this is the old way of using the bot, but the bot will tell you how to send messages to us

please use /feedback <your message> in the bot

an example

/feedback please post more kanji

please don't use /feedback@LearnJapaneseBot, the bot can now handle it, but you'll only get a message telling you to use the /feedback <your message> format

I just found out that I can't answer you through the bot, I'll go about fixing that tomorrow (it's kind of late where I am, and I do need to sleep from time to time), and then do some updates

just to be clear, I do get your messages, I just can't answer you through the bot

English has this thing where some nouns become verbs, like access, it was something you got, not something you did, Japanese has a very direct way of doing this, you add します or する (informal) after a noun, for example

勉強［べんきょう］means "Study" or "studies", but not "to study"

To say "to study", you say 勉強する［べんきょうする］which is kind of like saying "to do studies

if you want to contact us, please use the bot like this

/feedback please post old content again so new subscribers can see it without having to scroll back

don't use /feedback alone!

we had to update our bot's server, and we've been having some problems, with it, the bot will be down for the next 48 hours (starting on 2020-02-05 8:00 CST and ending on 2020-002-07 8:00 CST)

Our bot still had some problems... but we have been getting your messages

I was planning on doing a summary of some beginner's books, like the Japanese From Zero, and some Kanji

Hello... it's been a while, I think most of the problems with the bot have been fixed

use

/ping message text goes here

to send us a message,

I was laid off, and am currently looking for a job, but if I don't manage to get a job, I'll focus on university, and in my spare time (the time I would spend at work) I'll see if I post more often, I think what I intended on my last posting streak was about right (going "back to basics" for everyone who didn't join when the channel was first created)

I'll see if I start with the kana and some simple sentences

I'm particularly interested in "normal sounding" japanese, so I'll go through something like this
私の名前はマリアです "my name is María" -> textbook example, people don't talk like this
マリアと申します "I'm María" -> natural (formal, ok for business setting)
マリアです "I'm María" -> natural (formal, maybe not ok for business setting)

I'll go more in-depth next those examples, so I didn't add kana readings for that, consider that simply an announcement

just another heads up, previously I tried to post around 3 times a week, and that wasn't sustainable for me, because of work, university, etc.

I'll see if I post updates once a week, or once every two weeks, when I do post, it will be on weekends, most likely Saturdays

I'm also seeing about archiving some posts in a website, I'll mention further details about this later

I also got some requests for voice/audio content, so I'm considering it, but I'm not making any promises (at least not right now) regarding this

alright, I'm going to start on some of the content I'm going to be posting soon, I had been busy with interviews, and college, because it was re-started this week (with remote lessons, but still gotta wake up early, and work on assignments), I'm going to mention this repeatedly, but I'm particularly interested in reading and understanding Japanese, I'm personally not that interested in speaking it, but I think learning all 4 things (reading, writing, talking and listening) is important to really learn, so the content I will be posting will be focused on reading/understanding sentences

for the grammar, I think it's better to learn how to say a few things before focusing on the grammar, but what I'll do might seem like it's studying grammar

and if you want to learn a language (any language), you have to take time everyday to practice/study

自己紹介 [じこしょうかい] "Self-introduction"

you might see something like this in a textbook

こんにちは、私の名前は佐藤です、初めまして。 [こんにちは、わたしのなまえはさとうです、はじめまして。] Hello, my name is Satou, nice to meet you

(note that Satou is a surname, it's normal for Japanese to use surnames, at least in Japanese, if you spoke in English, they will probably say their given name instead)

this is formal, and technically it is grammatically correct, but no one would speak like this, it's unnatural

more naturally, they might say

こんにちは、佐藤です、初めまして。 [こんにちは、さとうです、はじめまして。] Hello, my name is Satou, nice to meet you

if it was a business situation, they might say that they're from so-and-so company, for example, for an imaginary company named "Sakana Corp"


こんにちは、サカナコーポレーションのさとうです、初めまして。 [こんにちは、サカナコーポレーションのさとうです、はじめまして。] Hello, I am Satou, from Sakana Corporation, nice to meet you

or

こんにちは、サカナコーポレーションの佐藤と申します、初めまして。 [こんにちは、サカナコーポレーションのさとうともうします、はじめまして。] Hello, I am Satou, from Sakana Corporation, nice to meet you

they might hand you a business card in a business situation (and you really, really want to treat the card with the utmost respect, per Japanese business manners, you should receive it with both hands, not just one, and put it in a holder)

if you were among friends (like meeting a friend's friend), it might go like this


佐藤です、初めまして。 [さとうです、はじめまして。] Hello, I'm Satou, nice to meet you

or

佐藤だ、初めまして。 [さとうだ、はじめまして。] Hello, I'm Satou, nice to meet


that last one is informal

remember you can message me with the bot, like this

/ping <your message>

for example

/ping do you like No Game No Life?

(I do like No Game No Life)

I spent way more time than I thought doing some digital house cleaning, and I got into re-watching some stuff, I'll post some stuff tomorrow, but it will normally be on Weekends

the messages you send to the bot are sent to me, so if you're going to send something, make it a message, don't just send a single word, or the name of the bot

I'll post something in a bit, I was checking out some things that I may add to the channel/bot, but that'll be for later, if at all, so last time we did 自己紹介 [じこしょうかい] "Self-introductions"

so I was thinking of doing some sentences that you might use "more often" than that (because you really only say something that includes 初めまして[はじめまして] once)

so we'll go with saying things like "could you say that one more time?", and "I didn't understand that too well, but I think it's so-and-so, is that right"?