Alright, this probably isn't the best place to be asking, but eh. I'm not on many forums.

I'm taking japanese class as of now, and I've come across a few things that seem strange after romping through otakudom.

First off, the romanization is strange (oo instead of ou for the long vowel, same with ee instead of ei, et cetera) though that may just be the book, since the prof has a tendency to switch between typos.

The weird bit is really... well, I'm noticing a lot of long vowels where I thought there weren't any. Toukyou (well, the book puts it tookyoo, but same hiragana) instead of tokyo, ohayou instead of ohayo, and generally... strange stuff like that. I'm curious, have you guys ever come across that, are my impressions way of base, or is it just some... weird dialect stuff?

Romanization is weird. It's a bit difficult to understand at first with the way different things are spelled. But in all of the end, it's what matters of the written languages: hiragana, katakana and kanji. I wouldn't worry too much with the romanization. Just practice your written languages and you should be set.

Also on a note, it depends on the dialect a bit of the influneces of how the romanization is spelled and personal prefrence.

That's really not what was weirding me a bit, it was the extra syllables added in a few words that I've come to understand as written a different way, though I probably did hear stuff wrong. Or dialects. Or all manner of things.

(hehe, my handwriting is SO BAD it's funny. Shit, it's pretty horrid in english, I feel pity for the prof getting to read my crappy hiragana XD)

speaking of Japanese classes. Does anyone know where I can take a course, maybe just basics? I'm headed to Tokyo in October and would love to know a little of the basic unless someone is willing to teach. Ha!

Try Columbus State or OSU? I took a few classes at Cuyahoga Community College up in Cleveland, but I don't like the way they did the classes up there, so I dropped it.

i may just look into that...but i just want the one course.

They generally do offer different courses as in levels. You may want to take the basic, unless you had some Japanese in your past and then I'm sure you can try out for a higher class.

I think OSU is the best school in the state for Japanese, so taking their accelerated intro course would probably be your best bet. It'd be tough, but definitely doable if it was the only class you were taking.

Lothlin: Ignore most of what Kala said (no offence babe). She doesn't seem to know what you are talking about, and as far as dialects go I think she probably just made that up.

If you're in first year Japanese most schools use the double-o style of elongated verbs and such because it better reflects the written language you're about to learn (in Katakana Sensei would be SE N SE --, rather than SE N SE I. The -- being the extended vowel symbol thingy.)

A lot of the inconsitancies you see in Romanji have to do with the different kinds. Most people use Hepburn (Chi not Ti, Shi not Si, Sensei not Sensee, etc.) It's designed to be more photetically natural to native english speakers.
Most Japanese students, scholars, and natives tend to use a Romanization that better reflects the Japanese Kana's. These spellings are simpler and more consistent with the Japanese alphabet thing (starts with a G... can't remember the full name). These romanizations also tend to use o instead of wo, and other such things.

Gotcha, thank you Mike <3. Huh, we haven't been doing much with katakana just yet (it's the third week of class, y'know? XD) , mostly hiragana.... I'm going to have to check my book and see if there is a vowel elongator, because she really has been telling us to write sensee as se n se i, et cetera. Extra syllable, no elongator. But again, it's hiragana.

...I really do find this language fascinating, I'm hoping there's enough interest that they let her do a Japanese 2 class before she ends up moving :/

That's what was explained to me when I took it at TriC Mike.

...Didn't you say you dropped those classes because you didn't like them?

I stopped taking them after the third semester.

I made it to third year before I decided to stop taking the hits to my GPA. I understood it, and tested well, but I didn't think fast enough and studdered too much for a class graded mostly on speech production.

Japanese is pretty cool because it's a language that sticks to its rules. I'm not sure there are any exceptions. There are a couple weirdities though. As you've noticed the sound EI is written EE, (for instance, Eego would never be confused with a waffle) OU as OO, etc. For the Tokyo example, "East" "Capital" “Œ‹ž (tou-kyou), the Romanization "Tokyo" is almost always used (even in Japan) as it is the traditional westernized spelling of the city (from back when nobody knew any better.) Even though there is no modern romanization that would allow for that spelling, it is the one that is used. So while Japanese itself sticks to all of its rules to an extent I wouldn't think possible in a living language, the romanizations tend to be more varried and less rational.

I'm actually thinking about taking Korean. I've heard it's much easier to memorize and learn, considering there's only 40 characters to their alaphabet.

Well romanization isn't how it's supposed to be represented, so it;s completely understandable that it won't have consistency. For the time being, you're probably better off learning to think in kunrei siki as it will tangibly help your diction later.

crknight: Depending on your spare time, look into the SPEAC program at OSU. It's a summer accelerated learning program that fits a year of Japanese education into less than three months. However, I will warn you that it's not for the faint of heart.

I may just have to look into the japanese classes at OSU. Too bad I can't find a cheaper night class some where. But it looks like most are in agreement that OSU has the best. Well, in all reality it is one of the boggest schools in the nation. Now if I was back at school at Miami of Ohio I would probably pick there, but who knows what might turn up.

Too bad I'm not going to OSU XD. I was surprised my school even had a Japanese class, hell, I think this is only the second quarter it's being offered (and probably one of the last, the teacher is moving next year I think.) but... it's better than nothing. And hopefully good, she is a native speaker so she knows what she's doing.

when i was in school I took 3 years german, Japanese wasn't offered. now that is too bad.

What textbook do you use?

Yookoso!

43 dollars for a book that's barely over a hundred pages x.x

oh god that one...

Yeah.

It's even funnier (haha, my wallet is laughing!) because we really haven't even used the book much. She's given us stacks of handouts, I've only really had to look at it when there was some words I had to look up and I couldn't use my friend's dictionary.

Ugh.

you're probably better off doing that than using that book lol

Yeah.

Like. The book translated 'shitsurei shimashita' as 'goodbye' which I THOUGHT looked funky (I would write the hiragana but dammnit if I can't get that to work because I don't have my XP disks with me.)

The teacher did a double take at that, shit, it's like, completely off base. A lot of the stuff in the book is alright, I guess, but sometimes... it just misses, and I have to wonder what they were even thinking. It's like, they forgo giving the literal definition and then explaining the usage and just give ONE USAGE for it, leaving a very messed up and confusing definition.

Such a waste of money.

EDIT: Oh yes, and the damn thing? HAS NOTHING ABOUT GRAMMAR *kicks it repeatedly*