Learning Japanese, how do you guys do it?

[sj33]

By 'i' I meant い　i.e the proper kana. I dunno if you've done kana yet, but understand that 'ri' is り. This is one of the many complications that romaji causes, and why it should be obliterated from the face of the earth.

So 'benri' is actually べんり, whereas the awkward 'kirei' is きれい. The key difference being the latter ends with the い kana, whereas the former does not.

[noobish hat]

words they stole from other, better languages, then mangled until unrecognisable.

[jamesy]

haha nice description of a loan word there. I've noticed a fair bit of that kinda thing actually.

I see what you're saying there when you talk about "i". I have learned kana btw. Dunno how to type them tho so just pretend for now these are hiragana. :P You mean that benri actually ends in "ri" rather than "i". That's kinda the point i was getting at. You can't chop the syllable in half so it must be an "na" adjective.

Am I following correctly?

[sj33]

My memory fails me, but I assume べんり is a 'な adjective'. I've personally not came across an 'い adjective' that ends with anything but an い (though as I say, there are a few 'な adjectives' that end with い such as きれい, but they're few in number).

So basically, assume an adjective that ends with い is an 'い adjective', and just memorise the few exceptions like きれい。

[jamesy]

OK cheers for the help. Now i just gotta go learn them...

[noobish hat]

the point is that they are called na and i-adjectives because you need to add that mora to the word, so technically very few i-adjectives end with an i before you add it.

[sj33]

^That's a kinda complicated way of viewing it though isn't it? Because you generally do use い adjectives with the trailing い、wheras you only use the な in certain situations (such as describing a noun) . That's why the な doesn't appear in the dictionary but the い　does.

[kryss]

便利（べんり） and 綺麗（きれい) only end "i" when they're not written with their kanji. i-adjectives ALWAYS end い as that is how they change form when used as adverbs, past-tense, etc.

[sj33]

^Thanks for that, I do not know the kanji for those adjectives, so that clears things up for me a bit.

[kryss]

The difficult one is remembering which -る verbs are ichidan and which are godan.

[jamesy]

Hi, back to stress people out again.
Just wondering where I can get initial D manga. I mean the originals in japanese, not the translated versions. I dunno if it'll help me learn much but it'll at least make me maybe remember a few words rather than just lists in text books.

Cheers!

[kryss]

You could order it direct off Amazon.co.jp, they'll deliver books to the UK.

I'd recommend something more everyday, like School Rumble or Love Hina. I don't know about Initial D, but some manga doesn't have furigana and unless you're REALLY good at reading kanji you'll be wanting it.

[jamesy]

hmm i'll have to look in to it then. Was asking about initial d mainly as it's the only anime i'm really into. I'll check out some of your suggestions tho. thanks.

[kryss]

I could probably find some cheap secondhand stuff if you want me to.

[jamesy]

If you don't mind like that'd be great. Anything would do really if its quite cheap.