Finally getting around to replying to all the mail from this thing... this
has been rather tiring to write- I'll probably write a couple more 'fun'
things between this and the next chapter, certainly.  But I will continue
it... I've already made the revisions that you all have sent in.  I should
have mentioned that I have one more source other than those listed in the
Author's Notes, and that's YOU, the reader.  I've learned a lot about the
language myself just from your replies, questions, and corrections.  Now,
on to replying to individual comments released to the FFML...

I must say I am very impressed. This is a fanfic with a true purpose, and
it's going to be not only an entertaining read, but an informative one.

I,

for one, am quite eagerly looking forward to the continuation of this
unique 'edutainment' series.

Again, this (while very rewarding) is rather tiring to write, so it'll be a
while, but I WILL continue it.  I'm probably biting off more than I can
chew- I can already see areas where I'll have trouble writing what certain
of the Japanese characters will be saying (argh- Ranma's dialect is going
to be frustrating to do- in fact, so are many other peoples, if I include
them), but I'll manage.  If some of the characters are out of character
because of the language... oh, well- that's one of the curses of writing
Edutainment...

And, because I feel that I have something to contribute to this effort,

and

especially given the enormity of what David is trying to accomplish here,

I

feel obliged to help out with a few things, such as proper romanization,
and comments on this and that point along the way.

Romanization IS going to be a problem for me, because a lot of what I'm
learning is audio-only, and so I don't have the romanizations myself unless
it's available with one of my other sources (and I can FIND it in one of my
other sources).  I do have several Japanese\English dictionaries on hand,
but I worry about using multiple sets of romanizations and that sort of
thing...

Before I begin, let me remind, as I always do when commenting on

something

related to proper Japanese usage, that my own skills in Japanese are both
very formative (ie, I'm not even anywhere close to fluent) and tend to

rust

when long periods of time pass in which I don't find time to practice or
continue lessons. I have, however, been at this for quite a while, and
believe I do know a few things that should be of use.

You're probably better than I am- I'm only learning a few lessons 'ahead'
of what I'm writing, myself- I figure that way, I won't lose touch as
easily with what I'm trying to teach.

However, in the likely event that I err, I would appreciate if someone

more

knowledgeable would correct me.

As I would me...

(C&C note/note to David: I'm not sure you should attempt to use
'hajimemashite' as a question. That's more of a greeting, IIRC.)

Agreed- a greeting for the first meeting.  The question mark was an
artifact of a previous draft- one of my prereaders, however, suggested I
use hajimeshite instead of Ogenki desu ka at that point, but I forgot to
change the question mark to a period.

ga wakari masu ka?"

Be very careful not to split what's supposed to be one word into two

words.

Anything that ends in 'masu' or 'masen' is usually a verb, and should be
romanized as a single word. 'masu' is not a copula, as in the case of
'desu'.

So in this case, correct romanization would be 'wakarimasu'.

I went through and fixed all of these that I caught... one bug with my
using an audio-only course (And being too impation to check the ACTUAL
romanization with the Japanese\English dictionaries)

Belldandy thought for a moment.  "You should know how to ask someone if
they can speak English, of course.  First, let's teach you the word for

the

English language...  Eigo.  [Ay goe]"

Pronunciation disagreement here. 'ei' has more of an 'ey' or 'eigh'

sound,

as in 'hey' or 'weigh', than an 'ay' sound, as in 'say' or 'pay'.

I made the fix, even though I don't hear any difference myself, regardless
of whether I'm pronouncing it clearly or not... still, you're probably
right.

Also, something very important to remember, although at this point, I

don't

know if David's going to be touching on this at a later time...

Japanese vowel sounds are (in theory, anyway) precise and clipped. When
speaking Japanese, you should take care to speak each syllable with the
same duration, not counting the nasal 'n' or vowel sounds which are
unvoiced (I'm sure that will come up MUCH later...)

A double vowel sound should be given exactly twice the duration of a

single

vowel sound, with only a few exceptions.

As it turns out, I AM planning to touch on this later.  I considered adding
it to this chapter, but it was getting rather long and I figured it would
add in to a different part of the fanfic smoother, anyway.

"Just so you know, the word for yes is 'hai [high (as in tall)]'"

"Hai," I replied.

(And as is frequently noted, 'hai' is NOT a general-purpose 'yes'. It's
both formal, and has numerous other uses, which usually involve

responding

to a sensei, or to a superior. When familiarity sets in, unless you have

a

peculiarity for mixing formal and informal speech--and this DOES happen

to

people; I know from personal experience--your best bet is to remind
yourself to say 'ee' instead of 'hai'.)

This is true, but any circumstance where you can use 'ee' you can also
figure a way around to saying 'hai.'  As it turns out, my mom lived in
Japan for more than a decade and never got into the habit of using 'ee'
without any problem.  Ee is less formal, however... but it'll come up in a
future lesson (5 or 6, if I recall correctly, but maybe it's cursorily
mentioned earlier than that...)

The rest of the comments I either made the change (if it called for one) or
don't really have anything to add.  In some cases, I don't think it's that
important to point it out at this stage (i.e., the 'desu' explanation), or
didn't know and have fixed, or this or that.  All in all, it has been
rather educational for me, as well- but then, that was the point of this
whole thing...
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