Hello, I have a little question. Here in Germany there are various dialects, some are even so terrible that I don't understand them properly. Is it the same in Japan? I can partially understand anime and japanese shows but I'd like to know if I can rely on my japanese skills when going there. thanks in advance for the answer :D

Konnichiwa Isley-san, Here's a bit on Japanese dialects: Yes, there are regional dialects in Japan, however, most people speak the hyojungo, which is the standard language so don't worry! You won't need to know them all to be able to communicate. Even most Tokyo-ite's don't know other dialects! Let me just say, it's not as bad as the Chinese language, where it's entirely a new language for each dialect!! Anyways, if you travel to Kyoto or Osaka, you'll definitely encounter a little change in the Japanese spoken there. It's called the *Kansai-ben* or _Kansai dialect_. :arrow: You'll notice that the endings to verbs in the *_polite form_ *is a bit different: *Suru* _"to do"_ Tokyo: *Saseru* or *Nasaru* Kansai: *Shiharu* *Iu* _"to say"_ Tokyo: *Ossharu * Kansai: *Iwaharu * or *Iiharu* *Taberu* _"to eat"_ Tokyo: *Meshiagaru* or *O-tabe ni naru* Kansai: *Tabeharu* *Miru* _ "to see"_ Tokyo: *Go-ran ni naru* Kansai: *Miharu* :arrow: Some Kansai-ben vocabulary *Dame* _"wrong"_ Kansai: _*akan*_, _*akimahen*_ (polite form) *Donna?/ Do?* _"how?"_ Kansai: _*Donai?*_ *Honto* _"true" "real"_ Kansai: _*Honma*_ *Ikura? *_"How much?"_ Kansai: _*Nanbo?*_

I don't know about that, but is anyone other than myself almost ditracted by Sayaka's kawaii accent? It's charming in English, but it's realy cute in japanese.

Well the whole thing with the dialects is kind of confusing me... Say I get extremely fluent because of Rocket Japanese... and I can understand tons of things, such as music and anime...Will this cause a problem when I go to Tokyo, Japan? :cry:

IDK, Assuming you have the premium plus lessons, (if you don't that's fine... I'm not here to pressure you into buying it). While Sayaka's accent is indeed かわいい！ ka wa i i ! I find that Yoshiko's accent from the premium plus lessons is もすこしかわいいです！ mo su ko shi ka wa i i de su ! Just for boredom's sake: よしこのアクセントはさやかのアクセントよりかわいいです。 yo shi ko no a ku se n to ha sa ya ka no a ku se n to yo ri ka wa i i de su. yoshiko no akusento wa sayaka no akusento yori kawaii desu. (Yoshiko's accent is cuter than Sayaka's accent.)... or so I attempted. デレック p.s. Only reason I spelled out the romajii that way is for your (possible) convenience. I noticed you used romajii to spell out kawaii so, if it helps you learn the hiragana I spaced them out so that in order you can see what each character represents... if you find it annoying or demeaning let me know and I won't do it again. （＾－＾）

[quo]*Quote from * K73SK Well the whole thing with the dialects is kind of confusing me... Say I get extremely fluent because of Rocket Japanese... and I can understand tons of things, such as music and anime...Will this cause a problem when I go to Tokyo, Japan? :cry:[/quo] Specifically tokyo... no, more than likely not. As rljapan said above the tokyo-ites use the standard japanese language for conversation. If you go to a kansai area, it still won't be too much of a problem as the people of that area (as I can imagine) can still speak the standard language, and possibly may even teach you the kansai dialect. Although this is all just my random speculation so I can't give you my guarantee that you aren't going to have problems.

I think the most ironic thing of all would be if Sayaka and Yoshiko were the same person just the different audio qualities make them sound different... Although in ALL honesty I think any Chick speaking Japanese is cute as... (no offense to Japanese women) most Japanese women purposely talk with a cute accent... So yeah... all awkwardness aside. -Derek p.s. sorry for triple post

Minnasan Konnichiwa! Great posts concerning dialects... Though I myself do have a somewhat Kansai-dialect, Yoshiko's is PURE Tokyo-ite, so I recommend you get the Premium Plus (as Derek-san has suggested)! And yes, we are two different Japanese girls.... Derek-san, Yoshiko-san appreciates your comment on her voice! :lol:

[quo]*Quote from * Sayaka Minnasan Konnichiwa! Great posts concerning dialects... Though I myself do have a somewhat Kansai-dialect, Yoshiko's is PURE Tokyo-ite, so I recommend you get the Premium Plus (as Derek-san has suggested)! And yes, we are two different Japanese girls.... Derek-san, Yoshiko-san appreciates your comment on her voice! :lol:[/quo] さやかさん、　こんにちは！ No offense to you though Sayaka, It really was a close call on which was the cutest. Although, really, I don't think the forums are meant to be used on the discussion of which native Japanese speaker and/or teacher in our lessons has the cuter voice... しまった！ I forgot to factor in Kenny and Taro's voices into the contest :lol: :P... (Tell me please if I used しまった！ correctly to contextually say "Oh Crap!" or something similar). All of that aside, I can only imagine that the dialects can't be TOO hard to pick up if you already know the standard japanese. Assuming you even need to pick up said dialects at all... それでは、まったじかい。 デレック

Derek-san, しまった！is used correctly!!! すごいです！ :lol:

I'm lost on who this yoshiko and taro person is :p

K73SK san! My apologies for the confusion... Yoshiko and Taro are the two native-Japanese who teach you Japanese in Rocket Japanese Premium Plus - our new additions to the Rocket Japanese team! :P

[quo]*Quote from * Sayaka Derek-san, しまった！is used correctly!!! すごいです！ :lol:[/quo] あぁーそうですか。。。 すごおいじゃないです！ (Aah, So I did get that right... It's not that impressive!) Note: Probably not best translated as "It's not that impressive!"... or is it? Regardless, さやかさん、was that one of my better attempts at Japanese styled humility? More or less I'm asking "Could I be humbler?"... if so how? どもありがとうございました！ デレック

Derek-san! The negative of *すごいです* _(sugoi desu)_ is *すごくないです* _(sugokunai desu)_. Also...*どもありがとうございました！* is missing the *う* - the correct way is *ど__う__もありがとうございました！* - :lol: Sayaka

[quo]*Quote from * Sayaka Derek-san! The negative of *すごいです* _(sugoi desu)_ is *すごくないです* _(sugokunai desu)_. Also...*どもありがとうございました！* is missing the *う* - the correct way is *ど__う__もありがとうございました！* - :lol: Sayaka[/quo] *facepalm* I hate it when I make silly mistakes...

デレックさん、 I believe... it's better to use and explore Japanese and even make mistakes along the way, than to play it safe, and never use it! So, デレックさんはすごいですよ！ :P

[quo]*Quote from * Sayaka デレックさん、 I believe... it's better to use and explore Japanese and even make mistakes along the way, than to play it safe, and never use it! So, デレックさんはすごいですよ！ :P[/quo] I know what you mean, just I still dislike it when I make a mistake... I won't avoid making mistakes as I won't know they are mistakes until I make them or unless I know such a mistake will help me get my point across to the other person.

Don't know whether this is a dialect issue or not but I bought this course for my twelve year old grand-daughter, who lives with us because my wife is Japanese and I speak Japanese and we want to take her with us when we visit Japan. I lived in Saitama ken for for many years and traveled extensively throughout Japan. I never had a language problem because of dialect from Hokaido to Okinawa except when those areas really went hogen on me. The issue that came up at my house was the use of "zehi". I vaguely recalled the meaning and my wife told our grand daughter to not pay any attention, she would not need it. We are older and even though we do try to go to Japan every year, we do not have much contact with the younger generation. Is the younger generation using words and terms that may not be used by the older generations?