13 comments

1. Is retrocrush recommended for anine?  I didn’t find it when I did a reddit search in this sub.

   If recommended, are there some particular classics, I should watch? Resources that might have lists of classics that are good for language learning? 

   I haven’t been an anime watcher but I caught a couple on our flight back from Japan and would like to explore sone more.  Crunchyroll doesn’t have a free service anymore and we don’t generally subscribe to any streaming services.  

   If it matters – I’d like to continue with The Rising of The Shield Hero and The Blue Miburo.

   If you were going to pick one streaming service to support your Japanese studies what would it be?

2. Can anyone explain the difference between using ちひろ and せんじん to refer to a great distance? My *guess* is that ちひろ is more literary/poetic and せんじん is more common/literal, but I could be wrong. I also know that they are both written as 千尋, so are there any ways to tell the readings apart when ふりがな is absent and context is unclear?

3. Any tips on how to get from “confidently building sentences around grammar points” to “confidently communicating”?

   I’m taking a Japanese class, have finished Genki 1&2, one third into Quartet, wanikani level 17, just started reading the とんがり帽子のアトリエ manga with an electronic dictionary and having a decently easy time with it. Generally reading and writing are easy -ish for me, listening is the worse and speaking is… Well.

   We will introduce a new grammar point in class, and are meant to make example sentences, and that’s easy enough, that works. I’ll go home and add the grammar to my bunpro stack and that works too, easy.

   But then a bit later the teacher will ask me an open question about my life or whatever, and it feels like I’ve never even heard a word in Japanese before. Understanding the question already takes time for me (as said, listening sucks), and then I don’t only have this “fuck, which of the vocabulary I know could even start answering this?” moment (which I’m less worried about, tbh, that’s gonna get better with learning more vocab), but then I don’t even know how to start the sentence from a structure perspective? Like if you tell me to create a sentence using とは限らない, I can make you a list, but if my teacher asks me not only WHAT my summer plans are but also WHY I picked this and that location, I feel like the dumbest person on earth. Stuff that we’ve explicitly practiced (self introductions, weekend plans, whatever), are fine, but every novel-ish question/ situation just stumps me completely.
   I always feel like I wanna look up some example answers and then amend them, but I’m not really able to create new sentences on the fly – which sucks for communication.

   Feeling pretty frustrated with myself, would appreciate some input, advice or support. Thanks X

4. whats the difference in nuance here. Say you are meeting with a friend and he sends you either one of this messages.

   1. 楽しみにしてるね

   2. 楽しみにしてる

5. So, What is the correct way of learning Kanjis.

   Well, I, in a way, have an information overload when it comes to kanjis (I love learning Kanjis) but The problem is that whenever I see a new kanji, I just search for it, the meaning and the stroke order and then, I just draw it. (in a way, I can draw 200+ Kanjis now). But that has slowed down my progress. (I mean many times I draw around 15-20 new kanjis in a day. But I feel I am slowly forgetting the Kanjis (and also the other stuff is getting ignored).

   Please tell me, how can I learn new Kanjis and practice old ones making them more easy to learn (Drawing 200+ Kanjis everyday with proper stroke order is less fun and more like a chore) and less burden?

   Thanks in advance

6. 病院に連れて行きたいところだが、そうも言っていられない。

   is this ところだが the same as this?

   接続 　

   名詞＋のところ（を）／のところだが 　

   い形容詞＋ところ（を）／ところだが 　

   な形容詞語幹＋な／である＋ところ（を）／ところだが 　

   動普通形＋ところ（を）／ところだが

   解説 　

   普段と比較したとき、現状が特殊であることを表します。 　前件には「通常」「普通」「本来」「いつもは」などの語が来やすく、前件と後件を対比させるような文型を取ります。

7. 「…素晴らしい川ですよ。野生動物の宝庫。子供たちの遊び場……ねえ信じられますか、僕が子供の時分、ここはもっとずっときれいでね、鮎やなんか、いたんだよ。だいぶん汚れちまった、いえね、上に団地やらができて、その生活排水が流れこんでいるから仕方がない。でもそれでも充分、渡り鳥は飛来するしちょっとは魚もいる、とんだ雑魚ばっかりだけどね、親指くらいの。あとは、虫もいろいろいますよ。ケラとかね。トンボだの**バッタのできそくない**だの。脚が一本ないだの外翅がもげてるだの。子供が遊んじゃ放してまた同じのを捕るからさ。…」

   I can’t really parse バッタのできそくない.

   After thinking awhile, my best guess is バッタ　ので(「のだ」の連用形)　規則(が)ない like the grasshoppers are missing parts (脚が一本ないだの外翅がもげてるだの) so they don’t fit a standard, but I feel like I’m might be misunderstanding. Or I feel like that makes sense, but I had to think a bit to get there and usually that means I am misinterpreting.

8. This might not be the place to ask this, and if so, please let me know.

   Would my name, Harold, be a pain to pronounce? Would it be unwieldy to spell, if I wrote it in kana? Is there a shorter Japanese-style name I could/should use? Should/could I go by my middle name, which has a diminutive version? Am I just being self-conscious?

   I’m going to be in country for at least a year, and I don’t want meeting people to be a pain for any potential new friends/associates. Or myself, for that matter.

9. Looking at dictionaries, I’m having trouble understanding the difference between 通じる and 通る. It seems like both of them mean that something goes through something else? (ie traffic, or maybe like threading string through the eye of a needle). Can someone fill me in on the difference?

10. Hi there! My classmates and I are doing a linguistic survey on the use and understanding of japanese pronouns for people who learn japanese. It takes two minutes, please feel free to answer no matter what your language level is!! It’s bilingual french/english. We would be very thankful if you can help is get more data 😀

    [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdugrHXlaQAHlOgDXIv_ndh8YDOqKCveyxOxoL37lksY3_Now/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=114910819731968300992](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdugrHXlaQAHlOgDXIv_ndh8YDOqKCveyxOxoL37lksY3_Now/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=114910819731968300992)

11. 【鈴羽】「２０３６年において君は、タイムマシンの母として“すうけい”されている」

    【紅莉栖】「すうけい？」

    【至】「日本語でＯＫ」

    すうけい……数計？　いや、そんな熟語はない、じゃあ……？

    【鈴羽】「崇敬。あがめ、敬われているってこと」

    とてもつもなく分かりにくいな。

    I looked up とてもつもなくand found 途轍もない , is とてもつもなく a typo or an alternative form?

12. I just thought of a funny coincidence that may be useful to someone as a mnemonic device! The Japanese words for white 白(しろ) and castle 城(しろ) are pronounced the same, and they’re just so happens to be an American fast food restaurant chain called “White Castle”. I don’t know if I’m the first to think of that, but it blew my mind! 🤯

    白い城

    Edit: or at least the kana spelling is the same

13. Sometimes characters in games end their sentences with て form (sometimes with ね) but I don’t realy understand what the function is? For example 「ーとにかく見せたいものあってね。」. This character has talked earlier about wanting to show something, but I’m not sure if that is relevant in this case. Note that this is not the て form you use when requesting or suggesting something like in 「ゆっくり休んでね」. I have a feeling it might be just a casual thing but then when would would it feel “right” to say it in conversation. In what scenarios would it be “natural” to hear someone using て form like this that isn’t the typical ways you learn in a textbook?

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