How much Japanese do you know?

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4 Answers

Didge Doo Profile
Didge Doo answered

Not a lot.

I know that although chotomate kudasai  is a very polite way to ask somebody to wait a moment, choto-bloody-mate works just as well. And it's faster.

I know that if you can't pronounce do itashimashite, "don't touch my ashtray" will get the message across.  And "Monday night" is a fair substitute for mondai nai, which means "no problem".

And I know that if you can't be bothered with the whole rigmarole that follows O genki desuka? You can get away with saying "Pretty genki, thanks."

And I figure that, while yosh is the Japanese word for "OK", yoshi doshi  must be close enough for  "okey dokey". 

And I know that the closest you can get to my name in Nihon-go is Ebanzu, which sounds surprisingly like "Evans". (The final 'u' is silent.)

But of course, I'm only a gai jin so I'm scarcely an authority. >:-/

Of course, that's all written in Romaji. I wouldn't have a clue how to write it in Hiragana or Katakana, much less Kanji.

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Didge Doo
Didge Doo commented
Yoshi is a fairly common male name in Japan. I think the -ko suffix means "child of" and is fairly common in female names. She wouldn't mind either way. :)
Tris Fray Potter Profile

I've learnt it since grade 5, but I'm not close to fluent.  I can read and write all hiragana and katakana, and I can recognise about 30 kanji.  I know a LOT of verbs, and basic sentence structures.  My friend can speak fluent Japanese, as she lived there until she was 12, and she speaks it at home.

Sheldon  Cooper Profile
Sheldon Cooper answered

Tora tora tora ,

That's it .

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Rooster Cogburn
Rooster Cogburn commented
Yep ! Just played Pearl Harbor on the PC the other day ! I got a bunch of my fighters in the air though ! No match for the Zero but great against the dive bombers and torpedo planes !
Sheldon  Cooper
Sheldon Cooper commented
Platoon and full metal jacket
Are my other few favs
N Forrest Gump-
Rooster Cogburn
Rooster Cogburn commented
Each has a little truth in them but the rest is just fiction.

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