Sometimes, it takes only one.

[elfs]

Studying kanji is a pain in the neck, especially since my practice material of choice is hentai manga. But sometimes, all it takes is one ideogram to make all the difference. Today, I learned one, and whole pages started to make much more sense to me. That one is 私, watashi, the first person singular. "For me," "to me," "by me," "I want," "I did," tons of meaning I'd never quite grasped. The other kanji that really made it easy to speed ahead that I experienced recently was 何, nani, meaning "what," but it wasn't nearly as effective as 私 in making manga make sense.

Comments

[outward-vision.livejournal.com]

Keeping in mind a recent post (http://elfs.livejournal.com/585136.html), also keep an eye/ear out for these variations of announcing oneself:

boku: "for boys"
atashi: "only used by girls"
watak-shi: "I bring the burden of formality"
ore: "I'm young and a badass, so I don't have to give a crap about formality"
washi: "I'm old, and life's too short for too much formality"
watashi: "I am normal(passive/neutral)"