Does anyone think it's a good idea to get rid of romanization from 20~40. I want to keep it in some simply for the fact that I know a lot of people starting out don't know how to quite view Japanese characters.

Also, so long as I now start getting pictures from my site from places like this that you guy's suggested and still linked to the source
http://sxc.hu/,

would that be alright? Course, Asriel did also say that there was a chance that something happening is very unlikely with the ones already there. But, I did say that I am very interested at using such other sites from now on.

And, who all agrees that this song should be in Japanese too:

Quote:Does anyone think it's a good idea to get rid of romanization from 20~40. I want to keep it in some simply for the fact that I know a lot of people starting out don't know how to quite view Japanese characters.

Yes, I think if you get that far you should have learned at least kana in the process.

K, I was just trying to be consistent through each section of the curriculum. I do agree that they should have it learned by much earlier than that, or at least that's what I would do in a classroom. I'll take the time to really make those 20 lessons look good while I'm at it. I guess that's my Saturday project.

In regards to the image use, just thought I'd bring this to your attention: http://support.google.com/websearch/bin/...swer=29508

Anyway, good luck with the site.

Alright, I will be sure to do that now. Thanks

Lesson 9

imabi Wrote:Case particles show relation between the subject and the sentence.

What does it mean?


PS.
I'm certainly one of the people who wish you all the best. But... you should be definitely more careful with your choice of words.

As to the pictures, I find them annoying, to put it bluntly.

I was only thinking about using pictures for the introductory lessons to make them more appealing to the slightly younger age group starting out there that may find them cool. I personally find those that relate to Japanese culture important to show because they need to be able to visualize what things like a mikoshi look like. Being able to relate a picture of a crowded subway and thinking, 「あっ、この地下鉄は危ない。」 Trying to get the person to think in Japanese, even at the beginning, is one of the best ways to be immersed. The pictures of real temples, bridges, cities, can make them feel like they're there when they can't be. When you pick up language textbooks in Texas, every page is filled with pictures and examples with them. Whether it is suitable for every grammar concept is indeed something to consider. By the time you are beginning difficult JLPT1 or higher concepts, the need for simple pictures would get in the way. For the basic particles, and important basic and crucial items at the beginning, a picture could make or break someone remembering. Now, you already know Japanese past that level, so it may very well be a turn off because of that. It just depends what level you are at and your personal style of learning that dictates how you view things.

As for your question, about case particles.
Case particles are called 格助詞.

格助詞とは助詞の一つです。体言につき、それが文中で他の成分とどのような関係にあるかを示すものです。
例えば、「が」、「の」、「を」、「に」、「へ」、「と」、「より」、「から」、「で」などなど。


Ga follows something to show that it is the Japanese grammatical subject, no shows the possessive, wo is direct object, ni is indirect object, e is distance, to is "and", yori and kara are from, de shows means. These are definitions, of course, specifically to the definition of a case particle in the simplest sense.

Perhaps a better way to word that is "case particles show relationship between what it modifies and the rest of the sentence. That sentence seems to have been formatted with the rest of the lesson; so, it is indeed too ambiguous.

Thank you for pointing this out, and I hope that you understand what "case particle" means. These definitions were given to the reader in Lesson 2, and the terms have been repeated since. They should also have links that direct you to the original defining.

There are some very interesting cases in Japanese, that's for sure.

Thank you very much for your kind explanation.


I've got another question/request.
I found a useful table here.
http://www.imabijapaneselearningcenter.c...4bushu.htm

Would you mind writing 'Popular Names' in kanji too? And explaining what they actually mean?

Why 禾 is called のぎ? Or 亅 はねぼう? What kind of はね is it? And so on. It would be amusing to know all the bushu names and understand their meaning. My granny finds them somewhat troublesome.

[Zgarbas]

imabi Wrote:There is only romanization in the beginners lessons. I think what is covered is fine but how it is presented is boring. This is why I am trying to make sweeping change to how everything looks and feels. I dont like my words being misconstrued when I'm asleep, and it is exactly what happened last time. I have met some very nice and informative people here, but I have also seen people that treated me like I was a spammer.

Ah, I see. I noticed it on the beginner lessons and resources and assumed they were everywhere. The lessons were pretty cool, but romaji+kanji combo is a huge turn-off for me(my eyes keep wanting to get lazy and automatically skim the romaji, which I feel gets in the way...Then again I really hate romaji). My bad . I would suggest dropping the romaji in favor of hiragana since it would help much more in the long-run.

People just mean that you get extremely defensive and use fairly strong language which can come off as rude. It's totally understandable (I mean, the project is your baby after all), but you need to watch your PR =). Write out your replies and ask someone to have a look at them, or write them out, cool off and re-read them and notice where it might piss anyone off. There are a gazillion Japanese help websites on the Internet, many of them with quality content, and more often than not it's trivial things like the webmaster's attitude which can determine its success.

A nogi is a grain, and that's what that radical is used to mean in characters. I referred to one column as "popular names" because those are the names you are most likely going to hear. The other column next to it shows all the ways you could call them. I will definitely invest time in putting the general meanings of the radicals too. Isn't it a 羽棒? It sure looks like one, especially considering the character 羽. Radical names are fun; there are so many to choose from. That table may get much bigger, hopefully I can make the dimensions work out. It will probably be hell to print it, but good to look at no doubt.

Hey Zgarbas, I'm going to be taking more romanization out today for you. It'll only be there for 1-20. I hope you understand that I have to compensate those that haven't quite figured out how to read Kana and or haven't figured out how to see Japanese characters. One of my friends/student sometimes only has a computer that is completely unable to see them, and he needs those lessons to be visible in Roomaji.

Hm...the radical chart needs a bit of tweeking to get what you want buonaparte. Give me about 30~60 minutes. Got rid of the romanization column. So, where do you think I should squeeze a meaning column?

"Japanese is not hard as people say it is: it's just different. Why is it "hard" for so many people? The sources easily available are neither in-depth nor completely correct most of the time. Once the student gets far and can begin to understand more authentic Japanese sources, confusion may begin to finally pile up due to misinformation. "

It should read as hard... Seriously though, very, very good site. The last sentence describes what happened to me.

I will have a look through your site and find any grammatical mistakes and message you on here....

If you are only seventeen then truly well done. My advice to you would be to get a good teacher.

18, one year makes a difference. Those small little words that my builder eats; I swear there's a bug on my site eating small letters and words. Lol, wait, that as shouldn't be there in my opinion. It would make it mean that Japanese is still hard but not as most people think. I'm trying to say it really isn't "as people say so".

Good teacher? Lol, I don't think a high school Japanese teacher could tell me something I don't already know or is not already in her teaching material. College will give me that change to dive into the stuff I need. As for my English, you don't want to know how it comes out in real life. ...it makes it look like my Japanese really should be my native language.

imabi Wrote:Hm...the radical chart needs a bit of tweeking to get what you want buonaparte. Give me about 30~60 minutes. Got rid of the romanization column. So, where do you think I should squeeze a meaning column?

Thank you. Instead of romaji, I think.

Should I put the meanings of the name columns are before?

imabi Wrote:18, one year makes a difference. Those small little words that my builder eats; I swear there's a bug on my site eating small letters and words. Lol, wait, that as shouldn't be there in my opinion. It would make it mean that Japanese is still hard but not as most people think. I'm trying to say it really isn't "as people say so".

Good teacher? Lol, I don't think a high school Japanese teacher could tell me something I don't already know or is not already in her teaching material. College will give me that change to dive into the stuff I need. As for my English, you don't want to know how it comes out in real life. ...it makes it look like my Japanese really should be my native language.

Yeah, you're right it can be without as. I am now studying patent translation and really need a good teacher. I honestly think if the system that I had to endure at b.a. level had been anywhere near competent I would be a ten times better translator... Oh well.

I honestly believe, and I'm sure many on here would back me up, that it is impossible to learn Japanese without a teacher.

I reiterate, it is a very good site.

It isn't impossible to learn Japanese without a teacher. You certainly can't learn without Japanese people though. For some people, it is impossible, for others it's feasible. It depends on how good they are at language, when they started, how they started, what they use, listen to, read, etc. There are so many factors to this it's crazy.

Oh, buanoparte, I'm going to hold off on putting the meanings of the radicals on the chart for a few hours so I can go out to eat lunch. I'll be sure to start typing that column when I get back. I did finish fixing the name columns though.

imabi Wrote:Good teacher? Lol, I don't think a high school Japanese teacher could tell me something I don't already know or is not already in her teaching material. College will give me that change to dive into the stuff I need. As for my English, you don't want to know how it comes out in real life. ...it makes it look like my Japanese really should be my native language.

I have to admit, I giggle that you think a high school teacher knows less of a language than a college teacher. There may be a different focus, but it's likely that both know the language equally. All the foreign language teachers at my high school either were native speakers or had lived in the country for years and were all fluent. College is its own can of worms...there is absolutely no guarantee that you'll learn what you want to. Maybe in your upper level classes, but there's several cases where you can't take them until you've actually hit upper level status.

Best of luck to you, though. College is wonderful once you get over all the idiots and arsehats.

The foreign language teachers at my school dont. It most certainly isnt that way everywhere. So long as I get my dream classroom I will be satisfied.

imabi Wrote:It isn't impossible to learn Japanese without a teacher. You certainly can't learn without Japanese people though.

Oh, ok I would call interaction with a Japanese person teaching.

Indeed, my friend Kumi makes me more confident everyday. I was fortunate to have speaking partners throughout.

[Zgarbas]

nohika Wrote:I have to admit, I giggle that you think a high school teacher knows less of a language than a college teacher. There may be a different focus, but it's likely that both know the language equally.

Over here we do have a few high schools which have Japanese specializations. Teachers are around N2 level(hilarious since the better students are aiming for N1 before graduation). One of the college teachers here just got her N1 after years of teaching. But since we'll be graduating at N3 level it's no big deal. *sigh*

Zgarbas Wrote:

nohika Wrote:I have to admit, I giggle that you think a high school teacher knows less of a language than a college teacher. There may be a different focus, but it's likely that both know the language equally.

Over here we do have a few high schools which have Japanese specializations. Teachers are around N2 level(hilarious since the better students are aiming for N1 before graduation). One of the college teachers here just got her N1 after years of teaching. But since we'll be graduating at N3 level it's no big deal. *sigh*

Eh if you count that, college teachers dun know crap either. Most of ours are native speakers, which is what I assumed it was like at most places. I doubt he'll really get what he wants until he goes to grad school, if he does. Undergrad is more a ritual nowadays, especially in languages, in the majority of universities. Hell in pretty much any major.

Jump through the undergrad hoops. Grad school is "where things are at", per se. Undergrad is full of annoying people who are shallow and not fun to be around. Least IMO.

Course there's plenty of years in between to just get even better. :）

So, comments on your が and は lessons:

が lesson Wrote:Case particles show relation between the subject and the sentence. ... The Case Particle Ga

It was only after reading your post about this on this forum that I had any idea what you were trying to say here. So, basically, が is a case particle because it marks the subject of the sentence?

Quote:Ga shows natural phenomenon, not things new.

What does this mean? If I'm talking about something man-made or some new item I've purchased, I can't use が with it?

Quote:Ga is affirmative and more or less states the obvious.

So what would an example of an incorrect usage of が be that would otherwise be correct if it weren't stating something un-obvious?

Quote:Ga can also show emphasis when the same word that ga marks is repeated.

I see no examples of this usage, so going from the lesson content, I have no idea how this would look, so why even mention it?

After the ****, why are the first three examples translated as non-sentences?

は lesson Wrote:The particle wa shows emphasis.

What kind of emphasis?

Quote:The Bound Particle Wa

What does "Bound Particle" mean? I suppose you've defined that somewhere earlier, but it isn't linked to from here. Why is は a bound particle, but が is a case particle? What is the difference?

Quote:今日は情報が多い。

Is anybody realistically going to read 今日 here as いまび　and not as きょう?

Quote:wa makes contrast between two hand-in-hand situations.

What is a hand-in-hand situation? Despite being a native English speaker, this is not an expression I am familiar with.

Quote:The bound/adverbial particle wa must never be used with ga.

Why? What do you mean by "used with"? はが or がは? If that's what you mean, then sure, but be specific.

Quote:1. What is the difference between wa and ga?

Going from your lessons, all I really know is that は marks the topic, and が marks the subject. But going by their English definitions, that sounds like they should be roughly equivalent. Apparently, は also shows some sort of emphasis, but が can be massaged into showing emphasis as well, so maybe that's not such a difference after all?

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar also mentions a key aspect of は that you leave out: は can only be used to refer to things that the listener is assumed to already have some awareness of. To be honest, considering that DBJG has pages of material on は and you only have a few murky sentences, your whole lesson on は seems to be really lacking.

And not about the lessons: Why are you so focused on page hits? You ask people on this forum to go to your site so that you can get page hits. Page hits alone do not make your site popular. When your site is popular, you will naturally get more page hits, but that's because it's already popular, not because you've had page hits in the past.