^
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Table_hiragana.svg

i printed a copy of hiragana table

When someone asks you if you speak Japanese (日本語を話しますか Nihongo o hanashimasuka?) and you only speak a little, isn't the answer better be はい、少しだけ (Hai, sukoshi dake: Yes, a little bit) instead of はい、話します (Hai, hanashimasu)?
I think answering with 'hanashimasu' means you're at least pretty good in that language.
As far as I know they talk pretty differently when the person they talk to doesn't understand the language very well.

Medios wrote:When someone asks you if you speak Japanese (日本語を話しますか Nihongo o hanashimasuka?) and you only speak a little, isn't the answer better be はい、少しだけ (Hai, sukoshi dake: Yes, a little bit) instead of はい、話します (Hai, hanashimasu)?
I think answering with 'hanashimasu' means you're at least pretty good in that language.
As far as I know they talk pretty differently when the person they talk to doesn't understand the language very well.

I have only started to learn the basics but i think you are right.

If the question/answer is : Nihongo o hanashimasuka? -> Hai, hanashimasu
it simple means "Yes i speak (Japanese)", there is no indication of "little" anywhere and the person will think you simply speak japanese and understand it all.

EDIT : but i think it's hanasemasu and not hanashimasu.

Medios wrote:When someone asks you if you speak Japanese (日本語を話しますか Nihongo o hanashimasuka?) and you only speak a little, isn't the answer better be はい、少しだけ (Hai, sukoshi dake: Yes, a little bit) instead of はい、話します (Hai, hanashimasu)?
I think answering with 'hanashimasu' means you're at least pretty good in that language.
As far as I know they talk pretty differently when the person they talk to doesn't understand the language very well.

Well, you can use both answer (hai,sukoshi dake & hai, hanashimasu.)
But if the person ask u using these sentences:
日本語が話せますか (Nihongo ga* hanasemasu ka?) - Can you speak in Japanese?
日本語ができますか (Nihongo ga* dekimasu ka?) - Can you speak Japanese?
It's more likely indicate that the person ask on how good are you in that language.

If the person they talk to doesn't understand Japanese very well, they'd use simple words/ they talk slowly so the listener could understand what they means. But they really appreciate if u can understand Japanese, even though it's just a bit.

*ga is used for kanoukei (potential (can, able) form, such as dekiru, hanaseru, etc.)

Bumping the thread to share a learning site i found a few days ago : http://www.memrise.com

It's an awesome site to learn a lot of languages, including japanese of course! They are many free lessons (dozens and dozens for japanese, didn't check the other languages) and the concept is really great. Unlike many sites, there is no full page in black and white with words that you have to read and then learn, it's an "interactive" site. Basically it's a fun way to learn and it works very well.

You choose a course (general, specific, etc like the basics of japanese or something specific like the colors in japanese) and you have a lesson or a lot of lessons to learn what you chose. Each thing you learn must be associate to a picture (a mem) so that it's easier to remember. You can also create your own mem for each word so it suits you better and will be even easier for you to remember.

Sometimes you also have the audio for the words (depends on who created the lesson i think) so you learn to write the words and also how they sound. Then you have small exercises where you have to pick the right answers or write the answer down (romaji or hiragana/katakana!).

You also get points when you answer correctly so it's like a mini game, younger people may appreciate it alot. If you fail to answer a question they show you the learning page again for that word with the picture you chose, the audio, how to write it, etc. and then it continues.

You can also track all your progress in all the courses you take, that means you can stop and then start later again when you have time and always know where you stopped to learn.

Anyways just wanted to share, i have a lot of fun learning on that site!

yeah, could be a funny way to learn. I tried a german lesson. So I can say that it could also work with other languages.

http://www.freejapaneselessons.com/ If you want to learn japanese step by step, visit this website :D
it helped me a lot

I have a few questions.

1. Do you use the AM/PM system in Japan to talk about the hours?
Do they say "it's 18h58 now" (いまじゅうはちじごじゅう or "it is 6h58 PM now" ?

I learned that gozen/gogo means AM/PM but not sure how japanese talk about it. Could i get an example in a sentence on how to use gozen/gogo?

2. When you talk about colors, can you do it like in english and use "light/dark" to talk about colors? Like when you have to choose between two red colors, can you say in japanese "i want the dark/light red please". And how do you use it in a sentence?

1. You can use both
It's 18h30 : 十八時半です(juu hachi ji han desu)　or　午後六時半(gogo roku ji han desu)
Obviouly, you can forget gogo/gozen when you ask, for example, when the train leave the station or when you wake up in the morning. Something that you don"t need to precise if it's in the morning or afternoon

2. I don't know about this .sweat.
But if i'm not mistaken, it complicated and each color (light blue, dark blue, ...) has a different word. It's not easy as only put "light/dark" 青い(aoi)
For example with
-red 赤い(akai), dark red 紅(kurenai)
-blue 青い(aoi), light blue　水色(mizuiro), dark blue 濃紺(noukon),...

Hum i see arigatou. But for #2 there must be a word to say "lighter/darker" when you talk about something (not colors, something else) so can't you use that?

Because i doubt every japanese knows ALL the names of ALL the colors no? So there must be an easy way to say it

Maybe the phrase それよりも暗い (sore yori mo kurai: darker than that) and これよりも軽い (kore yori mo karui: brighter than this) is used when you want to ask for something brighter/darker. But as far as I know, in Japanese there are a lot of color names, for example, blue: there's 青 (ao: blue), 紺 (kon: navy blue), 水色 (mizuiro: light blue), 空色 (sorairo: sky blue) and probably more. And they use different words to tell different colors. Even English has their own words for different color (blue, cyan, turquoise, etc)
PS: Please correct me if I'm wrong. I just used what I learned in high school and a little bit of Google...

Okay arigatou Medios

Bumping the thread to share a course I created on Memrise. It's about the numbers and counting different things

http://www.memrise.com/course/106094/counting-counters-and-numbers/

Tell me if you find any mistakes and i'll fix it.

Also learning the animals names now and will make a big course soon .smile.

Not sure if some of you are interested but I thought I share it .uhuh.

there is an app which helps you help to learn anything. Be it language/subjects/anything

here it is: http://ankisrs.net/

I'm using this to enhance my language skills :3

Created another course to learn 150 animal names in japanese : http://www.memrise.com/course/107797/150-japanese-animals-audio-kata-kanji/

It has audio for each word and also Kanji. There is a big Kanji test at the end if you want to train that part.

A course about fruits/vegetables if you want to train  : http://www.memrise.com/course/109674/60-fruits-and-vegetables-in-japanese/

woow thanks !! For me, I finished the learning of hiragana/katagana (a good thing ! thanks to jigoku79 ). I'm learning on ici japon for now, but I think I'll buy a book or something (in order to complete what I learned here and on internet). If somebody have a recommandation about a book

ちょっと難しい事を投稿します。(笑)
i post a bit harder stuff.
今朝、阿倍総理の「阿倍のミックス」の成長戦略を回って、法案会議が行われました。

kesa, abe souri (abe no mikksu) no seichou senryaku  wo megutte, houan kaigi ga okonawaremasu.

kesa= this morning
souri = prime minister
abe no mikkkusu = economics of prime president abe shinzou
seichou = growth
senryaku = strategy
wo megutte = in reference to/around of a matter (JLPT N2 grammar) 
houan = bill
kaigi = conference
okonowareru = take place

This morning, in reference to abenokkusu`s growth strategy a bill conference  has been taken place.

PS:予め、英日翻訳に於いて、お間違いがある場合、御詫び申し上げます。m(_ _)m
PS: if there are some mistakes concerning the translation in English, i want excuse me beforehand.

I WANNA KNOW THE USE OF CHI.? .uhuh.

Hello everybody !

today, I was learning japanese (as everyday for several weeks now) but I had some trouble with the meaning of a sentence. I'm not sure about the translation :

ええ、友達 の 明子さんとコーヒーを買います

it's the answer of this question : 明日、　デパート　へ　行きます　か。

oh I see. if it was a friend of Akiko it will be like you wrote. (like this for example 明子さんの猫 I guess).

it was the first time that I saw it written like this so I was confused. thank you for your explanation .hail.