17 comments

1. How do you add emphasis when writing in Japanese? For example, in English I might write something like “I said DON’T move that”

2. Can someone explain this sentence: 校外学習はそうそう中止にはならない

   Why does ならない not mean “must”

3. When I’m talking to someone online and explaining the time difference, would I say something like 今、アメリカは夜です or 今、アメリカでは夜です? Which is more grammatically correct, just は or では?

4. Does anybody have a backup of the seth clydesdale stuff for the quartet books? I found it immensely helpful to be able to do a digital version of everything instead of having to check against the answer key, but it all got taken down

5. Best language exchange platforms for output practice? Hellotalk is underwhelming, can’t find consistent high quality voice rooms to have good language exchange, and would like to be able to use something both on desktop and mobile.

6. where can I find a map of japan in japanese with hiragana under the kanji to learn the names of the cities. I want a physical one to hang on a wall, amazon doesnt have any

7. I finished my third novel for this month. 魔女の宅急便3. I think it was okay. Definitely a tone shift since Kiki is getting older. I feel some elements kinda fell flat and I really didn’t like the new character Keke who was introduced as a kind of foil/rival to Kiki but it felt kinda one sided. Some of the themes were interesting, but I feel like they were introduced and forgotten about.

   I enjoyed the first two books a lot more. The Japanese was just fine for my level and I hardly looked up anything at all. I’d say it make a good beginner book after N3, but of course you’d have to read 1 and 2 first, but I remember them being not so difficult either.

   Next up 「大きな森の小さな家」

8. To show that natives don’t always know what they’re talking about (in any language), here’s a Japanese person incorrectly explaining why “green” traffic lights are described as 青 in Japanese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfbJo9llwh8&t=382s

9. Shower thought last night: What do typos in Japanese look like? Particularly in typewritten kanji. And how unusual does it look to a native speaker.

   For example in English if someone typed “mision” instead of “mission” we still more or less know what it’s supposed to be. There’s also the common they’re vs their vs there type of typo.

   I imagine kana typos would be common and understandable enough due to context say しっかり vs しかり。But what about kanji?

10. I’m working my way through [today’s update of a webseries](https://www.instagram.com/p/DQ0r6gcEtQg) for sentence comprehension/breakdown practice.

    Workflow is:

    * copy sentences into notebook, leaving spaces where I think they should be (if it was written like english)
    * write english meanings under words I know, look up words/kanji I don’t
    * type full sentence into Midori and check my work (spaces and meanings)
    * attempt to translate the sentence (edit: I meant, “write my comprehension of the sentence”, not “attempt to Translate with a capital T”)
    * wait for the release of the english translation in the morning to check work

    I threw a sentence into Midori though and encountered a conjugation I can’t find an explanation for. (or an error, which I’m hoping against, cause I kind of like this workflow)

    https://preview.redd.it/vm3i1sgpv60g1.jpeg?width=1639&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=30e43b0826ad0aab177dffcec7236b5fa721b0b9

    My best guess after digging through resources is that it’s 続く, conjugated to 続きます, with そう replacing ます. But if I’m right, I have no idea WHY I’m right. The only thing I’m going off is looking up そう in Midori and finding “*possible meanings/translations* **(after -masu stem or adj. stem)**” with そうだ in the example sentences where I’d typically see ます.

    Can someone explain what’s happening here grammar wise? (Or rip off the bandaid and tell me that Midori was wrong to begin with and I’ve wasted an hour trying to wrap my head around an error)

    EDIT (3hours later): I went back to googling and eventually found [this tofugu article](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/verb-sou/).

    I think I got all caught up in/confused by the language being used (-masu stem) and not finding ~そう in the list of conjugation options in my dictionary and shot myself in the foot with my initial search keywords.

    If I’ve managed to sort myself out though: そう is an auxiliary, built on top of the polite form, adding “looks/feels like” to the verb like an english contraction. You take the stem (続く), change to い since it’s godan (続き) and then add そう(続きそう).

    I still don’t understand WHY it’s built on the polite form, but I’m starting to think there isn’t really a reason so much as “that’s just how it’s done”.

11. I have a particular study strategy that’s probably a byproduct of my adhd or hoarding disorder that I’m unsure if it is useful.

    When I read something and encounter a sentence I don’t fully understand, I research and ask questions until I finally get the meaning. After that, I make brief notes about the meaning and English translation of that sentence in a separate text file for future reference.

    I currently maintain a text file titled 拘り containing over thousands of difficult sentence with my personal notes. Lately I noticed that maintaining this text file is very time consuming so I am starting to question if it will benefit me for the long term. What do you think?

12. https://preview.redd.it/opjokwaur70g1.png?width=1337&format=png&auto=webp&s=974abfa1879eef9057a255db7fefa95899dbba30

    Anyone else getting this annoying error from NHK easy?

13. I don’t know that much vocabulary yet. Would one piece be a good anime to improve my comprehension and vocabulary? or are there better alternatives out there? Also, would it be best to just stick to japanese subtitles and guess what they’re talking about or start with english and switch to japanese once I can read better?

14. https://preview.redd.it/gie6xnzt880g1.png?width=658&format=png&auto=webp&s=c19cb1a8d86e1206123585e6b3f82d037f92bf66

    I have just started trying to learn how to read hiragana. Today I’ve started with full words instead of separate characters. I’ve been running into this with the tsu character and also the ya yu and yo characters changing sounds when certain characters are in front of or behind them. All the explanations I find are too complicated, english isn’t my first language, so I’m not familiar with words that describe grammar rules or anything. Can anyone explain this super simply or give me simple English or Dutch sources for the rule about these sound changes?

15. what’s the difference betweenもう and 今?

16. Reading a light novel I found this:
    結び目の形が芸術的でない。納得できない。
    I added the next sentence as it may be connected in some way, my question being, why is でない at the end obviously I know でない can be used in subordinate clauses but why is it at the end here. 

    I searched the whole internet and I don’t get it, nor do I get what would change if I put じゃない or ではない

17. Can someone explain to me like I’m five the difference between ”いけない” and “ならない” in the context of saying you have to do something? I’ve been using BunPro and for the life I cannot tell why one is used over the other as in the screenshots.

    From what I understand, ならない is more formal than いけない but hints in BunPro seem to go against that (see the example regarding Kyoto)?

    https://preview.redd.it/t9mbb2slk80g1.png?width=1809&format=png&auto=webp&s=6557d4c498f063016df738550b2d29224eaaf2c1

    Alternatively, ならない might be more so when the speaker has to reluctantly do something, but in the second example it seems that maybe looking for work after being fired would be something someone would reluctantly have to do?

    This honestly has been confusing me so much and it’s become super frustrating! Thanks!

Comments are closed.