Volume 6, Chapter 4

[Krikit]

YES! It's OUT!! Thanks to Serenade-Beta for the Release ^_^, I'm going to turn it into a pdf with my other v.6 releases, and read it when I get some time.

Thanks ^_^

[serenade_beta]

I have finished Chp.4 of Vol.6 and Vol.7.
I'm not exactly skilled at military terms, but I tried to find what fits (talking about Vol.6-4)... Feel free to change stuff around.

Unfortunately, by the way, Matt, but even though I said I would try Vol.7-8, I'm going to have to take it back for now (perhaps someone else will have time to translate the short chapter).
On top of my usual stuff to do, I'm going to move soon and I have to prepare for that and everything, and I really need to fix my sleeping pattern. Also need to finish re-watching Yugioh before I move...

After everything gets settled, I might start translating again, hai!

While a common flight of fancy that strikes many an anime/manga fan, learning Japanese is neither easy nor simple. Learning any new language is a difficult and time-consuming task, and the Asian languages more so than most. While a number of factors can affect your learning speed, such as degree of immersion, natural ability, external assistance, etc., expect it to take at least a few years of hard study or total immersion for fluency. As with any endeavor, the most integral aspect is simply dedication. It should be noted, however, that language competency is not an all-or-nothing prospect, i.e. you'll be able to understand more and more as you go along, and thus will be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor perhaps much earlier than that.

Ironically, I spent around thirty minutes to one and a half hours of actual studying (of katakana and hiragana) to get to my current level of Japanese.
I learned how to understand Japanese through hearing through subbed anime.
I learned furigana through self-studying.
I learned kanji through reading manga with furigana.
Of course, on the way, I still improved my understanding of Japanese and furigana, and I continue to remember kanji as I read novels and translate.
Then again, as usual, if there is one thing I can't do, it's to actually write Japanese. Though I don't live in Japan, so it's not that bad.

[Juicifer]

wtf why is japanese so confusing.... ive been wikipedia-ing katakana, hiragana, kanj, and furigana; yet i still have yet to have a clear understanding of what the hell they even are.

baller ass work by the way serenade, much appreciated. although that fat kid is like the worst character ever lol.

[jeromemmm]

Yay~ (>__<)

[Krikit]

Let me try to go easy for this:

Hiragana = phonetec writing symbols. Learn how to pronounce each symbol.
(This is the same as the 26 letter english alphabet in theory. Just a lot more letters....)

Katakana = phonetec writing symbols. Learn how to pronounce each symbol.
(This alphabet is just like hiragana in theory, except only used to express foreign words ie radio is written not as らじお(rajio) with hiragana, but ラジオ(rajio) with katakana, as it's a "foreign" word.)

Kanji = picture symbols. Image instead of writing "car" in english, you drew a miniature picture to represent "car." Then you read the name of the picture, as "car," and you know what it means. That's kanji. 2,000 and you can read the newspaper. Memorize 6,000 and you can pass the KPT (Kanji Proficiency Test), Level 1.

EDIT: So, as for length of time to learn Japanese....
If you want to be able to "read" japanese, and not rely on an OCR program, scans, dictionary upon dictionary, good guesswork and perserverance, then you are going to need to immerse yourself in the language, and learn to use it to communicate in daily life, as well as reading books.

If you are willing to translate with OCR, scans, dictionaries, good guesswork, and perserverence, heck even I could translate one of these novels given enough time. But if you want to be Good...that takes time.

[Juicifer]

wow, what a god damn broken language. imagine what those japs could accomplish with a more efficient language.

are light novels and manga written in kanji?

[jeromemmm]

being a leecher isn't a bad tHing...

[Krikit]

lol, leechers ftw =)

As for books, here's a rundown from personal experience:

Children's Books (like...the hungry catipillar, or other really little 3 lines/page books with HUGE pictures. *ehon* in japanese, e= picture, hon=book)
*Written entirely in Hiragana. No Kanji, but maybe some katakana*

Young Adult Books (manga is a huge player here, such as bleach, naruto, etc.)
*You get into hiragana/kanji/katakana/(Furigana). All the kanji have their "pronounciation" written above them. Again, think of the car example. You have a sentence "I bought a car." now picture the word "car" being a picture, and having "car" written above it. That's manga. (depends...the more mature manga has less furigana, the younger children's has more furigana.) There are obviously pictures to help with context.

Young Adult Books Part II
This is where the light novels come in. They are usually geared to students in high school, or beyond, usually below their 30's. (though if it's a good book, who cares how old you are, right??). These are in hiragana, katakana, kanji, with TINY amounts of furigana. The furigana is only used over harder kanji, etc. so the book is mainly in kanji, and you need to know all those pictures and what they mean, to even read the book. It's not like english, 26 letters and that's it, you can know the whole language. In Japan...it's 200+ for hiragana&katakana, then about 1,000 kanji to pull your way through a light novel.

Adult Books:
Consider this section the technical manuals and historical books, the information books, geared towards researches and people past college level. mainly kanji, with hiragana used for pretty much just changing tenses, linking words, etc. All other words are in Kanji, and there is katakana if there is a mention of a foreign word. Usually limited -> no furigana. 2,000+ kanji. (6,000 total-ish)

but you think learning japanese is bad, look at chinese =). They don't have the hiragana to tell you how to read a kanji. You either know how to read it, or you don't. And if you don't, think of it as looking at a picture you have no idea what it means, how to pronounce it, etc. Japanese is the same only if the kanji has no furigana...

And right now we have translators working on Light Novels for us...yay ^_^

[jeromemmm]

whoa... i'm so envious ! ! i reaLLy wanna know jAps ! !

[Juicifer]

your extremely helpful krikit.

some more questsions (sorry lol)
what are furigana?

and say i want to start teaching myself japanese without moving to japan, but by reading a lot and all that stuff, what do you suggest?

[Krikit]

Furigana is the name given to the hiragana that appears above a kanji. They aren't new symbols, it just is a name given to hiragana used in this way.

As for what to do, I'd honestly say start with learning all the hiragana/katakana. google learning for them, and just learn how to read and write. Once you can do that, the next step would be to get a guide book (minna no nihongo みんなの日本語 "Japanese for Everyone," would be a good bet. Then, get a program like wakan for you computer, buy some Japanese manga from amazon.co.jp or something, and read. Read alot. The images for a manga will help you understand the words, and a dictionary will solidify it.

But start with learning hiragana/katakana. They are the building blocks.

[jeromemmm]

kritkrit-sensei
thank you very much sir. *thumbs up*

[srstarry]

oh, nice one!
thanks for the chapter

btw, who is working on v6 c6?

at last henrietta confessing that she should burn in hell. she should have realized that long ago ^.^

[Dawlight]

Thank you serenade_beta!
I'm grateful as ever.

[Darknemo2000]

btw, who is working on v6 c6?

at last henrietta confessing that she should burn in hell. she should have realized that long ago ^.^

Guess who? Same old horse, same old horse... I cant believe I already translated 12 chapters of ZnT by now...and I was planning to do it only for a very short while...

Anyways, chapter 6 isn't very interesting but it is nice seeing Henrietta realizing that she is actually sinful one, killing poeple for her own personal revenge...