日本語 (Japanese Practice)

[Kizyr]

とにかく、日本を出てから日本語を使うチャンスがあまりなくて、ここを見つけてすごくうれしい。ここで日本語を使い続けることを楽しみにしています。よろしくお願いします。(^_^)v

実際、アレックスの話し方は本当に自然に見える（聞こえる？）。僕も使う機会が非常に少ないけど、日本語での小説を読んだり、テレビゲームをやったりしてちょっと練習できる。そして勉強も続けているのだ。

To drop off onto a completely different topic...
スチャダラパーを聴く人いませんか？

ウィキペディアのページによって、昔のラップグループだろう？
聞いたことがない。ごめん。KF

[Interactive Civilian]

To drop off onto a completely different topic...
スチャダラパーを聴く人いませんか？

ウィキペディアのページによって、昔のラップグループだろう？
聞いたことがない。ごめん。KF

そうそう！ちょっとBeastie Boysみたいなグループなんだ。結構オルドスクールなんだけど、まだかっこういい。ヒップホップが好きだったら、聴いてみた方がいいですよ。(^o^)v

[fukiyo]

えと。。。四ヶ月ぐらい日本語を勉強している。今日本にすんでいるけど日本語を話すときはつかしなるよ。でも！がんばってるよ。どんどん上手なている。日本で漢字を読むことが下手ですから毎日はとてもむずかしですね。アメリカへ帰るとき勉強することつずけたいとおもう。

Spoiler:

Um...I have been studying Japanese for about four months. Right now, I am living in Japan, but when I speak Japanese, I become embarrassed. But! I am trying my best! Gradually, I am becoming skilled(better?). In Japan, every day is difficult because I am hopeless at kanji. When I return to America, I want to continue to study Japanese.

　

Eeek, so that was more or less off the top of my head and I am very sure it is very poor Japanese. I can't recall if I need a particle (perhaps no) for the koto when nominalizing a verb. The main problem with my Japanese, is a lot of it is inferred instead of studied, so I tend to pick up an odd amalgam of slang, casual and formal Japanese. And particles are so often left out in every day speech. I intentionally wrote in the informal because I personally think it sounds a lot less stiff and prefer using it whenever I think I can get away with using it and not seeming like a punk kid. But anyway, I desperately need to study kanji and widen my vocabulary. I keep putting it off because I keep telling myself I'm ahead of the curve for only studying Japanese for 4 months (didn't study in America, really really should have), when I'm really actually not.

[Interactive Civilian]

I desperately need to study kanji and widen my vocabulary.

If you have a photo-capable iPod, go here: http://www.kanjionapod.com/
Or, if you have a mobile phone that can run it (supported phones in the link), go here:
http://www.getjar.com/products/7555/Kan ... FirstGrade

Granted, they aren't the best resources, but you can carry them in your pocket and study up a bit while waiting for the bus/train/etc.

My kanji reading is also not very good (I take strong advantage of the Rikai-chan plugin for FireFox), but those have been helping me brush up lately.
----
On a different note, how many of you use http://mixi.jp ? That's another good place to practice reading and writing, since you pretty much need to be able to read (at least a bit) to use the site. I keep in touch with a lot of my friends and former students through it. It's a good social networking site, especially if you are in Japan, because you can actually meet to people on it without too much difficulty (I used to find snowboarding companions through it).

[fukiyo]

I desperately need to study kanji and widen my vocabulary.

If you have a photo-capable iPod, go here: http://www.kanjionapod.com/
Or, if you have a mobile phone that can run it (supported phones in the link), go here:
http://www.getjar.com/products/7555/Kan ... FirstGrade

Granted, they aren't the best resources, but you can carry them in your pocket and study up a bit while waiting for the bus/train/etc.

My kanji reading is also not very good (I take strong advantage of the Rikai-chan plugin for FireFox), but those have been helping me brush up lately.
----
On a different note, how many of you use http://mixi.jp ? That's another good place to practice reading and writing, since you pretty much need to be able to read (at least a bit) to use the site. I keep in touch with a lot of my friends and former students through it. It's a good social networking site, especially if you are in Japan, because you can actually meet to people on it without too much difficulty (I used to find snowboarding companions through it).

I unfortunately have neither, as I have an iPod mini and a Toshiba phone. I actually bought a nice set of cards and I've been making my own with the little metal ring flip cards, but I keep putting off studying kanji. I always am busy trying to learn new grammar because I figure if I don't understand that, there's not too much point in learning kanji...but that was a bit back and my grammar has gotten better.

I use mixi, but haven't touched it since I set it up three months ago. Add that to my list of things to do.

[kadamczy]

はじめまして！ケビンと申します。それは私の自己紹介です。二年前から日本語を勉強したけど、今学期、時間がなかったら、日本語を取れなかった。私はパデュー大学で化学を専攻してる。今、日本とアメリカの化学会社に就職している。今学期は私の最後学期ですから。日本で働きたければ、たくさん練習しなきゃ。今、漢字は600言ぐらいしか分かりませんので、一生懸命勉強しています。私にとって、読み方も書き方もとても難しい。どうぞよろしくお願いします

[Supergrunch]

はじめまして！ケビンと申します。それは私の自己紹介です。二年前から日本語を勉強したけど、今学期、時間がなかったら、日本語を取れなかった。私はパデュー大学で化学を専攻してる。今、日本とアメリカの化学会社に就職している。今学期は私の最後学期ですから。日本で働きたければ、たくさん練習しなきゃ。今、漢字は600言ぐらいしか分かりませんので、一生懸命勉強しています。私にとって、読み方も書き方もとても難しい。どうぞよろしくお願いします

あの、おっしゃることが、どうもよく分かりません…　６００の漢字が分かりませんってが、無数の漢字があると思います。もちろん、ほぼ２０００のはざらにあるんです。

Spoiler:

This is more for me to practice than anything else... What I meant to say was: "Um, I'm not entirely sure I follow you... You said you don't know 600 kanji, but I think there's an infinite amount of them. Of course, only about 2000 of these are common."

[Kizyr]

はじめまして！ケビンと申します。それは私の自己紹介です。二年前から日本語を勉強したけど、今学期、時間がなかったら、日本語を取れなかった。私はパデュー大学で化学を専攻してる。今、日本とアメリカの化学会社に就職している。今学期は私の最後学期ですから。日本で働きたければ、たくさん練習しなきゃ。今、漢字は600言ぐらいしか分かりませんので、一生懸命勉強しています。私にとって、読み方も書き方もとても難しい。どうぞよろしくお願いします

あの、おっしゃることが、どうもよく分かりません…　６００の漢字が分かりませんってが、無数の漢字があると思います。もちろん、ほぼ２０００のはざらにあるんです。

Spoiler:

This is more for me to practice than anything else... What I meant to say was: "Um, I'm not entirely sure I follow you... You said you don't know 600 kanji, but I think there's an infinite amount of them. Of course, only about 2000 of these are common."

ちょっと間違う。
「漢字は漢字は600言ぐらいしか分かりませんので」 = "I know only about 600 kanji"

Basically,
～しか～ない = Only ~

そして、漢字は無限なわけじゃない。多分一万字ぐらいがあるけど、一般的に使われている漢字は２０００字ぐらいがあるっていうのは正しい。

Spoiler:

Also, the number of kanji isn't infinite. There are maybe about 10000 characters, but saying that generally about 2000 are used is correct.

One last thing... 無数＝countless, while 無限=infinite. So... what you said in Japanese was right, but the meaning of the translation was a little differently nuanced. KF

[Supergrunch]

One last thing... 無数＝countless, while 無限=infinite. So... what you said in Japanese was right, but the meaning of the translation was a little differently nuanced. KF

Ah, I think I was going to put 無限, and forgot I'd changed it. What I meant by infinite was more along the lines of the number of words in the English language - while of course finite, learning all of them would be impossible, and in many cases it's hard to determine what counts as a word. Any idea how this could be expressed in Japanese?

[jakkle]

konnichiwa
watashi no namae wa jack desu. juu go sai desu
igirisu no devon no haisukuuru de benkyoushiteimasu
kanji wo kakukoto ga ichibansukidesu
shuumatsu ni eiga wo mitari kaimono wo shitari shimasu
daigakku de nihongo to rekishi wo benkyoushitai to omoimasu
douzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu

is that correct? please help me!

[Kizyr]

One last thing... 無数＝countless, while 無限=infinite. So... what you said in Japanese was right, but the meaning of the translation was a little differently nuanced. KF

Ah, I think I was going to put 無限, and forgot I'd changed it. What I meant by infinite was more along the lines of the number of words in the English language - while of course finite, learning all of them would be impossible, and in many cases it's hard to determine what counts as a word. Any idea how this could be expressed in Japanese?

Actually, you were expressing it right in Japanese. 無数 captures the implication that you were going for. Like,

夜空では
無数の星が
キラリ光って

Also, I think 「無数の漢字があるそうだ」 ("It seems like there're countless kanji") sounds a tad bit more natural than 「無数の漢字があると思う」　("I think there're countless kanji"). Both are correct, but it might be that the former is what you were going for?

konnichiwa
watashi no namae wa jack desu. juu go sai desu
igirisu no devon no haisukuuru de benkyoushiteimasu
kanji wo kakukoto ga ichibansukidesu
shuumatsu ni eiga wo mitari kaimono wo shitari shimasu
daigakku de nihongo to rekishi wo benkyoushitai to omoimasu
douzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu

is that correct? please help me!

ぴったり (precisely).

It's a bit hard for me to read anything romanized anymore (same thing with reading anything written in all-kana). But, it looks to me like nothing was out of place there. KF

[its-m3]

日本語わ楽しいです、ね。
日本語わ好きなの言葉です。

Did I do that right? I haven't taken any lessons. Just me, my Japanese-English dictionary, my Japanese grammar book, and the computer(and anime, but I don't use anime to learn Japanese.) But, Japanese is one of the languages I want to learn fluently.

[Supergrunch]

日本語わ楽しいです、ね。
日本語わ好きなの言葉です。

Did I do that right? I haven't taken any lessons. Just me, my Japanese-English dictionary, my Japanese grammar book, and the computer(and anime, but I don't use anime to learn Japanese.) But, Japanese is one of the languages I want to learn fluently.

Well, your first sentence is all fine apart from a few things - the comma before the ね looks odd, and the wa particle is always written は rather than わ, even though it's said "wa". That makes the sentence correct, but your use of the は particle makes it sound like "Japanese, is fun, isn't it?" - there is a sense of this being the case for Japanese in particular. You can instead use the が particle:

日本語が楽しいですね。

The second sentence makes less sense - the main problem here is that you've taken an English thought and translated it literally. I assume you're trying to say that you like Japanese words - this is best expressed by using "Japanese words" as the subject of the sentence:

日本語の言葉が好きです。

/Is wondering if 日本の言葉 would be better or worse...

[jakkle]

i would say ’日本語の言葉’ rather than '日本の言葉' cause the latter is literally 'words of japan' or 'japan's words' rather than 'the words of the japanese language'

but i am an amateur so dont mind me..... :S

[its-m3]

The second sentence makes less sense - the main problem here is that you've taken an English thought and translated it literally. I assume you're trying to say that you like Japanese words - this is best expressed by using "Japanese words" as the subject of the sentence:

日本語の言葉が好きです。

/Is wondering if 日本の言葉 would be better or worse...

I was trying to say that Japanese is one of my favorite languages, but it appears that I've failed.
Thank you for you're help, though.

[Interactive Civilian]

I was trying to say that Japanese is one of my favorite languages, but it appears that I've failed.
Thank you for you're help, though.

日本語は私の一番好きな言語の一つです。

That seems a bit awkward, and maybe not the most natural way of saying it, but that is more or less correct. Of course, I have never really been a fan of the expression "one of my favorite...", so I would probably drop the "の一つ" and say "Japanese is my favorite." :
日本語が一番好きです。
If it is not actually my favorite and I was implying "I like it a LOT" by saying "one of my favorite", I would simply say:
日本語が大好きです。

Hope this helps. がんばって。

[its-m3]

ありがとうございます。But, how do you say the one after な in the first sentence, and how do you say the middle two sentences? I know 日本語が, 好き, and です.

And again, ありがとうございます。

[Interactive Civilian]

ありがとうございます。But, how do you say the one after な in the first sentence, and how do you say the middle two sentences? I know 日本語が, 好き, and です.

And again, ありがとうございます。

Ah, sorry... Here it is with hiragana (with spaces to help you out):
日本語は私の一番好きな言語の一つです。
(にほんご は わたし の いちばん すき な げんご の ひとつ です)

日本語が一番好きです。
(にほんご が いちばん すき です)

日本語が大好きです。
(にほんご が だいすき です)

In case you don't know those words:
言語 (げんご) - Language
一番 (いちばん) - number one, first ranked, most, etc.
大好き (だいすき) - like very much, love (the kanji are 'big' and 'like')

どういたしまして。がんばりつづけてください。(^_^)v

[ascIIaster]

僕もちょっと日本語を話す。去年の十月から　ならう。それから　十二月に　ＪＬＰＴ　の三級のテストを　したい。

Does anyone of you know how to get past exam papers? The only thing i can find are some sample questions, but I'd like to do a whole test as practice.

ascIIaster

[Supergrunch]

僕もちょっと日本語を話す。去年の十月からならう。それから　十二月に　ＪＬＰＴ　の三級のテストを　したい。

Does anyone of you know how to get past exam papers? The only thing i can find are some sample questions, but I'd like to do a whole test as practice.

ascIIaster

Yeah, they sell them on www.japancentre.com.

There are practice 3 kyuu questions here, but unfortunately they only seem to have proper past papers for 1 and 2 kyuu.

One thing - the number kanji are usually only used in compounds when you're not writing vertically. So December (say) is simply １２月.

[Kizyr]

僕もちょっと日本語を話す。去年の十月から　ならう。それから　十二月に　ＪＬＰＴ　の三級のテストを　したい。

Does anyone of you know how to get past exam papers? The only thing i can find are some sample questions, but I'd like to do a whole test as practice.

ascIIaster

I also highly recommend the following:
For grammar - http://www.jgram.org/
For kanji - http://www.jlpt-kanji.com/

I used both extensively while preparing for Level 2.

However, I should mention that I don't think there's a lot of utility with Level 3, unless there's a specific class requirement that you have in mind. I personally think it's a good test, but I don't think Level 3 is difficult enough (compared to just regular coursework) to warrant the $50 cost of the test unless there's a specific requirement involved. KF

[ascIIaster]

However, I should mention that I don't think there's not a lot of utility with Level 3, unless there's a specific class requirement that you have in mind. I personally think it's a good test, but I don't think Level 3 is difficult enough (compared to just regular coursework) to warrant the $50 cost of the test unless there's a specific requirement involved. KF

I just want to do it to 1.) check my level and 2.) have something to verify that I made it up to this level for employers (in case I have to stop study because of something).
Btw, I think, that if you really can use the grammar of the JLPT lv. 3, you should be able to participate in every day live - conversations (of course you'll have serious problems when it comes to philosophy or so).

[recurve boy]

I'm taking Japanese 4 in college, but I took four years in high school, a year in middle school, did some self-study, and took a second-semester Japanese course and slept though most of it (it was a late night class) before starting over with Japanese 1 on the quarter system and going all the way up to 4 (skipped 3).

I have an odd level of proficiency. My vocab is rather poor, I don't know a lot of kanji (these things take constant practice to keep up for me), but I can speak a million times better than I can write, I can read pretty well (if the kanji has readings in kana), and my accent has been described as "amazing".

I can't decide whether to feel good about my Japanese or bad, so I usually don't mention that I study it. I'm majoring in linguistics with a focus on Japanese, and at kendo practice I try to pretend I don't speak Japanese at all, but my accent during kiai gives me away.

I hope that made sense.

I know how you feel. I have been just looking at the grammar and deconstructing sentences. And I am starting to get it and recognising the parts of the sentence. So I am getting better at remembering the characters, some of the kanji and and starting to be able to read complete sentences more. But I can't write it for shit and my vocabulary is bad.

I'm not sure if I should take classes or what ...

[Supergrunch]

I'm a bit like patchy like this, as my Japanese is entirely self taught. In fact, I'm best at writing - though I've never actively tried to learn kanji, I've picked up an awful lot. I've just about got to the stage where I can process sentences in Japanese - they make more sense if I don't try to translate them into English, but I'm pretty sure my accent and vocabulary are terrible.

[Interactive Civilian]

I know how you feel. I have been just looking at the grammar and deconstructing sentences. And I am starting to get it and recognising the parts of the sentence. So I am getting better at remembering the characters, some of the kanji and and starting to be able to read complete sentences more. But I can't write it for shit and my vocabulary is bad.

I'm not sure if I should take classes or what ...

Studying is good and all, but it all comes to nothing if you don't actively use the language. And by "use" I mean, without your notebooks, dictionaries, etc. You have to make an active attempt to use the language with your mind alone (no one has successful conversations when they have to consult a dictionary every other word).

The only way to pick up more vocabulary is by listening, reading, and trying to use it. A pocket notebook is handy to keep up with things. A pocket electronic dictionary is nice, but for the same price (or maybe less, depending), an old B&W PalmOS compatible device (like a Palm Pilot or a Handspring Visor) with Dokusha loaded on it (a free dictionary program) is much better. If you don't live in Japan, find Japanese people living near you and express your interest in learning the language and having someone to speak with. Chat with people online. Load a couple of Japanese news feeds into your GoogleNews (though reading at that level is extremely difficult, there are things to help you read, like Rikai-chan for FireFox).

If writing is your problem, start keeping a blog or some kind of journal in Japanese (on the increasingly rarer occasions that I post to my blog, I try to keep it bilingual).

One good way to practice reading and writing in context is Mixi.jp, a Japanese social networking site that is entirely in Japanese (though it has some English communities). Send me a private message if you want an invitation. However, it can be difficult to get through the sign-up process if your reading level is extremely low. Use FireFox with the Rikai-chan plugin to help.

授業とかはもちろんいいけど、勉強している言語を使わないと絶対上手にならないよ。でも使うチャンスを自分で作らなきゃなんだ。チャンスをずっと待ってれば何もならない。がんばってね。(^_^)v
-------

On a slightly different note, how about some Japanese riddles to help us with our studies? Riddles can be a good way to learn about how people think in a different language, as well as increase vocabulary and have some fun. Does anyone know any good ones? Here is one of my favorites:

いつも火の側にいる鳥は何でしょう？
(いつもひのそばにいるとりはなんでしょう？)

[qklilx]

Interactive Civilian, I agree with most of your points, but I think when it comes to writing you should be more specific. I'm assuming that in your post you are referring to the ability to contruct sensible and grammatically correct sentences. Mixi will DEFINITELY help in this regard since you can make Japanese friends on there easily. In fact, I've been twice contacted by Japanese people just looking for someone interesting to talk to. My ability to construct sentences has skyrocketed since then.

However, when it comes to writing the kanji, only manual labor will show progress. I RARELY write in Japanese, so my written kanji memory is awful.

Unfortunately it's been more than a year since the last time I actively studied Japanese, so the only skills I've had any improvement in is reading, which is only gradual, and speaking, which is drastic. You can only learn so much vocabulary through conversation in a foreign language you have a low vocabulary in. Some is better than none I suppose.

[Interactive Civilian]

Interactive Civilian, I agree with most of your points, but I think when it comes to writing you should be more specific. I'm assuming that in your post you are referring to the ability to contruct sensible and grammatically correct sentences. Mixi will DEFINITELY help in this regard since you can make Japanese friends on there easily. In fact, I've been twice contacted by Japanese people just looking for someone interesting to talk to. My ability to construct sentences has skyrocketed since then.

However, when it comes to writing the kanji, only manual labor will show progress. I RARELY write in Japanese, so my written kanji memory is awful.

Fair enough. By writing, I guess I meant written communication, as in typing, in this case. Yeah, my handwriting is terrible. I've forgotten how to write most of the kanji I've learned, but I can still recognize them well enough to choose the proper kanji when typing.

[Vellyr]

I've been studying Japanese for 2 years now, but I guess the teaching method my school uses is a bit odd. I would write an introduction, but I don't get to that until my 11th unit, which I'm starting next week. I thought I could read Japanese pretty well before I came to this thread, but I can only read about 30% of the kanji you guys are using, and I surely can't be arsed to look up 15 new symbols just to read one paragraph. I guess I still have a lot to learn.

兎に角、インターネットでこれを見付けたで 迚も面白いと思った。

Spoiler:

Anyway, I found this on the internet and I thought it was very amusing (I hope that's what it says anway)

[Interactive Civilian]

and I surely can't be arsed to look up 15 new symbols just to read one paragraph. I guess I still have a lot to learn.

I can't recommend this enough. Use FireFox with the Rikaichan plugin. Then, all you have to do is go to Tools -> Toggle Rikaichan, and then mouse over any unknown words or kanji.

It is seriously awesome for reading Japanese on the web.

[Kizyr]

HAH! I beat the JLPT Level 2!
They even gave me a pretty certificate.
Now it's time to figure out how to stretch out studying for Level 1.

兎に角、インターネットでこれを見付けたで 迚も面白いと思った。

Er, point to note... "兎に角" and "迚も" are ordinarily written in kana, and "見付ける" is normally written "見つける". There are occasions when, especially with very common words (especially adverbs that don't use ADJ+く or に forms) it's more natural to put it in kana and not use obscure kanji. KF

[Interactive Civilian]

いつも火の側にいる鳥は何でしょう？
(いつもひのそばにいるとりはなんでしょう？)

誰も答えてないね…　気にしないか答えがわからないか知りませんので、答えを知りたかったら「Show」を押してこださい：

Spoiler:

答えは「ひよこ」です。なぜならば、「火の側」って「火の横」と同じでしょう。

誰かほかのを知らない？

[Kizyr]

OK・・・

「アルジェリア」のお国の反対はどのお国だろうか？KF

[Interactive Civilian]

OK・・・

「アルジェリア」のお国の反対はどのお国だろうか？KF

おもしろい！ 初めて聴いたけどそんなにむずかすくないね。

Spoiler:

ナイジェリアです。「ある」の反対は「ない」だから。

魚のキスはどんなちゅう？ (２つな答えができます)

[UnderRock]

Ok, I saw this thread a while ago, and I wanna give it a shot.
(Sorry for butchering the language >.>)

僕は高校で日本語の二年生です。漢字が大好です。漢字が勉強したいです。ここに今の天気は雲りです。ひまな時、折り紙が作くります。

...すごく青くてへんな外国人を食べます。

What I tried to say:

Spoiler:

I am a 2nd year Japanese high school student. I love Kanji. I want to study Kanji. The weather here right now is cloudy. In my spare time I ...prepare *doesn't know a more fitting verb* origami

...I eat awesomely blue, strange foreigners.

Sorry for the spam-bot-style grammar >.< I know how to say certain things in Japanese, but right now my mind is blank and I'm tired. Also I guessed on a lot of the correct particles and...pretty much everything >.>

[lucaswschmidt]

始めまして、ルーカスです。今クラスで学んでる言葉を使うチャンスが少ないので、ここで色んな例文を書いてみるつもりです。もし何か変なことを気がついたら、教えてくれて下さい。

そうして，俺はたまに新しい好きな言葉をここで表します。

today's favorite word is 夕涼み yuusuzumi. it means: to cool oneself off on the rooftop in the evening. pretty effing awesome if you ask me. today's other favorite word is 乱杭歯 ranguiba. it means snaggletooth.

[lucaswschmidt]

also, does anyone know the difference between 聞く、聴く、and 訊く? i've never seen 聴く before this thread.

[Kizyr]

also, does anyone know the difference between 聞く、聴く、and 訊く? i've never seen 聴く before this thread.

聞く = either ask or listen
聴く = nearly always listen
訊く = nearly always ask

Since all three are homophones, the latter two can help to distinguish your meaning in text. I rarely see the third form, though. KF

[Immortal_Z]

The title says most of it. I am attempting to learn japanese, from a series of videos used at schools to teach it (or at least used to be), and they say that Watashi wa ___ desu" is how you say it, as does a Japanese friend of mine, but about three ohter people that I know that were born and raised in japan, say that it's entirely wrong, and I shouldn't use those videos because they have a very, very warped version of Japanese (basically it IS Japanese. But all the words are in the wrong spots, etc.), while my other Japanese friend (who still lives in Japan, the other ones do not) says that it's more or less correct.

If anyone knows anything about this, it would help a lot. I really want to learn Japanese, but it's going to be bloody hard if I can't find any way to learn it.

[Kizyr]

Formal and standard way:
＿＿＿と申します。
___ to moushimasu.

There are several other ways to give your name (basically, different ways you can make an introduction). The only thing that's really "standard" is the most formal way, above. It's literally "I'm called ___". The kind of construction that translates more literally to "my name is ___" is kind of uncommon unless you're stressing the "name" part.

If I was introducing myself informally, I might just say
＿＿＿だ。
___ da.
or something like that.

By the way, there already is the 'practice Japanese' thread elsewhere here. KF

[Simbera]

Yeah I'm guessing this will be merged or something. But in the meantime:

"Watashi wa _____ desu" translates basically to "As for me, I am ____".

"Watashi no namae wa ____ desu" is "My name is ____" but it puts an emphasis on it so that it's more like "As for my name, it's ___" (as Kizyr inferred). Depending on the context, I personally would probably say "Watashi wa ben desu." but whatever works for you - any of the things that I or Kizyr have said will allow you to be understood.

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