Do Japanese letters work as full words AND separate letters?

[Zeromus_X]

Foreign words and names are only transliterated into katakana, they can never be in kanji (only native Japanese names are written in kanji). You would have to use one of those combinations entirely in katakana to transliterate your name. I'd go with アムンセン personally.

[JKTrix]

Also, the Japanese lessons in particular can be a bit confusing when they keep varying the pronunciation of what I believe to be "sukoshi" (a little) and others: The speaker keeps on chaning his or her mind as to whether they're gonna pronounce the "u" and the "i".

It might be confusing, but it's not incorrect. Pimsleur uses native Japanese speakers for their examples, and they speak how a Japanese person would.

You *can* pronounce the 'i's and 'u's at the end of each word, and Japanese people would probably think it's cute because you're a foreigner trying to speak their language. There are situations where you vocalize the last sound, and some where you don't. In Pimsleur, they give you an idea of it so if you do listen to native Japanese people, you can tell when it happens.

Like the word 'Desu'. You can say 'Desuuuuu' (exag.), and people will understand you. But most times, folks just say 'Dess'. Fully pronouncing a word seems to be viewed as very formal, or very femenine. It's all about ease of speech.

Some of them have rules where you can only use a particular pronounciation when used with a certain thing (kind of like the "I before E except after C" rule in English). To take the 'Desu' example again, if you're finishing a sentence with 'Desu Yo?', you'd give 'Desuu' the full pronounciation. It rolls off the tongue a little easier than 'Dess Yo', and if you're speaking quickly that would sound like 'Desho', which is a different word.

The best way to learn Japanese is through Immersion. After all, that's the way people learn their native languages--you grow up around people who speak the language and you eventually pick things up. Since most of us don't live in Japan, all we can do is take lessons. But to help in the 'immersion', and to get a good feel of how Japanese people really speak, we have the internet. Get Japanese music, watch anime, and pay attention to the words they are speaking. Chances are you won't understand it for a while, but you'll pick some things up and most importantly you're familiarizing yourself with how Japanese people speak.

Then you won't be too confused by Pimsleur's teachings :P

--Edit: Found This flash program, it will drill you on all the kana. Quite useful!

[ReloadPsi]

Foreign words and names are only transliterated into katakana, they can never be in kanji (only native Japanese names are written in kanji). You would have to use one of those combinations entirely in katakana to transliterate your name. I'd go with アムンセン personally.

What a bummer. I would've loved to have a surname that read "void zen" or something

Anyway, I'm guessing you used "Amunzen" there?

Incidentally JKTrix, I was pretty much aware of the muting of the "u" sound in Japanese, but I never became aware of the muting of "i" until I heard the Pimsleur lessons. Usually when I jokingly transliterate words into Japanese for dramatic effect I'll pronounce the unnecessary vowels to confuse people :P

[Jimsour]

I've been learning Japanese in university for the past year, the pronouncations arent that difficult, they dont pronounce "su" slowly the way an English speaker would, its almost like an "s" sound. "suki", meaning like, is said so fast it comes out as "ski" sometimes, but usually Japanese people slow down their pronouncation for those who dont speak the language very well.

Its brilliant how much katakana butchers the English (or any! not just English) language but is so useful and simple to use

The best way to learn Japanese is through Immersion. After all, that's the way people learn their native languages--you grow up around people who speak the language and you eventually pick things up. Since most of us don't live in Japan, all we can do is take lessons. But to help in the 'immersion', and to get a good feel of how Japanese people really speak, we have the internet. Get Japanese music, watch anime, and pay attention to the words they are speaking. Chances are you won't understand it for a while, but you'll pick some things up and most importantly you're familiarizing yourself with how Japanese people speak

Have to agree with this. Listening to an audio CD doesnt cut it you need face to face human teaching and eventually conversation. You need to be able to think on the spot when learning any language. My Japanese teacher, who is actually Japanese, helped me out a lot with that, apparently my Japanese was more understandable than my English because of my thick irish accent.

In saying that, I learnt to read the language through online games (ff11) by playing with japanese players.