こんにちは みなさん (^_^)/

[phreadom]

I suppose I should introduce myself here.

I've been lurking around for about a year now and have only poked my head out, so to speak, to announce new JLS releases.

I'd like to start participating a bit more... as my friend in Japan told me "Just dive right in and don't worry if you look silly. It's the best way to learn!"

So I'm taking the advice of he and some others here on this board and trying to do just that.

よろしく おねがいします!

[richvh]

If you've been lurking so long, how come you haven't noticed any of the admonitions not to write みんなさん?

[phreadom]

richvh wrote:
If you've been lurking so long, how come you haven't noticed any of the admonitions not to write みんなさん?

Because I wasn't reading the forums much at all. I was browsing Clay's posts on the front page and surfing around on the site for things like Kanji study, culture etc.

But nice biting response.

(Which is precisely why I asked about this in the General Discussion forum immediately after writing it, because I wondered if it was correct. "You (I) learn something new every day.")

(Oh, and I fixed it in the original post, so I won't look (as) stupid in the main forum list.)

[anikaliki]

こんにちは phreadom. That's a strange name, but, what am I saying.. Welcome to TJP! Why does everyone always say that they lurked for a long time before actually joining? I joined as soon as I saw the site. If you don't mind me asking, how fluent in Japanese are you? And how long have you been learning? Richvh, that sounded kind of mean. O well, gotta learn some way. Have a good time getting to know everyone, and learn some Japanese!

[phreadom]

anikaliki wrote:
こんにちは phreadom. That's a strange name, but, what am I saying.. Welcome to TJP! Why does everyone always say that they lurked for a long time before actually joining? I joined as soon as I saw the site. If you don't mind me asking, how fluent in Japanese are you? And how long have you been learning? Richvh, that sounded kind of mean. O well, gotta learn some way. Have a good time getting to know everyone, and learn some Japanese!

My real name is Justin. Phreadom was formed as a portmanteu of Phreak and Freedom, Phreak itself being a portmanteu of Phone and Freak. I made it up as a name to describe a group of people that were interested in freedoms and rights in our modern technological age... to put it very roughly.

I actually joined right around when I found the site... I simply didn't start posting really... I guess I felt like I needed to learn more before I started "opening my mouth" so to speak.... and my screw-up with "minna-san" today only serves to confirm that to some extent.

I really don't know much Japanese at all... I know my katakana and hiragana, about 30 or so Kanji and a small variety of words and phrases. I certainly don't think I could manage to get around in Japan right now without a lot of mime acting.

Unfortunately, I've been teaching myself for probably almost 3 years now. But I have very poor study habits... so I don't do remotely as much studying as I should. I just watch a lot of Japanese TV dramas, some anime, and a few video tutorials etc... I try to read things on-line regularly and keep learning, even if it's just a tiny bit. As long as I'm creeping forward. It's a bit depressing at times because my friend Scott started learning at the same time I did, but he's much more focused about his studying... he already knows all the kana, kanji and lots of words... as well as verb tenses, particles and some sentence structure... so he can actually read most things and even make his own sentences etc. I need to use that as motivation to get myself on the ball and try to catch up to him. I tried looking for classes around this area of my state, but there weren't any available. I felt that being in a classroom environment would really boost my motivation.

Anyway...

I wouldn't have guessed that Anikaliki was your real name... what's the story behind that?

[anikaliki]

haha story? It's a very short story, but I guess I'll tell you. My great grandmother's name was Anikaliki, and her grandmother's and so on and so on.. and whatnot. So it's kind of just a family name. But, as far as I know, I'm the only Anikaliki alive. It's pretty cool. You say unfortunately, you teach yourself? I don't find that unfortunate in the least bit. I teach myself. I've been learning for about six months now. I know all my hirigana and katakana, as well as many kanji (probably over 100), and grammar. I also know many random words and I don't know why. ..That's pretty much it, about me. If you ever wanna talk you can pm me.

[phreadom]

anikaliki wrote:
haha story? It's a very short story, but I guess I'll tell you. My great grandmother's name was Anikaliki, and her grandmother's and so on and so on.. and whatnot. So it's kind of just a family name. But, as far as I know, I'm the only Anikaliki alive. It's pretty cool. You say unfortunately, you teach yourself? I don't find that unfortunate in the least bit. I teach myself. I've been learning for about six months now. I know all my hirigana and katakana, as well as many kanji (probably over 100), and grammar. I also know many random words and I don't know why. ..That's pretty much it, about me. If you ever wanna talk you can pm me.

That's cool. I'm proud to be teaching myself I guess, but I need to keep myself more motivated. My friend is giving me advice on learning Kanji tonight... a little motivational speech. He already learned all 2,000 common Kanji and I'm only on about 30.

I just need to not get intimidated and take it in bite sized pieces. Which helps that he put so much work into the program (JLS) to let people take it in pieces to split it up and make it more manageable. Just have to force myself to start... once I start it's not so bad. Chronic procrastinator.

[anikaliki]

phreadom wrote:
Chronic procrastinator.

As am I.

[Axlen]

Welcome phreadom.

I'm not quite up to your level yet. I can read and write kana, but only a handful of kanji. Procrastination is not always a bad thing really. I like to consider it akin to patience. Add a little determination and stoicism and you get... a Capricorn

どうぞよろしくおねがいします。

[anikaliki]

nice sig axlen