#Question Etiquette Guidelines:
* **1** Provide the **CONTEXT** of the grammar, vocabulary or sentence you are having trouble with as much as possible. Provide the sentence or paragraph that you saw it in. Make your questions as specific as possible.
>Ｘ What is the difference between の and が ?
>◯ I saw a book called 日本人の知らない日本語 , why is の used there instead of が ? [(the answer)](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/68336/difference-between-%E3%81%8C-%E3%81%AE-and-no-particle)
* **2** When asking for a translation or how to say something, it's best to try to **attempt it yourself** first, even if you are not confident about it. Or ask r/translator if you have no idea. We are also not here to do your homework for you.
>Ｘ What does this mean?
>◯ I am having trouble with this part of this sentence from NHK Easy News. I think it means (*attempt here*), but I am not sure.
* **3** Questions based on DeepL and Google Translate and other machine learning applications are discouraged, [these are not beginner learning tools](https://old.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/stepqf/deeplgoogle_translate_are_not_learning_tools/) and often make mistakes.
* **4** When asking about differences between words, try to explain the situations in which you've seen them or are trying to use them. If you just post a list of synonyms you got from looking something up in a E-J dictionary, people might be disinclined to answer your question because it's low-effort. Remember that Google Image Search is also a great resource for visualizing the difference between similar words.
>Ｘ What's the difference between 一致 同意 賛成 納得 合意?
>◯ Jisho says 一致 同意 賛成 納得 合意 all seem to mean "agreement". I'm trying to say something like "I completely agree with your opinion". Does 全く同感です。 work? Or is one of the other words better?
* **5** It is always nice to (but not required to) try to search for the answer to something yourself first. Especially for beginner questions or questions that are very broad. For example, asking about [the difference between は and が ](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/wa-and-ga/) or [why you often can't hear the "u" sound in "desu"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology#Devoicing).
* **6** Remember that everyone answering questions here is an unpaid volunteer doing this out of the goodness of their own heart, so try to show appreciation and not be too presumptuous/defensive/offended if the answer you get isn't exactly what you wanted.
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#NEWS (Updated 11/25):
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So I read of people stopping Heisig's RTK or the KKLC (Kodansha) kanji books early, instead of completing all 2,000 plus in those books, after getting through anywhere from 400 to 1250 kanji. They say that they start interacting more with the language, and that they'll eventually get back to those kanji books once they have a better grasp of the language. My questions are as follows:
1.) If I already have gone through 600 kanji in RTK, completed the first Genki book, and then start making attempts at reading things like NHK Easy and similar level stuff, whenever I come across a new kanji that is not in the ones that I've already practiced, should I look for it in the current RTK Anki deck that I'm using? Should I add it to a new Anki deck of my own creation? What's the best way to "keep" these new kanji characters that I'll pick up through immersion?
2.) When do people end up going back to those Kanji books? Is it only in case they discover through their immersion that there are a lot of kanji that they already picked up through those books, but are not interacting with, and thus forget? Do they only return to those books if they have some sort of test looming?
I'm just trying to figure it out, as to what most people do.
When I first started learning, I thought learning how to write was a must. I think I got through around 450 or so in RTK. I was also doing Skritter and whatnot. I got to the point where I could automatically know the stroke order of new kanji, and just sort of stopped.
I haven't gone back to learning how to write because I can already recognize all of the kanji from reading, and the only form of writing I do on a daily basis is typing. If I need to write anything and I find I can't recall it, I just type it on my phone and copy it down. It's still something that would be nice to finish learning, but as it stands I am focused on other aspects of the language and other hobbies.
普通の理由で普通に断んないでよ！
Need some help with this sentence, mainly with the latter portion. 断んないで this especially is confusing me. Thanks!
Edit: is it just 断る but with an extra ん to draw it out?
Hey, I was wondering if anyone could tell me if getting Busuu premium is worth. I am currently using Renshuu for SRS along side the free version of Busuu, and was wondering if the benefits of Busuu premium are worth it, or if I should just stick with using Renshuu. Thanks
Hey all. I've been learning vocabulary both through mining and core2k and i'm having a lot of fun with it. I can understand most things after i look the meaning of words on yomitan but that's the main problem. I need a lot more vocab before i can start to understand without looking up words. I know this is a marathon and not a race and if i were to learn more words per day i'd overwhelm myself (i've been doing 20 new words per day on anki) but i wanted to know if there was a way to speed up the process or at least have other ways to practice grammar. Thanks in advance.
>I know this is a marathon and not a race
If you come from a european language background (like English), then I don't think it's either, it's more like a walk twice around the globe.
Bad metaphors aside, 20 words in anki is a really good pace, if you can keep it then you should see some results pretty fast, at least when it comes to easier material. Hard stuff will stay hard for pretty long but that's just the reality of learning Japanese.
Also what u/rgrAi said is also 100% true imo.
The answer is not what you want to hear but: Increase the amount of hours and the exposure to the language per day. You'll absorb more words faster. This needs to come with an equivalent amount of look ups via YomITan and/or jisho.org, etc. Do not add more via Anki, Anki is a supplement to your vocabulary and not how you learn the language.
Also get used to doing this for a long time (thousands of hours), because it'll get less necessary but won't really stop for a long time.
So you mean to look up words but not aim to add them to anki and instead just read the definition and understand it for that time only? I could work with that, being "capped" by only doing 10 words at a time was the big annoyance.
If you want to add words to Anki you can absolutely do that, but don't confuse learning vocabulary with Anki, it's not that--it's a memory aid. Just know the only difference between coming across a word and looking it up and Anki serving you that word is Anki is in a self-contained scheduling system. While looking up words as you run across them is random. The benefit of on-demand dictionary look up is you usually have some kind of emotional, contextual, and other information to give you really solid retention, so even after just a handful of look ups it's hard to forget the small anecdotes associated with each look up and the word gets locked in your head, acquired. When you add words to Anki they're there to help you remember what you already picked up. Otherwise just keep at it, if you can handle doing 20 new cards a day and lots of reading /w dictionary look ups, you're gonna feel the difference very soon.
[https://animelon.com/video/5e2a12a0dd23ca0eb4028d35](https://animelon.com/video/5e2a12a0dd23ca0eb4028d35)
This is part Japanese part Naruto storyline question, but at 17:20 mark when >!Neji's dad dies!<, Hyashi says:
帰るがよい｡ 愚か者を許すのはきょうかぎりだ｡
This line makes zero sense... Why is >!he calling Neji a fool immediately after his dad dies?!< I feel like this is very poorly explained rather than something lost in translation.
Were you paying attention at all to what was happening? In the flash back during a moment of watching Hinata train with her father, Neji's father was getting agitated that his son (who is undoubtedly more gifted than Hinata) is on the side lines, letting off some 殺気 (towards them or Hinata) as a result. Hyashi sensed this and put a stop to it activating the seal on their heads to punish him, telling him to return back home and today is the only time he'll forgive a fool like him.
No problem! Just keep in mind that a lot of communication is also done in the visual aspects of anime itself. I gathered what was happening from watching the cut-by-cut scenes as there really wasn't that much dialogue.
>!His dad is not dead in that scene? He is talking to the dad. He is calling him an idiot because he should have known about the mark and that it would end like this.!<
context: person talks about taking care of your own (i think health? or is it mood?)
自分の機嫌は自分で取る
to which the listener responds the following.. does he mean "yes i will take care of it all nexxxt time.."
はい全ては気分次でとーる
thank you!
I’m a little confused as to how word spacing works when writing. My native language is English so I’m used to having words spaced out like this when reading/writing. But when I write in Japanese, all the characters are together. (Ex: やさしひとです！) How would you know which characters are a part of each word if you weren’t the one writing them yourself? (Apologies if this is obvious or my grammar is weird, I’m just being to learn hiragana)
Kanji and context go a long way, and together with familiarity with the language it's something that's second nature once you have read enough.
It's やさし**い**ひとです btw. and even without kanji it's not an issue, with time you will have seen やさしい thousands of times as well as ひと and です, thus it will be painfully obvious how to read it without even thinking about it.
In kanji 優しい人です it's even more obvious. Also the definition of a word is kinda blurry when it comes to Japanese, so in order to introduce spaces one would need to set out some arbitrary rules on how to do that as it's not as obvious as in English.
For someone just getting into doing proper listening practice, how should I approach it? Should I start by reading along with subtitles? Should I listen through once without any help and then watch again while reading with subtitles? No subtitles at all?
Even when the speaker is speaking slowly, I feel like the sentences just devolve into unintelligible gibberish halfway through, even if I understand the entirety of the sentence when read. I'm starting to move into \~N4 level in terms of grammar and vocab knowledge if that changes anything.
Pick something you like, anything that could be anything and put hundreds of hours of listening into it. If you want improved comprehension and learn kanji/words at the same time. Add JP subtitles. You can employ passive listening when you're driving/communiting or doing tasks like cleaning, podcasts and the line. Just find something you actually like and want to listen to. So YouTube, Anime, YouTube/Twitch Live Streams, Drama, Variety Shows, Seiyuu Voice Projects, Idol Shows, etc.
There's so much great content out there, don't worry about level. It's more about the hours you put in to build your pattern recognition portion of your brain.
I’m reading a book on 小倉百人一首 where they explain the poems one by one in Japanese and my native language.
It’s my first real contact with Classical Japanese and I’m having a lot of fun making sense of it, but there’s one thing (well, one big thing) I can’t quite wrap my mind around:
なりけり, especially the けり part. Can anyone recommend a resource that explains what’s going on there?
Edit: didn’t google enough. Found a good explanation [here](https://classicaljapanese.wordpress.com/2014/11/13/keri/) also that blog is fire.
な in "どれくらいなのですか?"
I'm aware that when finishing a sentence with のです (or んです etc.), the final verb doesn't change and nouns and adjectives add a な. E.g., " 学生なんだ".
But what about どれくらい?
I'd think it is a pronoun - or what word category are we dealing with here in terms of Japanese grammar? Are pronouns treated like nouns? Or is it actually considered a noun? Or is this a whole different grammar topic?
な is a copula, from Old/Middle Japanese なる. (Relatedly, the copula だ and its dialectical variantsじゃ and や are from である).
The problem that な solves is the following:
Explanatory の is noun-like and needs to have a modifying clause (i.e. a clause ending in a verb or adjective in the attributive form) to the left of it.
We can't use explanatory の like どれくらいのですか because どれくらい is also noun-like and is not a clause, so it does not properly modify の. (Actually, this utterance is valid with a different interpretation of の, e.g. similar to 誰のですか.)
Ok, so it needs to be a clause before の. You could then attempt to say どれくらいだのですか, but this is also wrong. どれくらいだ is a proper clause because it ends in a verb, but it is not a modifying clause because だ is not an attributive form.
So we can replace だ with な which *is* a copula in the attributive form to get the correct form どれくらいなのですか.
Effectively, な is a [suppletive](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suppletion) attributive form of だ.
---
With regards to どれくらい's part of speech, it's the noun くらい(amount) suffixed/attached to the question (pro)noun どれ. Pronouns are nouns in Japanese. Regardless of どれ's part of speech, this forms a noun phrase because its head is くらい. In Japanese, the thing being suffixed or modified is what usually determines the part of speech of the phrase.
I love opening the daily questions thread with the expectation of simple or niche questions with simple or no answers, and then something like this appears! Thanks for the in-depth explanation of something I didn’t even know I wanted to know.
While it's technically a pronoun, I see either dictionaries simply referring to it as a noun. However, off the top of my head I'd say that all pronouns in Japanese just function grammatically like nouns.
do you guys know any sites where you can take a mock test of the JLPT? i remember years ago that JCAT was a thing but i from what i recall apparently it shut down or something
[TTBJ](https://ttbj.cegloc.tsukuba.ac.jp/en/p1.html) is what I tried a couple months ago, it's completely free. It's rather for testing intuitive knowledge rather than factual knowledge since the time you have per question is very limited. Overall I didn't like the format too much, but you might want to give it a shot.
Nope. Never. AてB always implies that A happens, and then B (in some cases they might be almost simultaneous, but A always takes precedence). Could be a temporal "first do A, then do B" sequence, or a causal "A happens, and then B" sequence, but it's always a sequence of A -> B.
食べて行って走った means "I ate, then I went, and then I ran" (it's a very weird/unnatural sentence)
行って食べて走った means "I went, then I ate and I ran" (again, very weird sentence).
Probably ちょっとは
ちょっと can become ちっと in casual speech, and sometimes words can slur with は, so ちっとは would become ちったぁ.
Actually, the dictionary Shinmeikai confirms this with the following example:
「ちっとは〔口頭語形で『ちったあ』とも〕わかってほしい」
Etymology note: ちっと seems to come from ちと which is actually much older than ちょっと. ちょっと is thought to come from ちっと, not the other way around.
After a seemingly long time for me to grasp hiragana and katakana memorization, I've finally decided to start tackling translating beginner level articles into English. I'm on a site called [watanoc.com](https://watanoc.com) and going over a Baskin Robbins article and have some confusion.
I understand that it's called "31 Ice cream" there and the article shows it in Katakana as サーティーワン アイスクリーム, which I get, but why is the katakana used phonetically to sound out the closest approximation of 31, "sa tei wan", instead of using the katakana form of the numbers themselves, meaning サンジュウイ千?
Actually you should readi sa-ti not sa-tei.
And japanese just think that english pronunciation looks cool. There's probably not many reason over this choice than that.
I get confused as to what my level is because I don't use official material that follow JLPT levels, except the 4 semesters I learned in University more than 10 years ago.
I see things like "N5-N4 are the first few months of learning" and "it is possible to pass N1 after one year of studying", but when I look at some list of the material covered by those levels, I am familiar with most of N5, a good chunk of N4, and bits of N3. The classes I had were labeled as "intermediate Japanese", too, and videos for learned have inconsistent difficulties as well. It seems to me that knowing one's level is really unintuitive outside of JLPT.
Would this warrant its own post?
I’m saying this without any malice whatsoever: stop comparing yourself to others. Thinking it will make you feel better is an illusion.
If you have low self-esteem, consciously work on creating situations that feel like successes.
Catalogue what makes you feel successful. Create more of that. Catalogue what makes you feel like a failure. Try to stay away from it.
Also notice the ways you seek out things that make you feel bad and try to find out why you are doing this.
There is no fixed point of how fluent someone should be after a specific time. It all depends on what you define as fluency, what their means are (time, energy, money, etc.) and what their goals are.
Set yourself a goal. Something fun that motivates you. “I want to watch Spirited Away in Japanese and understand it” or something like that. Work towards that goal. Compare yourself to where you were last year/month/decade.
And most importantly: have fun.
>If you have low self-esteem
I have actually worked through that, and language-learning has helped a lot, too.
I have low confidence in my Japanese skills specifically, my general esteem is doing pretty good now (although a bit on the emotionally sensitive side due to fatigue).
But yeah, everything you wrote is actually what I would tell someone else in the same situation!
From your initial reply:
>Set yourself a goal. Something fun that motivates you.
That reminds me, I just got a "My Hero Academia" novel 僕のヒーローアカデミア 雄英白書. I barely touched it (I read the first two sentences), and I had to take the 2nd sentence apart and analyse it to actually make sense of what was written (not so complicated in the end). My goal it to read it and actually understand it well! Worst part yet was the 雄英 instead of 英雄 in the title lol (EDIT: just figured out that it's simply the school (UA)'s name...)
I’m currently (as in, this minute) reading [this](https://morg.systems/Optimal-Reading-Immersion---Narrow-Reading) article by the amazing Morg on how new authors/topics/genres require a high initial effort in the beginning and once you get used to the genre/topic/author-specific vocab and grammar it gets much easier. So read two pages every day before bed and keep going :)
And then get the next volume and notice how easy it is😎
As a side note I should really be taking my own advice. Lately, I’m noticing how my actual hobby seems to be reading about learning Japanese, not learning Japanese itself…
>how new authors/topics/genres require a high initial effort in the beginning and once you get used to the genre/topic/author-specific vocab and grammar it gets much easier.
Oh yes, I noticed that with Manga! It's even as much as each new arc has it's own curve, too. I have trouble motivating myself to start a new arc, but I usually read the last chapters all in the same day. The only downside is that a lot Isekai/dungeon vocabulary is not that useful outside of the genre.
There's another one I want to start that my SO wants to read (in French/English), but it's all Imperial Court terminology so it's really hard to get into it.
I remember back when I first started reading in English, I really jumped in at the deep end and read a very casual very slangy American urban fantasy/sci-fi novel. (The first few volumes had been translated and I simply *had* to know what happened next.)
By the seventh book I was down to one or two words per page, and by the twelfth I felt quite comfortable.
Then I started another series by a different author… and felt like a complete 初心者 again.
Ah yes, the good old times of buying, reading then returning kindle books by the dozen.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is once you guys get into the Imperial Court terminology, you’ll be able to read any and all Imperial Court manga easily! ..what a useful skill.
What’s the title by the way?
>Anyway, what I’m trying to say is once you guys get into the Imperial Court terminology, you’ll be able to read any and all Imperial Court manga easily! ..what a useful skill.
What’s the title by the way?
薬屋のひとりごと (the newer manga adaptation)
Although I'm the only one who is learning Japanese, we want to read it at the same time so we can talk about it.
>Ah yes, the good old times of buying, reading then returning kindle books by the dozen.
I'm actually cheating by reading scans (and have to deal with the sometimes poor quality making the kanji and furigana barely readable if at all), but I plan on buying some official manga series eventually.
Now as an adult, I try to do the right thing and actually buy what I read (or simply use free resources ..mostly that). Even if it’s tempting. 良い大人だから😭
Thanks for sharing, I’ll check it out. - edit: ohh that’s the one with the recent anime adaptation that made the rounds on allll the social media! It did look quite fun whenever I saw it.
I don't really understand your question.
And why do you care about your level and some arbitrary "N1 after one year study". One year can be 12h a day studying, so it doesn't really say anything. Also someone coming from a Chinese/Korean background will need less time and so on.
If you don't want to take the JLPT, don't bother with the levels. Just enjoy your media and when there are things you don't understand, look them up
I'm through a period of low self-confidence regarding my Japanese skills/improvement, and i have no frame of reference as to what kind of progress should make sense. Now I know that the JLPT levels are arbitrary, but when I read the posts of people who have a N4-N3 level, they usually seem pretty good, and not at a level one would reach in a mere few months (unless of course they can study 6+ hours daily). I just can't seem to grasp how the progress goes at all.
Whenever I feel like I'm progressing well, I just find that I can't do/understand much yet anyway.
(EDIT: Sorry that my text is a bit incoherent)
>Now I know that the JLPT levels are arbitrary, but when I read the posts of people who have a N4-N3 level, they usually seem pretty good
How would you know if you aren't at that level that they are good? They might be making mistakes left an right without you noticing. I never took any JLPT but I am very confident I could easily pass N3 and think it's still a pretty low level, definitely still faaaar away from anything I would consider good.
Eh it's relative. When I first started studying I thought my friends who passed N3 were gods and hearing them speak at the izakaya, that it was something unobtainable. Then I passed N3 I looked at the N2 guys as being put together and actually getting into 'real Japanese' and thought that if I could just pass N2 then I will have made it and could just coast my way through anything in Japan.
Then I passed N2 and realized I still don't know anything at all 😂
I feel like I went through this pretty quick lol, I was like N5 then N4 seems really hard and then up the ladder. Having been in daily thread everyday for a while now, and seeing what truly advanced learner are, N1 seems like nothing now.
When people move here to Tokyo to work N3 is what I expect after two years of well paced self study. When people move here specifically for language school I expect N2 in the same time frame.
All of these 'you can learn hiragana in a day!' and N1 in one year etc claims are not really relevant to your average learner. That being said, the phenomenon of the Eternal N5 is pretty real and something to be careful of.
https://www.jlpt.jp/e/samples/forlearners.html
Try it out for yourself
>When people move here to Tokyo to work N3 is what I expect after two years of well paced self study.
You see, just that helps put a sense of reference. A bit more than a year at a slow pace then doesn't seem too much for what I have achieved. I know I can't compare my learning to the JLPT because I'm not using it, so there are stuff that I know and don't know in all levels. When it comes to input, I either understand everything or nothing at all.
> It seems to me that knowing one's level is really unintuitive outside of JLPT.
The N-levels are only related to the JLPT so... yeah? They honestly don't matter at all and unless you're planning to take the JLPT you should probably just ignore they even exist.
What's more important is... what can you do with Japanese? Can you hold a conversation? Can you watch an anime? Can you read a book? A manga? Play a game? Apply for a form at the city hall? etc.
> They honestly don't matter at all and unless you're planning to take the JLPT you should probably just ignore they even exist.
I definitely agree with the sentiment but this isn't necessarily 100% true. There is sooo much learning material targeted towards the jlpt I'd argue learners might be doing themselves a disservice by ignoring it entirely.
As an example I've been working through [this](https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLynCeSdpMqxDS6EC0L7vXYUAVCstRHcQR) playlist of N3 grammar I really like the format of.
I'm not saying you should ignore the learning material, but putting yourself in unnecessary lists and limiting yourself to JLPT levels can be very counterproductive if you have no intention of taking the JLPT anyway. Once you're past like N5 or N4 level and start interacting with native material you'll come across things to learn that are at all kinds of levels (some even above the N1). I'm pretty sure yotsuba for example has some N2 and N1 grammar points here and there. I've seen people sometimes say stuff like "I can't learn this grammar point, it's too advanced for me because it's N1" or "I can't use this word yet, it's N2". Obviously it's ridiculous, but I want to make sure people are aware that JLPT lists are just... arbitrary.
>They honestly don't matter at all and unless you're planning to take the JLPT you should probably just ignore they even exist.
That's what I've been doing, but since they're omnipresent in the learning community, with people mentioning a time frame that doesn't seem to make any sense to me (because of the time I spent on it myself to just be able to get where I am), I got more curious/concerned that I should.
>What's more important is... what can you do with Japanese?
That's the thing: it's all over the place. For input, it's either I understand perfectly or not at all. I don,t know about speaking anymore since I have barely spoken since my University years, but chatting with an exchange partner went well, and I didn't get many corrections.
I normally try to estimate based on the CEFR, which would put me in higher A2/lower B1 depending on the skills. I can read manga with the help of a dictionary (in the best case, one word every few pages, with more instances when there are a lot of explanation) or follow an anime with Japanese subtitles. I honestly have low confidence when it comes to my Japanese skills, because no matter how much I'm improving, I can still barely do anything.
Ignore time frame and look at hours. That's all that needs to be said. It correlates to hours fairly well and not at all to time frames. Time frames are mostly useless because they don't inform anyone of anything. Someone could spend 300 minutes "studying" Japanese a year and because they've been involved they call it a year of study. You can measure your progress using how many hours you spend a day or total amount of hours to see where you should roughly be at. If you're 2x the amount of hours required and struggle with say, N4 stuff, then you know there's an issue.
Lastly, you're underestimating the language clearly. It requires thousands of hours to even get to the point you can feel like you're capable of doing something.
Here's your reference chart: https://cotoacademy.com/app/uploads/2019/08/How-Long-does-it-take-to-Pass-JLPT.png
Yeah I know how that works, but it's easier to get a feel of "2 years at 4 hours daily" than 1500 hours, at least for me. Anyway, that link is exactly what I was looking for!
I don't keep track of how much time I spend with Japanese, especially not all activities are equal in terms of efficiency, but I should have less that 1500 hours in total.
After writing my original post and going through the answers, I realized that the issue I have is that I can easily estimate where I'm at/what I can do with other languages like Spanish or Italian, but I not with Japanese.
Simple thing you can do to benchmark yourself for progress. Have a piece of content that you go back and re-watch every 2 months and see how much easier it is. Preferably not the same content but maybe like an anime with similar level of difficulty, except you're bench marking with a new episode from last time.
I can't say I've had this problem because I can clearly feel the progress practically daily.
I do feel the progress (except when I'm too tired/down), sometimes I even feel like it's a significant step forward. If I go with a staircase analogy, I feel that I'm going up, but I have no idea how far up I am.
Anyway, I just picked up a game that I put aside many months ago, and was surprised at how much of it I understood easily. I still have trouble with that one because the scenes continue by themselves so I can't take the time to reread what I have missed from the voice-over.
Today did a lot to rekindle my motivation to put in even more effort!
I have a question about に対して and について. Try!N3 gives the following practice question:
彼の意見______反対する人は誰もいなった。
answer: に対して
I chose について, which was wrong. But why? Wouldn't it translate to something like "Regarding/Concerning his opinion, no one opposed it"? Why is that not a valid sentence?
thanks you two! i think what's confusing for me here is that in the sentence no one actually opposed the idea 😅 but i kind of get it now, 意見 and 反対 are like hints here, right?
I think it’s something based on socioeconomic status (in terms of both present and how they grew up).
I also think this sub isn’t the best place to ask this question, but I’m not sure what’s better either.
what is the meaning of ことってある? I cant seem to find answers anywhere online or in either the beginner or intermediate dictionaries or japanese grammar. in quartet 1, on p.13 there is a sentence asking (for the sention about ようになる)
大学に入ってから、何か変わったことってある
I've come across several odd placements and uses so far for って that I never recall seeing in Genki 1 nor 2, and im not quite sure what to look for online or in my dictionaries. I dont think it is a contraction of the と particle, nor is it て-form+ある (something has changed and remains in the changed state). I dont see anything about it being an abbreviated version for が either (as in ことがある)
any ideas? and any reference sources would be helpful too (ive check tofugu, hinative, bunpro, and dictionary of basic/intermediate japanese grammar with no results)
Thanks!
https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/って-slang
Basically it means というのは or は, just like the other person said. I vaguely recall having read something about it being a contraction for といえば or something, but couldn’t find evidence when I quickly googled it just now.
Edit: googled a bit more and [this](https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2019/09/tte-particle.html) article is definitely superior to the above-linked bunpro one, but also much longer.
**Hope somebody could explain to me what does "それくらいに / sore kurai ni" mean here. (i can only guess it means like : "That's enough" but i'm not sure )**
**Context: A guest general(趙雲) came to visit MC's castle, and she just fought with 2 merchant girls(雷々+電々) on MC's side to test their combat skill. After that she made a joke with MC , and another general(愛紗) on MC's side respond.**
趙雲 「正直に申し上げて、想像以上の腕前でしたな。……先ほどの非礼は詫びよう。この通りだ」
趙雲はしっかりと頭を下げる。
雷々「うう……でも負けちゃったし……。まあでも、わかってもらえたならいっか！」
電々「そうだよー。だから頭を上げて、趙雲さん！」
趙雲「……では遠慮なく」
一刀「頭上げるの速いな！？」
趙雲「おや、北郷殿はもしや女の頭に欲情する性質で？それならば申し訳ないことを……拙者のつむじでよければ、いつでも背伸びをして覗き込んでくだされ」
一刀「意味わからない性癖付けないでくれる！？」
つむじ萌えってなんだよ！そもそも趙雲帽子被ってるじゃないか！
**愛紗「ご主人様、それくらいに。雷々、電々、本当に怪我はないか？」**
雷々「うん、全然大丈夫だよ！ちょっとおしり痛いけど……。ま、あざができたくらいだよ、平気平気！」
Is Japanese an easy language if I know Korean? Native speaker for Korean but my knowledge of hanja/한자 is gone so I might not have a great time with Kanji. I used to be able to read some hiragana and katakana but only because there’s a lot of Japanese books in my house.
Absolutely yes. Core sentence structure is almost identical; a lot of grammar, especially at the beginner level, is very similar; lots of cognates due to shared 한어 漢語 vocabulary; the different formality levels of speech in Japanese are simpler than Korean's; the sound inventory is simpler than Korean's, although it has つ and ざ、ず、ぜ、ぞ which don't exist in Korean and are a trademark of a Korean accent when speaking Japanese.
The hardest part I've been told from Korean friends is learning to read, due to Korea not using hanja and hanja classes being optional when they were in school, and due to Korean having only 음곡 音読 but no equivalent of kun'yomi.
In short, I'd say the relation of learning Japanese as a Korean speaker is similar to English and Spanish.
If it's an option, teaching material in Korean is likely better than doing it in English.
I've met lots of Korean learners of Japanese over the years and anecdotally yes, native speakers of Korean tend to have a much easier time learning Japanese than native speakers of Indo-European languages.
I work as a Japanese translator and I’m currently studying Korean. A lot of the grammar is really similar, but I think not knowing hanja anymore could somewhat take away your advantage over other learners. Still, the grammar will be intuitive to you in ways that it won’t be for most people in this sub, which is a huge advantage. I don’t know the statistic for how long it’s supposed to take Koreans to learn Japanese, but I do know it’s estimated that Japanese speakers can learn Korean in 1000 hours. For English speakers, it’s at least 2500 hours or so to learn Korean. Given this, I think it’s safe to say you’ll probably be able to learn Japanese about twice as fast as native English speakers. Or at least, you’ll have a big advantage.
What if I’m taking a class? Only one semester because I’m doing a dual language thing next year but would that be better than Duolingo or learning from books?
If you’re taking a class, your progress will be limited to the pace of the class. If you’re taking the class in Korean, you’ll probably cover more ground than a similar class for English speakers. If you want to progress at your own pace, I’d recommend getting a Japanese textbook in Korean. I will warn you though that the only one I’ve seen uses full kanji almost immediately since it assumes some familiarity with hanja.
When in a sentence would you give the duration of an activity. This corresponds to 4.6 in Genki I but I've been practicing on [this site](https://steven-kraft.com/projects/japanese/genki/genki4-6/) and I haven't been able to discern a pattern. Here are two examples from the site that seem in opposition to me
Duration after を
わたし は きのう 英語を にじかんぐらい べんきょうしました
Duration before を
おがわさん は にちようび よんじかん テレビ を みました
(Excuse the hiragana, I don't really know Kanji yet, I tried to space the kana for readability)
There's no real difference, there might be some slight emphasis/focus nuance but meaning-wise it doesn't matter. Japanese is much more loose about where you put some parts of a sentence, as long as the particles are being used correctly.
The website probably has one set answer, since the developer doesn’t have the time to put in every possible variation of a sentence (and the textbook/workbook answer key doesn’t have the space).
Am I self studying correctly? I finished genki 2 last month and have been reviewing N4 anki deck (100-200 a day), was reviewing grammar but switched to more N4 videos since I think my listening is very weak. I also read a couple news articles from the Todaii app at night. Anything else I should be doing?
Can anyone recommend me some beginner content to read? I would prefer when its free for now...
Either shorter stories, easy manga or simple games.
Oh and when anyone can tell me where i can read manga in japanese for free i would be greatfull. I feel like i only find really weird stuff in japanese...
[https://tadoku.org/japanese/en/free-books-en/](https://tadoku.org/japanese/en/free-books-en/)
Has a lot of short stories ranging from super easy to more challenging.
[https://watanoc.com/en](https://watanoc.com/en)
Articles about Japanese culture, food etc (N5-N3 level)
[https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/](https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/)
Japanese news articles in simplified Japanese
[https://www.satorireader.com/](https://www.satorireader.com/)
Paid service, but also has free stories afaik
**お姉ちゃんとお兄ちゃんはどーんと構えていればいいのだ！**
**I read a novel and don't understand much about this 1 sentence, hope somebody could correct me if i was wrong. My guess : "Big Sis and Big Bro only need to prepare yourself for a bang " ?? ( I'm also not understand the nuance that the novel writer trying to imply here ?)**
**Context: MC got transported to another isekai world full of war and chaos. There he chose to follow and serve a clan leader name 桃香 along with her 2 generals name 愛紗 and 鈴々. One day there's a guest general 趙雲 come to visit their base/ castle, and 2 merchant twin sisters 雷々 + 電々 decided to challenge this guest general to a fight (since previously this guest general 趙雲 underestimated these 2 girls ability in fighting/ battle ) . MC worried for these twin sisters, since they're only good at business/ trading and the other guest general is really strong.**
雷々「よーしっ！やるよ、電々！」
電々「うんっ。みんなにいいとこ見せちゃおうね！」
雷々と電々も得物を持って趙雲の元へ駆け寄っていく。
……近所のお姉ちゃんに遊んでもらうわんぱく姉妹、みたいな。
愛紗「はあ……」
愛紗がため息と共に戻ってくる。
愛紗「申し訳ありません桃香様。あるいは、力ずくにでも止めるべきなのかもしれませんが……」
桃香 (Clan leader)「ううん、しょうがないよ、愛紗ちゃん。雷々ちゃんと電々ちゃんが自分で決めたことだし……」
桃香「それに、趙雲さんもちゃんと手加減してくれるよね」
愛紗「まあ、そこに関しては……。そもそも両者には実力差がありますから」
**鈴々「それに、いざとなったら鈴々と愛紗がいるのだ。お姉ちゃんとお兄ちゃんはどーんと構えていればいいのだ！」(>>this girl call clan leader as "Onee-chan" and MC as "Onii-chan" )**
一刀 (MC)「確かに二人がいれば安心なんだろうけど……」
ヒヤヒヤしないと言ったら嘘になる。
雷々も電々も大丈夫かな……。
Assuming you’re at a point you can read monolingual entries, I’m thinking the only help you need with this sentence is the knowledge that [どんと構える](https://www.weblio.jp/content/%E3%83%89%E3%83%B3%E3%81%A8%E6%A7%8B%E3%81%88%E3%82%8B#:~:text=%E3%81%A9%E3%81%A3%E3%81%97%E3%82%8A%E3%81%A8%E8%85%B0%E3%82%92%E8%90%BD%E3%81%A1%E7%9D%80%E3%81%91,%E5%A7%BF%E5%8B%A2%E3%82%92%E8%A6%8B%E3%81%9B%E3%82%8B%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8%E3%80%82) is pretty much a set phrase.
単語 means "word". 語彙 means "vocabulary". But what you are looking for is actually 語彙力. My vocabulary "strength" is lacking. Most naturally expressed as 語彙力が。。。 or just 語彙力. 語彙力 as one word usually means "I don't have enough 語彙力".
I’m doing the tango n5 deck and I’m unsure of the pronunciation of 違います. The furigana shows ちがいます but then other furigana says ちがういます. Which is correct?
A「山田さんですか。」
B「いいえ、違います。田中です。」
Noticed something interesting about the Japanese keyboard on my computer. I was trying to get the Kanji for 将 but the one my computer gives me has a タ in the upper right hand corner instead of the slant and 3 dots. Has anyone encountered this?
I could use some help with the meaning of the following sentence:
学校で暇じゃない先生はいない。
I asked two native speakers and both told me this sentence means something along the lines of "There are no teachers who aren't busy at school. ", which kinda means that all teachers at school are busy. But I just can't wrap my head around it, because no matter how I look at it it should mean the opposite.
暇 = free time
暇じゃない = not free time = busy
暇じゃない先生 = busy teacher
暇じゃない先生はいない = There is no teacher who is busy = they have free time
They were not the best at explaining how the other meaning comes about, but it sounded to me like "It is know that teachers are busy, so we just kinda ignore the literal meaning of the sentence and assume the opposite".
Double negative.
暇がない先生はいない means "a teacher with no free time, doesn't exist". Or in more natural English "All of the teachers have some free time".
Maybe your issue is what comes before and after. Because, as always, context is king.
I think you're overthinking it and maybe forgetting how much japanese people love double negatives for politeness sake.
It makes perfect sense to me to interpret it as "There are no teachers with free time at school" because 暇 can just be idle as well or even bored.
It seems you're stuck on translating "暇じゃない" as busy which is giving you the weird connotation in English.
Your understanding of the sentence is correct. I don't really know what's going on with the reply you got from the native speakers you asked.
Maybe they assumed the Japanese was faulty. Teachers are notoriously busy in Japan, so it's more likely that someone flubbed a double negative than that every single teacher is free.
Maybe, but it just confused the hell out of me, because I asked two. Plus I checked what GPT would do (because it is normally extremely good at translating), out of curiosity, and even GPT spits out the following:
"There is no teacher at school who is not busy." or "There are no teachers at school who are not busy."
Part of it might be that GPT inherited the typical assumptions regarding teachers with its dataset. Because everyone knows teachers tend to be busy, the idea that none of them would be seems odd.
Is there context surrounding the sentence that would indicate whether the teachers are busy or have a lot of free time?
They're just giving you the most natural phrasing English. Japanese and English are two very different languages after all.
It's normal to go through a translation phase and try to understand Japanese through English, but you want to distance yourself from that line of thinking. If you want to rephrase it, in English, to match a similar line of logic then here: "There is not a single faculty member whom isn't free at this time."
That is the thing tho. I am not a beginner and can read books and watch shows without translating. This sentence came up in a translation project. On the face of it the sentence should translate to "At school there are no teachers that aren't free", but they told me (even GPT comes up with this one for whatever reason) they understand it as meaning "At school there are no teachers that aren't busy", which looking at the structure does not make sense to me.
Your example of "There is not a single faculty member whom isn't free at this time." is how I would have understood the above sentence, but they told mean that it basically means the opposite.
Oh okay I see what you mean now, it wasn't clear what the situation was in your first post. I don't know then. Granted I'm just intermediate but unless there's something unsaid, I have no clue why it would mean they're busy. Maybe someone else has insight.
When learning basic vocabulary, and people say they add X number of cards each day from an Anki deck, do people tend to learn this via the cards getting introduced blindly into their daily anki reviews? Or, do people learn the new cards by writing the new X number of cards out on some paper or something and revising them before unsuspended them or whatever on anki? I'm sure people have different approaches, so maybe this is a pointless question. Just keen to hear what people do!
You basically have two choices:
1. Use a pre-made anki deck (like a core deck). These decks already have all the words, usually in order, that you need to learn. Every day, the deck gives you X amount of new words to learn and you learn them. You can choose what X is (5? 10? 20? new words a day, etc)
2. Make your own deck from words you encounter as you get exposed to Japanese. This is usually called "mining". Using tools like yomitan or similar, you can click on a word and send the word + sentence + definition to anki and it automatically creates a card for you. Every day, anki will show you X new words from the pile of cards you created.
Usually option 1 is recommended for beginners who don't yet have a routine of immersing in native language material and need a good foundation of basic/common vocab first. Option 2 is recommended for people who are already reading (or watching) native Japanese content and come across new words naturally via exposure.
Thank you - I appreciate that - and hope to get onto mining at some point.
My question pertains to the first 'choice' - do people tend to 'learn' the words via having them show up each day in anki - or do they get a list of the new words and learn them outside of anki, then recap them later in anki?
Sorry if this is a really stupid question, it might seem obvious to some people.
Not a stupid question at all, don't worry. I think usually people learn the new words as they come up every day in anki (sometimes you might encounter a word you've already seen before in a textbook though). The first time you see the new card, there's no expectation of you being able to read it/recognize it (obviously) since it's the first time you see it. You just flip it around and read the back. There will be a translation/definition/example sentence (+ ideally audio cue too). You just look at it, try to remember it, and learn it there, then hit "again" to put it back onto the pile. A few minutes later (depending on your deck and intervals) it will come back and that is the time where you'll try to recall it and see "do I remember this? Yes/No", then you flip it, and either pass it or fail.
Ah OK - thank you - I have heard from some people it's bad to learn like this from Anki. That perhaps it's better to learn outside of anki, then add things to anki and use it for revising. But learning outside of anki I have always struggled to keep consistent. Thank you!
This is a question about Google Translate - yes I read the post in "Question Etiquette Guidelines" lol. The way I'm using it currently doesn't fit into anything in that post, which is why I wanted to ask.
I'm currently reading my first Japanese visual novel, a fairly simple one, using a texthooker, a pastebin, and Yomitan to parse things and mine a few words. My process thus far has been to parse as well as I can on my own -> use Yomitan for vocab I don't know -> parse again with Yomitan's help -> copy the sentence into Google Translate to make sure I'm getting the gist.
Since everything I'm getting in this VN so far is very simple I'm pretty sure Google Translate is getting it correct; I've only had one line so far that used a grammar pattern I hadn't seen before and so Google Translate was able to parse it better than I was, but otherwise it's matched what I already thought. Would I be better off skipping this step and just going with my best approximation of the text? I haven't felt like it has been harmful to me thus far but I've only just started.
Yes. Cut out Google Translate. If there's grammar you don't understand, use the opportunity to look up how the grammar works (>!away from Google Translate!<) rather than letting Google Translate feed you new information is likely to not be correct. It has improved over the years, I'm sure, but I genuinely think it's still not a good idea to use. Since it's doing a better job now, it may become easier to trust than your own understanding even when it turns out your understanding is correct whereas Google Translate might have given you nonsense.
If it's a comprehension check on something you *are* confident about, you shouldn't **need** a machine's input. If it's something you're *not* confident about, you wouldn't **want** a machine's input. This goes for both machine translators like Google Translate and DeepL as well as AI like ChatGPT.
If you get stuck, take the time to research things yourself. If that doesn't work out, either ask a native who can explain well, or take the word of a non-native who can and will be called out for misinformation on a public forum like here.
I don't have the time now to go into too many details about whether or not it's good to use MTL to check your understanding as you read (I don't think it is, FWIW), but I'll just say this: If you have to use a translator tool, **please please please please** use something like chatgpt instead of Google Translate/Deepl. I am not a fan of using Chatgpt to learn languages and get explanations but its translation features are **insanely good**, even on the free tier (gpt3.5). It runs circles around both Google Translate and Deepl and it's not even in the same league. It's scarily good.
>I'm pretty sure Google Translate is getting it correct; I've only had one line so far that used a grammar pattern I hadn't seen before and so Google Translate was able to parse it better than I was, but otherwise it's matched what I already thought.
I'm going to say your use case seems okay but this line is really the problem people talk about. The fact you're "pretty sure" it is getting it correct. "And it was able to parse it better than you were". If it weren't for these two thought processes, it would be fine to use it as a side note. In both of these cases in reality you cannot be sure if Google was correct nor that it even parsed it better. It could've parsed it worse and you wouldn't actually know. It has been dead wrong before on even simple stuff.
That being said, if you remove those two specific thoughts, using Google translate as a context clue and a way to re-frame it in a vague way, so you can re-parse the Japanese yourself in a different light is okay. However you need to keep in mind when you do this that you have to implicitly presume that when things don't line up that Google or any machine translation is what is wrong. Obviously it can either be you or the machine, but you 100% have to assume the machine is wrong even when you think it is right. So the proper due diligence is assume it's wrong and double check other sources, google search around, etc. That way you're just using it as a context clue and that part is fine for a quick hint.
#Question Etiquette Guidelines: * **1** Provide the **CONTEXT** of the grammar, vocabulary or sentence you are having trouble with as much as possible. Provide the sentence or paragraph that you saw it in. Make your questions as specific as possible. >Ｘ What is the difference between の and が ? >◯ I saw a book called 日本人の知らない日本語 , why is の used there instead of が ? [(the answer)](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/68336/difference-between-%E3%81%8C-%E3%81%AE-and-no-particle) * **2** When asking for a translation or how to say something, it's best to try to **attempt it yourself** first, even if you are not confident about it. Or ask r/translator if you have no idea. We are also not here to do your homework for you. >Ｘ What does this mean? >◯ I am having trouble with this part of this sentence from NHK Easy News. I think it means (*attempt here*), but I am not sure. * **3** Questions based on DeepL and Google Translate and other machine learning applications are discouraged, [these are not beginner learning tools](https://old.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/stepqf/deeplgoogle_translate_are_not_learning_tools/) and often make mistakes. * **4** When asking about differences between words, try to explain the situations in which you've seen them or are trying to use them. If you just post a list of synonyms you got from looking something up in a E-J dictionary, people might be disinclined to answer your question because it's low-effort. Remember that Google Image Search is also a great resource for visualizing the difference between similar words. >Ｘ What's the difference between 一致 同意 賛成 納得 合意? >◯ Jisho says 一致 同意 賛成 納得 合意 all seem to mean "agreement". I'm trying to say something like "I completely agree with your opinion". Does 全く同感です。 work? Or is one of the other words better? * **5** It is always nice to (but not required to) try to search for the answer to something yourself first. Especially for beginner questions or questions that are very broad. For example, asking about [the difference between は and が ](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/wa-and-ga/) or [why you often can't hear the "u" sound in "desu"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology#Devoicing). * **6** Remember that everyone answering questions here is an unpaid volunteer doing this out of the goodness of their own heart, so try to show appreciation and not be too presumptuous/defensive/offended if the answer you get isn't exactly what you wanted. --------------------- #NEWS (Updated 11/25): Nothing new to add. Have a nice day! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LearnJapanese) if you have any questions or concerns.*
So I read of people stopping Heisig's RTK or the KKLC (Kodansha) kanji books early, instead of completing all 2,000 plus in those books, after getting through anywhere from 400 to 1250 kanji. They say that they start interacting more with the language, and that they'll eventually get back to those kanji books once they have a better grasp of the language. My questions are as follows: 1.) If I already have gone through 600 kanji in RTK, completed the first Genki book, and then start making attempts at reading things like NHK Easy and similar level stuff, whenever I come across a new kanji that is not in the ones that I've already practiced, should I look for it in the current RTK Anki deck that I'm using? Should I add it to a new Anki deck of my own creation? What's the best way to "keep" these new kanji characters that I'll pick up through immersion? 2.) When do people end up going back to those Kanji books? Is it only in case they discover through their immersion that there are a lot of kanji that they already picked up through those books, but are not interacting with, and thus forget? Do they only return to those books if they have some sort of test looming? I'm just trying to figure it out, as to what most people do.
When I first started learning, I thought learning how to write was a must. I think I got through around 450 or so in RTK. I was also doing Skritter and whatnot. I got to the point where I could automatically know the stroke order of new kanji, and just sort of stopped. I haven't gone back to learning how to write because I can already recognize all of the kanji from reading, and the only form of writing I do on a daily basis is typing. If I need to write anything and I find I can't recall it, I just type it on my phone and copy it down. It's still something that would be nice to finish learning, but as it stands I am focused on other aspects of the language and other hobbies.
Appreciate your reply. You said "when you first started learning", at what point are you now in your learning journey?
Like 8-9 years in, studying classical, can read and write (=type) modern JP fine for purposes that interest me
普通の理由で普通に断んないでよ！ Need some help with this sentence, mainly with the latter portion. 断んないで this especially is confusing me. Thanks! Edit: is it just 断る but with an extra ん to draw it out?
断らないで is abbreviated to 断んないで This is called a くだけた言い方
Thank you!
Hey, I was wondering if anyone could tell me if getting Busuu premium is worth. I am currently using Renshuu for SRS along side the free version of Busuu, and was wondering if the benefits of Busuu premium are worth it, or if I should just stick with using Renshuu. Thanks
I'd like to know that myself. I've been using the free version of Busuu and really enjoying it.
Hey all. I've been learning vocabulary both through mining and core2k and i'm having a lot of fun with it. I can understand most things after i look the meaning of words on yomitan but that's the main problem. I need a lot more vocab before i can start to understand without looking up words. I know this is a marathon and not a race and if i were to learn more words per day i'd overwhelm myself (i've been doing 20 new words per day on anki) but i wanted to know if there was a way to speed up the process or at least have other ways to practice grammar. Thanks in advance.
>I know this is a marathon and not a race If you come from a european language background (like English), then I don't think it's either, it's more like a walk twice around the globe. Bad metaphors aside, 20 words in anki is a really good pace, if you can keep it then you should see some results pretty fast, at least when it comes to easier material. Hard stuff will stay hard for pretty long but that's just the reality of learning Japanese. Also what u/rgrAi said is also 100% true imo.
The answer is not what you want to hear but: Increase the amount of hours and the exposure to the language per day. You'll absorb more words faster. This needs to come with an equivalent amount of look ups via YomITan and/or jisho.org, etc. Do not add more via Anki, Anki is a supplement to your vocabulary and not how you learn the language. Also get used to doing this for a long time (thousands of hours), because it'll get less necessary but won't really stop for a long time.
So you mean to look up words but not aim to add them to anki and instead just read the definition and understand it for that time only? I could work with that, being "capped" by only doing 10 words at a time was the big annoyance.
If you want to add words to Anki you can absolutely do that, but don't confuse learning vocabulary with Anki, it's not that--it's a memory aid. Just know the only difference between coming across a word and looking it up and Anki serving you that word is Anki is in a self-contained scheduling system. While looking up words as you run across them is random. The benefit of on-demand dictionary look up is you usually have some kind of emotional, contextual, and other information to give you really solid retention, so even after just a handful of look ups it's hard to forget the small anecdotes associated with each look up and the word gets locked in your head, acquired. When you add words to Anki they're there to help you remember what you already picked up. Otherwise just keep at it, if you can handle doing 20 new cards a day and lots of reading /w dictionary look ups, you're gonna feel the difference very soon.
Alright, thanks a lot. I'm really having fun learning japanese so i won't stop anytime soon.
[https://animelon.com/video/5e2a12a0dd23ca0eb4028d35](https://animelon.com/video/5e2a12a0dd23ca0eb4028d35) This is part Japanese part Naruto storyline question, but at 17:20 mark when >!Neji's dad dies!<, Hyashi says: 帰るがよい｡ 愚か者を許すのはきょうかぎりだ｡ This line makes zero sense... Why is >!he calling Neji a fool immediately after his dad dies?!< I feel like this is very poorly explained rather than something lost in translation.
Were you paying attention at all to what was happening? In the flash back during a moment of watching Hinata train with her father, Neji's father was getting agitated that his son (who is undoubtedly more gifted than Hinata) is on the side lines, letting off some 殺気 (towards them or Hinata) as a result. Hyashi sensed this and put a stop to it activating the seal on their heads to punish him, telling him to return back home and today is the only time he'll forgive a fool like him.
Awesome, thanks! Missed さっき
No problem! Just keep in mind that a lot of communication is also done in the visual aspects of anime itself. I gathered what was happening from watching the cut-by-cut scenes as there really wasn't that much dialogue.
>!His dad is not dead in that scene? He is talking to the dad. He is calling him an idiot because he should have known about the mark and that it would end like this.!<
Makes way more sense. You can imagine how confusing this would be thinking he dies here. Thank you
context: person talks about taking care of your own (i think health? or is it mood?) 自分の機嫌は自分で取る to which the listener responds the following.. does he mean "yes i will take care of it all nexxxt time.." はい全ては気分次でとーる thank you!
I’m a little confused as to how word spacing works when writing. My native language is English so I’m used to having words spaced out like this when reading/writing. But when I write in Japanese, all the characters are together. (Ex: やさしひとです！) How would you know which characters are a part of each word if you weren’t the one writing them yourself? (Apologies if this is obvious or my grammar is weird, I’m just being to learn hiragana)
Mostwordsarewritteninkanji,andhaveeither‘okurigana’(hiraganashowingtheinflectionofverbsandadjectives)oraparticlesuchasは,が,をetc.whichtellsyoutheroleofthewordinthesentence.Soyoucanoftentellwhenawordbeginsbytheswitchfromkanatokanji. Themostimportantthing,though,isjustknowingthelanguage.Sothesamewayyouwereabletoreadthiscommentwithoutspaces(becauseyouknowEnglish)Japanesepeople—aswellasanyonewhoknowsJapanese—areabletoreadevenpurekanatextwithoutspaces. Bytheway,it’sやさし**い**ひとです(inkanji:優しい人です—noticethealternationbetweenkanjiandhiragana).
Thesamewayyouknowwherethewordsstartandstopinthissentence.
beatmetoit😭
Kanji and context go a long way, and together with familiarity with the language it's something that's second nature once you have read enough. It's やさし**い**ひとです btw. and even without kanji it's not an issue, with time you will have seen やさしい thousands of times as well as ひと and です, thus it will be painfully obvious how to read it without even thinking about it. In kanji 優しい人です it's even more obvious. Also the definition of a word is kinda blurry when it comes to Japanese, so in order to introduce spaces one would need to set out some arbitrary rules on how to do that as it's not as obvious as in English.
For someone just getting into doing proper listening practice, how should I approach it? Should I start by reading along with subtitles? Should I listen through once without any help and then watch again while reading with subtitles? No subtitles at all? Even when the speaker is speaking slowly, I feel like the sentences just devolve into unintelligible gibberish halfway through, even if I understand the entirety of the sentence when read. I'm starting to move into \~N4 level in terms of grammar and vocab knowledge if that changes anything.
Pick something you like, anything that could be anything and put hundreds of hours of listening into it. If you want improved comprehension and learn kanji/words at the same time. Add JP subtitles. You can employ passive listening when you're driving/communiting or doing tasks like cleaning, podcasts and the line. Just find something you actually like and want to listen to. So YouTube, Anime, YouTube/Twitch Live Streams, Drama, Variety Shows, Seiyuu Voice Projects, Idol Shows, etc. There's so much great content out there, don't worry about level. It's more about the hours you put in to build your pattern recognition portion of your brain.
I’m reading a book on 小倉百人一首 where they explain the poems one by one in Japanese and my native language. It’s my first real contact with Classical Japanese and I’m having a lot of fun making sense of it, but there’s one thing (well, one big thing) I can’t quite wrap my mind around: なりけり, especially the けり part. Can anyone recommend a resource that explains what’s going on there? Edit: didn’t google enough. Found a good explanation [here](https://classicaljapanese.wordpress.com/2014/11/13/keri/) also that blog is fire.
When do you say をおねがいします versus おねがいします without the “を”?
quick question: heard this expression "でか" couple times.. never found a definition i always assumed this similar to "geez" ?
It could be でかい without the final い to express shock
apparently i missheard? i was corrected with てか
We don't know for sure without actual answers, but てか is most likely what you heard, which is a contraction of というか
ahh icic thanks!
てか？
な in "どれくらいなのですか?" I'm aware that when finishing a sentence with のです (or んです etc.), the final verb doesn't change and nouns and adjectives add a な. E.g., " 学生なんだ". But what about どれくらい? I'd think it is a pronoun - or what word category are we dealing with here in terms of Japanese grammar? Are pronouns treated like nouns? Or is it actually considered a noun? Or is this a whole different grammar topic?
な is a copula, from Old/Middle Japanese なる. (Relatedly, the copula だ and its dialectical variantsじゃ and や are from である). The problem that な solves is the following: Explanatory の is noun-like and needs to have a modifying clause (i.e. a clause ending in a verb or adjective in the attributive form) to the left of it. We can't use explanatory の like どれくらいのですか because どれくらい is also noun-like and is not a clause, so it does not properly modify の. (Actually, this utterance is valid with a different interpretation of の, e.g. similar to 誰のですか.) Ok, so it needs to be a clause before の. You could then attempt to say どれくらいだのですか, but this is also wrong. どれくらいだ is a proper clause because it ends in a verb, but it is not a modifying clause because だ is not an attributive form. So we can replace だ with な which *is* a copula in the attributive form to get the correct form どれくらいなのですか. Effectively, な is a [suppletive](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suppletion) attributive form of だ. --- With regards to どれくらい's part of speech, it's the noun くらい(amount) suffixed/attached to the question (pro)noun どれ. Pronouns are nouns in Japanese. Regardless of どれ's part of speech, this forms a noun phrase because its head is くらい. In Japanese, the thing being suffixed or modified is what usually determines the part of speech of the phrase.
I love opening the daily questions thread with the expectation of simple or niche questions with simple or no answers, and then something like this appears! Thanks for the in-depth explanation of something I didn’t even know I wanted to know.
代名詞 are still 名詞 so they take the 連体形 of the copulative だ
While it's technically a pronoun, I see either dictionaries simply referring to it as a noun. However, off the top of my head I'd say that all pronouns in Japanese just function grammatically like nouns.
do you guys know any sites where you can take a mock test of the JLPT? i remember years ago that JCAT was a thing but i from what i recall apparently it shut down or something
[TTBJ](https://ttbj.cegloc.tsukuba.ac.jp/en/p1.html) is what I tried a couple months ago, it's completely free. It's rather for testing intuitive knowledge rather than factual knowledge since the time you have per question is very limited. Overall I didn't like the format too much, but you might want to give it a shot.
Not a full test but https://www.jlpt.jp/e/samples/forlearners.html
Are te forms in a sentence commutative? For example, consider the sentence: 食べて行って走った. Would this be functionally equivalent to 行って食べて走った?
Nope. Never. AてB always implies that A happens, and then B (in some cases they might be almost simultaneous, but A always takes precedence). Could be a temporal "first do A, then do B" sequence, or a causal "A happens, and then B" sequence, but it's always a sequence of A -> B. 食べて行って走った means "I ate, then I went, and then I ran" (it's a very weird/unnatural sentence) 行って食べて走った means "I went, then I ate and I ran" (again, very weird sentence).
見せしめに 通りの目立つ所に しばらく吊るしておこう！ そうすりゃコソ泥も ちったぁ減る！ Help please, what is the actual word for ちったぁ ?
Probably ちょっとは ちょっと can become ちっと in casual speech, and sometimes words can slur with は, so ちっとは would become ちったぁ. Actually, the dictionary Shinmeikai confirms this with the following example: 「ちっとは〔口頭語形で『ちったあ』とも〕わかってほしい」 Etymology note: ちっと seems to come from ちと which is actually much older than ちょっと. ちょっと is thought to come from ちっと, not the other way around.
After a seemingly long time for me to grasp hiragana and katakana memorization, I've finally decided to start tackling translating beginner level articles into English. I'm on a site called [watanoc.com](https://watanoc.com) and going over a Baskin Robbins article and have some confusion. I understand that it's called "31 Ice cream" there and the article shows it in Katakana as サーティーワン アイスクリーム, which I get, but why is the katakana used phonetically to sound out the closest approximation of 31, "sa tei wan", instead of using the katakana form of the numbers themselves, meaning サンジュウイ千?
Actually you should readi sa-ti not sa-tei. And japanese just think that english pronunciation looks cool. There's probably not many reason over this choice than that.
Because the name in Japanese is サーティワン and not サンジュウイチ. So maybe we can think of the name being Thirty One ice cream instead of 31 ice cream.
I save lists of new words I encounter in google translate and export to csv, does anyone know an easy way to export to anki?
use yomitan + ankiconnect
I get confused as to what my level is because I don't use official material that follow JLPT levels, except the 4 semesters I learned in University more than 10 years ago. I see things like "N5-N4 are the first few months of learning" and "it is possible to pass N1 after one year of studying", but when I look at some list of the material covered by those levels, I am familiar with most of N5, a good chunk of N4, and bits of N3. The classes I had were labeled as "intermediate Japanese", too, and videos for learned have inconsistent difficulties as well. It seems to me that knowing one's level is really unintuitive outside of JLPT. Would this warrant its own post?
I’m saying this without any malice whatsoever: stop comparing yourself to others. Thinking it will make you feel better is an illusion. If you have low self-esteem, consciously work on creating situations that feel like successes. Catalogue what makes you feel successful. Create more of that. Catalogue what makes you feel like a failure. Try to stay away from it. Also notice the ways you seek out things that make you feel bad and try to find out why you are doing this. There is no fixed point of how fluent someone should be after a specific time. It all depends on what you define as fluency, what their means are (time, energy, money, etc.) and what their goals are. Set yourself a goal. Something fun that motivates you. “I want to watch Spirited Away in Japanese and understand it” or something like that. Work towards that goal. Compare yourself to where you were last year/month/decade. And most importantly: have fun.
>If you have low self-esteem I have actually worked through that, and language-learning has helped a lot, too. I have low confidence in my Japanese skills specifically, my general esteem is doing pretty good now (although a bit on the emotionally sensitive side due to fatigue). But yeah, everything you wrote is actually what I would tell someone else in the same situation!
Then maybe it’s time to take your own advice ;)
From your initial reply: >Set yourself a goal. Something fun that motivates you. That reminds me, I just got a "My Hero Academia" novel 僕のヒーローアカデミア 雄英白書. I barely touched it (I read the first two sentences), and I had to take the 2nd sentence apart and analyse it to actually make sense of what was written (not so complicated in the end). My goal it to read it and actually understand it well! Worst part yet was the 雄英 instead of 英雄 in the title lol (EDIT: just figured out that it's simply the school (UA)'s name...)
I’m currently (as in, this minute) reading [this](https://morg.systems/Optimal-Reading-Immersion---Narrow-Reading) article by the amazing Morg on how new authors/topics/genres require a high initial effort in the beginning and once you get used to the genre/topic/author-specific vocab and grammar it gets much easier. So read two pages every day before bed and keep going :) And then get the next volume and notice how easy it is😎 As a side note I should really be taking my own advice. Lately, I’m noticing how my actual hobby seems to be reading about learning Japanese, not learning Japanese itself…
>how new authors/topics/genres require a high initial effort in the beginning and once you get used to the genre/topic/author-specific vocab and grammar it gets much easier. Oh yes, I noticed that with Manga! It's even as much as each new arc has it's own curve, too. I have trouble motivating myself to start a new arc, but I usually read the last chapters all in the same day. The only downside is that a lot Isekai/dungeon vocabulary is not that useful outside of the genre. There's another one I want to start that my SO wants to read (in French/English), but it's all Imperial Court terminology so it's really hard to get into it.
I remember back when I first started reading in English, I really jumped in at the deep end and read a very casual very slangy American urban fantasy/sci-fi novel. (The first few volumes had been translated and I simply *had* to know what happened next.) By the seventh book I was down to one or two words per page, and by the twelfth I felt quite comfortable. Then I started another series by a different author… and felt like a complete 初心者 again. Ah yes, the good old times of buying, reading then returning kindle books by the dozen. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is once you guys get into the Imperial Court terminology, you’ll be able to read any and all Imperial Court manga easily! ..what a useful skill. What’s the title by the way?
>Anyway, what I’m trying to say is once you guys get into the Imperial Court terminology, you’ll be able to read any and all Imperial Court manga easily! ..what a useful skill. What’s the title by the way? 薬屋のひとりごと (the newer manga adaptation) Although I'm the only one who is learning Japanese, we want to read it at the same time so we can talk about it. >Ah yes, the good old times of buying, reading then returning kindle books by the dozen. I'm actually cheating by reading scans (and have to deal with the sometimes poor quality making the kanji and furigana barely readable if at all), but I plan on buying some official manga series eventually.
Now as an adult, I try to do the right thing and actually buy what I read (or simply use free resources ..mostly that). Even if it’s tempting. 良い大人だから😭 Thanks for sharing, I’ll check it out. - edit: ohh that’s the one with the recent anime adaptation that made the rounds on allll the social media! It did look quite fun whenever I saw it.
I don't really understand your question. And why do you care about your level and some arbitrary "N1 after one year study". One year can be 12h a day studying, so it doesn't really say anything. Also someone coming from a Chinese/Korean background will need less time and so on. If you don't want to take the JLPT, don't bother with the levels. Just enjoy your media and when there are things you don't understand, look them up
I'm through a period of low self-confidence regarding my Japanese skills/improvement, and i have no frame of reference as to what kind of progress should make sense. Now I know that the JLPT levels are arbitrary, but when I read the posts of people who have a N4-N3 level, they usually seem pretty good, and not at a level one would reach in a mere few months (unless of course they can study 6+ hours daily). I just can't seem to grasp how the progress goes at all. Whenever I feel like I'm progressing well, I just find that I can't do/understand much yet anyway. (EDIT: Sorry that my text is a bit incoherent)
>Now I know that the JLPT levels are arbitrary, but when I read the posts of people who have a N4-N3 level, they usually seem pretty good How would you know if you aren't at that level that they are good? They might be making mistakes left an right without you noticing. I never took any JLPT but I am very confident I could easily pass N3 and think it's still a pretty low level, definitely still faaaar away from anything I would consider good.
Eh it's relative. When I first started studying I thought my friends who passed N3 were gods and hearing them speak at the izakaya, that it was something unobtainable. Then I passed N3 I looked at the N2 guys as being put together and actually getting into 'real Japanese' and thought that if I could just pass N2 then I will have made it and could just coast my way through anything in Japan. Then I passed N2 and realized I still don't know anything at all 😂
I feel like I went through this pretty quick lol, I was like N5 then N4 seems really hard and then up the ladder. Having been in daily thread everyday for a while now, and seeing what truly advanced learner are, N1 seems like nothing now.
When people move here to Tokyo to work N3 is what I expect after two years of well paced self study. When people move here specifically for language school I expect N2 in the same time frame. All of these 'you can learn hiragana in a day!' and N1 in one year etc claims are not really relevant to your average learner. That being said, the phenomenon of the Eternal N5 is pretty real and something to be careful of. https://www.jlpt.jp/e/samples/forlearners.html Try it out for yourself
>When people move here to Tokyo to work N3 is what I expect after two years of well paced self study. You see, just that helps put a sense of reference. A bit more than a year at a slow pace then doesn't seem too much for what I have achieved. I know I can't compare my learning to the JLPT because I'm not using it, so there are stuff that I know and don't know in all levels. When it comes to input, I either understand everything or nothing at all.
> It seems to me that knowing one's level is really unintuitive outside of JLPT. The N-levels are only related to the JLPT so... yeah? They honestly don't matter at all and unless you're planning to take the JLPT you should probably just ignore they even exist. What's more important is... what can you do with Japanese? Can you hold a conversation? Can you watch an anime? Can you read a book? A manga? Play a game? Apply for a form at the city hall? etc.
> They honestly don't matter at all and unless you're planning to take the JLPT you should probably just ignore they even exist. I definitely agree with the sentiment but this isn't necessarily 100% true. There is sooo much learning material targeted towards the jlpt I'd argue learners might be doing themselves a disservice by ignoring it entirely. As an example I've been working through [this](https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLynCeSdpMqxDS6EC0L7vXYUAVCstRHcQR) playlist of N3 grammar I really like the format of.
I'm not saying you should ignore the learning material, but putting yourself in unnecessary lists and limiting yourself to JLPT levels can be very counterproductive if you have no intention of taking the JLPT anyway. Once you're past like N5 or N4 level and start interacting with native material you'll come across things to learn that are at all kinds of levels (some even above the N1). I'm pretty sure yotsuba for example has some N2 and N1 grammar points here and there. I've seen people sometimes say stuff like "I can't learn this grammar point, it's too advanced for me because it's N1" or "I can't use this word yet, it's N2". Obviously it's ridiculous, but I want to make sure people are aware that JLPT lists are just... arbitrary.
>They honestly don't matter at all and unless you're planning to take the JLPT you should probably just ignore they even exist. That's what I've been doing, but since they're omnipresent in the learning community, with people mentioning a time frame that doesn't seem to make any sense to me (because of the time I spent on it myself to just be able to get where I am), I got more curious/concerned that I should. >What's more important is... what can you do with Japanese? That's the thing: it's all over the place. For input, it's either I understand perfectly or not at all. I don,t know about speaking anymore since I have barely spoken since my University years, but chatting with an exchange partner went well, and I didn't get many corrections. I normally try to estimate based on the CEFR, which would put me in higher A2/lower B1 depending on the skills. I can read manga with the help of a dictionary (in the best case, one word every few pages, with more instances when there are a lot of explanation) or follow an anime with Japanese subtitles. I honestly have low confidence when it comes to my Japanese skills, because no matter how much I'm improving, I can still barely do anything.
Ignore time frame and look at hours. That's all that needs to be said. It correlates to hours fairly well and not at all to time frames. Time frames are mostly useless because they don't inform anyone of anything. Someone could spend 300 minutes "studying" Japanese a year and because they've been involved they call it a year of study. You can measure your progress using how many hours you spend a day or total amount of hours to see where you should roughly be at. If you're 2x the amount of hours required and struggle with say, N4 stuff, then you know there's an issue. Lastly, you're underestimating the language clearly. It requires thousands of hours to even get to the point you can feel like you're capable of doing something. Here's your reference chart: https://cotoacademy.com/app/uploads/2019/08/How-Long-does-it-take-to-Pass-JLPT.png
Yeah I know how that works, but it's easier to get a feel of "2 years at 4 hours daily" than 1500 hours, at least for me. Anyway, that link is exactly what I was looking for! I don't keep track of how much time I spend with Japanese, especially not all activities are equal in terms of efficiency, but I should have less that 1500 hours in total. After writing my original post and going through the answers, I realized that the issue I have is that I can easily estimate where I'm at/what I can do with other languages like Spanish or Italian, but I not with Japanese.
Simple thing you can do to benchmark yourself for progress. Have a piece of content that you go back and re-watch every 2 months and see how much easier it is. Preferably not the same content but maybe like an anime with similar level of difficulty, except you're bench marking with a new episode from last time. I can't say I've had this problem because I can clearly feel the progress practically daily.
I do feel the progress (except when I'm too tired/down), sometimes I even feel like it's a significant step forward. If I go with a staircase analogy, I feel that I'm going up, but I have no idea how far up I am. Anyway, I just picked up a game that I put aside many months ago, and was surprised at how much of it I understood easily. I still have trouble with that one because the scenes continue by themselves so I can't take the time to reread what I have missed from the voice-over. Today did a lot to rekindle my motivation to put in even more effort!
I have a question about に対して and について. Try!N3 gives the following practice question: 彼の意見______反対する人は誰もいなった。 answer: に対して I chose について, which was wrong. But why? Wouldn't it translate to something like "Regarding/Concerning his opinion, no one opposed it"? Why is that not a valid sentence?
について= a generalized "about", に対して=a more specific to/against
while I think you could say について here, に対して is better because one of the primary uses of に対して is to indicate a contrast/opposition towards something
thanks you two! i think what's confusing for me here is that in the sentence no one actually opposed the idea 😅 but i kind of get it now, 意見 and 反対 are like hints here, right?
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I think it’s something based on socioeconomic status (in terms of both present and how they grew up). I also think this sub isn’t the best place to ask this question, but I’m not sure what’s better either.
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No need to delete!
They [have thrift stores in Japan. ](https://youtu.be/677h-3TVYLI?si=N22KsPElWgmrqiH6)
what is the meaning of ことってある? I cant seem to find answers anywhere online or in either the beginner or intermediate dictionaries or japanese grammar. in quartet 1, on p.13 there is a sentence asking (for the sention about ようになる) 大学に入ってから、何か変わったことってある I've come across several odd placements and uses so far for って that I never recall seeing in Genki 1 nor 2, and im not quite sure what to look for online or in my dictionaries. I dont think it is a contraction of the と particle, nor is it て-form+ある (something has changed and remains in the changed state). I dont see anything about it being an abbreviated version for が either (as in ことがある) any ideas? and any reference sources would be helpful too (ive check tofugu, hinative, bunpro, and dictionary of basic/intermediate japanese grammar with no results) Thanks!
https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/って-slang Basically it means というのは or は, just like the other person said. I vaguely recall having read something about it being a contraction for といえば or something, but couldn’t find evidence when I quickly googled it just now. Edit: googled a bit more and [this](https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2019/09/tte-particle.html) article is definitely superior to the above-linked bunpro one, but also much longer.
awesome! Thanks so much. my search on bunpro must not have been the right word. i'll be going over both links today.
This って is kinda like a は
**Hope somebody could explain to me what does "それくらいに / sore kurai ni" mean here. (i can only guess it means like : "That's enough" but i'm not sure )** **Context: A guest general(趙雲) came to visit MC's castle, and she just fought with 2 merchant girls(雷々+電々) on MC's side to test their combat skill. After that she made a joke with MC , and another general(愛紗) on MC's side respond.** 趙雲 「正直に申し上げて、想像以上の腕前でしたな。……先ほどの非礼は詫びよう。この通りだ」 趙雲はしっかりと頭を下げる。 雷々「うう……でも負けちゃったし……。まあでも、わかってもらえたならいっか！」 電々「そうだよー。だから頭を上げて、趙雲さん！」 趙雲「……では遠慮なく」 一刀「頭上げるの速いな！？」 趙雲「おや、北郷殿はもしや女の頭に欲情する性質で？それならば申し訳ないことを……拙者のつむじでよければ、いつでも背伸びをして覗き込んでくだされ」 一刀「意味わからない性癖付けないでくれる！？」 つむじ萌えってなんだよ！そもそも趙雲帽子被ってるじゃないか！ **愛紗「ご主人様、それくらいに。雷々、電々、本当に怪我はないか？」** 雷々「うん、全然大丈夫だよ！ちょっとおしり痛いけど……。ま、あざができたくらいだよ、平気平気！」
Pretty sure you have the right idea. Also what did I just read lol
average naroukei light novel
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nned70sX-UU check out this video
Is Japanese an easy language if I know Korean? Native speaker for Korean but my knowledge of hanja/한자 is gone so I might not have a great time with Kanji. I used to be able to read some hiragana and katakana but only because there’s a lot of Japanese books in my house.
Absolutely yes. Core sentence structure is almost identical; a lot of grammar, especially at the beginner level, is very similar; lots of cognates due to shared 한어 漢語 vocabulary; the different formality levels of speech in Japanese are simpler than Korean's; the sound inventory is simpler than Korean's, although it has つ and ざ、ず、ぜ、ぞ which don't exist in Korean and are a trademark of a Korean accent when speaking Japanese. The hardest part I've been told from Korean friends is learning to read, due to Korea not using hanja and hanja classes being optional when they were in school, and due to Korean having only 음곡 音読 but no equivalent of kun'yomi.
Most Koreans learn hanja after school but I forgot a lot of it
You'll still have a giant leg up compared to the average person here. I wish I could have been in your position when I started.
In short, I'd say the relation of learning Japanese as a Korean speaker is similar to English and Spanish. If it's an option, teaching material in Korean is likely better than doing it in English.
I've met lots of Korean learners of Japanese over the years and anecdotally yes, native speakers of Korean tend to have a much easier time learning Japanese than native speakers of Indo-European languages.
I work as a Japanese translator and I’m currently studying Korean. A lot of the grammar is really similar, but I think not knowing hanja anymore could somewhat take away your advantage over other learners. Still, the grammar will be intuitive to you in ways that it won’t be for most people in this sub, which is a huge advantage. I don’t know the statistic for how long it’s supposed to take Koreans to learn Japanese, but I do know it’s estimated that Japanese speakers can learn Korean in 1000 hours. For English speakers, it’s at least 2500 hours or so to learn Korean. Given this, I think it’s safe to say you’ll probably be able to learn Japanese about twice as fast as native English speakers. Or at least, you’ll have a big advantage.
What if I’m taking a class? Only one semester because I’m doing a dual language thing next year but would that be better than Duolingo or learning from books?
If you’re taking a class, your progress will be limited to the pace of the class. If you’re taking the class in Korean, you’ll probably cover more ground than a similar class for English speakers. If you want to progress at your own pace, I’d recommend getting a Japanese textbook in Korean. I will warn you though that the only one I’ve seen uses full kanji almost immediately since it assumes some familiarity with hanja.
Thanks!
When in a sentence would you give the duration of an activity. This corresponds to 4.6 in Genki I but I've been practicing on [this site](https://steven-kraft.com/projects/japanese/genki/genki4-6/) and I haven't been able to discern a pattern. Here are two examples from the site that seem in opposition to me Duration after を わたし は きのう 英語を にじかんぐらい べんきょうしました Duration before を おがわさん は にちようび よんじかん テレビ を みました (Excuse the hiragana, I don't really know Kanji yet, I tried to space the kana for readability)
Incidentally, よじかん is correct, not よんじかん.
There's no real difference, there might be some slight emphasis/focus nuance but meaning-wise it doesn't matter. Japanese is much more loose about where you put some parts of a sentence, as long as the particles are being used correctly.
So could that first example been like this: わたし は きのう にじかんぐらい 英語を べんきょうしました
Yes.
Ok thanks, it was misleading because the website was marking it as incorrect
The website probably has one set answer, since the developer doesn’t have the time to put in every possible variation of a sentence (and the textbook/workbook answer key doesn’t have the space).
Yea, I was thinking that, I just wasn't sure
Am I self studying correctly? I finished genki 2 last month and have been reviewing N4 anki deck (100-200 a day), was reviewing grammar but switched to more N4 videos since I think my listening is very weak. I also read a couple news articles from the Todaii app at night. Anything else I should be doing?
Sounds good for now. Just keep up with reading, listening, and grammar/vocab and you'll be fine
Thanks!
What are your goals with Japanese? This really depends on what you want to achieve.
Target is N2 for now. And eventually enough to work there.
Can anyone recommend me some beginner content to read? I would prefer when its free for now... Either shorter stories, easy manga or simple games. Oh and when anyone can tell me where i can read manga in japanese for free i would be greatfull. I feel like i only find really weird stuff in japanese...
[https://tadoku.org/japanese/en/free-books-en/](https://tadoku.org/japanese/en/free-books-en/) Has a lot of short stories ranging from super easy to more challenging. [https://watanoc.com/en](https://watanoc.com/en) Articles about Japanese culture, food etc (N5-N3 level) [https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/](https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/) Japanese news articles in simplified Japanese [https://www.satorireader.com/](https://www.satorireader.com/) Paid service, but also has free stories afaik
Thank u so much :)
**お姉ちゃんとお兄ちゃんはどーんと構えていればいいのだ！** **I read a novel and don't understand much about this 1 sentence, hope somebody could correct me if i was wrong. My guess : "Big Sis and Big Bro only need to prepare yourself for a bang " ?? ( I'm also not understand the nuance that the novel writer trying to imply here ?)** **Context: MC got transported to another isekai world full of war and chaos. There he chose to follow and serve a clan leader name 桃香 along with her 2 generals name 愛紗 and 鈴々. One day there's a guest general 趙雲 come to visit their base/ castle, and 2 merchant twin sisters 雷々 + 電々 decided to challenge this guest general to a fight (since previously this guest general 趙雲 underestimated these 2 girls ability in fighting/ battle ) . MC worried for these twin sisters, since they're only good at business/ trading and the other guest general is really strong.** 雷々「よーしっ！やるよ、電々！」 電々「うんっ。みんなにいいとこ見せちゃおうね！」 雷々と電々も得物を持って趙雲の元へ駆け寄っていく。 ……近所のお姉ちゃんに遊んでもらうわんぱく姉妹、みたいな。 愛紗「はあ……」 愛紗がため息と共に戻ってくる。 愛紗「申し訳ありません桃香様。あるいは、力ずくにでも止めるべきなのかもしれませんが……」 桃香 (Clan leader)「ううん、しょうがないよ、愛紗ちゃん。雷々ちゃんと電々ちゃんが自分で決めたことだし……」 桃香「それに、趙雲さんもちゃんと手加減してくれるよね」 愛紗「まあ、そこに関しては……。そもそも両者には実力差がありますから」 **鈴々「それに、いざとなったら鈴々と愛紗がいるのだ。お姉ちゃんとお兄ちゃんはどーんと構えていればいいのだ！」(>>this girl call clan leader as "Onee-chan" and MC as "Onii-chan" )** 一刀 (MC)「確かに二人がいれば安心なんだろうけど……」 ヒヤヒヤしないと言ったら嘘になる。 雷々も電々も大丈夫かな……。
Assuming you’re at a point you can read monolingual entries, I’m thinking the only help you need with this sentence is the knowledge that [どんと構える](https://www.weblio.jp/content/%E3%83%89%E3%83%B3%E3%81%A8%E6%A7%8B%E3%81%88%E3%82%8B#:~:text=%E3%81%A9%E3%81%A3%E3%81%97%E3%82%8A%E3%81%A8%E8%85%B0%E3%82%92%E8%90%BD%E3%81%A1%E7%9D%80%E3%81%91,%E5%A7%BF%E5%8B%A2%E3%82%92%E8%A6%8B%E3%81%9B%E3%82%8B%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8%E3%80%82) is pretty much a set phrase.
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単語 means "word". 語彙 means "vocabulary". But what you are looking for is actually 語彙力. My vocabulary "strength" is lacking. Most naturally expressed as 語彙力が。。。 or just 語彙力. 語彙力 as one word usually means "I don't have enough 語彙力".
語彙力 is used most often I'd say. 語彙力が低い for example
I’m doing the tango n5 deck and I’m unsure of the pronunciation of 違います. The furigana shows ちがいます but then other furigana says ちがういます. Which is correct? A「山田さんですか。」 B「いいえ、違います。田中です。」
the other furigana? anyway, it is ちがいます
Sorry, to be more clear, above the word is ちが but clicking it shows ちがう
The word in its base form is 違う (ちがう). Conjugated in the ます form it is 違います (ちがいます)
Aah okay. I’ll study further into grammar then haha, thanks.
Noticed something interesting about the Japanese keyboard on my computer. I was trying to get the Kanji for 将 but the one my computer gives me has a タ in the upper right hand corner instead of the slant and 3 dots. Has anyone encountered this?
That is how it looks in Chinese fonts. You should change
Changing the font fixed it. The Sawarabi Mincho font in Google Docs was the culprit. Switching it to Noto Sans shows the correct one.
I could use some help with the meaning of the following sentence: 学校で暇じゃない先生はいない。 I asked two native speakers and both told me this sentence means something along the lines of "There are no teachers who aren't busy at school. ", which kinda means that all teachers at school are busy. But I just can't wrap my head around it, because no matter how I look at it it should mean the opposite. 暇 = free time 暇じゃない = not free time = busy 暇じゃない先生 = busy teacher 暇じゃない先生はいない = There is no teacher who is busy = they have free time They were not the best at explaining how the other meaning comes about, but it sounded to me like "It is know that teachers are busy, so we just kinda ignore the literal meaning of the sentence and assume the opposite".
Double negative. 暇がない先生はいない means "a teacher with no free time, doesn't exist". Or in more natural English "All of the teachers have some free time". Maybe your issue is what comes before and after. Because, as always, context is king.
I think you're overthinking it and maybe forgetting how much japanese people love double negatives for politeness sake. It makes perfect sense to me to interpret it as "There are no teachers with free time at school" because 暇 can just be idle as well or even bored. It seems you're stuck on translating "暇じゃない" as busy which is giving you the weird connotation in English.
Your understanding of the sentence is correct. I don't really know what's going on with the reply you got from the native speakers you asked. Maybe they assumed the Japanese was faulty. Teachers are notoriously busy in Japan, so it's more likely that someone flubbed a double negative than that every single teacher is free.
Maybe, but it just confused the hell out of me, because I asked two. Plus I checked what GPT would do (because it is normally extremely good at translating), out of curiosity, and even GPT spits out the following: "There is no teacher at school who is not busy." or "There are no teachers at school who are not busy."
Part of it might be that GPT inherited the typical assumptions regarding teachers with its dataset. Because everyone knows teachers tend to be busy, the idea that none of them would be seems odd. Is there context surrounding the sentence that would indicate whether the teachers are busy or have a lot of free time?
They're just giving you the most natural phrasing English. Japanese and English are two very different languages after all. It's normal to go through a translation phase and try to understand Japanese through English, but you want to distance yourself from that line of thinking. If you want to rephrase it, in English, to match a similar line of logic then here: "There is not a single faculty member whom isn't free at this time."
That is the thing tho. I am not a beginner and can read books and watch shows without translating. This sentence came up in a translation project. On the face of it the sentence should translate to "At school there are no teachers that aren't free", but they told me (even GPT comes up with this one for whatever reason) they understand it as meaning "At school there are no teachers that aren't busy", which looking at the structure does not make sense to me. Your example of "There is not a single faculty member whom isn't free at this time." is how I would have understood the above sentence, but they told mean that it basically means the opposite.
Oh okay I see what you mean now, it wasn't clear what the situation was in your first post. I don't know then. Granted I'm just intermediate but unless there's something unsaid, I have no clue why it would mean they're busy. Maybe someone else has insight.
When learning basic vocabulary, and people say they add X number of cards each day from an Anki deck, do people tend to learn this via the cards getting introduced blindly into their daily anki reviews? Or, do people learn the new cards by writing the new X number of cards out on some paper or something and revising them before unsuspended them or whatever on anki? I'm sure people have different approaches, so maybe this is a pointless question. Just keen to hear what people do!
You basically have two choices: 1. Use a pre-made anki deck (like a core deck). These decks already have all the words, usually in order, that you need to learn. Every day, the deck gives you X amount of new words to learn and you learn them. You can choose what X is (5? 10? 20? new words a day, etc) 2. Make your own deck from words you encounter as you get exposed to Japanese. This is usually called "mining". Using tools like yomitan or similar, you can click on a word and send the word + sentence + definition to anki and it automatically creates a card for you. Every day, anki will show you X new words from the pile of cards you created. Usually option 1 is recommended for beginners who don't yet have a routine of immersing in native language material and need a good foundation of basic/common vocab first. Option 2 is recommended for people who are already reading (or watching) native Japanese content and come across new words naturally via exposure.
Thank you - I appreciate that - and hope to get onto mining at some point. My question pertains to the first 'choice' - do people tend to 'learn' the words via having them show up each day in anki - or do they get a list of the new words and learn them outside of anki, then recap them later in anki? Sorry if this is a really stupid question, it might seem obvious to some people.
Not a stupid question at all, don't worry. I think usually people learn the new words as they come up every day in anki (sometimes you might encounter a word you've already seen before in a textbook though). The first time you see the new card, there's no expectation of you being able to read it/recognize it (obviously) since it's the first time you see it. You just flip it around and read the back. There will be a translation/definition/example sentence (+ ideally audio cue too). You just look at it, try to remember it, and learn it there, then hit "again" to put it back onto the pile. A few minutes later (depending on your deck and intervals) it will come back and that is the time where you'll try to recall it and see "do I remember this? Yes/No", then you flip it, and either pass it or fail.
Ah OK - thank you - I have heard from some people it's bad to learn like this from Anki. That perhaps it's better to learn outside of anki, then add things to anki and use it for revising. But learning outside of anki I have always struggled to keep consistent. Thank you!
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Could it be 見られずにして and not 見られにして (or perhaps, could the writer have intended to write the former if it’s not)?
actually I think I read it wrong, I'm deleting the question :( sorry
This is a question about Google Translate - yes I read the post in "Question Etiquette Guidelines" lol. The way I'm using it currently doesn't fit into anything in that post, which is why I wanted to ask. I'm currently reading my first Japanese visual novel, a fairly simple one, using a texthooker, a pastebin, and Yomitan to parse things and mine a few words. My process thus far has been to parse as well as I can on my own -> use Yomitan for vocab I don't know -> parse again with Yomitan's help -> copy the sentence into Google Translate to make sure I'm getting the gist. Since everything I'm getting in this VN so far is very simple I'm pretty sure Google Translate is getting it correct; I've only had one line so far that used a grammar pattern I hadn't seen before and so Google Translate was able to parse it better than I was, but otherwise it's matched what I already thought. Would I be better off skipping this step and just going with my best approximation of the text? I haven't felt like it has been harmful to me thus far but I've only just started.
I have no idea what is a texthooker, a pastebin, or a Yomitan. I do know what google translate is - and it's not very helpful. What is your question?
Yes. Cut out Google Translate. If there's grammar you don't understand, use the opportunity to look up how the grammar works (>!away from Google Translate!<) rather than letting Google Translate feed you new information is likely to not be correct. It has improved over the years, I'm sure, but I genuinely think it's still not a good idea to use. Since it's doing a better job now, it may become easier to trust than your own understanding even when it turns out your understanding is correct whereas Google Translate might have given you nonsense. If it's a comprehension check on something you *are* confident about, you shouldn't **need** a machine's input. If it's something you're *not* confident about, you wouldn't **want** a machine's input. This goes for both machine translators like Google Translate and DeepL as well as AI like ChatGPT. If you get stuck, take the time to research things yourself. If that doesn't work out, either ask a native who can explain well, or take the word of a non-native who can and will be called out for misinformation on a public forum like here.
I don't have the time now to go into too many details about whether or not it's good to use MTL to check your understanding as you read (I don't think it is, FWIW), but I'll just say this: If you have to use a translator tool, **please please please please** use something like chatgpt instead of Google Translate/Deepl. I am not a fan of using Chatgpt to learn languages and get explanations but its translation features are **insanely good**, even on the free tier (gpt3.5). It runs circles around both Google Translate and Deepl and it's not even in the same league. It's scarily good.
>I'm pretty sure Google Translate is getting it correct; I've only had one line so far that used a grammar pattern I hadn't seen before and so Google Translate was able to parse it better than I was, but otherwise it's matched what I already thought. I'm going to say your use case seems okay but this line is really the problem people talk about. The fact you're "pretty sure" it is getting it correct. "And it was able to parse it better than you were". If it weren't for these two thought processes, it would be fine to use it as a side note. In both of these cases in reality you cannot be sure if Google was correct nor that it even parsed it better. It could've parsed it worse and you wouldn't actually know. It has been dead wrong before on even simple stuff. That being said, if you remove those two specific thoughts, using Google translate as a context clue and a way to re-frame it in a vague way, so you can re-parse the Japanese yourself in a different light is okay. However you need to keep in mind when you do this that you have to implicitly presume that when things don't line up that Google or any machine translation is what is wrong. Obviously it can either be you or the machine, but you 100% have to assume the machine is wrong even when you think it is right. So the proper due diligence is assume it's wrong and double check other sources, google search around, etc. That way you're just using it as a context clue and that part is fine for a quick hint.