If you want to learn japanese and find it difficult to find a course you should do whet many others do, start watching anime with english subtitles, download some fancy "learn japanese" programmes and buy some "learn japanese" books. This is only if you are totally blank about the japanese language, don't know anything, not the basics. With the program and the books and the anime, you learn both how to write and how to pronounce.
If you already speak a lot Japanese now, I would feel like an idiot. But many people learn japanese this way, and so do I :p But then I'm only a 18 year old Norwegian girl so I don't know if you find it a good idea to watch anime just so you can learn Japanese :p

I have also noticed that all the har core otakus that ain't japanese, is american. So in Norway they call me an otaku, but if I go up to an otaku from Japan or America they would probably laugh in my face telling me i know nothing : ) So I guess I'm an Norwegian otaku then maybe.

I borrowed some books from the library and I'm trying to learn Hirigana on a good website called Hiragana and Katakana Practice - Real Kana . It's been very helpful! I only know very basic things. Introductions, saying what I like and dislike, talking about my hometown, complimenting someone and congratulating people on special occasions. That's about it!

There was a thread on learning Japanese through anime, and people said that it can help you out but you can't learn all your Japanese from there because a lot of it is slang.

Don't worry, I'm only 17!

i really dont like that word, lol i find it very derogatory. i mean i absolutely love almost everything about japan but im also fully aware that i am white and not asian, so i really dont like it when people refer to me as that, i dont know about other people though.

*envies you* I know only one phrase...

私は日本語を全然話しません。

I need to learn some conversation...

I don't think it would apply to you then, really. It's for people who are very niave about the realities of Japan and think it's anime and mangaland.

That article doesn't explain it in the best way though, admittedly.

I learnt some basic conversation through audio lessons. If you just want to go on holiday or somethng, it's pretty good to get you through.

I got them from Learn Japanese.

Ah, I'm 17 too ;)
I believe you can learn a lot from anime, they have slang in Japan too, and learning to understand their slang would maybe become helpful, at least if you are planning to stay there over a longer period. I just use anime so i can learn to pronounce the words and learning how i can use the words i have learned and make them into sentences. I'm not focusing all that much on their writing system yet, I'm focusing on learning how to speak japanese and write japanese with "normal letters". I only know some of the basics yet though, greetings and goodbyes and a lot of different foods and drinks a lot of random words.

By normal letters you mean Romaji ^_^

Well from my point of view, the reason for me learning the language is for business purposes, it's a good international business language to learn. So really learning slang isn't all that important for me, but it is good for hearing how words are said though.

You're only 17 and is learning Japanese on your own for business purposes, that just sounds so not fun at all.. i used to say to my parents that I'm learning Japanese for that reason to before actually. But that was because i didn't want to admit to myself that i wanted to learn japanese just because it was the language of japan. And besides my parents would get angry at me for studying japanese instead of english for instance.

But I gues learning Japanese just because of business purposes is smart, but I don't understand how you are capable of doing that.

I'm gonna study Japanese so I can one day go to Tokyo and have no troubles communicating.

It pretty much is just used for a "victory" style in Japan. It doesn't carry the peace meaning at all.

Are you wapanese
 

hell ya:)
its kind of sad though that i want to be japanese so much. One of friends says i need to be more american and gets annoyed because thats all i talk about.:mtongue:

I don't wish I was Japanese (though I wouldn't mind...), and I certainly don't act Japanese. I just enjoyed the music, culture, art and history of Japan.

Though if people want to act Japanese then I don't see any problem with someone acting out a fantasy.

Yeah, I thought so. I think it's associated with Japanese more because they seem to use it more often in pictures and so on, but it didn't originate from Japan so I don't see why people are 'Wapanese' for using it.

Oh well xD

wapaneese like wigger is a made up/racist word and moronic there maybe some people who over do it but to call them such a vulgar word shows how hateful/uneducated person you are.

Coming from someone using "Otaku" in their username, which also carries a negative connotation.

"Wapanese" is a rather unnecessary term. That aside, the people who fall under said...hmm...stereotype (I suppose) annoy the Hell out of me. Personally, I'm a fan of the culture and the language and I have been for years, but even I get a little weirded out/amused by American girls running around with cat ears and a tail mewing all over everyone. The only ones that really piss me off are the ones who know literally nothing about the language but profess fluency.

same here, but some people are just like that.

Wapanese - is it wrong?
 

HAHAHA! How the hell did I miss this thread?! Arigatou gozaimasu kawaii ne, Crimson!

It looks like she's baking bread in those legwarmers :D

I don't think we should rule out lethal injection, or at least sterilization for this one...

wow..."this is how i season chicken"?

at least she has better dance moves than me...lol

Wha...?! :eek:

Is she supposed to be some kind of...er...Gothic Lolita Inuyasha or something? Normally I'd fetch my glasses for a better look, but my instincts tell me NOOOOOOOOO!!! Don't do it!!!

Plus, my husband is helpless on the floor. That's really all I need to tell me that this isn't something I want to look at...

:exballoon:

No I'm not.

I just happen to like most eastern Asian cultures.
AND I also just happen to be white. lol.

TheCrimson@ Ur so clever, darling. xD <3

im not sure whether to cry or laugh. XDD That woman is such a 'tard/ XD

Hahahahah! yeah I get ur point, Rei.
Seriously. That lady should.. find.. another hobby. >_<

I originally didnt want to post in here after seeing the topic but what the hell.

Normally, i hate terms like this because it a way it forces people to ostracize others and draws lines in the same. Its the same as giving a race a nickname normally labeling someone does not have good results. Also, i dont find this to be a real term anyway but the sake of the thread at hand i will answer.

No im not wapanese not even close. I do enjoy Japanese culture i like anything from history, mythology to tea ceremony and i do enjoy the occasional anime and Jdrama's. But Japan is not the only country on the planet i have interest in nor do think of it as perfection like some of the poor disillusioned souls we see around here. Japan has just as many problems as any other industrialized nation. Its not perfect and im tired of seeing portrayed as so around here it warps the younger members who come here for accurate information.

I stated this before if you have problem in your native country and you dislike yourself so much you wish you were Japanese chances are you wont be happy pretending to be something your not and the grass is not alway greener.

ok im done before i start ranting.

OMFG..........how much of a retard can one person be? (facepalm)

No. Mainly because I maintain a monthly subscription to "Reality", this fancy new way of looking at things my friends are so into.

I'm a stark white, American-looking American (who could've seen that coming?). I am not Japanese. The culture's mysterious, anime & manga's cool, and the music is good.

That, and if I'm going to write something in Japanese, I won't write it as, "Boku wa Nihon ga suki desu nee?".
Wait.
/sarcasm

Definately not a wapanese.

im hispanic and im proud of my culture. i just really appreciate and admire the japanese culture.

No, with a Manx, Texan and Cherokee heritage there is no way my appreciation of Japanese culture could squelch the rest of me. Besides there is comparable appreciation of Korean and Chinese cultures to compete for priority too.

I think my closer friends would agree that I am, and ever will be, a Westerner with a partially Asian soul.

Hell no, not Wapanese/Weebo.
The description of Weeboo in the link is pretty accurate by the way :rolleyes:

I Love Japan!This is a fact.

But my nation is Portugal and I Love it even more tha Japan.

So. No, I'm not a wapanese

Me too
Japan has a very interesting culture which fascinates me, and I would like to learn more about it.

It's not all that bad maybe doing a cosplay here and there or what have you, but some people can take it too far for their own good :(

I love my country more than Japan. Sometimes I can hate it, but doesn't everyone once in a while? lol You can't beat your home :)

So no, I'm not

no i'm not... I'M A REAL JAPANESE BOY!
hahahahahaha, I don't have to pretend.

but really... reading that article on the wikipedia-ish site was pretty sad.
those people need help.
srsly

Yes! Perhaps therapy.
Or establish the "Save the weebo/otaku foundation" :p
From chatting with friends from Japan, being an anime obsessed geek isn't considered cool. So foreigners who actually take pride in it should think twice.
Its like the equivalent to the (non-Japanese) comic book geeks here.