I now visit THIS board...

[Kisai]

And I ask if anyone can figure out what I was trying to say here. I'm mostly just having fun playing with my new toys: a Barron's Japanese grammar book and Random House Japanese-English dictionary that I just got today, and the point of THIS post is to see if anyone can figure out the intention of what I'm trying to say. ^^;

きさいわ夢保護者です。

So actually, I'm greatly cheating. Just looking up words and typing them in is like using a codebook or something. No real skill. What am I DOING here? I better stop this now and continue reading some more.

[solidsnake360]

"Kisai is a dream protector"?

Two things. The particle "wa" is written は. Also, you should probably connect the two nouns with の.

[Kisai]

Dream Guardian. ^^ To be clear, it's referring to my characters and such. And ya know, I had a feeling, five minutes later, I was like, "Wait... Should 'no' have been in there or something?"

And I thought that was just for "konnichiwa". Damnation, I'm never gonna get that. Alright, so ALWAYS, "wa" is typed "ha".

And... if "no" shows possession or something, why would that go between "Kisai" and "Dream Guardian"?

きさいはの夢保護者です。 Really? o_O OH! Wait... nouns... Kisai's the topic... The two nouns would be...

きさいは夢の保護者です。 Kisai ha, yume (dream) no (of) hogosha (guardian). Well, what if "Dream Guardian" is more a title than a descrption?

[solidsnake360]

Dream Guardian. ^^ To be clear, it's referring to my characters and such. And ya know, I had a feeling, five minutes later, I was like, "Wait... Should 'no' have been in there or something?"

And I thought that was just for "konnichiwa". Damnation, I'm never gonna get that. Alright, so ALWAYS, "wa" is typed "ha".

And... if "no" shows possession or something, why would that go between "Kisai" and "Dream Guardian"?

きさいはの夢保護者です。 Really? o_O OH! Wait... nouns... Kisai's the topic... The two nouns would be...

きさいは夢の保護者です。 Kisai ha, yume (dream) no (of) hogosha (guardian). Well, what if "Dream Guardian" is more a title than a descrption?

Yup, you’re right, きさいは夢の保護者です would be the best way to write that. However what you have to understand is that you can’t simply stick nouns together like in English, you have to show that they are modifying each other with の. A Japanese person might read 夢保護者 and get what you’re trying to say, however grammatically they are just two nouns next to each other with no relationship being shown. Perhaps someone could explain this better than I. By the way, I also have Barron’s Japanese grammar. It seems like almost EVERYONE who starts studying Japanese gets that book for some reason. It’s a handy little book, but it can’t substitute for a good textbook.

[Infidel]

And I thought that was just for "konnichiwa". Damnation, I'm never gonna get that. Alright, so ALWAYS, "wa" is typed "ha".

wa isn't always typed ha. The particle wa is typed ha. Wa everywhere else is typed wa.

[Kisai]

By the way, I also have Barron’s Japanese grammar. It seems like almost EVERYONE who starts studying Japanese gets that book for some reason.

You do? Really? o_O And... they do?? Really?? o_O;; That's... surprising. I had no idea. I just grabbed a random book at Waldenbooks, figuring it was just some random no-name book out of hundreds that no one would know of, but it's that common? It's the second edition, apparently.

The particle wa is typed ha. Wa everywhere else is typed wa.

Ooohhh, okay. And written "ha" too?

[solidsnake360]

Here, I'll write an example sentence that should clear up the whole wa/ha thing for you.

はじめまして、わたしはアレックスです。
hajimemashite, watashi wa arekkusu desu.

And yeah, I've seen that book all over the place. You probably don't know who Magibon is, but she's this girl on youtube who's famous for just staring at the camera for a long time, and then periodically saying random things in Japanese. In one of her videos she is reading from that book.

[Sairana]

By the way, I also have Barron’s Japanese grammar. It seems like almost EVERYONE who starts studying Japanese gets that book for some reason.

You do? Really? o_O And... they do?? Really?? o_O;; That's... surprising. I had no idea. I just grabbed a random book at Waldenbooks, figuring it was just some random no-name book out of hundreds that no one would know of, but it's that common? It's the second edition, apparently.

Lots of people end up with Barron's grammar because it's the most common one and people often think a grammar book is a good thing to learn from.

It's a great resource, but make sure you come up with a textbook, too. Use Barron's when you need a deeper discussion on a topic your text brings up.

[Kisai]

You probably don't know who Magibon is, but she's this girl on youtube who's famous for just staring at the camera for a long time, and then periodically saying random things in Japanese.

You're right, I haven't. And... that may be a good thing, since from the sound of it, I would dislike her.

Lots of people end up with Barron's grammar because it's the most common one and people often think a grammar book is a good thing to learn from.

It's a great resource, but make sure you come up with a textbook, too.

For one, I wasn't even aware there WERE Japanese language learning textbooks, and much less... publically available ones. You guys are making it sound like it's so easy to get when really, it sounds like a job for eBay. @_@;

Use Barron's when you need a deeper discussion on a topic your text brings up.

So it CAN help, like for a better explanation about something in a textbook that might seem too confusing?

[solidsnake360]

Yeah, essentially, Barron's Japanese is just a grammar reference. When I first started out I thought "Oh, all I have to do is read this book on grammar, and I'll be SET." Unfortunately, grammar references are not structured in a way that you can learn from very easily. There is a lot of information crammed into that little book, but it's more for clarifying something you don't understand, rather than teaching you from scratch. It just doesn't have the structure that a textbook has.

Now, as for where to get textbooks. Up at the top right of this page there's a link to thejapanshop.com. That's where I got Genki and all my other Japanese books. You sound young and you probably don't have a credit card (neither do I, and I'm 20) but you can always ask your parents and work something out with them. I'm sure if you show them that you are genuinely interested and devoted to learning this language, they would probably be glad to help.

[Infidel]

So it CAN help, like for a better explanation about something in a textbook that might seem too confusing?

Or if you just need more material to help retain the information. No matter what book you use, you will find some words and grammar points are easy to absorb, and other points are extremely difficult. This doesn't seem to be due to any inherent problems with the words or grammar themselves, but rather a random element that affects everyone differently. Just as an example, the word for economics is just about impossible for me to memorize, it's been a daily review card for months on anki and I still can't get it right. On the other hand hikouki and shinkansen were almost no trouble at all.

A textbook is better though because it generally presents information in order of usefulness where a grammar book is instead formatted for easily looking up a grammar point. If you only buy one book, that book should be a textbook.

http://thejapanesepage.com/w/index.php?title=Textbook might help you, at least some people found it useful so I can only hope it is some help for you. Unfortunately, I can't really vouch for the accuracy of this page. The idiot that wrote it isn't even fluent in Japanese yet, but at least no one has complained about the page needs to be updated again. I've just noticed that even though I've been recommending Japanese Demystified as a good cheap introduction to Japanese, it's not even on the list...

[JaySee]

For one, I wasn't even aware there WERE Japanese language learning textbooks, and much less... publically available ones. You guys are making it sound like it's so easy to get when really, it sounds like a job for eBay. @_@;

We are making it sound as if textbooks are easy to get because they actually are easy to get, and there's in fact a wide variety to choose from. Just try looking around on amazon or any other big online bookstore, you'll be amazed by what you'll find. I think Genki and Minna no Nihongo are considered to be very good textbooks by many, although I haven't really used them myself so I can't tell you a whole lot about them.

[Sairana]

You guys are making it sound like it's so easy to get when really, it sounds like a job for eBay. @_@;

Easy as pie to get. You could check a library if you don't want to buy one. My local bookstore even has 5 different Japanese textbooks in the middle of backwater Nebraska.

[keatonatron]

Easy as pie to get.

You mean I can just ask my mom to bake one for me??

[Infidel]

What are you talking about. Mcdonalds apple pie = win.