What does it mark then?
Oh, and a quick question to everyone, how many of you know what the word "ore" means (I only use romaji because I would have to switch to IE to use the IME)
Maybe afree87 meant that NOT ONLY "wa" can mark the subject.
Haha "ore", think it's the same like boku, watashi or watakushi
My Japanese teacher warned us to use "ore" in Japanese because it's not very polite.
But unless your not on a "kaigi" or at "shigoto" it's ok for men to use "ore" or "boku".
Women have to use "watashi" because it's "kirei" enough.
Normally you can forget about "watakushi" exept you meet some politicians or managers.
That's what my teacher told me and since she's Japanese this has to be right.
I didn't have the chance to go to Japan yet, but i was told common speech is more like Japanese in anime (exept for the pronunciation).
Well I'll try to master this language here and then go to Japan for 6-12 months to study there.
As Ashton said it's crucial to learn Kana first and then the language itself.
I began with a romanji training book, but this will get you nowhere in the long term.
You'll soon confuse all the letters and you can't read Japanese texts, too.
My tips:
- Learn Kana first - maybe buy a Japanese manga to have an inducement.
- Learn, learn, learn and also write. It'll be lots of effort, but if you're dedicated to it, you'll succeed in the end.
- Watch anime or/and Japanese MADs. Try to hear words you've already learned!
- If you feel comfortable with the language then, begin to learn Kanji - at least the minimum of 2,100 ! (The most frustrating thing because you have to put almost the same effort into it as in learning Japanese itself).
- Get yourself various Japanese media - manga, newspaper, texts, audio - that comply with your state of knowledge.
I myself learned most of my English from computer games and via the internet (I'm from Germany, you know). Unfortunately Japanese isn't that common, e.g. you'll hardly find Japanese speaking people on ICQ and webpages are mostly written in Kanji, so beginners can't read them.
Having Japanese lessons is still the best way to learn it, but if you haven't the possiblilty to do so, ask people who already learned it autodidacticly for good books or simply search amazon.com for good references!
