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by AutoModerator
3 comments
I have been trying to consistently remind myself that not all breakdowns in communication are due to some failing on my part. You don’t vibe with everyone. Not all native speakers are equally comprehensible.
There’s a guy who works a couple doors down from me. I talk to this man on a daily basis and only understand about 60% of what he says. But I’ve realized it’s because he uses a ton of slang, speaks super fast, and affects a sort of high energy Japanese comedian vibe. Also, he’s usually talking about anime and AV idols, which I know absolutely nothing about. I think these being his favorite topics also means he uses a lot of innuendo. My inability to understand my conversations with him sometimes leaves me feeling a little exasperated. But I’m realizing that maybe it’s not actually down to “*my inability.*”
He, a few others, and I were talking for a while the other day and after he left, I mused aloud, “I really don’t understand much of what he says.” To which one of the others, a native speaker, replied “Yeah, me neither.”
I have plenty of acquaintances and friends who I have no trouble understand at all, and can converse at length without getting lost. They tend to be people who have a chiller vibe and have interests, hobbies, and aesthetic sensibilities that align with my own. The thing is, these are the same types of people I’d communicate well with in English too.
Anyway, this is just an overly verbose way of saying that I’ve realized that not all of the problems I’ve had communicating are necessarily my fault. Maybe that realization could be encouraging for others studying Japanese.
Hello!
I’m working on Genki 2 Chapter 18 and learning about てしまう.
I have a quick question about it. Genki teaches that てしまう can mean “doing something completely” or “doing something regrettably”.
I was wondering: how can you tell if ambiguous sentence like: 本を読んでしまいました was said? Is it by context? If there is no context, do we just assume “doing something completely” if it sounds positive?
Thank you in advance! 😀
I came across this proverb while reading a novel: 「毒を食らわば皿まで」.
I don’t understand what 「食らわば」 is supposed to be. Looking at the ja.wiktionary page for the proverb, 「食」is supposed to be「食う」. But if the base verb is 「食う」, shouldn’t the conjugation be 「食えば」? I also found out about the verb 「食らわす」 while trying to answer this question, but even if that were the base verb, wouldn’t the conjugation be 「食らわせば」?
What’s going on here? If anyone could answer that would be much appreciated.
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