We can help your study of Japanese

[queshaw]

After reading this and another post on the same subject, I'm not sure. I am a German, I am a Canadian, and I'm an American sound normal to me. "I am a French" sounds strange, but I gather it is technically correct.

If someone said "I am a French" in a thick French accent in the middle of other irregularities, I would probably think that "I am a French" sounds weird. But, if it were in the middle of other "flawless" sounding English, I would probably think it sounds normal.

I want to learn how to speak Japanese that doesn't sound weird to a native speaker. I don't want to learn something that is technically correct but sounds weird. Presumably that's what the OP wants too.

Also, I think "He is a Mexican" and "He is a Chinese" would sound racist in some contexts, as opposed to "He is Mexican" and "He is Chinese". The context is probably very important there.

I think it's an interesting debate. If you have an example of some text in which "I am a Japanese" is used that sounds normal (other than the original poster's text), can you post it?

[hungryhotei]

Yudan Taiteki wrote:
I don't think this authority can simply be the personal experience of a small number of native speakers, particularly when that experience is contradicted both by dictionaries and the actual usage as revealed by a google search (and many of the search results come from edited prose such as newspapers).

Of course, in the case of 'I'm a British' none of the dictionaries at dictionary.com support this being correct, and the Oxford Advanced learners even says "There is no noun which is commonly used to refer to the people of Britain. Instead the adjective British is used" With the three nouns it gives as not being commonly used as Briton, Brit and Britisher. If a small (although larger than expected) minority of people are using the language incorrectly, as evidenced by the goggle searches, does that then make the language correct, or even not wrong?

Gundaetiapo wrote:

I don't think you are right there, you can't use 'British' as a noun for an individual from Great Britain, only for the people as a whole. I am a Briton would be correct though.

Is that not what I implied?

Well yes, you did imply that "I am a Briton" would be correct, but thats not what I'm taking issue with.

[Yudan Taiteki]

If a small (although larger than expected) minority of people are using the language incorrectly, as evidenced by the goggle searches, does that then make the language correct, or even not wrong?

Like I said, using terms like "correct" and "incorrect" implies an authority to decide what is correct or not. I would prefer to say "British as a noun referring to a British person doesn't show up in any dictionaries I looked at" rather than use wrong or incorrect to describe it.

[hungryhotei]

Fair enough.

[spinizuey]

So Tondemo... are you looking for groups specifically, or would individual penpals work? I'd be willing to help you with that. There are so many people on TJP that I am unsure how a cohesive group could form...

[babystep29]

can i ask some question ??

broken heart ..

japanese how 2 write .. ??

how 2 say ??