Ooops, i helped her choose that name as well.
I'm not sure if i want to tell her or not, she'll either get really embarressed or....she'll just kill me

"Ai" is also a (girls') name itself. It also means "indigo", and is a prefix meaning "joint" or "together", as well as "love". And it's how they pronounce the English word "eye".

Japanese is fun! Not to mention horribly complicated.

My 18 month old daughter has a Japanese name
I spent a long time looking up meanings for her 2nd name and I found one I liked!

Sakura is her first name, which we all know means cherry blossom.
Natsu is her 2nd name, one of the meanings I found was "born in summer", which she was (August).
I did find some other meanings for Natsu but I stick with mine!

BTW Chater_Mage, Ai_Yuri can just be taken for it's nice meaning of Love and lily the flower, so it can mean love of lilies or flowers I guess, so I wouldn't worry

Japanese really is complicated, i hope to learn it, but after studying French for five years and not getting much further than Bonjour i don't think i reall have a knack for languages.


Sakura Natsu, your daughter has a really beautiful name, if i have kids at some point in my life then i am defiantly going to call them either a name from a anime or just a really nice japanese name.

And yeah, i think i will just keep the meaning as love of lilies and i havn't decided whether i will tell my sister the alternate meaning yet

I hate languages, English is hard enough
I'll just stick to picking up Japanese as I watch anime. I remember more Japanese words and short phrases that way than I ever would with books!
I would LOVE to learn Japanese but I know I have no knack for languages either and my brain is a mass of fog these days

I know languages is my worst subject, when i did my GCSE's french was the only subject i got below a C for, i remember when i came out of the exam everyone was talking loudly and smiling about how easy the exam had been while i was there just hoping i had got at least one right with the guess work i had put into practise.

Japanese is one of those difficult languages where they have set phrases and they mix up where words are supposed to be placed in a sentence, so i guess alot of it is to do with how good your memory is....mine not being very good.
I hope i can pick up some from anime, i feel like it almost sinks in but not quite, i've got a few good words and phrases from a book i have but i'm not always quite sure how to say the words and it's really a case of memorising it time and time again and hoping one of the times it will sink in.

I think my brain is less full of fog and more full of squiggles, because i always seem to always be thinking of too many things at the same time.

Reminds me of "the ai's have it" on Nadesico (when Ruri was playing a mah-johngg video game).

There's a free Japanese language class at uni, my friend and I meant to go together but each week only one of us could ever make it. It was just a really awkward time and place, so we ended up just not going (not to mention the fact that actually concentrating on work relevant to finals became more important). I also got this "learn Japanese now!" CD-ROM from PC World about three years ago, and I still haven't had time to get past the "konnichi wa, sensei" lesson.

I've taken Japanese as an evening class for two years, and with that and the anime I've watched, I could probably buy stuff, order food, and launch giant robots without any issues (I hope).

As for definitions on Yuri, Yaoi, Shoujo-ai, etc, I found <a href="http://www.animenation.net/news/askjohn.php?id=1037" target="_blank">this</a> which you might find useful...

Rather than a phrase book, get a little gem Japanese dictionary, it tells you how to pronounce certain things. For instance there is one way to pronounce each vowel which makes it easier to say words, plus like German you pronounce each letter. Which is why I find it so comical when a non Japanese word is spoken in anime and it sounds weird! I can pronounce Japanese words well but that's about it!! Although the only thing I was ever praised on in languages in school was my pronounciation. (BTW I got 26% in French and 36% in German - agh ).



Many thanks. Found it quite interesting!
It's like any language I guess! I mean the real definition of "gay" is happy and jolly

Useless piece of info! The main character in Urotsukidoji Amano Jaku translates as perversion, so I guess his name suits him perfectly

I think i wanted that CD-ROM, but instead i got a cd which was pretty rubbish, it would have been better if i could have actually heard the words they were saying more clearly, the book that came with the cd was better though it confused me when i compared it to another book i have and some of the words etc were different (i didn't know which ones to say).


Yeah i thought i should get a English-Japanese dictionary, theres a little one in the back of the phrase book but it's pretty useless, none of the words i want are ever in it, so i either forget about it or use a internet dictionary.

Ah! Rurouni H, your another person that is from cornwall that i'v seen here....and there was me thinking i was the only person in cornwall who liked anime (well it always seems that way).

If you're looking for a good(ish) dictionary, this one <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/2831571243/qid=1110221374/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/202-8756359-2127833" target=_blank">right here</a> is excellent as it has the words written in both romaji and the kanas/kanji (and it has the pronounciation table in the front). Happily, there is a definition for anime .



I think Cornwall generically has a lack of anime fans, although all of my friends are amazingly (I'm not sure whether thats my fault or not). Actually Charter_Mage, if you want to take some Japanese lessons, there are some going on in Truro College as evening classes...

Wow, this thread is rapidly going off topic.

Yes i will consider ordering that dictionary unless i can find it in my local book shop or maybe at Ottakars.

Cornwall doesn't seem to have many anime fans, there were none at my school (or maybe there were loads but they all just keep it very secret) but then i didn't exactly shout about it to everyone. It's just frustrating when you have no friends who you can share something you love with(mine generally just laugh or act really, really uninterested if i bring up the subject).
I would really like to go to those Japanese lessons at Truro college, i'm just not sure if it's to far away, and i would probably be well behind the rest of the class.

It doesn't matter if we are going off subject because i am in the process of downloading the first episode now, so i can bring the subject back up once i've watched it.

I've been taking classes in Japanese for two years now, and am really enjoying it. I've learnt a lot more Japanese in that time than I ever learnt French or German at GCSE; I've learnt a lot about English as well. Just don't talk to me about kanji for a few more years...

I would caution people against learning Japanese because of their anime hobby, though. It'd take a heck of a lot of time and effort to be able to read manga/watch anime in Japanese, and it really wouldn't be worth it just for that. Not to put off anyone that wants to learn the language for its own sake, though, which can be a lot of fun.

I would say you probably learned Japanese better than French and German because you want to learn it, as i'm sure would be the case for myself because i frankly couldn't care about French in school what with having to spend half of the lesson trying to dodge flying rubbers and books etc and also you generally care less when it's something your being made to learn.

I really want to learn Japanese not so much to watch anime or read manga (really i'm happy with anything i can get over here) but because i love Japan and because i would love to visit and just because it would be cool to know the language.

Also to bring the original topic back up, i have just now watched the first episode of Sukisyo. I am happy to say i really enjoyed it, i was both amused and intrigued and look forward to watching the relationship between the main characters progress (if thats the word i'm looking for), and also find out more about these alter egos.

It gets better and better and so damned funny!
Episode 6 is one to watch out for where character relationships are concerned - if you know what I mean