16 comments

1. Question for those that advocate for/practice shadowing: did you have to push through a phase where it seemed impossible? When I’ve attempted to shadow, I’ve found that I simply can’t speak and hear simultaneously, as though both were required exclusive use of some circuit or resource in my brain. Pausing the audio briefly when the source speaker takes a breath and repeating, sure, easy. Continuously echoing even as the source speaker continues? Impossible. Might as well try to move my eyes independently of one another.

   Speculation but it this sense of impossibility is so vivid it seems weird I’ve not heard it mentioned by anyone. I’m inclined to suspect there’s some variation in neuro-cognition at play, that fans of shadowing simply don’t have this experience. I can understand advocating shadowing despite these difficulties if they can be worked through, but to not at all mention that you might need to work through them? Seems doubtful tbh.

2. Hello. 😀

   I have a quick question about this sentence I saw in Genki 2.

   豆腐は体にいいです。

   I know what it means, but I’m confused by the に. I read tofugu for に before, but I’m confused which usage of に would the に in this sentence fall under?

   I keep thinking に as a “pinned location”. So “tofu (topic), body (location) に (marks location) good”? Am I thinking that right?

   Thank you so much in advance! 😀

3. In English, we would use the phrase “anime subculture”, but I’m not sure if “アニメ・サブカルチャー” is used the same way in Japanese?

4. Good day/night. A year ago, I decided to start learning more languages to try and be able to read/watch more media, possibly add my knowledge to improve my job resume and for a bit of fun.

   Seeing here is mostly English-speaking people, makes me wonder if anyone has recommended apps or possible training for those that speak Spanish as a native language.

   Thanks a lot in advance

5. Hi! been reading a lot of things in japanese and am currently reading something with some light martial arts themes. I’m not sure what 型打ち is in terms of martial arts as i’m not familiar with martial arts at all;; i can name plenty of martial arts but know 0 lingo/terms in EN or JP. and would the uchi here be read buchi or just uchi? also if there is a site for martial arts references and words/terms that would be nice, looking to up my vocabulary. thanks in advance!

6. Hello everyone, hope your studies are doing well. I’m around 170 words out of completing Kaishi 1.5k deck which will take around 10 more days considering I’m on 20+ words a day. Due to a tough month of college and exams, I didn’t really get to study grammar or do anything with the language besides Anki (I kept my daily learning and made it a habit). So after I’m done with my exams I will most likely be done with Kaishi deck as well, so my question is, what comes next? Should I sentence or focus on another core deck? I plan to study a lot of Japanese this summer so I want to create a concrete plan beforehand. Any suggestions or advice?

7. https://imgur.com/a/xO0WeoE

   I wonder what does 突っぱねる mean here. Also, is 頑張ってんだから別にいいだろ an entire quote?

8. [https://imgur.com/a/NyKv173](https://imgur.com/a/NyKv173)

   What does しがいない mean?

9. In English, there is a dictinction between “enlistment” and “commissioning” in the military. “Enlistment” is easy, and when you enlist you become an enlisted soldier (private, etc). When you “commission”, that is a much stricter application process, and you become a commissioned officer (2nd lieutenant, etc).

   Does this distinction exist for the word 入隊? Is there one word for enlisted soldiers, and one for commissioned officers? Or is all just 入隊 in Japanese?

10. > 将来設計は大事でしょ? 目標が歳月なのか実績なのかで得られるキャリアも変わってくるだろうし

    What does 歳月 mean here?

11. in FF7 remake, Cloud Strife is saying しずめ when he is fighting NPC. what’s しずめ and what’s the kanji for it?

12. Tips: [何歩 歩いたん？](https://translate.google.co.jp/?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&text=%E3%81%AA%E3%82%93%E3%81%BD%20%E6%AD%A9%E3%81%84%E3%81%9F%E3%82%93%EF%BC%9F&op=translate) sounds like [ナポリタン](https://translate.google.co.jp/?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&text=%E3%83%8A%E3%83%9D%E3%83%AA%E3%82%BF%E3%83%B3&op=translate)

    “何歩 歩いたん？” is a Osaka dealect that means “(あなたは) 何歩 歩いた？”=”How many steps did you walk?”.

    When you go to a café in Japan that serves [ナポリタン](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naporitan), and you’re asked for your order, say “何歩 歩いたん？”. Then you’ll be served “ナポリタン”.

13. what would “ 罪な男だね〜” mean in the context of me telling a guy i was thinking of him and he replies that to me?

14. 「うん！　この島には、高い場所から島民を支配して、千里見通す眼を以って水神の鉄槌を放つ鬼がいるって！」

    how would you interpret 放つ in this case? is the Demon “firing, throwing” the hammer?

    also found this definition but I don’t think it makes sense with this context:

    ⑭ 刀などを勢いよく一気に抜く。抜きはなつ。
    「降魔の利剣を―・ち」〈伎・幼稚子敵討〉

15. I just spent the past couple hours hyperfocused on making some shitty visualizations for the omnipresent は vs が topic.

    I also wrote out an explanation of a mental model of sorts, describing topicalization/context in Japanese as a ‘sphere’. I’m not a native speaker, but I am half, and have heard it for a long time, as well as polished my own usage of it by learning more about the ‘rules’ on this here sub. When I thought about how I determine when to use what, I came upon this ‘model’.

    But I don’t know how useful it actually is, or if it’s full of holes and would be easily torn apart at first glance lol
    [
    Here’s an example image](https://ibb.co/23gDwymq)

    I’m not planning on posting them really, I just made it cause it was bugging my brain.

16. I’m sure this is a dumb question but I’m really new to this – if a kanji has multiple readings, should I be learning both/all, or are they interchangeable and I only need to learn one?