Agatsuma wrote:how do you say the phrase " how are you doing in school? " pleeezzz!!!
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gakkou wa dou desu ka.
How are you doing in school.
Nismo is correct and the way he mentioned is a good way to say it informally. I do have to say thought that if you are planning to learn more Japanese, if you are talking to adults, make sure you learn your politeness levels because trust me... certain Japanese people depending on age or their background can really get pissed off if you don't have your politeness level in check.
Example: Many years ago when I was fresh of learning basic Japanese and learning Japanese words from Japanese doramas, one thing I learned was the way people said goodbye in Japanese informally and that was "ja na". I had a writer who I assisted with an article for one of Japan's "Auto Fashion" magazine visit my home with her mother who is wife of a well-known celebrity autobiography writer. The evening went well but when my friend was leaving with her mother out the door, I said "ja na" to my friend. I knew I was in for it when the mother came racing back inside with a mad look on her face and wanted to learn who taught me "rude" Japanese and it was a very tense discussion. Granted, the goodbye was meant for her daughter but nevertheless, I learned to be careful especially since now I am in contact with many Japanese for business and that for some, politeness levels of they way you say things can be important. So, use your informal or slang words that you learn wisely.
I have a friend who wants to learn Japanese and he is learning Japanese from a girl who likes to talk very yanki like (like those Japanese gangster potty mouth girls). Not sure if she's doing it as a joke or something for him to say since he has the image of someone who would talk that way. She told him to talk that way because it's cool. So, when he tries to talk Japanese to me...it's so friggin' rude. It's funny...but not something I would test out on Japanese for conversation purposes.
As for electronic means of translating from Japanese to English...there is Babelfish or world.altavista.com. It's not perfect though, so don't expect it to translate things 100% but for reading articles that have a lot of kana or kanji that you may not understand, it will help you learn the gist of certain sentences or paragraphs.
As for Urluzers comment, I agree. Definitely learn kana if you plan to learn Japanese, if you want to read certain things that you see on Japanese entertainment or magazines or plant go to Japan. I use romanizations for translations for music especially for karaoke because my friends can't read kana and for some people who are starting out, it can be made easier in the early stages. But definitely it is important to learn kana in the beginning and it won't take long to learn. You can find good books which you can learn kana and write it over and over and over and you can learn it fairly quick.
Good luck in your learning of Japanese. ‚ª‚ñ‚΂êI
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