<p>If so, what kind of stuff are you doing?</p>
<p>I independent-studied it for a year, learned ~40 kanji and could understand like "sakana ga arimasen no de atashi wa sakana-ya ni ikimasu" (is that even right??), and then I decided to concentrate on other languages instead because Japanese is so hard. :rolleyes:. I watched a lot of anime.</p>
<p>"sakana ga arimasen no de atashi wa sakana-ya ni ikimasu"</p>
<p>Almost. It's "watashi," not "atashi." You could also replace "no de" with "kara."</p>
<p>We have Japanese immersion school system in our city. So kids can learn Japanese when they were in elementary school, and that continues to highschool. Isn't that freaky (in good way)? But I'm not in that system. Who needs it if you were in Japan for like 13 years:)</p>
<p>Yeah It's been mandatory at my school since I was in 3rd grade (weird, i know.......) So yeah! Im going to be a senior next year taking AP Japanese (the first year such an AP test is available). And yes, I live in America, Texas to be precise (even weirder!) and I'm white.
and about that atashi thing...it's officially spelled watashi in romaji, but it's sometimes pronounced much more like atashi--try it--it almost sounds like there's a W there..</p>
<p>Watashi wa jane desu</p>
<p>itchi ni san shi
(itchy knee, sun, she)</p>
<p>I took jap for 1 semester in 9th grade. and that's all i remember.</p>
<p>I've been studying Japanese as my foreign language for the past 3 years of HS. It's really rigorous where I come from. The teachers are crazy. -<em>- I'm doing AP Japanese next year. We studied a LOT of grammar, tons of kanji, and a mind-numbing amount of vocabulary. I'm so glad it's almost over...;</em>;</p>
<p>I've been wanting to start self-studying it, and I've been checking out the Japanese section at about.com . Do you guys have any resources you'd recommend for someone wanting to start self-studying the language through interent resources?</p>
<p>i've taken two years so far (i'm a rising junior) and plan to take 2 more</p>
<p>I took japanese for 4 years during High School.
Jashper: First thing you need to learn: Katakana and Hiragana.
Here's a book you could buy for self study: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0887274331/sr=8-1/qid=1150786793/ref=sr_1_1/104-2421813-6019906?%5Fencoding=UTF8%5B/url%5D">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0887274331/sr=8-1/qid=1150786793/ref=sr_1_1/104-2421813-6019906?%5Fencoding=UTF8</a>
If you live in LA, there's a shop at little tokyo. they sell the book for $30. half the price what you see on amazon.</p>
<p>Watashi wa Michael desu</p>
<p>I went to Japan for the summers of k-4</p>
<p>Did you guys take JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test)? It's harder than the SAT II but a better indicator of Japanese ability.</p>
<p>I've taken Japanese outside of school for 3 years now...it's a fascinating language.</p>
<p>"atashi" is a feminine way of saying "watashi"</p>