kamichan.com

Oh boy, I’m really not sure if I should be the one giving people tips on how to improve their Japanese, seeing how I’m struggling with my Myojo translations, but I keep getting asked this in comments and emails, so here are two things that I use for learning kanji and that seem to work quite well for me. When I find the time to use them that is.

First there’s the Essential Kanji: 2,000 Basic Japanese Characters Systematically Arranged For Learning And Reference by P.G.O’Neill. I use that for looking up kanji characters I don’t know, which means that I use it a lot.

Second there’s the Japanese Kanji Flashcards that are very convenient for memorizing kanji characters.

These are just two of a whole array of kanji learning materials out there. These two are the ones I can recommend because they’re the ones I use myself. But what works for me doesn’t necessarily have to work for everyone else, so I suggest you have a look at the others, read some customer reviews, and then decide what might work best for you.

And of course there’s still the Japanese101.com podcast. Each lesson also comes with an accompanying pdf file that teaches you the kanji.

それでは、あなたが日本語を勉強したいならば、頑張って下さい！

Okay, in other news here’s part 2 of Ryutaro from Myojo February. I’m totally not happy with it. I wish these kids would only say things they could write in kanji themselves and not use such complex grammar structures. So be careful about this translation (or any of my translations for that matter), and if you think I made some huge mistakes please feel free to let me know.

Ryutaro, Young & Selfish.

“I am often called selfish, and at times I even think so myself. Like at home when I’m fighting with Shintaro over pastry. When I want to eat some he mocks me by saying “That’s mine!”. Since I never withdraw, and even though a debate with Shintaro is fine with me, the feeling is that I can’t lose to Shintaro, so unintentionally a fight arises. That happens many times and we quarrel over the same things, and I get “brother is too selfish” a lot from Shintaro. So yes, I’m aware of that. At school I’m known as “the selfish and annoying one”. At the start of 6th grade my homeroom teacher said “You’ll be class leader. You’re able to amuse everybody, right?” Therefore when I go to school I immediately kick up a fuss to lift the tension. But when it gets too high-spirited [the teacher] gets angry… Even so, when I keep playing without stopping of course that’s kinda selfish. But with so little time left of being an elementary school student I’ll keep on doing things this way, with this character.” (Thanks Sohee and Kizuite for your help!)

I am not even gonna tell you how many times I typed “shellfish” instead of “selfish” when I did this translation. Oh well…

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