25 comments

1. 食事というものが実に単純で自然な仕掛けからできていて、こんなにも楽しいものだということを現代の人々はもっと実感すべきだろうと思う。

   Which definition of 仕掛け is this?

2. I am trying to learn to improve my hiragana and katakana so started using the Japanese keyboard.

   I want to type in katakana and change it to “english” while using on android. However, I am unable to find a way to do it. (reverse of how you can type in english and it can convert it to japanese)

   Can anybody guide me on how to use Katakana keyboard to type in Katakana that then is translated to ” English” ?

   Thanks.

3. I’m doing the Quartet workbook about 敬語 and am confused about when です should become げございます

   For example, this is a sentence from a store employee to a customer returning a shirt with a missing button. The exercise is to replace this sentence with appropriate 敬語.

   そのシャツを見てもいいですか。あ、ここのボタンですね

   So the correct answer according to the answer key is

   そのシャツを拝見してもよろしいですか。あ、こちらのボタンでございますね。

   Why does the second です get changed but not the first one?

   Or another example, when returning change it’s just １５００円です。No でございます required.

4. Between perfective and imperfective, is there a more common aspect that is used for verbs in (light) novel narration? Or can it vary a lot even for the same author/novel? For example, I’m reading a LN that starts with this in the first page:

   隣にいた部長から、京夜は肘でつつかれた。

   Could a different author have ended that sentence as つつかれる instead, and still sound like natural narration? In English, trying to get a sense of the tense the author narrates with is usually one of the first things I look for, and I’m not sure how applicable that is to Japanese writing.

5. What does パトミントンをしていたり mean?

   Is it some kind of dialect for `I was into badminton?`

6. Guys helpp!
   I find a girl very cute and i want to ask for her contact or something like that. Do japanese usually ask for line or instagram or what? And what is the phrases i could use.

   Thanks a lot

7. Best website or app to practice N2 JLPT test?

8. I am doing, 5 kaishi 1.5k deck a day, and watching one japanese ammo with misa.

   What more can i do, can i do 10 kaishi, and 2 videos, or is it too much for now,

   If i can do anything else please do tell, thank you

9. To make sure im interpreting jlpt website correctly, registration opens in august, 2025 for the December 2025 jlpt?

10. About a year ago I discussed here using ChatGPT as a sort of tutor for Japanese learning. I was met with overwhelmingly negative feedback, suggesting that most people here did not think the AI was good at japanese, or teaching japanese, and that it would just teach you wrong things. I’m wondering if this attitude has changed over the last year, with newer models and more people getting used to LLMs?

11. There’s speculation that 農林中央金庫 dumped US government bonds and this ultimately led to the 90-day tariffs pause. In the tweet below, is 間 definitely a typo for 真, and the meaning is something like take the joke half-seriously?

    「農中が外債売ったからトランプがビビって関税ストップした」という冗談をなかば間に受けて、農中法やらバーゼルに根拠求めて自説を展開する奴、陰謀論に両足突っ込んでることを自覚した方がいい。

12. What are some good Anki extensions? My main wish is to easily and quickly dig deeper into the words on the flashcards on the Anki app itself, and to not have to google them or look them up in online dictionaries.

    What I would like is to be able to use Yomitan inside Anki to, for example, see what each kanji mean, whether a verb is an ichidan or a godan verb, whether an adjective is a na-adjective, and to have links to JMdictDB for conjugations. If there’s an Anki extension that could display even just some of this information so that the deck itself doesn’t need to contain it, that would be great.

13.  うん．．．みんなの足．．．引っ張りたく、ない．．．．．甜花、どうしたら．．．．．．いい、かな．．．？

    そんなに**気負わなくてい**いと思うぞ。

    does 気負う have usually a “negative” nuance? as in “to get too excited, too worked up” ?

    to get worked up in english can mean “to get upset, nervous, tense” is it similar to this nuance as well?

    so can it mean “to be enthusiastic , excited” in a positive way, and then in a “negative” way too?

    in a jp-en dictionary i also found: “to become aggressive” as one of the definitions.

14. I’ve written down something I heard but lost context so I’m lost on translation and meaning
    The phrase is : 口を選ぶやつね
    I THINK I remember it meant something like “you’re vulgar” but not really sure. Certainly it will depend on context but is the general meaning bad or good ?
    Thank you !

15. 訳を聞かせください
    I’m assuming it means ”[tell me] what’s your intention ?”.
    Also, the Te is dropped here but is it fine, as it’s formal language ?

16. I came across the sentence 志貴の通り学校の三年生 which initially completely ruined me because I thought 通り just means street or address or whatever. Looking in my dictionary, I’m a little confused, but am I correct that it can be used to say “the same”? That doesn’t seem right to me but it’s the only thing that seems to work

17. I’ve heard ほんたいにはいれば as ”lets get to the point”
    I’m assuming it’s 本体に入れば but could there be a chance it’s 本隊に入れば?
    Think it’s the first but want to get confirmation. Thank you !

18. Can someone help me understand this sentence? I have trouble with the 一発 here

    二人で沈酔いした時の一発とか記憶飛んでて覚えてねえ

    Does it mean “I can’t remember **a time** when we both got drunk” or is it more like “I can’t remember about **the one time** we both got drunk”

19. 「目がない」とても好きですってこと
    「足がない」行くための手段がないってこと
    Are these two idiots often used ?

20. https://preview.redd.it/ql9pb1o1ulue1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ed6a8117bf8d1d65005219dd954b6d4980d12c20

    Does anyone know if this set also comes with listening exercises? Maybe a password in the book that you can use to log in somewhere?

21. In an academic study, an American scholar asked native Japanese speakers the following two questions.

    (1) The first question was about a written sentence. They were asked to fill in the following blank with the word they thought most appropriate from the four choices.

    一番線（　　 ）電車がまいります。 （Choices：が、に、を、は）

    All native Japanese speakers chose “に”.

    (2) Next, the same native speakers were asked to listen to the following four sentences. Those native speakers were then asked if the expressions of these four sentences were unnatural. The native Japanese speakers answered that only sentence (d) sounded unnatural.

    a. 一番線、電車がまいります。

    b. 一番線に電車がまいります。

    c. 一番線は電車がまいります。

    d. 一番線が電車がまいります。

    **Why do native Japanese speakers consider (c) natural when they hear it spoken?**

    I mean, I do feel (c) is absolutely natural. And I think I know why. But I would like to hear opinions of others. If you live or have lived in Japan, you will probably arrive at the same reason as I did, even if you are not a native speaker, as long as you speak some Japanese.

    **If you are a native Japanese speaker, you will find (c) most natural. However, it is not so easy to explain logically why you feel the way you do.**

    **In fact, I am asking myself, why? I am asking this question because I have been thinking about this for some time now.**

    **How can I explain?**

    **For my Japanese language study, this is a legitimate question.**

22. **Is it normal to have a 50-60% core 6k anki retention rate while you are learning kanji still?** Been doing the core 6k consistently for about 6 months (1000 or so cards in), and am about 120 kanji in with an RTK deck. Only have about a 55% retention rate because so many words (I don’t use furigana on the front side) look the same. Is this normal when first starting?

23. Under the grammar point ようと思う was the sentence 私は日本歴史を読もうと思います。 I can’t seem to work out why もう was used here.

24. What’s the difference between このごろ、この間 and 最近? They all seem to mean recently/these days.

25. So I’m watching a show (あたしンち lol), and お父さん has stressed out お母さん, so お母さん says:

    >**お父さんには冷や汗が出ちゃったわよ**

    Okay, I get it, but when I think about it grammatically, it doesn’t make sense.

    Something like:

    >お父さんに冷や汗を出させられちゃったわよ

    Would make more sense to me – Dad **made me** break out in a sweat.

    Should I consider the actual sentence to be a casual/spoken way of getting across the second sentence? i.e. dropping the causative-passive form because it’s basically implied?

    I consulted the DOBJG (and DOIJG) but no ***に*** entry really applies, except for DOBJG’s に^(3)

    >a particle that indicates an agent or a source in passive, causative, *morau*/*temorau* and other receiving constructions.

    However obviously in this cause that doesn’t *exactly* apply because none of those constructions are explicitly used.

    [timestamped link for reference](https://youtu.be/GB3xWo6f52c?si=3kBw3WomKjkwrypV&t=361)