff a little better. Can't find anything really simple on sentence structure, so I might end up posting something that buts your eyes later, and you'll end up never reading it, and if you do then it's because I said you wouldn't. <.< But that's not even posted yet... So...post questions and comments and stuff.