9 comments

1. (apologies for the repost, I got in at the tail end of the old Daily Thread again)

   >そこは私から説明する。沙都子の叔父はとんでもないゴロツキなんだよ。去年も沙都子に暴力を振るってるし、愛人に捨てられたと思って雛見沢に帰ってきた不機嫌な叔父にとってはそれはさらに酷いものだと容易に想像がつく

   Context: The speaker is trying to make an appeal to forcibly separate 沙都子 from the abusive 叔父, who has just returned to 雛見沢 recently.

   I’m confused about にとって here. Why is it framing “さらに酷い” from 叔父 ‘s perspective? Wouldn’t it be 沙都子にとって since the abuse would be even worse *for her* this time around?

2. What’s the expected or average time to be able to start speaking and making conversation on the most basic level?

   What’s an effective way to transition from just reading and writing to forming full sentences and speaking?

   I’m struggling with moving from kana to being able to speak with my partner and it’s become a serious road block for me after 4 months of progress

   EDIT: I apologise for asking this multiple days in a row, I don’t post on reddit much and didn’t get any notifications so I thought my questions weren’t getting answered, I’m very sorry everyone, thank you for taking the time to respond, you’ve all be very helpful

3. I’m a beginner with a question on subjects.

   I’m struggling with the nuances between these two sentences:

   (私は)カードがつかえますか。

   And

   私がカードを使ってもいいですか。

   Am I using は and が correctly in both/either of these sentences?

4. I have this sentence from the migaku academy:

   大人達が見た事のない人と、私が知らない言葉で話していた。

   its translated as:

   “The adults were talking with people (I) had never seen before in a language (I) don’t know.”

   I can’t really wrap my head around why it’s: “(I) had never seen before” and not “they(the adults) had never seen before”

5. The below is a sentence from a Japanese website.

   木材を使ってテーブルや棚などを作ろうした時に、どの木材を選べば良いのか分からずに困っている方もいるのではないでしょうか。

   First of all, should there have been a と between 作ろう and した? Is this perfectly comprehensible without it?

   Second, how would the meaning of the sentence change if 作ろうとする時に had been used rather than 作ろうとした時に?

   Thanks

6. I’ve been reviewing how Japanese verbs connect and realised I’m mixing some up. Can someone confirm or correct my understanding?

   (1) かかる + しまう

   時間がかかります → dictionary form かかる

   かかってしまう = “it (unfortunately / inevitably) took time”
   ✅ OK to combine via て-form

   (2) 止める (とめる)
   I thought I could say 読み止めます or 読む飛んでます (like “stop reading” or “read skipping”), but apparently that’s wrong.
   ✅ Correct: Vて + 止める → 読んで止めた = “stopped reading”
   Also learned 読み飛ばす, 読み続ける, 読み終える are real compounds; 止める doesn’t work that way.

   (3) Starting a project
   Wanted to say “starting a project without knowing when it’ll finish.”

   ✗ プロジェクトを始めましたが… (sounds okay but plain)

   ✅ プロジェクトに取りかかりましたが、いつ終わるかはまだ分かりません。
   Also learned:

   終わりが見えません = “I can’t see the end yet.”

   (4) 話しかかる vs 話し始める

   話しかかる = to start talking to someone, often interrupted.
   　例: 先生に話しかけたけど、気づかれなかった。

   話し始める = to begin speaking in general.
   　例: 彼は静かに話し始めた。

   Can anyone confirm if these are correct?
   Also, are there other verbs like 止める that can’t form compounds, even though they sound like they should in English (“stop eating,” “stop running,” etc.)?

   Just want to make sure I’m not worsening bad habits.

7. I’ve amassed 5000+ hours of Japanese in 18 months and am going to japan soon, having trained with large amounts of writing (many times all day), shadowing, chorus, pronouncing well for the last 3-4 months, etc. 10 days away from going to Japan, I finally tested it in VRChat in several lobbies and people thought I was Japanese lol. In the first place I do come from an European country with a somewhat similar pronunciation to Japanese (had to heavily train はひふへほ though). Can’t believe I started this crazyness in 2024. This is some mid-life crisis speedrun nonsense 😭

   I sometimes wonder if I should try to give some advice or something here, as some of the resources in this sub helped me at the beginning, like the koku site etc.

   But the thing is, I think learning Japanese as a westerner is solved. JMDict/Yomitan in particular is ridiculous technology. I’m not sure there’s anything I can say. And it’s a mere 5000 hours anyway. I’ll have a different perspective at 20000 hours.

   Maybe it was much tougher 10 years ago, and certainly far tougher 20 years ago. The first 2000-3000 hours are still very rough because you keep forgetting things, it just won’t stick, over and over again decoding, remembering, but eventually you just get there.

   If there’s one thing I’d nitpick as a mere 5000-hourer is that I think efforting your way into thinking permanently in Japanese is important. I did it at the 10-month mark, and could only muster maybe 20% of my day in Japanese. Every month that increased by maybe 10% or so, with ever escalating complexity of sentences. Soon enough I was just describing everything I’m doing in my head in Japanese. Right now, before going to Japan, it’s 80%+.

   My massif . la browser history tells the story. Last 3 months, 2359 searches in Massif to ensure native-like sentence structure and rhythm. But overall feels like a process to condense this paltry amount of input into fast usable chunks. Your mind is the ultimate Anki.

   But who knows honestly, many people don’t think in words or images, which is what my brain does nonstop. To each their own. It really is just a matter of scale; time+effort wins, always. And past a certain point, it’s mostly time rather than effort, I think.

   Very cool. Immensely fun experience, learning Japanese. Rewired brain go brrrr–

8. [deleted]

9. Help with understanding this sentence.
   何ならできるのあんた…
   DeepL says “what can you do?” And the context of the manga does verify that. A girl failing at batting, with the next panel showing her failing at other sports.
   But looking up 何なら just shows usages like; if you like/want, if it’s okay, if it’s necessary.
   How does this come to mean “what can you do…?”?

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