Sarah676

My favorite Dickens novel would have to be Great Expectations. We read it in my year eleven English class and I loved it. I'm not overly familiar with the rest of his work - I've never read A Tale of Two Cities but I should check it out. I haven't read a good book in a while.

akasha24, it just depends on whether or not your version of Word follows American English or British English. "Color" is technically correct in America, while "colour" is technically correct in England, Australia, etc.

Hey, so I have a question. I'm currently learning Japanese, and I find myself unsure about the difference between "demo", "kedo" and "ga" (all words for "but"). Does anybody have a simple way to remember which is which, and in what context each word should be used?

Thanks so much for any help you can offer!

Oh, yes, I meant Chihiro. It really is the most visually-stunning animated film I've ever seen. I watch it maybe once every few months and I never get sick of it. I tried watching the dubbed version once though and I couldn't enjoy it - it was so weird hearing all the characters with American accents!

Hey, thanks for suggesting LiveMocha - it looks like they offer online pronunciation classes that might be good to try.

I don't know about the JPop thing... but maybe I should give it a go. At the very least, it will be funny to hear myself attempting to sing in Japanese. 

I'm originally from Australia, so I grew up using "colour", "favourite", etc. I'm currently going to college in the U.S. though, so I've had to get used to omitting the "u" from those words. Even though I've been here for almost a year now, I still prefer the look of the "colour" over "color". I think people generally just prefer whichever spelling they grew up with.

OP, I completely agree. I get so excited when I'm watching something in Japanese, and I'm able to understand small bits and pieces of what they're saying. The other day I was watching Spirited Away in the original Japanese, and I was amazed by how many small snippets of conversation I was able to understand. It really motivated me to keep learning!

Hi! I've been teaching myself Japanese for about a year now, and I've noticed that my reading/writing skills are substantially better than my speaking/listening skills. Since I'm learning by myself, I don't have any classmates/teachers who I can practice Japanese conversation with.

So my question is: Does anybody have any ideas for places I can go to practice Japanese conversation? For anybody who's been in a similar situation, what strategies have you used?

Thanks so much for any advice you can give!

Hi everyone! Just wanted to introduce myself. I'm currently teaching myself Japanese, and I love it, but it can be hard learning without a teacher. I've joined this forum because it seems like a good place to come for help and advice when I need it. So hi! Thanks for having me! :grin: