The Hairy Balls-Out: No Seriously, Get Them Shaved

[Mistral]

Aren't foreign names always written with katakana? Elin will correct me if I'm wrong, though.

Typically, but it depends. Zainichi Koreans tend to pick up local names because the xenophobia otherwise makes things very difficult, but they aren't really foreign, per se, except in their treatment by the state and people (most, if not all, were born in the country). Chinese people may also switch over from writing their names with hanzi to kanji for simplicity, but that's not really often, either.

Also, it was kinda funny when I actually tried to parse out how Nemi~ picked that particular kanji. That...kinda isn't really common name kanji.

Hello, happy face equals one-eyed happy face.

へ　へ
の　の
　も
　へ
Can't do the ji part large enough...

[Nemkoon]

Meh, je suis un peu fatiguée, parce que maintenant il est trois heures vingt en Écosse.

I don't really know that much french yet.
I only know Greetings/ saying good-bye, my age,how I'm feeling, and likes and dislikes.
Tu as quel age?

[Elin]

Aren't foreign names always written with katakana? Elin will correct me if I'm wrong, though.

You can take kanji if you really feel like it, but generally it's when you're applying for citizenship in Japan, or if you just want to show off. It's not like in Chinese where you kind of need to pick characters for your name simply because there's no other written system to represent it with. I generally think it's best for people not to dabble in kanji names when they're just starting out in Japanese simply because...um...you can make some reaaaally stupid errors if you don't know the meanings very well. :'D

I have a kanji name, though. My teacher suggested I take one because Eri is already a Japanese girls' name. 御園恵理 (Misono Eri / Eri Misono). The first name means something like "One blessed with reason". The second name I just picked for its phonetic closeness to my real second name.

[Elin]

"Lots" would be an exaggeration. But I've been studying at my own pace, reading about some grammar or learning a few kanji now and then. I'm fairly certain I should put a lot more effort into it to get serious results, but at the moment it's just something I do for fun.

It doesn't have to be painful to get you results. Maybe you'd be more productive if you were slamming five or six hours a day into it, but keep chipping away at it every now and then and you'll still make progress. That's all I really did.

[Nemkoon]

Apparently my Kanji name means a wise king who rules with mercy.
In katakana full name is スウェインジョン (Swain Jon)

[Nemkoon]

I love how an hour ago, I said I was going to play IS, but I'm still on

[Gare]

It doesn't have to be painful to get you results. Maybe you'd be more productive if you were slamming five or six hours a day into it, but keep chipping away at it every now and then and you'll still make progress. That's all I really did.

True enough. I got where I am right now with zero effort, not counting the whole "learning kana when I was in primary school" process. But honestly, the more I talk to you, the more motivated I get. So cheers for that, I guess.

[Gare]

Anyway, it's getting awfully late and I have stuff to do tomorrow. Later! <3

[Slacker Magician]

I love how an hour ago, I said I was going to play IS, but I'm still on

You mentioned something about food too, I think.

[Slacker Magician]

I love how an hour ago, I said I was going to play IS, but I'm still on

You mentioned something about food too, I think.

[Mistral]

Anyway, it's getting awfully late and I have stuff to do tomorrow. Later! <3

[Nemkoon]

You mentioned something about food too, I think.

I got food though .
Bye Gare.

[Nemkoon]

I feel like I want to go back into RPG maker 2k3. Anyone good at making sprites?

[Slacker Magician]

Anyway, it's getting awfully late and I have stuff to do tomorrow. Later! <3

Bye.

[Elin]

Oh, and you'll grow to love kanji. To the point where you'll wonder how you managed without them. There are generally no spaces in Japanese, so you learn to break up text according to kanji. When they're taken out of the equation, you suddenly find that your reading speed is completely crippled. I've tried playing old NES-era RPGs that are exclusively kana, and I honestly find it more difficult than modern ones that are full of complex kanji.

Once you've learned kanji, you'll also coast through vocabulary acquisition, since thousands of words can be acquired by simply sticking two or more characters together in (generally) logical structures. You'll also experience the cool phenomenon of reading and understanding words you've never seen in your life based solely on the kanji involved in them. :'D