Japanese Society

Good stuff. Ah wow, awesome! There was a time when I wanted to do Japanese at uni too...
I need to get an A overall to meet my uni offer. Terrified, hah! I don't know whether it's just my school but every year everyone goes in for the retake, even if just to get a better A.
Good luck! We'll have to dissect it afterwards...

Hi I just started as a beginner, I am teaching myself hiragana but don't get something.

こんにちは Konichiwa

First, why is there the third character before the symbol for "i"?
Second question, why is the last letter ha and not wa? Sorry, noob questions I know.

Hi I just started as a beginner, I am teaching myself hiragana but don't get something.

こんにちは Konichiwa

First, why is there the third character before the symbol for "i"?
Second question, why is the last letter ha and not wa? Sorry, noob questions I know.

Hello there! I'm something of a beginner myself, as well, but I believe I can answer your questions. If I'm wrong, anybody, please feel free to amend!

Firstly, let's break down the hiragana for こんにちは
こ - Ko - this combines with the following 'N' to form the word 'kon 「今」', which means something like 'this' or 'now'
ん - N - the only syllable in Japanese that doesn't have a vowel attached to it, and so is just a sort of nasal sound used at the end of words (usually not at the beginning)
に - Ni - regular syllable that combines with 'Chi' to form 'nichi 「日」, or 'day'. The little line on the left is just part of the symbol, like the little things in お and む (not sure if that was your intended question, but...)
ち - Chi - regular syllable again
は - Ha - this is the grammatical particle that points to a subject (in this case, 'this day'). It is pronounced 'wa' only when used as a grammatical particle -- a bit of a weird kind of exception, but it sure beats the plethora of weird pronunciation things in English!.

So, if we add all those together, 'konnichiwa' looks a bit like "this day is..."
As you can tell, that sentence is rather incomplete and would require an adjective to give it meaning. The reason for this is that 'konnichiwa' (correct me if I'm wrong here, people) used to/can be part of a longer sentence, but has since fallen into everyday use as a common greeting. In the full sentence, we would have the subject 'kon nichi' (this day), followed by an adjective. These two segments would be joined by the はparticle, which should explain why こんにちは is pronounced as 'konnichiwa'.

weird about the grammatical particle, don't get it but I am sure it is not too difficult to learn...

こんにちは！

おげんきですか？　げんきです,　ありがと！
ありがとう
you don't say the U sound but you need to write the U letter. This U here actually indicates the long sound of to. it sounds more like To o


わたしわ　りす　です。
わたしは
you say watashi wa but you write watashi ha. grammar stuff.

わたしわ22です。
わたしは　22さいです。
same grammatical mistake as the one before. also when you talk about age in Japanese you need to put さい (sai) to indicate that it is age. you dont always have to, but its better to.

わたし　わ かめら　が　ほしい　です。
same thing agian.　は instead of　わ

Watashi wa kamera ga hoshii desu.

わたし　わ　にほんご　お　べんきょ　したい。
は

Watashi wa nihongo o benkyō ****ai

おねがいします！　

Onegaishimasu/Sumimasen

ラーメン てら　ひとつ　〉ださい！
ラーメン　を　ひとつ　ください
i don't know where you found that てら thing but it's not a grammatical particle. when you want to indicate subject you use wo を
く is this way and not that way you've written lol. i have no idea where you found that thing

ramen wo hitotsu/futatsu kudasai!

neko wa kawaii desu to omoimasu

ねこ　わ　かわいい　と　おもいます！
は

Wata****achi wa a****a tokyo ni ikimasu (ikimasen negative)

*ni, indirect object, destination

わたしたち　わ　あした　ときょ　に　いきます。
わたしたち　は　あした　とうきょう　に　いきます
this is how you spell tokyo in japanese. also this same particle mistake again

Kare wa doitsu ikimasu

かれ　わ　どいつ 　いきます
かれ　は　どいつ　に　いきます
you need to remember this particle. and you need に to indicate "to"

watashi wa raishuu nihon ni ikimasu

わたし　わ　らいしゅう　日本　に　いきます
は

Susan-san wa senshuu Tokyo ni ikimash*ta.

すさん-さん わ　せんしゅう　ときょ　に　いきました。
すーざん　さん　は　せんしゅう　とうきょう　に　いきました。
thats how you spell Susan in Japanese, and it sounds closest to Susan in English pronunciation. Wa -> ha. and Tokyo spelling

Can someone please check my kana to see how I am getting on? Just starting out so I expect some mistakes. Also, I wasn't sure how to end a word with "n" so ended up just copying and pasting the kanji for Nihon.

こんにちは！

おげんきですか？　げんきです,　ありがと！ -> ありがとう

わたしわ　りす　です。

わたしわ22です。-> Not wrong really, but usually you put 才　（さい）after an age. ^^

わたし　わ　かめら　が　ほしい　です。


Watashi wa kamera ga hoshii desu.

わたし　わ　にほんご　お　べんきょ　したい。-> べんきょう　したい です。

Watashi wa nihongo o benkyō ****ai

おねがいします！　

Onegaishimasu/Sumimasen

ラーメン てら　ひとつ　〉ださい！-> く

ramen wo hitotsu/futatsu kudasai!

neko wa kawaii desu to omoimasu

ねこ　わ　かわいい　と　おもいます！

Wata****achi wa a****a tokyo ni ikimasu (ikimasen negative)

*ni, indirect object, destination

わたしたち　わ　あした　ときょ　に　いきます。-> とうきょう

Kare wa doitsu ikimasu

かれ　わ　どいつ　いきます

watashi wa raishuu nihon ni ikimasu

わたし　わ　らいしゅう　日本　に　いきます

Susan-san wa senshuu Tokyo ni ikimash*ta.

すさん-さん わ　せんしゅう　ときょ　に　いきました。

Please explain where I went wrong, I am sure I got some of the particles wrong. Off to read the tofugu article now!

Your kana is really good! It is the particles that are tripping you up, which is to be expected at this stage. Where you've written 'watashi wa', 'kare wa', 'neko wa 'or 'Susan-sa wa', the わ that you've got is written as は. Also, where you have 'にほんご　お べんきょう したい', because the お sound is actually the particle, it's the を character that is used, which, as someone said above, is usually romanised as 'wo' but pronounced as 'o'. It is only ever really used as a particle, and so all other 'o' sounds are お.

The long sounds (e.g. the extra う sounds in とうきょう, べんきょう) you'll just get used to as you learn words' spelling.

Good job! Keep going! ^^

Your kana is really good! It is the particles that are tripping you up, which is to be expected at this stage. Where you've written 'watashi wa', 'kare wa', 'neko wa 'or 'Susan-sa wa', the わ that you've got is written as は. Also, where you have 'にほんご　お べんきょう したい', because the お sound is actually the particle, it's the を character that is used, which, as someone said above, is usually romanised as 'wo' but pronounced as 'o'. It is only ever really used as a particle, and so all other 'o' sounds are お.

The long sounds (e.g. the extra う sounds in とうきょう, べんきょう) you'll just get used to as you learn words' spelling.

Good job! Keep going! ^^

I hope it helped.
If you need further help in Japanese correction call me again. I'm Japanese so I think I will be quite useful in correction. I can't tell you the tips to learn Japanese though because I learnt Japanese by growing up in Japan.

Thanks for the super helpful explanations! I will read the particle article now, but I have definitely fixed in my mind now that I need to write は and not　わwhen using this as a grammatical particle!

oohh it's okay I got it!

みなさん、こんにちは！私は　Excalibur で、日本人です。わからないことがあったら、聞いてください！

So yeah, I'm Japanese and Japanese is my first language. It's fantastic that people are wanting to learn it - there is so much depth to the language/culture, imo. (though of course I am biased ) I haven't lived in Japan since I was six and only go back there sparingly, so my knowledge is probably a little out of date - and I am absolutely crap at grammar so don't ask me grammatical questions lol. But I do have a lot of Japanese friends, read a lot of Japanese books & go to Japanese school on Saturdays so I like to keep in touch with my country.