Originally Posted by MMM (Post 290748)

Yes. Though in retrospect, 「方」　would have been better than 「者」. I think it was the end of a long day when I first posted.

There is no way to learn Japanese properly without learning the written language.

ふ　is not FU and is not HU.

ら、り、る、れ、ろ　is not RA, RI, RU, RE, RO

With a little practice, you can SEE the different pronunciation.

Long vowels, small っ , these are all things that must be learned to be spoked and heard.

Originally Posted by Harold (Post 290753)

Ugh.. that's one of the things I don't get about Japanese: So many words for one thing (人、者、and 方). Well, depending on the language you're coming from, RA, RI, RU, RE, and RO are pretty close. I know that, in Spanish, the Rs are close. The English R is just an ugly letter.

I'm glad that my mom made me bilingual with Spanish.. It gives an advantage to Japanese vowel pronunciation over a regular English speaker. :)

Originally Posted by MMM (Post 290748)

Yes. Though in retrospect, 「方」　would have been better than 「者」. I think it was the end of a long day when I first posted.

Originally Posted by Nyororin (Post 290901)

者 instead of 方 didn`t bother me much - but saying 日本語*を* instead of 日本語*の* in this case just sounds weird to me.

Originally Posted by mmm (Post 291053)

「日本語がわかる人」はどうですか。

Originally Posted by kuroisaiyajin (Post 290760)

I hear japanese is easier for native english speakers than it is the other way around, but it's hard for me to witness this first hand. I haven't caught on, but in informal japanese are there different ways to say the same thing, like with MMM's example of "Let's meet up?" I'm aware of different verbal conjugations, but what about completely different words that could potentially lead to the same thought.

Originally Posted by kuroisaiyajin (Post 291650)

I don't know if I can be honestly, I'll try to research it a bit if I ever get around to it, but I'll probably forget the whole thing in a day or two.