LLearn Japanese

Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (June 06, 2025)

  • June 6, 2025

This thread is for all simple questions, beginner questions, and comments that don't need their own post.

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If you have any simple questions, please comment them here instead of making a post.

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Seven Day Archive of previous threads. Consider browsing the previous day or two for unanswered questions.

by AutoModerator

11 comments

  1. I recently got stumped by the sentence 最近はヒマだから、話を聞いてやろうぢゃないか。More specifically, the latter half 話を聞いてやろうぢゃないか. I was initially under the impression ぢゃない has negative connotations (I’m familiar with it being used in “Is not” type sentences). Looking into the translation of the line, the sentence seems to say “I’ve been free lately, so I guess I’ll listen to you about it.”, but I’m confused as to where the negative connotation, or “not-ness” of the ぢゃない seems to have gone.

  2. Dialogue is talking about bad points/aspects of school club activities.

    木村：お金の問題もあります。野球部の場合、道具や試合のためなど様々なことにお金がかかります。一年間でいくらぐらいかかるのかも調べておく必要があると思います。

    1. confused with ためなど様々なことに in second sentence, never seen ため used with など. And also confused about the に at the end. I feel like its trying to say something like this : “it costs money for various things（様々なことに?）like for（ためなど?） tools and game matches”, but still sounds kinda weird to me.

    2. Is the か after かかるの in last sentence the “including/embedding a question in a sentence” grammar?

  4. I understand that you should learn pitch, but is it really possible to learn each individual pitch and put it on an Anki card… is there another way to retain it? I know one could watch Japanese media, but will that ensure that you remember it?

  5. hii i want to know if this sentence makes sense

    わたしの　せんこも　れきしです。

    i recently started the genki workbook and the answer sheet doesn’t include わたしの

  9. I am 4 days into Japanese and i am thinking of resetting my Anki deck to start fresh. Should I?

    Basically, I took a mental shortcut: I memorized the *meaning* of words and their *pronunciation* through how they are **written**. ^((as in visually represented, not stroke order))

    Here it is visually :

    **Writing**

    ├─> *Pronunciation*

    └─> *Meaning*

    *(connected in parallel, so both are derived from writing)*

    This has an obvious flaw when it comes to listening. If i hear a word, then I need to remember how it looks, and derive the meaning from that. ^(() *^(pronunciation)* ^(->) **^(writing)** ^(->) *^(meaning)* ). I have experienced this a lot in the 4 days of immersing: I notice that a word sounds familiar, but i cant remember its meaning.

    Recalling how a word looks^((if with kanji)) is very hard as is, but my approach makes this even more so:

    * I don’t plan to handwrite japanese.
    * I am opposed to learning kanji in isolation^((RTK and similar)).

    Now I am at a crossroads:

    * **Option 1:** Continue as-is and hope immersion will naturally connect sound to meaning over time

    Pros: no need to reset 4 days of anki progress, most likely faster anki reviews, easier reading process.

    Cons: very hard for words with complex kanji, harder to get comprehensible input from listening at the beginner stage.

    * **Option 2:** Reset my deck and start memorizing like this: ( Writing ─>Pronunciation ─>Meaning).

    Pros: getting comprehensible input from listening is now easier, maintainable long-term for complex words.

    Cons: marginally slower reading in the short term (I am a beginner, so it’s not like I read fast), self control to not fall into the previous method of memorization.

    What do you think? What should I do, and am I thinking in the right direction?

  10. I’ve hit a very annoying plateau in Japanese and I don’t know how to get out. Or more like I know exactly what I need but couldn’t find the time and tutor to do it? idk anymore

    I’m probably N3/N2. I can do so many things with Japanese like watching anime without subtitles or reading manga. I am also currently learning Korean through Japanese and have a weekly Korean tutor who teaches me in Japanese. But I know I am not “fluent”. First of all, I do read manga and understand a lot of things. but that is mostly because pictures do help me understand the context. I can also skip advanced sentences (eg narrative) safely in manga. the same goes for anime; following dialogue is easy enough. but if they’re discussing a military plan, politics, company finances or any advanced topics, I cant really keep up. but it is fine because the visuals will aid the understanding. Speaking-wise, I still make many basic mistakes with particles/counters/transitiveness.

    Due to my success with italki tutors with korean (I am almost done with the beginner book!), I wanted to do the same with Japanese. I’ve tried 6 tutors so far but I am not satisfied with any. In the perfect world I imagine, I want to have 4 lessons a month with my Japanese tutor to do the following:

    1. structured: go over a textbook (eg tobira/shin kanzen master N2). The goal is to not understand (I already do) but to PRODUCE using these grammar points/words/topics. I also want to write a tobira-like text and get it corrected
    2. News/novel: read a chapter or an article by myself before. During the lesson, discuss the content + highlight nice expressions/words/grammar. The goal is to push my reading comprehension to C1 and fill the gaps I’m missing from the visual aid I get with manga
    3. Listening comprehension: listen to various news once then test on comprehension. The goal is to push listening to C1
    4. Drills: review what was done this month. Go over common grammar/vocab mistakes I frequently do and fix it. Or look at words I overuse and suggest alternatives and practice them or suggest alternative expression/grammar

    With this plan, I think my level could truly change and push N1 in input and N2 in output (B2~C1). This strategy covers all language skills I think. It also blends personal responsibility (reading novels/articles, going over the textbooks, writing paragraphs) with tutor for motivation/accountability and speaking/listening and feedback. The problem is how to find a teacher to do this with T_T

  11. I was just introduced to counters and I have the suspicion if I just drop them into my SRS I will either drown in new cards or mix them up all the time.

    Is there a better way to learn counters?

    €: Oh, also time information.

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