Here is where I will post the lessons for this system.

If you want to ask a question, post a comment, etc. please do so here: http://beforu.under-the-sky.net/board/index.php?topic=585.0

ここには、課を貼り出します。コメントか質問があれば、ここには貼り出してください：http://beforu.under-the-sky.net/board/index.php?topic=585.0

Lesson 1: The Writing

Many people take a look at how Japanese is written out and try to run away at an instant. True, there are 4 writing systems (kanji, hiragana, katakana, and roumaji), but you already know one, believe it or not.

Kanji 漢字: These are "picture" characters borrowed from Chinese. They give meaning to the syllable systems (katakana and hiragana), and is often used to tell one word apart from another (for example, "hi" can have multiple meanings. 日 means "sun" and 火 means "fire"). It is just like spelling in English (how can you tell the difference between "dear" and "deer" besides context? The spelling). Some characters have multiple pronounciations and meanings (although they usually relate to each other), but in English, the same spelling of a word can have different pronounciations too (does "tear" mean a rip or a watery substance from your eye?).

Hiragana 平仮名: Hiragana is one of the two syllable writing systems in Japanese. It gives the pronounciation, and each character has only one pronounciation. They are like the alphabet in English, except, in Japanese, they can't be pronounced in any other way but one (the English vowel "a" can be read countles ways--hate, dad, are, etc. The Japanese letter あ--romanized as "a"--can only be pronounced as "ah" as in "hot").
A very good chart along with the stroke order can be found here: http://www.yosida.com/en/hiragana.html

Katakana 片仮名: This is just like hiragana and is pronounced exactly the same, however this is only used for foreign words borrowed and formed into Japanese (For example: トピック--"topikku"--sounds a lot like the English word "topic," right? That's because it was borrowed from English). However, not all of the words were borrowed from English. The word パン--"pan"-- is from a number of European languages (Portugese, Spanish, etc.) meaning "bread." Sometimes it is used in the same way italics are in English. Japanese people tend to notice katakana just as English speakers notice italics more quickly. Katakana was derived from kanji characters. It also tends to be used for onomatopoeia words, and is sometimes used for company names and such. However, as much as beginning learning believe, katakana is NOT written in katakana. It is written in either hiragana or kanji.
A very good chart along with the stroke order can be found here: http://www.yosida.com/en/katakana.html

Correct stroke order is very important in Japanese. If not written correctly, it can turn out looking very weird, and it can also bug Japanese people. When writing Japanese, please try to write it as correctly as possible.

Roumaji ローマ字: Belive it or not, you are reading roumaji right now! It is the latin alphabet and is also a part of Japanese! It doesn't have a huge part in the writing, however. "There are several different romanization systems. The three main ones are Hepburn romanization, Kunrei-shiki Rōmaji (ISO 3602), and Nihon-shiki Rōmaji (ISO 3602 Strict). Variants of the Hepburn system are the most widely used.
   All Japanese who have attended elementary school since World War II have been taught to read and write romanized Japanese. Romanization is also the most common way to input Japanese into word processors and computers. Therefore, almost all Japanese are able to read and write Japanese using rōmaji. The primary usage of rōmaji is on computers and other electronic devices that do not support the display or input of Japanese characters, in educational materials for foreigners, and in academic papers in English written on Japanese linguistics, literature, history, and culture. (quote from Wikipedia.org)"

Lesson 2

Ok, now for a bit of a grammar lecture.
Japanese word structure is VERY different from English. So yes, I know, it looks different and takes some time to get used to, but one of the #1 rules in Japanese is to NOT COMPARE EVERYTHING TO ENGLISH!!! That will make it more difficult for you to understand. Just realize that Japan is a separate country from yours, and so it has a right to have a different language than yours. Grammar is not always the same in every single language.

Now, the grammar in Japanese is actually quite simple. It is a subject-object-verb language, but we're only going to focus on the subject and one verb for now.
Subject は___です。
Now you noticed that I left a ___ in the middle of the sentence. Why? Because you need more to a basic sentence than just a subject and a verb. But before that, I'll give you a few words to add to your vocabulary.

です  desu  (This is the word that is the most useful when starting out in Japanese. It can mean is, are, and am. As it's a verb, it goes at the end of the sentence.)
は  wa  (This is actually the kana for "ha," but as a particle it is pronounced "wa." This is the subject marking particle.)
         
              Now what is a particle? In Japanese, along with a certain word order, they also have particles marking the words of the sentence. は is the subject particle, so it goes right after the subject word. They have many particles, such as direct object, indirect object, etc. but this is the only one we're going to focus on for right now. If you're confused, just remember that you need to put a は (looks like "ha," but pronounced "wa") right after the subject of the sentence.

For those of you who are unsure, the subject of the sentence is the thing that is doing the action.
A few subjects....

私　わたし　watashi    (I)
あなた   anata   (you)
～さん   ~san   (you. This is better in more formal situations. If you know the name of the person whom you are talking to, use their LAST name and add さん. さん literally means Mr., Mrs., or Ms.)

Now what about that blank I left in the middle of the sentence? That can be a noun or an adjective. You can also put your name in there.
わたし  は Kelsey です (Watashi wa Kelsey desu)--I am Kelsey.
わたし  は  げんき です (Watashi wa genki desu)--I am fine.

Now Japanese don't usually use spaces in sentences, but since I used all kana (since I'm sure very few beginners know kanji, or want to look back at the vocabulary to see the kanji), to avoid confusion I added in spaces.

Another thing to note is that Japanese don't always use a subject. So much of the language is implied, and you'll sound a bit strange if you start off every sentence using Watashi wa____. If I simply said, "Kelsey です," it would be implied that I'm talking about myself, unless I'm pointing out someone. I would not randomly be saying "You are Kelsey."









Ok, so let's start building our vocabulary, shall we?

I'll but the kanji, then kana, then roumaji, and then the (English Translation)
--語い　ごい　Goi  (Vocabulary)--

*こんいちは   Konnichiwa  (Hello)
お元気ですか。　おげんきですか。Ogenki desu ka? (Formal: How are you?)
**元気?　げんき？   Genki?  (Informal: How are you?)
元気です。　げんきです。  Genki desu.   (Formal: I'm fine.)
元気。　げんき。  Genki. (Informal: I'm fine)

*Note the irregular use of kana here. Normally if it is part of a word, わ (wa) is used instead of  は (particle wa).

**Informal Japanese is normally very simple. However, make sure you use a rising intonation at the end to make sure that the other person knows you are asking a question.

I know that a lot of people don't really want to learn Japanese very badly (especially with our shortage of Japanese speakers), but a great website is http://lang-8.com/. It's a blog site where you can post entries in the language you are studying, and then native speakers will correct you (and vice versa). It's very helpful for any language you are studying.

たくさんの人は本当に日本語（／英語）を勉強したくないことが分かります。でも、すばらしいサイトはhttp://lang-8.com/です（右上隅で日本語になれます）。習っている外国語で日記を書いて母語話者が直すブログのサイトです。とても便利です。

Hah, I totally just found this thread!
I bought "My Japanese Coach" for my DS, it teaches a lot of this stuff. Nice the to know the game and the forum can help me!

I never knew/saw the Japanese one. I've seen the Spanish and French ones though. Is it just basic Japanese?

I dunno, I'm not very far in it. I know it teaches grammar, hiragana, katakana and kanji, though.

There's a Chinese one, also.

I just looked at the reviews for it. It says that it teaches a lot of the stroke order wrong. Oopsies.

Edit: I just bought the game, and there is a lot of the wrong stroke order. I'll make a list of the incorrect characters.

Incorrect stroke order (it goes backwards from when you learned it) :
ヒ
チ　(Look carefully at the direction of the first stroke)
ネ　(Much more confusing than it really is, in my opinion)
ノ
カ
メ
や
よ　(This one is a lot harder for me to write than the real way.  I always get counted off　 　)
も
な

And what's more, it gives the correct stoke order for ワ.　However, whenever I try writing it, it always tells me I'm wrong and it only has one stroke. Just to let you know, it is TWO strokes. That part is just messed up.

Also, please look at the (hiragana)　さ and き　on the site I've referred. There are 2 ways to write them.

For the correct hiragana: http://www.yosida.com/en/hiragana.html
For the correct katakana: http://www.yosida.com/en/katakana.html

I honestly can't understand why so many are written incorrectly, since doing so usually irritates Japanese people. How in the world was this overlooked.
書き間違えることはたいてい日本人の機にさらるから、本当にどうして数画が書き間違えられるかなぁ。分かりませんね。一体、どう通すかな。

  watashi  daisuki  anata