7 comments

1. What’s everyone reading?

   Outside of a few manga, I’m reading 灰と幻想のグリムガル and 世界で一番透き通った物語

2. Is there something like where someone matches the word to the picture?

   Example:
   Someone matches ざっし to a magazine picture or a multiple choice quiz with a magazine picture, a picture of a dog for 犬 etc.

3. In Japanese, verbs of perception behave a little differently from other action verbs. There might be some universal human reason behind this.

   **So, my question is, in your native language, do verbs of perception also behave a little differently from other action verbs?**

   ======= Copy & Paste =========

   ***知覚動詞 Perception verbs***, ***unlike*** 動作動詞 activity verbs, tend to ***distinguish between transitive and intransitive forms based on the degree of the subject’s volitional involvement***. For instance, “見る” is volitional, whereas “見える” is non-volitional.

   From an ***aspectual*** perspective, perception verbs 聞く and 見る characteristically ***only have a perfective phase***. This means that expressions like “聞いたけど聞こえなかった” or “見たけど見えなかった” are generally not felicitous in their usual sense. This is likely because the focus of the act of these two perceptions is on the success or failure of the outcome.

   ×　見たけど見えなかった。

   〇　**窓の外を**　見たけど、**何も**　見えなかった。

   Visual perception tends to lean towards passive perception, which leads to the frequent use of intransitive verb 見える. In contrast, auditory perception requires more attention directed towards the object, resulting in the prevalent use of transitive verb 聞く.

   〇　富士山が見える。

   △　富士山を見る。

   〇　風の声を聞く。

   △　風の声が聞こえる。

   To be continued….

4. Can a high level speaker or preferably a native weigh in on this?

   I googled しか～ない vs だけ and I see half of the people in reddit posts saying they’re interchangeable and the other half saying they’re not. What’s the deal? I get the basic usages of them, and I think I understand しか～ない carries a negative nuance. But if I say something like もう少ししかない vs もう少しだけ, is there any real difference?

5. https://imgur.com/a/J4wP8bu

   For context, she is thanking him for living together with her. They began to live together while she was “investigating” her feelings towards him.

   I have trouble making logical sense of this sentence:

   きっかけは貴方の家が無かったからだけど、そもそも気持ちを調べるために時間が欲しいって言ってるのは私だし気遣う事もあっただろうけど有り難いなって思ってる

   It seems to be that the basic structure is きっかけは貴方の家が無かったからだけど、有り難いなって思ってる (although you lived with me because you were homeless but I am grateful for this opportunity).

   そもそも気持ちを調べるために時間が欲しいって言ってるのは私だし気遣う事もあっただろうけど means “since I am the one who said that I need time to sort out my feelings, so there are times I was wary of you but…”

   Also does 気遣う here mean 警戒する?

6. https://preview.redd.it/dn2lddgd784f1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d69ec05a824bd16306ee3e38b0af51435777f428

   I’ve been practicing writing sets of kana by memory in my free time, I do a i u e o, in both ひらがなとカタカナ side by side.

   I do the same for ka ki ku ke ko etc keeping to those themes to see what all I can remember.

   Any other advice for memorizing the kana?

   I’ve been using Duolingo for basics but it doesn’t do a good job of teaching the kana so I have started using Write It! 日本語 on IOS which has been working much better for me to specifically practice kana.

7. https://preview.redd.it/trby0oe4i94f1.png?width=573&format=png&auto=webp&s=1358418941c4964f8022c41e840aa708af95ed7a

   I am not sure what she is saying. 学力試験とあとは面接で教授と食事会があるわ translates to “学力試験 and interview and dinner with professors”? I have no idea what is the role of と after 学力試験. I think 面接で教授と食事会がある should mean “dinner with professors, disguised as interview”?