LLearn Japanese

Daily Thread: for simple questions, minor posts & newcomers [contains useful links!] (July 15, 2025)

This thread is for all the simple questions (what does that mean?) and minor posts that don't need their own thread, as well as for first-time posters who can't create new threads yet. Feel free to share anything on your mind.

The daily thread updates every day at 9am JST, or 0am UTC.

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5 comments

  2. Want to make sure I have proper grammar. This wasn’t explained to me in my study so I would like if someone could tell me.

    For example the sentence below. I know it can be “No, he’s/she’s…..” but what about “No, I’m……”.
    Just want to make sure my foundation is solid.

    いいえあめりかじんです

  3. Stumbled across this example sentence: “このこどもはもうスプーンでスープを飲むことができる”, translated as “This child can already eat soup with a spoon”. Does the verb “飲む” here emphasize on consuming the liquid part, like drinking the broth, or can it actually mean “eat” if it’s soup?

  4. Just a fun observation to share with you all:
    Today I started watching the new Hiroshi Abe news drama on Netflix (キャスター) and heard an interesting line. You know how in English, we refer to people who basically behave badly/abuse the system/engage in corruption (&c &c) as *”bad apples?”* Well, there’s a line where Hiroshi Abe’s character 進藤さん refers to such people as 腐ったミカン (lit. *’rotten oranges’*).

    I just found it neat that both Japanese and English seemingly independently decided to use rotten fruit as a metaphor for people engaging in corruption, though I’m not entirely sure if the 腐ったミカン is in commonplace use, or if it’s just a line written for this show.

  5. Less about Japanese, but I am curious; When moving to Japan (with the plan of permanent residency) would someone change their name to a more Japanese sounding name?

    I know of some immigrants that came to the U.S. and changed their name to a more “American” name, and was wondering if this is the case for Japanese, or do most non-Japanese names stay the same but have the pronunciation changed to match the local language?

    For context, I don’t plan to do this. My name can be pronounced in Japanese comfortably, but I was just wondering if anyone knows of non-Japanese to Japanese name changes existing like how non-American to American ones do.

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