Rambling in Japanese
Posted by: kirin on 
Nov 3rd, 2009 | 
Filed under: Learn Japanese, rambling
Hi! I’ve uploaded a new video for trial that is just rambling in English and Japanese with some additional pop-ups for your better understanding. I was thinking if I can tell you how to speak casual Japanese between friends, for example, in such style of video. Tell me what you think.
If you liked it, I made a longer one (never mind my repeating introduction of myself, which is for the people who come from Youtube.) with more rambling in Japanese.
These videos are samples to see if they are helpful for you or not. So please let me know what you think. I’d welcome your suggestions to make better videos in the future. 
Thank you.
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November 3rd, 2009 at 3:55 pm
あっ、日本語のビデオが面白いですよ～ でもちょっと質問があります。きりんさんにとって、ほかの人は（外国人かどうか関係ないかもしれませんけど）日本語でブログして、ビデオを作って、どっちがいいのですか？タメ口？です・ます調？
だからね、他人の皆に話してるから、タメ口は、あたしが「これは失礼かな？」と思ってます、時々。セレブのは違うかもしれない、ファンの皆に近そうためですからね。でも普通の人、どっちがいいのでしょう？
あたしにとって、今タメ口のほうが易しくなってしまいました。だらかです・ます使うとちょっと不安になって、「これが本当に大丈夫かな」とよく悩んでるのです（＾＾；）
I wanted to try out my Japanese here, and hopefully it’s understandable, but I’ll translate anyway just in case my meaning is not clear:
The Japanese videos are interesting! But, I have a question. For you, when other people (foreigners or not doesn’t matter really) write blogs in Japanese or make videos, which do you think is better? informal? formal?
Because it’s speaking to strangers, as far as informal goes, sometimes I think “is this rude?” It’s probably different for celebrities, since they want to seem close to their fans. But for normal people, which is better?
For me, using informal has become easier (unfortunately). So when I use (standard – I’m fairly bad with 敬語 still) formal Japanese I become unsure and worry “does this sound right?” (^^;)
I can’t remember if I’ve commented before but I’ve been following your blog for a while now. Sorry to be a lurker and suddenly appear with a long comment like this!
過去でコメントしていたかどうか覚えてないけど、何ヶ月前にこのブログの読者になっていました。何も言わなくて急に長いコメントにするのはすみませんね！
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:13 pm
おおぅ！ありがとう☆
Thanks for making this. It really is a struggle, once you get to a certain point when learning struggle, once you get to a certain point when learning a new language. Just when you think you've gotten the reading and writing down、 you try to speak and…"????" Its impossible!（笑）
ありがとう、キリンさん！
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:32 pm
そして、キリンさん。Not boring at all. I feel that it is really helpful to listen to you speak.(even if rambling！笑）
Also, Would you like to exchange email? I need the help T wT
November 4th, 2009 at 1:40 am
長いコメント、全然ＯＫですよー！全然気にしないで～★＾＾日本語上手ですね。意味は分かりますよ。でも英語も書いてくれたから、さらに意味がハッキリ分かったし、他の読者にも伝わるのがありがたいです。（Too long comments are rejected by the system, and so let me split my comments. I wonder why yours were accepted.)
November 4th, 2009 at 1:40 am
さて、質問内容ですが、だいたいの日本人は不特定多数の人が見に来るであろうブログやビデオは、丁寧語を使って書くと思いますよ。（ですます調のことね）っていうのはそれが無難だし、やっぱりそれが一般的だからだと思います。
November 4th, 2009 at 1:40 am
でも、例えばFacebookとかMyspaceとかTwitterとかでお友達限定で見せるような内容ならタメ語でＯＫなんじゃないかと、私は思います。でも、外国人ががんばって日本語で書いているのに、タメ口だから変とか思わないし、だいたいの日本人はきっとそれをほほえましく思いますよ！＾＾だからあまり気にしなくていいんじゃないかな？がんばって！＾＾
November 4th, 2009 at 1:41 am
Never mind leaving me a long comment, that's OK with me! Your Japanese is good and understandable, but English translation helped me or other readers' for better understanding, and I appreciate that.
In reply to your question, I'd say most of Japanese people like to write or speak in polite way when we blog or make videos because that's the place for anyone to visit. It's safer and normal to use polite Japanese in such places, but when it comes to Facebook, Myspace or Twitter that are only open for your friends, it's OK to use impolite and casual Japanese, I guess.
November 4th, 2009 at 1:48 am
Thank you for your comments, and also for following the system which doesn't accept too long comments. (I don't think yours or mine are long enough, but Japanese letters may be counted double as many as English alphabets.) Oh, good you are not bored… :p
Please feel free to write to me anytime. I'm always welcome you! You know you can do that from CONTACT page (http://tokyokawaiietc.com/contact) where you find my contacting email address. Catch you later, Nicole! こちらこそ、ありがとうね。＾＾
November 4th, 2009 at 5:08 am
I think videos posted with casual Japanese would be pretty neat! I don't know enough standard Japanese right now though to understand much though. I like that you added the pop ups.
I don't know of anyone who has tatami here. Most people have carpet, tile, or wooden floors. I like wooden best (but tile/laminate for kitchens and bathrooms) because carpet can get very dirty easily.
November 4th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Hmmm.. Interesting video! I'm actually studying the language and writing system on my own with just my textbooks, that is when I'm not lazy or when I'm free. Most of the time it's because of the former, so my progress is basically quite slow. XD Studying it is made a bit easier as I used to watch anime a lot and listen a lot to Japanese songs, always download the oricon top chart. There's 1 thing I wanna ask you by the way, can you tell me what 「」means? Like in this song titled 「ミィ」 by Misono. I thought I would ask you about it as I'm preoccupied with studies at the moment (and lazy.. XD) to browse through my textbooks.. =D
November 4th, 2009 at 11:23 am
「」is the same as " " and that means title or what's spoken. In the Misono case, I think it's a title of the song.
BTW I found 3 of your comments that looked the same, so I published one of them only, OK?
(Sometimes the system is strange, and sorry for that.) :p
November 4th, 2009 at 11:45 am
Oh, some error there. I'm not sure whether it's submitted already or not so I press again and again.. haha.. xD Thanks for telling me that..
November 4th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Very good video:) , I understood some of the japanese phrases you said on it ^^ I’m learning japanese language ( writing and speaking ) from 6 months by my own , may be studying is noteasy for me because my native language is Arabic and there is lack of lessons in the net or books that explain grammer , rules, or phrases using my language ^^but any way I will do my best to be good in japanese
I hope my english is understandableT-T ,, Thank you for the post .. I hope I can add additional comments later
November 4th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
I like it! It's nice that you always write the translations in Japanese/English, that's really helpful.
I was surprised how expensive it is to renew tatami!
November 5th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Thank you for answering my question. I thought Tatami was getting popular in western culture because of Japanese zen style. But it sounds not as much as I thought. :p
How is your Japanese? I think it's good that you understood much of what I spoke in the video. Keep it up and がんばって！ :)
November 5th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Thank you for your visit and comment here. I think you are my first Arabic person who exchanged messages! Wow! I don't understand anything of your language, and I've never visited any Arabic countries ever before. That's still a mysterious part of the world to me, although I am very curious about it.
Your English is good and I can understand with no problem. BTW, when you say 19 years old in Japanese, that's じゅうきゅうさい(Jyukyusai) instead of じゅうくさい as in your blog. And that's when you speak, but when you write it down, you do it as 19歳 or 19才 and do not use hiragana or katakana. Just number plus sai in kanji.
All the best for your study.
November 5th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Thank you! I'm glad you liked pop-ups too.
It'll be 1.5 times or double more expensive if we order Tatami without the cloth around the edge of it, because they say finishing the edge with Tatami only without the cloth takes more time and labour.
November 6th, 2009 at 8:55 am
How much money would an average college philosopher make?
November 7th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
Happy to be one of the first Arab person who exchanged massages here ^^
Thank you very much for correcting my mistake , I thought that we can use the two words く and きゅう as 9 when talking about age -_- Thanks again for your explaination ^_^
November 8th, 2009 at 12:33 am
畳についてアメリカまでも買えますがかなり高いです。私なら畳が好きですので少し調べておきました。１畳は１００＄以上らしいです。後は運賃や部屋を建て直すことなどありますので。。。でも、いつか和室欲しいですよ。畳はきれいし畳で歩くのは気持ちし。
Even in America, you can buy Tatami, but it's pretty expensive. I happen to like tatami, so I did a bit of searching. It seems that each mat tends to cost over 100$. And there's still the delivery fees, and remodeling the room, etc… However, I'd like to have a tatami-room someday. I think tatami is beautiful, and it feels good to walk on them.
November 8th, 2009 at 10:21 am
I'm sorry I don't know that.
November 8th, 2009 at 10:30 am
No problem at all, Batool.
You're right, 9 has 2 ways of pronunciations but in this case, only "kyuu" is used. 9, 29, 39, 49…all the same. kyuu, nijyukyuu…
November 8th, 2009 at 10:38 am
Thank you for sharing the info. From US$100/1Jo is almost the same as here in Japan. 畳の上を裸足で歩くのは確かに気持ちいいね！＾＾ 私は畳の（いぐさの）香りも好き！でも時間が経つとなくなってしまうけれどね。。。If you try "okidatami" or a very thin, small, light Tatami that you can easily put on the floor, take it away and store somewhere when you don't use it, that's easier. In Japan, many young people do not like Tatami room but they like to have "okidatami" to enjoy casual Tatami space only when they want to.
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