イクツカシツモンハアリマス。。。

[ashzehedgehog8725]

I have a few questions. I know that terms like ボク and オレ are male words for "I" and they can use it to talk to each other. (ie: ゲンキデス。ボク////オレハ？) But do female speakers use them when talking to guys/little kids themselves?

Second question is I know that names are usually in kana. However what if I write a short story (I do that for practice) featuring someone that's named after a country; ie; Nippon. (she's a special case because... I've only seen it written two ways). What would be the best way to write the character's name?

ニッポン
ニホン
ジャパン

or use the orginal hira spelling? 多くの質問を求めて申し訳ありません.

[community.japanese]

ashzehedgehog8725-san,
kon'nichiwa.

First about ボク and オレ...
As you know, those two mean "I" and those are "male language". But there're are some (young) girls who want to use
especially ボク to sound a bit like boy or something.
When we female use ボク TO boys (small children), however, it actullay doesn't mean "I". In such cases, we use
ボク to address boys instead (like "you", or "dear").
i.g. ぼく、なんさい？ [boku, nansai?] = How old are you?
ぼく、どうしたの？ [boku, doushita no?] = What's wrong?/ What's the matter? etc.
In such situations too, we never use おれ to call a boy.
The example you wrote "げんきです。ぼくは？" seems to be the case of this type, meaning "I'm fine, and you?"

Also, the words for "I" should represent "who I am", so as long as speakers say "I", it doesn't matter "to whom"
they talk to. (i.e. It doesn't change depending on the person who you're talking to: boys, men, girls, women, etc.)

I'm not too sure what exactly you want to know in your second question.
If you write a story and give a name of Japan to a character in it, you can decide how this person should be called.
Any of those three should be fine.

Hope this helps!

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[ashzehedgehog8725]

arigato~

As for the last question, I was trying to ask if I can write their names in kantakana when I write. Because in your PDF lessons when there are roleplays, only Taylor's name is in kantakana while Kaori and Masuto's names are in hiragana. So I was confused nonetheless since other places have said all names should be in kantakana.

On that note; if I wanted to write "Kitachosen" in kana, how would I spell it? :[

[ericf]

Taylor is a Western name, hence katakana. Kaori & Masuto are Japanese names, hence hiragana or kanji. katakana is usually reserved for imported words/names. Even to the extent of sometimes using katakana for words that have kanji; e.g. I've seen 豚生薑焼き（ぶた しょうが やき　pork ginger cooked) written in a menu as 豚ショウガ焼き. I wonder why?

[community.japanese]

ashzehedgehog8725-san, エリックsan,
thank you for your help, エリックsan!!
That's right, Western names are written in Katakana, but some words can be both in hiragana/kanji and katakana.
North Korea has kanji already, so we don't really use katakana for that...it's always 北朝鮮 but if you want to know,
it's キタチョウセン
Those countries and nation who have kanji, we usually prefer kanji over katakana, if it's person's name and
it cannot be very easy to find out how to read, it can be written in katakana, too.

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[ashzehedgehog8725]

oh i see.
kanji is hard to write though. :[

[community.japanese]

ashzehedgehog8725-san,
I know...
Well, 朝鮮 is especially difficult, so it's totally fine to write it in hiragana

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[ashzehedgehog8725]

so i just have to know what the kanji means and is if I wanted to read say a newspaper but don't really have to use it in actual writing or am i wrong? (except for the ones i know i can do; but the ones with 50 strokes.. nah)

A few more questions; what is the different between ニッポン and ニホン？I've seen people say it and write it like this: ニホン but on websites it's written this way: ニッポン

If I wanted to write "Tokyo", is it this way:トーキョー or this way:トウキョウ?

gomensai ":[

[ericf]

Tokyo would be トウキョウ not トーキョー. But hiragana とうきょう would be more normal than katakana.
( And the kanji isn't that hard 東京 :-)

[community.japanese]

ashzehedgehog8725-san, エリックsan,
kon'nichiwa!
Thank you very much for your explanation, エリックsan!!
ashzehedgehog8725-san, if you can learn kanji, it'd be great, but if you don't know kanjis for some words,
you can use hiragana instead. It doesn't mean you don't need to use kanji; it's just hiragana is okay to use too
I'm a lazy person, so I sometimes write my memo with a lot of hiragana, even if I know kanji
But of course, I'd never do that in formal documents and/or letters.

As to Japan, both ニッポン and ニホン are acceptable. It used to be ニッポン (like until post-WW2 time), but
it became more popular and preferable to say ニホン because ニッポン sounds "cold", "hard", "difficult", "stubborn" etc.
while ニホン sounds softer. Japan used to be a name of ダイニッポンテイコク, but it's changed to ニホンコク
and this probably has something to do with those two ways (ニッポン and ニホン)are still found and accepted.
Some people don't like ニッポン because of being suggestive of this 大日本帝国 [dainipponteikoku], meaning
war-time Japan, under the strong role of "THE Emperor" .

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[ashzehedgehog8725]

i know i have to know the first 2000 but i cannot write this: 鑑;

that has 23 stokes and i dont know how to write it on paper.

[mmmason8967]

Well, 鑑 certainly wouldn't be a good one to start with!

The complicated, high-stroke count kanji are usually made out of other simpler kanji. 鑑 is made out of 二, 皿, 臣 and 金. If you know how to write those kanji, 鑑 isn't going to be at all difficult.

マイケル

[community.japanese]

ashzehedgehog8725-san, マイケルsan,
I'm sure "first 100" wouldn't include 鑑...
マイケルsan is right; it's not a good one to start with...
If I were the learner and if 鑑 is the first kanji to learn, I'd immediately give up

We have video lessons focusing on kanji, and also some other resources. Hope you can use and enjoy them

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[ashzehedgehog8725]

aa sou desu;

oh, natsuko-chan, i have a question. how to do use suffxes like -chin and -pun?

[community.japanese]

ashzehedgehog8725-san,
suffix "chin" and "pun"??
Some youngsters use "chin" after names or making it as nickname, but I've never heard "pun"...
I think Japanese add anything as suffix and make anything sounds funny (or silly )

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com