(Untitled)

Jul 12, 2005 21:34

Hmm, is there even a point to updating about today? I know you guys are expecting it and all, but seriously. The highlight of today was grocery shopping ( Read more... )

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mooo moo koneko_keri July 12 2005, 16:04:17 UTC
About the Kimono, even if I had enough money I don't think I could find a way to get it to you. :( So ordering off the internet will be my only choice. :( I'd like it either to have been my choice or someone else who can at least see them. Meh! *shrugs*

As for words in Japanese:
chikyu
kuki
hi
mizu
(earth, air, fire, water)

kokoro(spirit) tamashii(soul)

tsuki(moon) taiyo(sun)

ryu(dragon)

tomodachi(friend)

That's it for words. And when you're bored, you can go around and take photos! :) I'm eager to see photos... Japan is so damn beautiful! if I go, I want to go in the spring to see the Cherry blossom festival. I've seen a few pictures and it looks amazing!

Oh ya, once more thing. That woman who went to Japan to teach for 2 years, her name is Lynn to make things simpler. But she said after 4 months she stll coudln't understand most conversational japanese and that she still felt like thing would be a lot better if she could communicate properly. Then, about 6 months later(about 10 months being there) she said she was a lot better off, but still doesn't unerstand everything but she could speak it a lot better. Wow... 10 months. And it was 4 months almost no advancement. You'd think it would go a LOT faster living there. :O Or maybe she's a little slow! XD

And I haven't see Totoro yet either... why haven't I? :O Tell us if it's good or not.

Oh and how is it living with a bunch of people that don't understand you at all? I guess you must get by. :)

I don't think I have any other questions for the day! ^^

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Re: mooo moo haganegiri July 12 2005, 16:09:15 UTC
hmm, cool.

Ku
Fu
Ka
Sui
Chi

Godai (five great elements)
also the books of the Gorin no sho.

are the "elements" I'm used to reading.
I shall research your forms of them.

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Re: mooo moo koneko_keri July 12 2005, 16:13:26 UTC
Wow! I didn't know that... how strange. :) Maybe yours are the actual element form, where as mine are the word such as water, like water you drink?
And I know kuki is under "air" in my dictionary but in brackets it has: gas. So mine are probably the literal meanings, where as yours are supposed to be names for the actual elements!

I must go and try to find out as well. ^^

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Re: mooo moo ceratopsian July 12 2005, 16:51:14 UTC
I've learned that mizu is specifically just the name for cold water, like water you drink. There's another name for hot water... starts with an O. *shrug*

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Re: mooo moo koneko_keri July 12 2005, 16:58:07 UTC
Sara! you're still awake! lol! ^^ Must be pretty late now isn't it?

And hot water is oyu. haha! annoyingly complicated is it not? ^^I wonder how many other words are like that because Oyu and Mizu are quite different. >.>

Oh ya, I have one more question:
When writing out your own name in Japanese do you use Katakana or Hirigana?

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Re: mooo moo ceratopsian July 12 2005, 17:03:53 UTC
Katakana. :D
Anything Western, katakana. Hiragana's just for grammar words, verb endings, etc.
For some reason, I'm not tired. It's 2:02 AM!

Oh yeah, that's it. Oyu. I'd never seen it written, only spoken, and that's harder to remember.

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Re: mooo moo koneko_keri July 12 2005, 17:10:19 UTC
lol! It's 1:05pm here! XD I should really go out and do something I think.

Okay yay! So whenever I write my name I haven't been wrong! XD Haha you should send me a picture of you from the purikura and I'll put it on my cell phone! XD hahahaha! Yes, I think I would like something like that here.

You know, they did have something similiar in Suzy Shier like a few years ago. You'd go in and you could put border and words and stuff and print them out.. not sure if they were stickers though. Funny also that it was in a clothing store. :>

Oh! Oh! One more thing... so is everyone in Japan able to write and read kanji well? Because from what i understood, only some people could do the calligraphy... which doesn't make much sense because well, it's their language.

I'm sure they'd have to be able to read it. But when writing, is it like a simplified version of the character? Because I can't imagine normal pens could make the characters look they they do. Or is everything written by computer. :O

:O :O :O

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Re: mooo moo ceratopsian July 12 2005, 17:29:00 UTC
Well, some are stickers. None of the ones I've gotten have actually been stickers though....

Grammar words = hiragana. Western words = katakana. Everything else, (which is a LOT) is kanji. Any literate Japanese person knows kanji, but not all kanji. Just the ones in normal modern usage.

But for example, in front of the shrine in Unnojuku, there was a stack of papers on the table, perhaps with the history of the shrine or something. But Shinta and Tatsuya said they couldn't really read it because there was a lot of archaic kanji that they don't know.
Same in Chinese, or so I've heard from Mrs Yu.

Kanji/Chinese characters can be written in pen, pencil, crayon, whatever. It seems to be a common misconception that the width of the line is relevant to the meaning. That's just for aesthetics.
Not everyone can do caligraphy because normal everyday writing is not calligraphy, it's printing.
In China, there are simplified versions of certain complex characters. In Taiwan, and in Japanese kanji I believe, the traditional, more complex versions are the ones commonly used.
Really, writing them out isn't as bad as you think. Even the fanciest ones are made up of components... from there it's just a matter of memorization.

Uhh... did that answer your question?

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Re: mooo moo koneko_keri July 12 2005, 17:45:34 UTC
Yup! :) Oh it's so much easier to just hear the answers from someone than looking it up and so forth.

I get it! I've tried to write in kanji a bit... but I always end up making a line too big here or there and then it looks funny. You'd think I'd be somewhat good at that since I draw a lot... oh well. Practice makes perfect.

Honestly, Japanese people are probably like, 10x smarter than a lot of the world. Their language is so much more compicated than english, altho i bet they find it difficult.

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Re: mooo moo ceratopsian July 12 2005, 17:53:26 UTC
Japanese may be complicated, but at least they have method to their madness... there are very few exeptions to general grammar rules. Unlike ENGLISH. GAh. I feel awful for anyone learning English as a second language.
At first glance, our writing system might look easier, with just 26 simple letters, but then how about SPELLING? How about nitty gritty little gramamar rules, subtle pronounciation differences, etc...

And yes, practice makes perfect when it comes to characters... when I look at my writing from Chinese 1, it's like looking at how I wrote when I was seven...

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Re: mooo moo koneko_keri July 13 2005, 19:18:09 UTC
Haha very true!

I don't know.. lots of people say english is like.. one of the easiest languages to learn. I can see how that would make sense... they can learn it, but they have a ton of trouble with it. And yes... all our stupid rules and exceptions... stupid english! I guess I feel lucky growing up learning it.

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Re: mooo moo ceratopsian July 14 2005, 02:07:06 UTC
Ugh, I doubt anyone's ever said that who had to learn it as a second language. It just sounds like rationalizing for Ebglish's takeover.

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Re: mooo moo koneko_keri July 14 2005, 02:10:39 UTC
lol! I don't know... most people have never said it was easy or hard... I just know a lot of foreign english speakers mess up a lot and I can't imagine how their grammar and spelling would look like. :(

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Re: mooo moo haganegiri July 13 2005, 02:20:54 UTC
http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/5-elements-pagoda-gravestone.html

there is a great website with lots of cultural information about Japan, it expalins a lot of little things. check it out.

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Re: mooo moo koneko_keri July 13 2005, 19:20:22 UTC
That's somewhat helpful. I guess I'll have to read more to understand better. And little things are absolutely the kinds of things I'd to know. Thanks! ^^

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Re: mooo moo ceratopsian July 12 2005, 16:49:36 UTC
You've almost definitely come across this in your reading... but in case you haven't... the Japanese days of the week and their literal means, beacuse I thought it was really cool:

Sunday: Nichiyoobi - Sun day
Monday: Getsuyoobi - Moon day
Tuesday: Kayoobi - Fire day
Wednesday: Suiyoobi - Water day
Thursday: Mokuyoobi - Wood day
Friday: Kinyoobi - Gold day
Saturday: Doyoobi - Earth day

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