Japanese lesson 3

So by now you should be able to write hiragana and katakana correctly, right? The next step is realising that there are no spaces between words in Japanese. For example:
私は日本にきょねんの８月にからきました。
This is read as: ‘Watashi wa nihon ni kyonen no hachi gatsu ni kara kimashita’ which means ‘I came to Japan in August last year.’
As you can see, it is a mix of hiragana, kanji and numbers. Also, you sometimes get katakana in there as well. For example:
私はニュージランド人です。This reads as ‘watashi wa nyu geerando jin desu’, which means ‘I am a New-Zealander.’
In that example there is kanji, hiragana and katakana. And these are just simple sentences. So before you can read anything, you really need a fairly large vocab just to be able to figure out where one word stops and the next one starts!

Also, in order to be able to read the newspaper, you have to know at least 1000 kanji. That is a little bit beyond me at the moment. Hell, I still struggle with bus time tables and easy stuff that 3 year olds can read.

Ah well, talking is a lot easier. People are pretty forgiving when you try to talk to them. I had a 10 minute conversation with a taxi driver about the differences between NZ and Japan and few months ago and although he didn’t speak any English and I hadn’t exactly been doing a lot of study at that point, we had a really good chat.
Speaking of study, I have been doing quite a bit lately and have really noticed an improvement. The other day at an elementary school, I had no trouble talking to the kids while we were playing outside at lunchtime, and this old woman at a bus-stop last week wouldn’t shut up when I answered her in Japanese – and I haven’t figured out how to say ‘stop talking to me’ yet! So I am thinking of taking the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) in December. There are 4 levels (4 being easiest and 1 hardest). I am looking at level 3, where you have to be able to carry out a conversation and know 800 kanji. I reckon I’m up to the challenge.

Sorry, got a little off track. Back to the language lesson:
The best thing to do is carry a dictionary around. My cell phone has one built in which has saved my ass a few times, and you can also get electronic dictionaries which fit in your pocket. Or, if you are ordering food pretty much anywhere in Japan, just point to the picture and say ‘kore’ (core-reh). That is about all you need to get around!