Japanese Language Questions? Ask Here.

A comment for Genma on your last message posted - In schools, Japanese students address each other 'kun' regardless of their gender ( that's what I noticed in doramas). How do you explain that?

Not too sure on this. In my class, my sensei only addresses the male students with "kun" and the female students with "san".

what is kawaii mean ? and any particular meaning for michi ?

kawaii = cute
michi? not sure, but it means street if u want to translate it directly..

Is there any other Japanese word to describe a girl being pretty/beautiful apart from 'kawaii'?

noun : bijin = mei3 ren2 = beautiful person.

noun : bishoujou = mei3 shao4 nu3 = beautiful teenage girl.

adjective : kirei = qi3 li4 = beautiful / or used as clean too.

adjective : kawaii = ke3 ai4 = cute.

Thanks, Genma for the info above.

konnichiwa minna-san!!!

atashi jaycee-chan... hajimashite... errr
well..... actually i'm a lil' bad in my japanese, anybody would tutor me for free??? *^^*

domo arigatou!!!

>Since 'kun' only refers to males, it might have meant to be sarcastic towards the woman (she behaves more like a man?)

That is an incorrect understanding of the word. In Japan, kun is used in any situation where the person referred to is a subordinate, especially in an office/work environment. In a company for instance, even if your subordinate is a woman, you'll refer to her as ???-kun. In other life situations she'll be called ???-san or ???-chan (only by close friends and family)
-chan is kinda like for nicknames

so, kun is not very very gender-specific in working situations (being more an indicator of position/rank), although for children it is usually used for guys while chan is reserved for girls

Hope that clarifies it a bit.

Bikuta

That would have to be 'kirei' for beautiful, as in... kirei na ojousan - a pretty young lady..

But if you want to say: she's a really beautiful woman, you would use 'utsukoshii'
which is written mei3 (beauty) in Chinese (kanji).

But for daily use, to say a girl is pretty, kawaii is by far the most common usage I think.

in case you're interested, a word to talk about a good-looking/cute guy would be 'kakoii' Not sure about the language roots of this word, but my guess is it literally means 'face is good-looking' (kako = face, ii = good)
It generally denotes 'cool' rather than plain 'handsome'. You can say a person's pose is kakoii, or the car is kakoii.

Enjoying Japanese,
Victor

Oops realised some typos in my previous post. The word for beautiful is 'utsukushii' (if I can type in SJIS here you'd be able to see the kanji)

It is an adjective, so you can say 'sono onna no hito wa, totemo utsukushii to omoimasu', or 'atashi wa, utsukushii desu ka?' (for ladies with big egos to ask someone whether they think you're beautiful) ^^; But I've seen utsukushii used more often to describe nature, a scenic place etc.

The other mistake is the word 'kakkoii'. Notice the extra syllable 'k' in between. Kakkoii is used this way... 'kare, kakkoii desu ne?' or 'kakoii na boi-furendo ga hoshii' (I would like to have a cool, stylish-looking boyfriend :)


'kakko' is the word for 'shape, form, posture'
'ii' is good.

Regards,
Bikuta-

konnichiwa. bikuta to moshimasu.

moshi Jaycee-chan wa nihongo no shitsumon ga attara, doozo kocchi ni kiite kudasai. Hi! since I found this forum, it's been a great joy to find so many people with the same interests. So, I'll be checkin in every so often. Please post anything, if any of the Japanese learners here can help I'm sure they'll answer any questions.

If you really want to self-learn language, I think perhaps I can point a few tips since that's the way I learnt Japanese - online, and through books and friends.

My email is [email protected]. Doozo me-ru shite ne. Ja, mata.

what is the meaning of onegaishimasu?
douzo yuroshiku is glad to meet u
right?

what is the meaning ?

moshi Jaycee-chan wa nihongo no shitsumon ga attara, doozo kocchi ni kiite kudasai

Doozo me-ru shite ne

Translation: If Jaycee-chan has a question(s) on Japanese, please direct your question here.
Do send email, alright?

Hope that helps. Of course, if anyone else wants to ask anything, I'll be glad to help as far as I can.

Yoroshiku ne.

(BTW, on another question just posted:
doozo yoroshiku is not really 'pleased to meet you'. Most literally it means 'please, (treat me) favourably' like our Chinese 'qing3 duo1 duo1 guan1 zhao4'. Onegaishimasu is to state a request ... literally: 'Request' so yoroshiku onegaishimasu is also '(I) request that (you) (treat me) favourably'.

I put the subjects and objects in brackets because these are not stated explicitly in the Japanese sentence - only the verbs are explicitly there, but the subject and object are understood by all Japanese speakers and listeners.

I'm just now learning these things from a book I got recently called 'Making Sense out of Japanese: what the textbooks don't teach you', by Jay Rubin. Very humourous and helpful book! It started by explaining away the myth that Japanese is a vague or difficult language. If you're a learner of Japanese and confused in some parts, I highly recommend this book.

Yoroshiku ne,
Bikuta-

hallo wakeup.
wan to ask u abt how it is possible for u to take japanese in nus or ntu?

Japanese language is offered in both NTU and NUS, as General Electives and Cross Faculty Modules respectively. Anyone should be able to take them in any semester, but subject to availability of spaces.

So how are the courses like? if u don mind, can u mail me? my email is [email protected]. thanks.

Karin,if you want I cant teach you japanese word whithout any payment.

Hello..it seems to me that 2 of the gals in the forum like to learn Japanse,I would be glad teaching them for free...In this forum..
Well any one who interested,please e mail me at [email protected]..
Then we discuss it when and the date...
Okay! bye[image]