Quick and Dirty Japanese Q&A (5 minutes or less)

[1718]

thanks again!

[hebretto]

I got this Hello Kitty gashapon / lotto thingy where I would roll some ball out with numbers on it and I have no idea what the numbers and such mean so wonder if anyone could be kind enough to translate the few lines for me



Many thanks <3

[SonicTempest]

Luck in your actions
1) Even if you try hard nothing will come of it...
2) Exercise care in all your actions.
3) This first step will put you on the road to happiness.
4) SUPER LUCKY!

[0style]

hi, this is a song from Persona 2 and it sounds like japanese grocery store songs. please translate.
^^

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dj3qliwDFm8

[Perfect Stranger]

The echoey sound effect is making it really hard to make out - considering I know next to nothing about the Persona series it makes it harder to guess what's being said to. I think this is what i make out from the later half of the song:

幻みたときゃぱっちりちりで　　maboroshi mita tokya pacchiri chiri de
暴れだったら鎮静剤 abare dattara chinseizai
いつも戦うみんなの味方 itsumo tatakau minna no mikata
僕らの町のお薬やさん bokura no machi no okusuriyasan

Which translates roughly to:

If you begin to see hallucincations its (I'm not really sure I got this: Something to do with having clear eyes)
And if you're going beserk have a sedative!
Always on your side, oh ever fighting customers,
Is our neighborhood pharmacy!

From the front part of the song I can make out things like
(right at the beginning)
ヒットポイントを回復するなら hittopointo o kaifuku suru nara
If you're going to replenish your hitpoints

And some other random phrases like
仲間を助けるなら nakama o tasukeru nara
If you're going to save your friends

So I'm guessing the rest of the song is in a similar fashion, highlighting a problem with your party and prescribing a medicine available at the pharmacy to counteract it.

That's the best I can do/am willing to spend at this for now, since I've easily overshot the 5 minute rule I have for requests on this thread.

[0style]

Oh tyty! sorry for it actually taking more than 5 minutes of your time. =/

[Eczema]

So how long does it take to learn Japanese to a decent conversational standard? Is it something you can teach yourself or is full-time study preferred?

[Perfect Stranger]

That really depends on what you mean by decent conversational standard. I've learnt Japanese (i.e. actually sat down with textbooks, actively tried to expand my vocabulary etc, as opposed to letting it stagnate like I'm doing now) for maybe 3 years and I think I can hold my own when talking to people of my age in a casual setting. I've yet to be able to discuss weighty issues like politics and the economy though. If you mean basic stuff like introducing yourself you can probably learn that really quickly. I'd estimate being able to hold general level conversations for 5 minutes or so to take at least 6 months of hard-core concentrated studying though, which means if you're just going to be doing it part-time (i.e. 1 or 2 courses a semester) then it's probably going to take you at least a year and a half. It'll probably go quicker if you already know a closely related language like Chinese or Korean.

I did a large part of my language acquistion through textbook study/random slacking off watching anime etc, so you can get pretty far doing that, but formal study is definitely very helpful. There's nothing like having a professional teacher correct you on your inflection, your usage of words that are technically correct but rarely used in a particular context, etc. I'd probably recommend a short period of self study first where you gauge exactly how interested you are in picking up the language, and your ability to handle it on top of your normal workload, etc. If you're still interested after that then engaging an actual teacher is probably a good idea.

[Eczema]

Sounds tough. How about reading and writing? The 3 Japanese syllabaries seem awfully confusing.

[Perfect Stranger]

The 3 syllabaries:

Hiragana. You should probably learn this first. Pretty small set of characters (about 50 I think?). I think of it as the default script, i.e. if you *really* wanted to you could probably write everything in this script. In actual normal usage, it's used for particles (in, at, on, for, because etc etc) and nouns where the Kanji either doesn't exist or is too complicated for everyday usage.

Katakana. Think of this as the foreign words and sound script. Onomatopeia (I'm not spelling this right am I) and words plucked from different languages like English, German etc default to being written in this script. In terms of size it's exactly as large as Hiragana.

Kanji, i.e. Chinese characters. Unfortunately any attempt at competency in writing and reading means you have to learn this. A vocabulary of about 2000 characters should be sufficient for normal every day use. I think there are about 3000 characters regarded as "normal", the rest are pretty obscure and rare.

If you're really bored you can sit down and force yourself to memorise Hiragana and Katakana in one day. It's basically just mad cramming, there really is no way else to describe it. For Kanji, if you've learnt Chinese before, you should be able to pick it up relatively quickly, else be prepared for massive information memorisation.

[0style]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WclPfNSRwzQ

Yasashii kaze ga atsumatte
Sora no buruu ni naru n' desu
Hageshii nami ga kasanatte
Umi no buruu ni naru n' desu
Boku-ra no inochi mo mienai keredo
Chikyuu wo mamoru inori de michireba
Chichihaha minna ga akogarete kita
Kibou no buruu ga yomigaeru deshou
Buruu buruu buruu fikusaa
Ashita wo sukue Barudiosu

Kirameku hikari ga tokeatte
Yama no buruu ni naru n' desu
Tsumetai shizuku ga yorisotte
Tani no buruu ni naru n' desu
Boku-ra no kokoro mo mienai keredo
Ai shite ikiru chikai de michireba
Doko ka ni nakushita omoide no iro
Chikyuu no buruu ga yomigaeru deshou
Buruu buruu fikusaa
Ashita ni idome Barudiosu

Buruu buruu buruu fikusaa
Ashita wo sukue Barudiosu

I can't for the life of me find translations for this song and I hope it doesn't take 5 mins like last time (sorry ps! >.< )

[SonicTempest]

From the Adulthood thread:

btw anyone know what he (Bison) actually says for his ultra hahaha

Nake sakebe! Nightmare Booster! Koko ga kisama no hakaba da!
or
"Cry and scream! Nightmare Booster! This place will be your tomb!"

Or something along those lines. I think hakaba is actually graveyard rather than tomb, but tomb sounds better in the translation lol.

[hebretto]

From the Adulthood thread:
Or something along those lines. I think hakaba is actually graveyard rather than tomb, but tomb sounds better in the translation .

Hmmm interesting cause when he stomps them he says "this place shall become your grave!!!!" hahahah

Many thanks

[Persona]

Deja Vu Boy deshita Persona desu

Does that translate to "I was Deja Vu Boy. I am now Persona"?

Would like the correct way to type it please. For learning matters.

[Perfect Stranger]

Deja Vu Boy deshita Persona desu

Does that translate to "I was Deja Vu Boy. I am now Persona"?

Yep that's right. Kinda awkward though - I'm guessing you used to be called Deja Vu Boy on MSN or something and want to be called Persona from now on? Something more like

"Deja Vu Boy desu. Kore kara ha Persona to yonde kudasai"

might be more appropriate? (Translates to "This is Deja Vu Boy. Please call me Persona from now on!"

Would like the correct way to type it please. For learning matters.

When you say type if you mean in English letters than you were doing it right. If you mean type as in Japanese script:
Deja Vu Boy でした。Personaです。
Deja Vu Boy deshita Persona desu

or
Deja Vu Boy desu. Kore kara ha Persona to yonde kudasai
Deja Vu Boy です。これからはPersonaとよんでください。