19 comments

1. https://imgur.com/a/fK21wOW

   What does じゃ mean in 祟りじゃ呪いじゃ幽霊じゃああ?

2. This might sound stupid, but I just picked up Genki 1 and the Genki Workbook, and while I have started my learning, I am hesitant to write within my books. I went out and bought some new pencils from Muji, also, while all excited, and some new stationery notebooks (Campus brand) from Kinokuniya. I felt all cool having my supplies like I was back in school… but I just can’t bring myself to use the notebooks or pencils, or write in the workbook. It’s like I want to keep it all pristine.

   Similarly, I want to start journaling (just random musings about my life, vlog style), and also a separate notebook for games I’m playing—to kind of catalog what I’m playing and doing—and can’t seem to break this mental barrier of actually writing in my notebooks. Anyone go thru this before? Can I get some help please lol

3. what’s the difference between 運命 and 命運?

4. At first, I was planning to write a lengthy analysis, but I realized it would likely turn into an incredibly long thread. So instead, I decided to make it a discussion topic.

   [Context]

   [https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1kvgqla/comment/mua2xbk/?context=3&utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1kvgqla/comment/mua2xbk/?context=3&utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)

   閉店時間になっても、お客様が一人でも残っていたら、店の片付けを始めてはいけないという決まりもあった。

   [https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1kw9exy/comment/mug95kt/?context=3&utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1kw9exy/comment/mug95kt/?context=3&utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)

   心の中　**では**　「早く帰ってくれればいいのに・・・」と思ったが、そんな時でもお客様のことを一番に考えて行動するのが一流のサービスというわけだ。

   **To be continued.**

5. During a confession scene in a dating reality show, a girl first praised all the good things he did to her so far. Next, she said でも but then suddenly corrected herself with あっいやでもじゃないか. How でもじゃないか is translated in English?

6. Could someone please help me understand how 佐藤に fits grammatically into the sentence below?

   佐藤にお前の変わりは勤まらない

   Basically, is 佐藤にお前 a single noun phrase that modifies 変わり, is it modifying 変わり as an adverb, or does it somehow modify 勤まらない (though I can’t readily see how this would make sense)?

   Thanks

7. I read the quartet 1 textbook chapter 4 dialogue 2. Still confused/dont understand some sentences/words

   1. 日本ではアルバイトのスタッフもきちんと教育されていて、一人一人がプロ意識を持って働いていると感じた。

   A little confused with 教育、一人一人 and プロ意識を持つ. First time seeing them. Can 教育 mean to be educated/trained? According to the textbook プロ意識 means professionalism, but does プロ意識を持つ mean something like “having a professional attitude”? Understand this as:
   In japan even the part time worker staff is properly educated・trained（教育?）so i felt that each person（一人一人?）worked while having professionalism/a proffesional attitude（プロ意識を持つ？）

   2. このアルバイトを通して、私は日本人の礼儀正しさと勤勉さ、そしてサービスについての考え方を知ることができた。

   Whats the difference between 通して and 通じて? According to the textbook they both mean “through”. In the previous dialogue 通じて was used instead. Understand this as:
   Through（通して） this part time job i could learn about the japanese politeness（礼儀正しさ）, diligence（勤勉さ）and the way of thinking about service/how to think about customer service（サービスについての考え方？）

   3. 憧れて始めたホテルのバイトだったが、これまで知らなかった日本人の一面が学べて、期待以上の有意義な経験となった。
   Somewhat confused with 憧れて始めた and 期待以上の有意義な経験となった. Whats the difference of となる and になる? Understand this as:

   it was a hotel’s part time job that i started because i admired・looked up to （憧れて始めた）working in restaurants(implied from previous sentences?), but i learned one side/aspect（一面）of the japanese that i didnt know so far・up till now（これまで）, and it became・amounted to（となる?） a more than expected（期待以上）significant・meaningful（有意義な）experience 

8. Is it just me or the Samsung Japanese keyboard layout pisses me off when typing fast ?

   That extra character on the 3rd row makes it a bit tedious to type when you’re so used to the English layout.

   https://preview.redd.it/yw3c3zf3vg3f1.jpeg?width=1078&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eb156ef80c5e2d82af15d6cf3af569f3e4b1aab4

9. Anyone got some good ideas on how to sing a song at a very basic A1 level? I only took japanese classes for about 3-4 years.

   I don’t want to butcher the language. I know that there is romaji I can read off. What is the best way to do it? Should I learn the language more?

   The song has become a bit more personal to me recently. I only can get halfway through the romaji before I start fading off and not being able to say it.

10. I learned that 食べそうです means (it looks like she will eat it) and 食べるそうです means (i heard that she will eat it). But how about the た forms? 食べたそうです. Does this mean both i heard she ate it and it looks like she ate it? How do you differentiate between them? Same with ない form. Both becomes 食べなぃそうです

11. https://imgur.com/a/shJGtUT

    For context, she received lots of confessions from many guys and she was not interested in any of them. She wanted to go out with them out of pity but she felt that it is not the right thing to do. Also, she believed that half of the confessions are joke. So she prefers to not to reply. In this panel, her grandma told her that if she already decided what to say (“I am not interested”) then she should reject them as soon as possible, as opposed to ghosting them.

    I have doubts about who is the subject for 傷つく. Herself or one of the guys who got rejected?

12. hello,
    Today in my japanese class we went through the といい grammar point in the genki textbook chapter 16.

    For example : 雨が降れないといいね

    While I understood most of the grammar rule, I have a bit of a rougher time of understand when to use the potential form （ーえる）。 The textbook says a sentence like 大学に行くといいんですが is wrong, because you cant use it on something you have control over, so you should say you wish to have the ability to go to college instead, so　大学に行けるといいんですが.
    But what about something like
    A：明日は私の誕生日なんです
    B：I hope you get good gifts
    should you say いいプレセントをもらうといいですね or いいプレセントをもらえるといいですね

    If someone has a better explanation of which one to choose Id be glad.

13. Any good tips for using Japanese keyboard on iPhone? Want to have it as an alternative to English

14. 社員：社長、奥様にお電話をお掛け__________か。
    社長:ああ、さっき掛けたよ。
    Aしました　Bなりました　Cにしました　Dになりました

    Is the correct answer D because 社長 is the one calling his wife so 尊敬語 form of 掛ける = お掛けになる should be used?

    I’m testing cases where ChatGPT fails to explain/answer correctly, this one it seems to keep saying A is the most natural, but if I am not overthinking it, お掛けする would just be 謙譲語 which should not be correct.

15. [https://imgur.com/a/uPih0hM](https://imgur.com/a/uPih0hM)

    声出ちゃったっもの means the same as 声出ちゃったもの, which means “because I instinctively responded”?

16. I am going through the Kaishi deck on anki right now. I often see the recommendation to only take like 10 seconds max per card. if I dont remember it, I just fail it then. however, sometimes i get caught in a “cycle” of failed cards — tons of cards that i cannot remember, keep failing, and keep forgetting, so i need to keep failing them. And anki then keeps showing me the same 4-5 cards that I don’t remember — making the experience a bit frustrating. How to deal with that?
    I tried sitting down and writing out the cards per hand on a page (train my handwriting a bit), which… also didn’t work that well to be honest, but creating mnemnoics/looking some up on wanikani/renshuu sometimes does. Is that what I’m meant to do? Or is there some better way if I wanna stick to the ’10 seconds’ rule?

17. Oof… if there’s one thing I absolutely HATE doing with native materials… it’s brute-forcing them.

    Just got off a lesson where I’m choosing an article, and of course I wanted one that seemed interesting and NOT related to politics or world news. Some have seen me post that my current studying methods… they aren’t great, but here’s the reason WHY I do it this way:

    Keeping in mind that it’s a news article, I had to brute force (i.e. use Yomitan) AT LEAST 20 kanji words- some examples are 草稿、祖祖父、執筆、直筆、長編(小説)… and then a bunch of words that I know the kana but not kanji (えんぴつ and たて).

    I made it through, but THAT SUCKED… I HATE looking up kanji, even with browser extensions. Now, you might say that’s the point of using the extension… but honestly, it feels too much like a crutch. especially using it as much as I have to on these articles. Really, what is does is breaks up my flow of understanding- when I use an extension, it means I’m trying to figure out how to say the word, and comprehension goes out the window. And considering that comprehension is the goal in the first place, this is a Bad Thing.

    (There’s also the argument of using NHK Easy, but I find that is actually TOO low, especially for what I’m aiming for)

18. My brain is curious about how だ is used to end sentences. Can someone make a quick explanation or point me to a resource? 😀

19. https://youtube.com/shorts/C2TsbNo_z2M?feature=shared

    Interesting observation I’ve noticed but never been able to put into words