Help me practice, please? I'll give you a virtual cookie!

[audreytaylor344590]

こにばわ。はじめまぎて！おなまえ　オドリの　です。 わたしわ　じゅはちさい。 わたしわ　あまりかじん。

This is what I think I said

"Good Evening. Nice to meet you! My name is Audrey (Odori). I am 18 years old. I am American."

Is this correct? How do I combind sentences together to make them more interesting? Also, how do you say, "I enjoy (insert activity here) very much!" or "I like"?

[blue usagi]

こにばわ。はじめまぎて！おなまえ　オドリの　です。 わたしわ　じゅはちさい。 わたしわ　あまりかじん。

This is what I think I said

"Good Evening. Nice to meet you! My name is Audrey (Odori). I am 18 years old. I am American."

Is this correct? How do I combind sentences together to make them more interesting? Also, how do you say, "I enjoy (insert activity here) very much!" or "I like"?

Disclaimer: I'm still a beginner myself so take my suggestions with a grain of salt!

Revision of your introduction:
漢字 (kanji)
こんにちは。はじめまして！お名前はオドリです。私は十八歳です。アメリカ人です。

かな (kana)
こんにちは。はじめまして！おなまえは　オドリです。わたしは　じゅうはっさいです。アメリカじんです。

Things to note:

• Remember that when using "は" as the topic marking particle that it's pronounced as /wa/ instead of /ha/.
• Konnichiwa is translates more roughly to good afternoon, but I believe it can be used throughout the day as well.
• When introducing yourself formally, it's better to use "です" each time to maintain politeness.
• Because you're introducing yourself, it is not necessary to say わたし は every time because we already know that the topic is わたし. Similarly, it is not necessary to say おなまえは because we know that you're talking about yourself when you say "オドリです".
• Remember that katakana is used for foreign words, so since America is foreign, we represent it in katakana rather than hiragana.

Now an introduction of myself! Just kana this time.
こんにちは！ライラです。しゅっしんはシカゴです。でも、ははとちちのしゅっしんはたいわんです。わたしもじゅうはっさいです。どうぞよろしくおねがいします。

Hello! I'm Lyra. I'm from Chicago but my parents are from Taiwan. I'm also 18 years old. Please be kind to me as I will to you.

[audreytaylor344590]

]

Revision of your introduction:
漢字 (kanji)
こんにちは。はじめまして！お名前はオドリです。私は十八歳です。アメリカ人です。

かな (kana)
こんにちは。はじめまして！おなまえは　オドリです。わたしは　じゅうはっさいです。アメリカじんです。

Now an introduction of myself! Just kana this time.
こんにちは！ライラです。しゅっしんはシカゴです。でも、ははとちちのしゅっしんはたいわんです。わたしもじゅうはっさいです。どうぞよろしくおねがいします。

Hello! I'm Lyra. I'm from Chicago but my parents are from Taiwan. I'm also 18 years old. Please be kind to me as I will to you.

こにちわ、ライラ！
I am a bit confused at some parts. I'm still struggling with some of the kanji (well...most of it really...) so I probably should have waited to converse, but I wanted to see how i fared. If you're a beginner then I'm diffidently way behind! No wonder my sensai is so frustrated with me!

Anywho...these are the parts I'm confused on, so if you could clarify, I would be very grateful!

From my understanding (and checking on my word program...)
名 is な　correct? Also, 前 is まえ？Finally, 私 is わたし?

There were a couple words I was missing as well. Such as はは、which I'm assuming is a laugh? (haha?). I know that と is also known as and, right?

ちちの escapes me as well, but I'm kind of thinking it means Chicago? Or possibly parents? しゅっしんは Is the ethnicity (of Taiwan), because of Jin。

So I'm utterly new at this, but...perhaps we could exchange, help each other practice through AIM or something? If not, the board is fine too. ^_^

ありがてょ！

[jotu]

From my understanding (and checking on my word program...)
名 is な　correct? Also, 前 is まえ？Finally, 私 is わたし?

hai hai hai zenbu wa seikai
yup yup yup you got them all right

There were a couple words I was missing as well. Such as はは、which I'm assuming is a laugh? (haha?). I know that と is also known as and, right?

ちちの escapes me as well, but I'm kind of thinking it means Chicago? Or possibly parents? しゅっしんは Is the ethnicity (of Taiwan), because of Jin。

はははmotherです。　ちちはfatherです。 しゅっしんはhometownです。

and の is the ... owning particle marker? can't remember whats it called but it is used to denote that A belongs to or is related somehow to B like BのA, B's A, A of B... check out the particles series on this site...

btw　ようこそ and　がんばって。。。

[Javizy]

こにばわ。

This is spelt こんばんは, like hello is こんにちは. Somebody was actually impressed that I knew this (Japanese people tend to be easily impressed by learners) yesterday, so I'm guessing it's a pretty common mistake.

おなまえ

Adding お makes the word honorific (shows respect to the hearer) in this case, so you can't use it with your own name.

オドリ

If this is anything to go by, your name should be オードリー

わたしわ

'Wa' when used as a grammatical particle is spelt as は. It's a remnant of the classical writing system, and although it seems a bit confusing, you get used to it quickly.

[aephion]

Honestly, I don't think it's so much being impressed as it's being polite and encouraging to the learner.

Anyway, the only thing I'd like to point out for now (I think everything else has been mentioned already), is about your name.

In "Audrey", the "Au" is a pretty long sound, right? So in Japanese, you'll probably want to extend it too, for comprehension's sake, turning it into オードリー。

I've also extended the "ey" part, because... it seemed to make sense. Someone, please correct me if I'm wrong on this, but that just sounds right to me.