みんあーさん、はじめまして！

[ladykuroda]

初めまして！！Katie です。どうぞよろしくお願いします。

２６歳です。(Is that the correct kanji for expressing age?)

フランス語の先生です。

アメリカ人とカナダ人です。でも、アメリカからです。

I hope to be able to practice more に本語 soon!

ありがとうございます！

[maxiewawa]

どういたしまして！

That Kanji is correct. I think アメリカから来ました。would be better.

私はマクスです。２６歳です。（同じ！）

[Javizy]

初めまして、ジェームスと言います。どうぞよろしく! 22歳のイギリス人です。どれぐらい日本語を勉強していますか。私は1年間ぐらいです。JPodを使うと楽しみながら、すぐ日本語上手になりますよ。

[Psy]

初めまして！！Katie です。どうぞよろしくお願いします。
２６歳です。(Is that the correct kanji for expressing age?)
フランス語の先生です。
アメリカ人とカナダ人です。でも、アメリカからです。
I hope to be able to practice more に本語 soon!
ありがとうございます！

フォーラムへようこそ！ It's great to see someone make her first post in Japanese.

If I were to suggest anything, I would say in this situation it's better to say よろしくお願いします instead of ありがとうござます, as you are anticipating a favor instead of thanking for one already done for you. If you wanted to say "thanks for reading" you could try 読んでくれてありがとうございました. 　At any rate, thanks for the introduction!

お互いに日本語の勉強をがんばりましょう！

That Kanji is correct. I think アメリカから来ました。would be better.

You're right, though strictly speaking アメリカからです is also correct Japanese.

[プチクレア]

初めまして！Claireと言います。パリに住んでいるフランス人です．２７歳です。外科の研修医をします。

よろしくお願いします！

[ladykuroda]

どういたしまして！

That Kanji is correct. I think アメリカから来ました。would be better.

私はマクスです。２６歳です。（同じ！）

That would be "Amerika made", correct? (I'm still working on Kanji recognition/memorization.)

かっこい！わたしーたち　輪２６歳です！

初めまして、マクス！

[ladykuroda]

初めまして、ジェームスと言います。どうぞよろしく! 22歳のイギリス人です。どれぐらい日本語を勉強していますか。私は1年間ぐらいです。JPodを使うと楽しみながら、すぐ日本語上手になりますよ。

こんばんわ、ジｪームス！
あなたわイギリス人ですか？すごい！ 　はじめみあして！
私。。。あの。。。(I'm going to make an educated guess and guess that you've asked me how long I've been studying Japanese?)
日本語を便居する１９９８まで２０００から。でも、私和一人でした。あの。。。１６歳でした。学生でした。でも、今、私和 JPOD 野学生です。 (Does gakusei only refer to a High School student? Just curious... Also, to clarify, I studied on my own during High School, and have been able to take no courses at all. I'm still studying on my own, at the moment.)

[quote]JPodを使うと楽しみながら、すぐ日本語上手になりますよ。{/quote]
すみません、でも、和からに。これわ　エイゴ なんですか？

[ladykuroda]

Psy-
初めまして！ドゾと炉しくお願いします！
あなたのグレートアドバイスをありがとう！

読

この感じのロマンジわ何ですか？

がんばります！:D


Claire-
初めまして！パリからですか？すごい！あなたわ、ちょラキです！ドゾよろしくお願いします！ (On pourrait bien parler ensemble, ne?)

[quote]外科の研修医{/quote]
これわ　なんですか？

[Javizy]

学生 means just plain old student, but you can add some other characters to be more specific:
小学生(しょうがくせい) grade school student
中学生(ちゅうがくせい) Middle School student
高校生(こうこうせい) high school student
大学生(だいがくせい) University student
留学生(りゅうがくせい) exchange student

JPodを使うと - if you use jpod,
Using と after a plain verb sets up a strong conditional.
楽しみながら、- while having fun,
Adding ながら after the stem of a verb creates a conjunction close to the English 'while'.
すぐ日本語上手になりますよ。- you'll soon become good at Japanese.
になる means 'to become'.

Another thing, when you use 'wa' as a particle, it is written as は instead of わ. This has something to do with the lines of the kana chart being switched around a long time ago, but if you just remember it, you'll get used to it pretty quickly.

A lot of people on here are self-taught from what I can tell (including myself), and this site really helps all areas of study, as well as helping with motivation since they have a fun, not-too-serious approach to teaching while still being really effective.

If you have difficulty reading kanji (who doesn't?), check out the Rikaichan plug-in for Firefox Web browser. It's like a dictionary that automatically pops up definitions and readings when you hover over a kanji. It reduces kanji-rage by at least 80%.

[Psy]

It is time for an intervention. Please, for your sake and the sake of people reading, do not utilize kanji that you cannot yourself read:

アメリカから来ました。

That would be "Amerika made", correct? (I'm still working on Kanji recognition/memorization.)

かっこい！わたしーたち　輪２６歳です！

maxiewawa wrote "amerika kara kimashita" which means "(I) came from America." There is no need for a dash in "watasitachi," (わたしたち) as in Japanese this indicates a long vowel, meaning what you wrote was "watashii tachi." Additionally-- though this is pretty hard to tell in listening for beginners-- you wrote kakkoi (かっこい) where the correct word is kakkou ii (かっこういい) Allow me to emphasize now that vowel length in Japanese is extremely important. So much so that incorrect pronunciation can severely hamper (if not completely ruin) your ability to communicate. So work on it now before it becomes a problem later. Lastly, 輪 is a kanji said "wa" that means "ring." It does not belong here.

こんばんわ、ジｪームス！
あなたわイギリス人ですか？すごい！ 　はじめみあして！
私。。。あの。。。(I'm going to make an educated guess and guess that you've asked me how long I've been studying Japanese?)
日本語を便居する１９９８まで２０００から。でも、私和一人でした。あの。。。１６歳でした。学生でした。でも、今、私和 JPOD 野学生です。 (Does gakusei only refer to a High School student? Just curious... Also, to clarify, I studied on my own during High School, and have been able to take no courses at all. I'm still studying on my own, at the moment.)

JPodを使うと楽しみながら、すぐ日本語上手になりますよ。

すみません、でも、和からに。これわ　エイゴ なんですか？

It's tough to learn on your own-- but most of us here do, so we really know how you feel! Back to the kanji, you wrote べんきょ instead of べんきょう, and thus the wrong kanji popped up. The same is true with your using 私和 twice, where here the "wa" is a kanji meaning peace. As Javizy remarked, the proper way to spell the particle is 「は」. Additionally, you wrote 野 for the particle の, which should also be written in kana. Again, if you don't know it, keep with kana.

Psy-
初めまして！ドゾと炉しくお願いします！
あなたのグレートアドバイスをありがとう！

いつでもいいですよ。 What you meant with 「ドゾと炉しくお願いします！」 should be どうぞよろしくお願いします。 よろしく can also be spelled 宜しく, though it's a bit formal looking to do that.

読

この感じのロマンジわ何ですか？

感じ = feeling.
漢字 = kanji.
ロマンジ should be ローマ字.
and わ should be written は.

Despite the spelling the Japanese is correct. Another way to ask this would be "kono kanji no yomikata wa nan desu ka?" where yomikata means "reading." To answer you:

読む = よむ (to read)

がんばります！:D

がんばってください！

Claire-
初めまして！パリからですか？すごい！あなたわ、ちょラキです！ドゾよろしくお願いします！ (On pourrait bien parler ensemble, ne?)

あなたはチョーラッキです！　どうぞよろしくお願いします。

外科の研修医

これわ　なんですか？

It is "geka no kenshuui," meaning surgical (department) resident.

Good luck with your studies!

[maxiewawa]

... Additionally-- though this is pretty hard to tell in listening for beginners-- you wrote kakkoi (かっこい) where the correct word is kakkou ii (かっこういい) Allow me to emphasize now that vowel length in Japanese is extremely important. So much so that incorrect pronunciation can severely hamper (if not completely ruin) your ability to communicate. So work on it now before it becomes a problem later.

This might be a little hard to understand unless you can hear the difference, so I made this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSSa-IVOLvs

I hope you can hear the difference between "Kakkoi" and "kakkou ii".

LadyKuroda, it may seem like you're making a lot of mistakes, but don't sweat. If you go back far enough at this site, you'll find that we've all made mistakes on the road to learning Japanese. You definitely have the right idea though, keep up the Japanese writing, it's the best way to learn!

Ganbatte kudasai!

[プチクレア]

Claire-
初めまして！パリからですか？すごい！あなたわ、ちょラキです！ドゾよろしくお願いします！ (On pourrait bien parler ensemble, ne?)

外科の研修医
これわ　なんですか？

Ladykurodaさん、

thanks for the message !!! En effet, des conversations en français-anglais-japonais pourraient être intéressantes ! Drop me a PM, and I'll send you my e-mail and skype ID.

As Psyさん pointed out, I'm a surgery resident...

[ladykuroda]

みんあさん、どもうありがとうございます！

You’ve given me a lot of information and great pointers- especially about vowels! (Of which I am quite unknowledgable in Japanese.)

Psy- どもうありがとうございます！:bows: You gave me a TON of excellent points to consider, and I really appreciate it. Part of my errors were due in part to “space bar-auto kanji” (like Max stated in his video as a guess as to what I had done) and lack of kanji knowledge. I feel like I’ve learned quite a bit, and I believe I’ll hit the flash-cards, now. I do also have to say ありがとう one more time, for the

It's tough to learn on your own-- but most of us here do, so we really know how you feel!

shout-out. When I first read your reply- it was rather intimidating! Internet text has no tone, so... ^_^;;;;; interpretation is often different for the recipient than it was for the sender
.
I will continue to stick with the kana.

”いつもいいですよ” is... “Anytime” for the sake of a reply to my thanks for your great advice? (I know literally it’s... “Any time is good”.)
お互いに日本語の勉強をがんばりましょ！:)

マクス　ヘ　あなたのブｪデｪオをありがとうございます！！:bow: The sound is immensely helpful, and you were correct- the space bar was part of my kanji errors. The other half is my lack of knowledge of them.

Javitzy- どもうありがとうございます！ That kanji dictionary is a God-send! It is so incredibly helpful! あなたのことをやさしでした！(That was really nice of you! [Is that correct?]) ありがとう、ありがとう、ありがとう！

Claire- J’essaie d’acheter un caméra web pour communiquer sur l’Internet. A ce moment, je n’ai pas de microphone pour parler sur l’Internet. u.u Mais, j’espère d’en obtenir un par la semaine prochaine! Et je suis tout d’accord- nos conversations pourraient très intéressants! お互いに日本語のいうをがんばりましょ！

And, just one last question..... there is no space between words in Japanese?

[Javizy]

あなたのことをやさしでした！

A couple of things here: you don't usually use あなた unless you have to, it can even be considered rude in some circumstances. You'd more often use the person's name (which sounds kind of funny in English), and even more often than that you'd use nothing at all. The latter has been referred to as the 'zero pronoun', since words like 'it', 'he', 'you', etc are often inferred (they are there, but are understood enough to be left unsaid).

を marks the direct object of a transitive verb, and is only used in this case. It's a bit of a tricky concept at first, although you may already be familiar with transitive/intransitive verbs if you have learnt a language before. In your sentence you are using an A is B structure, so you would use one of the topic marking particles が/は, but using these two naturally takes a lot of practice, so I won't try explaining that

やさしい is the right spelling here, it's another example of long vowels, which are particularly important in this case, since the final い is replaced with grammatical constructs, we call this type of adjective い-adjectives (rather imaginatively). To form the past tense of い-adjectives, you replace the final い with かった: やさしかった, and to make this polite simply attach です.

All of these things are covered in more detail in the Beginner Series 1 lessons, so give them a listen through and it will start to make sense. As for, your sentence, I'd suggest something like this:

とても親切でした。That was very kind of you.
ご親切をありがとうございました。Thank you for your kindness.

Oh, and no there are no spaces in Japanese text. It's a bit scary at first, but you get used to it and start to appreciate kanji a lot more since they really help to break things up.

[kc8ufv]

And, just one last question..... there is no space between words in Japanese?

That's exactly right. In 日本語 spaces aren't normally used, although occasionally in beginner text, or kana only text intended for children you may see spaces used. The spacebar is typically used as a type of submit key that begins the conversion of kana to kanji. On the first press, after typing in a string of kana, your computer will automatically convert the typed passage to what it thinks is most likely, based on what it knows, and what you have used in the past. If you don't want this to happen, instead of hitting space, press enter. On the second press of the space bar, a menu appears. This menu contains all the other possibilities your computer can come up with for what you might be trying to type, in the order it thinks it is most likely you would want. You can use the arrow keys to select, and enter or continue typing to submit. These options work regardless how the kana is typed in (as long as it is typed, if you are using the drawing pad and want kanji, simply draw the desired kanji). I'm not too good with kanji at the moment, so mostly I just press Enter instead of space.