13 comments

1. For the more advanced and also tech savvy learners out there, is there a current resource that you wish existed that you think people would benefit from? I’m genuinely curious.

2. When gold roger said in the manga 俺の財宝か？ほしけりゃくれてやるぜ。。。 what is the りゃ? I don’t recognize that grammar point. I’m guessing it’s a contraction of some grammar point I know, but I can’t figure it out.

3. Is there a difference with 任せる and 託す? They all seem to mean “to entrust someone with” for me.

4. Does anyone know of resources like the audio lessons of pimsleur? I really like their format of how they make you use new words in different contexts after introducing and combine with other new words and words from previous lessons.

5. simple question, say you are at McDonald’s and ordering off the menu, I know the very basic way is just saying これをください and just pointing to the menu, just trying to learn how to order from the number combos, instead of pointing to the menu, so could I say 3番をください　（さんばんをください）would it be correct way to say I want a number 3 combo?

6. Does anyone know why 「憶えてる」wouldn’t be written as 「覚えてる」？

   Also, what is the difference between 「紅い」and 「赤い」?

7. Are these correct/natural?

   少女頃オタクだった。しかし、大人になってアニメを見ることが止まった。オタクの生活の必要な時間がない。ここ数年、アニメをまた見始めた。最近のアニメの中にはダンジョン飯とかフリーレンとかダンダダンなどが好きだ。

   —

   私は読解が得意けど聴解がずっと苦手だ。

8. Part 1: Requires Disney+ Account (sorry, phone blocks screen recording the app). I’m watching Cool Runnings and 6:30 in at the “Sanka, you dead?” “Ya man” bit, I have no idea what Sanka’s dub response is. I can’t make it out enough to look it up and I can’t tell if it’s a dialect they’ve gone with to match the vibe of Jamaican slang or if I’m just not recognizing what I’m hearing. Help? (EDIT: just started looking up 3/4 syllable words ending inなり and contextually it might be かなり???)

   Part 2: Also, decided to check the subtitle file (which I know is subbed english script and not dubbed closed captions, just wanted to see what it said there on the off chance it matched) and it doesn’t make sense to me either.

   D: サンカ 死んだか？
   S: 当たり

   ??? Is there a connotation for 当たり I’m missing? I know it can mean “hit the mark”/success in certain contexts but I don’t really understand how it’s applied here as a response to being asked if you’ve died.

9. New kanjis I recently learned from WaniKani

   徴 and 微

   that caught me off guard when I saw it separately lol, took me half minute to figure the difference

10. Hi does anyone have any recommendations for Japanese language schools in Yokohama that have mostly Chinese speaking students in it? I am an American who is learning both Chinese (HSK 4) and Japanese (N3) so what better way than to learn both at once!

11. What are some methods for learning i
    Japanese for people who don’t like textbooks (currently I’ve been finding success with Duolingo and Japanesepod101, however i am looking for something like Yoyo Chinese where it’s a video, followed by grammar, then flashcards, and a quiz).

12. I’d love to hear others’ opinions on this!

    I’ve heard people say that learning plain form first is better, but I don’t quite understand why.

    Personally, I started with plain form when learning independently, but later took lessons where my (native) teacher introduced ます form first. In the end, I’ve found that learning stem form first makes the most sense for me. Since the stem is just the ます form with ます removed, it feels much more intuitive, and I’ve been making fewer and fewer mistakes.

    When you learn plain form first, you’re faced with a long list of verbs where you often can’t tell their conjugation type at a glance. Some -iru/-eru verbs are godan, some are ichidan, and you just have to memorise them. Tae Kim even has a [non-exhuastive list of 24 -iru/-eru godan verbs!](https://guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/verbs)

    For example, which of these are ichidan or godan?

    たべる (ichidan)

    いる (ichidan)

    要(い)る (godan)

    着(き)る (ichidan)

    切(き)る (godan)

    変(か)える (ichidan)

    帰(かえ)る (godan)

    Learning the plain form meant I had to explicitly learn whether it was godan or ichidan in many cases, and I would get things wrong and say 走ます instead of 走(はし)ります.

    The benefit of learning with the stem (or ます form) is instead of memorising whether new verbs are ichidan or godan, you can simplify things with a rule:

    ➡ Treat everything as godan first.

    For example, take とり (the stem of ‘take’):

    Negative: と*ら*ない

    Plain: と*る*

    Potential: と*れ*

    Volitional: と*ろ*う

    If a verb stem doesn’t end in -i (たべ, かえ) or is one syllable (き, い), it’s an ichidan verb, and you just add the appropriate conjugation.

    Of course, there are some exceptions, but far fewer than the non-exhaustive 24+ exceptions for plain form. Here they are:

    借(か)り lend

    降(お)り alight

    浴(あ)び wash

    起(お)き get up

    生(い)き live

    でき able to do

    すぎ overdo

    Try and come up with more, but I genuinely think that’s about it. 信じ etc. doesn’t count because the only voiced godan endings are び and ぎ 😉

    By focusing on stem form first, you avoid unnecessary memorisation and get a much clearer sense of how verbs work, yet people argue the opposite and say plain form is clearer.

    For me, it’s the stem for a reason: everything is built from there. Plain form feels like a branch, not the stem.

13. Hi, I was wondering if someone could give me some advice?

    I have a Japanese grocery store in my area, and a friend of mine — she took Japanese in college — said they helped her when she was learning, as far as practicing conversations go.

    How do I go about trying to do the same? Would I be a bother to these guys? They probably have better things to do than listen to a grown woman stumble her way through a basic conversation. I’m really shy, but I don’t want to be an inconvenience.

    But the practice would be nice, and the ladies that work the counter are always really nice to me. I’m pretty regular there, my husband and I (or sometimes just me) go in there practically on a weekly basis, so it’s not like I’m just going there to bug them.

    I’m just intimidated. Do I ask them if I could try speaking to them? Do I just speak to them? This is always where I struggle in learning languages, the speaking part.