Learning Japanese

[Shaun]

私は初めに自己紹介をしますので　ショーン　ホフマンと申します。　私は日本語の勉強を一生懸命頑張ってや っているのですが、白人としては大変難しいのである。　私はハワイの文化について知りたいのですが、日系人 達が非常に多いので皆二系人達は日本語を学んで上手に話したり又は漢字、読み書きなど上手に出来ますが？　 私は日本語の文法や漢字などは苦手ですからよく間違って書く場合が有るので、間違っているところがあればご 遠慮なく指摘して下さい。

私は知りたいのですがハワイでも日本語を良く使って学べる可能性はありますが。　詳しく説明し て下さい。

ありがとうございます

[joshuatree]

Re: Japanese-Americans in Hawaii

Hmm...anyone with better luck translating? Babelfish made it just a little better.


I being to do self introduction in beginning say Shaun Hoffmann. I being with utmost effort to be persevering, do, Japanese study, but as a white it is very much difficult. I do, being to like to know concerning the Hawaiian culture, but but it meaning that the Nikkei people are very many, everyone two type people speak learning Japanese, skillfully and/or or Chinese character and reading and writing etc. can make skillful? Because as for me Japanese grammar and Chinese character etc. poor there are times when because you write well by mistake, if there is about by mistake to be please point out without modesty. I do, being to like to know, but using Japanese well even in Hawaii, there is a possibility where it can learn but. It explains in detail, the て. Thank you

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Japanese-Americans in Hawaii

Errr... if you want Japanese-Americans in Hawaiʻi to read and reply to your message, it would be better if you wrote in English. Not that many of us can read Nihongo very well.

[joshuatree]

Re: Japanese-Americans in Hawaii

Okay, here's my second stab at this by reading in between the lines.

Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Shaun Hoffmann. I am a Caucasian studying the Japanese language. I am not familiar with the Hawaiian culture but are there many Japanese Americans that are fluent in both English and Japanese? My Japanese ain't that great so if I've made any mistakes, please kindly correct me. I like to know if there are any opportunities to learn fluent Japanese in Hawaii? If so, please provide details. Thanks!


So how far off am I?

[Shaun]

Re: Japanese-Americans in Hawaii

Errr... if you want Japanese-Americans in Hawaiʻi to read and reply to your message, it would be better if you wrote in English. Not that many of us can read Nihongo very well.

Hi I was not aware that Japanese Americans didnt know how to read Japanese that well. But then, I dont have an ounce of Japanese blood in me, and I assumed that all you Japanese would be far better than I would be as a full blooded Caucasian learning this very difficult language. I also do not consider myself proficient in Japanese either, and I am far from being fluent myself. I am sure that vast majority of you are better than me in Japanese. (For those that arent, no worries, I cannot speak any German, and some of you would be better than me in that!) I do know some Japanese who dont speak Japanese at all, but then, they live in places where there arent many Japanese at all. In a society where there is many of their kind, I wondered if many would also retain their Japanese side of their identity.

When I began taking Japanese classes, I do see bunch of Chinese and Koreans learning ten times faster than the "white" students. I assumed that Japanese American students would be able to learn Japanese at lightening speed compared to what it would have taken me, which is 2.5 years. I saw from my experience a Japanese Canadian guy who spoke Japanese, but couldnt write many Kanji back in May of this year already surpass me with lightening speed, being a Vancouverite. He told me that as a Gaijin, I was terrific, (I disagree as I think he was just being polite) and to not compare me to him, as he is of Japanese ancestory, but perhaps I should go to Hawaii to learn to read and write Japanese before going to Japan, since most native Japanese speak very little English, and that I would have difficulty getting around.

Thank you Glen for clarifying to me about this, since I saw many Japanese people in Hawaii on a Vacation when I went there several years ago, before I knew any Japanese.

How is it at the University of Hawaii, majoring in Japanese? Do they have a good department there? I wonder though, wouldnt the classes be tougher with many Japanese heritage students, even if they are not fluent in their native toungue? The speed at which they would pick up kanji would be faster than the Caucasian students? Or do they put Japanese heritage students in a different class with different course numbers to keep the competititon fair?

[Shaun]

Re: Japanese-Americans in Hawaii

Okay, here's my second stab at this by reading in between the lines.

Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Shaun Hoffmann. I am a Caucasian studying the Japanese language. I am not familiar with the Hawaiian culture but are there many Japanese Americans that are fluent in both English and Japanese? My Japanese ain't that great so if I've made any mistakes, please kindly correct me. I like to know if there are any opportunities to learn fluent Japanese in Hawaii? If so, please provide details. Thanks!


So how far off am I?

Not bad Joshua. Are you Japanese or another Caucasian like myself working hard at learning this difficult language that is comparably difficult to learning Latin.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Japanese-Americans in Hawaii

Actually I understand Japanese isn't that hard to learn compared to trying to learn English with all of it's idioms.

[1stwahine]

Re: Japanese-Americans in Hawaii

Actually I understand Japanese isn't that hard to learn compared to trying to learn English with all of it's idioms.

heheheh

Such as...

"A leopard can't change his spots"



Lynn Da Man!

[Miulang]

Re: Japanese-Americans in Hawaii

Wakarimasen!

Miulang

[Shaun]

Re: Japanese-Americans in Hawaii

Actually I understand Japanese isn't that hard to learn compared to trying to learn English with all of it's idioms.

Yes, for you maybe Craig. I do see your last name is Watanabe, being Japanese. For you learning Japanese may be as the Japanese Canadian dude told me how it was easier for him to learn Japanese than for him to learn French. I remember when he knew less than I did back in May, but by October, he was drawing circles around me, even though I have been studying it for 2.5 years.

Perhaps you can PM me in Japanese, and I will write to you in Japanese. I could use improvement. I know many Japanese Americans that insisted that they were not that great, but I did find that they understand the nuances of Japanese, the way of using phrases (a.k.a. kimari monkus) very well. I did improve as a result of their help. So even if some of you are only half way there, it is further along than I am at. The Fresh off the Boat Japanese people have trouble teaching me Japanese since they cant understand enough english to teach me. (Even the Kanji, most is recognition, using multiple choice that shows up on a screen when using a computer IME). If you asked me to take a pen and pencil and write half those words I wrote earlier, I wouldnt be able to do it.)

I want to be able to meet Japanese women and I do want to marry a Japanese woman one day. My sister married an Issei Japanese born in Osaka, but he changed his last name to Hoffman.

[Miulang]

Re: Japanese-Americans in Hawaii

I want to be able to meet Japanese women and I do want to marry a Japanese woman one day.

Um, you mean a Japanese (i.e., born in Japan) Japanese woman or a "local" (i.e., born in Hawai'i sansei or yonsei) woman? BIIIIG difference between the two, both culturally and linguistically. The Japanese language learned in Hawai'i isn't the same as what is spoken in Japan. My nephew is teaching at a JET school for the next three years outside of Nagoya, and I'm sure the Japanese he's having to speak now is way different than what he learned in college.

Miulang

[damontucker]

Re: Japanese-Americans in Hawaii

I want to be able to meet Japanese women and I do want to marry a Japanese woman one day.

May I ask why? It seems weird to set yourself up for only wanting to marry someone of one certain ethnic background.

What is wrong with meeting a lady that is Japanese but doesn't speak Nihonjin?

Would it be ok if you met a White lady that was fluent in Japanese?

Are you just interested in the language to hook up?

[joshuatree]

Re: Japanese-Americans in Hawaii

Not bad Joshua. Are you Japanese or another Caucasian like myself working hard at learning this difficult language that is comparably difficult to learning Latin.

Hi Shaun, I'm actually neither. It was babelfish that helped me figure out your original post.

I don't know what your circumstances are but you can always enroll at UH to take Japanese classes and then get yourself a job right in Waikiki working with the Japanese tourists. Can't think of any better way to immerse yourself in the language yet still be able to fall back on English if there's any need. I am sure there are Japanese Americans in Hawaii fluent in both languages but there are also a large of amount of AJAs that are maybe third, fourth generation so the Japanese language ain't necessarily something they've learned.

[Shaun]

Re: Japanese-Americans in Hawaii

May I ask why? It seems weird to set yourself up for only wanting to marry someone of one certain ethnic background.

What is wrong with meeting a lady that is Japanese but doesn't speak Nihonjin?

Would it be ok if you met a White lady that was fluent in Japanese?

Are you just interested in the language to hook up?

I find many Japanese women very polite and sweet. I want to be nurtured by their sweetness, that I dont find in many of the Caucasian girls I have dated.

It is not so much the race, but I see more femininity in more Japanese women than in other groups. And it is hard to articulate it in words, but there is just a special quality about them that I like. It isnt the language.
To answer your question,
"What is wrong with meeting a lady that is Japanese but doesn't speak Nihonjin?" (You mean speak Nihongo. Nihonjin is a Japanese person). It does not matter. I have been burnt too many times and I just want to settle down with a sweet person. I find Half kids are cute, and I want my kids to be cute like that. My sister Katie also married a Japanese, Kenichi Craig Ikegami, who is now Craig Hoffman.

I am determined to become a father by next year.

[1stwahine]

Re: Japanese-Americans in Hawaii

Holy Crap! I juss came back from Diners in Kalihi. Is dis thread foa realz?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Find me a sugar daddy who speaks Japanese too...I want sweet man!

Auntie Lynn