はじめまして。 Krambeer です。 どうぞ よろしく。
Hello everyone! My name is Matt Krambeer and I am a student in first year Japanese at the University of Notre Dame. In this blog I will post regularly about my experience with learning Japanese. Currently I do not know much more than the hiragana alphabet and a couple of phrases. As I learn more Japanese, I will stop using English in this blog.
*Edit*
I forgot to tell you more about myself! （すみません！） I am a senior in the joint philosophy/theology program, and I am also getting a supplemental major in math. I enjoy most things relating to any of these three subjects, so I might post some things about those too.
*End Edit*
Incidentally, does anyone know of a convenient way to write hiragana on the computer? Right now I am using this website: (http://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/hiragana.htm) to write, and then I copy/paste the text. This seems pretty convenient. Are there other convenient ways to write hiragana on the computer?
I first became exposed to Japanese culture through video games (though I did not know they were Japanese at the time). I've been playing Pokemon since elementary school and I still play some of the handheld games, like the latest Pokemon Y version. I also watched Dragon Ball Z growing up, and in high school I had several friends introduce me to more anime. Since then I have enjoyed watching anime and reading manga. One of the main reasons I am excited to learn Japanese is so I can enjoy anime and manga in the original language, instead of through English translations. Also, last year I took a course here at Notre Dame called "The History of Modern Japan" and I found that I enjoyed learning about Japanese history and culture as well. I believe that learning Japanese will be useful and fun for many reasons.
That will be all for my introduction. I will continue to post as I learn more Japanese words, phrases, and katakana (and eventually, kanji)!
クランブーラさん、
ReplyDelete(First, I apologize if that isn't your name in Katakana. I'm not good at translating names...)
As for your question as how to type in Japanese, I use the Google package:
http://www.google.co.jp/intl/ja/ime/
The page is in 日本語 (Japanese), but I think it's easy enough to figure out what to do. (Plus, if you have Chrome as your browser, it might just translate the page.) It works with the Windows OS (and I think Mac as well). I have found this a really easy package to use. After you install the package, I believe you have to enable Japanese as a keyboard language. [On Windows 7 it's Control Panel -> Search: Keyboard -> Change keyboards or other input methods -> Click on "Change keyboards..." button under "Keyboards and languages"
Here you should be allowed to add Japanese as a language. To switch between languages, there should be a button on your toolbar that allows you to switch languages (EN = English, JP = Japanese).
Hopefully that wasn't too long and rambly, and hopefully it helps.
バーカード
ありがとう ございます、 バーカードさん！
ReplyDeleteIt took me a little while to figure out how to use it once I installed it (I'm not very good with computers) but I believe I have figured it out.
Do you have any tips that have made using it easier for you? For instance, is there a hot-key for changing the input mode (for example, from hiragana to katakana), or do I just have to use my mouse to change it via the toolbar?
Thanks for the suggestion! And by the way, according to the name-tag given to me by ふせせんせい my name is spelled クランビア. It looks like you were pretty close. Are you already trying to memorize the katakana?
クランビア
クランビアさん、
DeleteI know there are commands for it (of the form ctrl+something or alt+something), but I don't know what they are. I usually activate it by accident! I do usually just use the mouse to switch between roman letters and ひらがな. The ひらがな option usually has the カタカナ if you scroll though enough options (I usually find what I want pretty close to the top). I like leaving it on ひらがな when typing in 日本語（に ほん ご）because it has access to かんじ.
I learned the kana (ひらがな と カタカナ) (と = and) back in May, before I knew for sure I was going to be able to take the class. Katakana is actually a lot easier, I think (both to write and to memorize), especially since long vowels are taken care of with a ー (as in my name) instead of an extra character. Other than that, it seems to be functionally the same (with the exception of a few new combinations which are exclusive to katakana, one of which actually showed up in the reading on page 42: ファ = fa).
こんにちは、クランビアさん。I am so glad that you have already started your communication on your blog with classmates, that's why we use it. This is great. Kanji is coming pretty soon in Chapter 4. Hope you will enjoy learning にほんご！
ReplyDeleteクランビアさん、thank you for sharing the useful link for Japanese typing. I look forward to seeing your blog in Japanese soon;-)
ReplyDelete